ZenLife Blog
Groundhog Day
We have never been more divided as a country, each seeing the other side as a threat to democracy itself. How have we come to this point? I think it can partly be explained by the bubbles we live in with our social media accounts, each of us living in his or her own Truman show.
Meditation And Creativity
Creativity is perpetually defined — it deals with problem solving but it also deals with romance and beauty. The design of locomotives is just as creative as Caravaggio’s depiction of Salome holding the head of John the Baptist. Whether we are photographing a flower with a smartphone or blowing on a soup to cool it off—we are performing creative rituals daily.
38 + People Comment on the Benefits Meditation Has Brought Them
This is a collection of stories and comments people have sent us on the wonderful benefits meditation has brought them, published with the hope of inspiring YOU to try meditation for the first time (or pick it up again if you’ve just been lazy with it 🙂 ).
ZLMC Statement About Racism
We at the Zen Life & Meditation Center, Chicago mourn the murder of George Floyd and stand with the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many more people of color who have lost their lives at the hands of white violence.
Humanity’s Wake Up Call
The chrysalis stage is when consuming stops. This is a time when things change dramatically. The caterpillar dies and slowly changes into a soupy goo. Imaginal cells that were originally in the caterpillar continue to live and feed off of this goo.
ZLMC Statement on COVID-19 Virus
We are committed to protecting our members and visitors from flu, colds and other viruses. We hold all of you in our hearts as together we prepare to meet the current public health challenge facing our world, COVID-19. In times of increased stress, anxiety and fear, it’s important to calm the body and mind by practicing mindfulness in our daily lives.
Stop!
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body
We will bring the fever to your body
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs
that you might hear:
We are not well.
Interview with Roshi Eve Myonen Marko
I was born in Israel in an orthodox Jewish family, and came here when I was 7. Both of my parents were Holocaust survivors, and I know that affected me from a very young age. As a small child I was aware of terrible suffering that people could inflict on each other. It’s a dimension of life that has never left me, and even defined me for many years. It was why I was so attracted to Bernie’s vision of Zen and social change.
Bearing Witness to the Oneness of Life by Roshi Bernie Glassman
Dogen Zenji says of the first pure precept, “Ceasing from evil is the abiding place of laws and rules of all buddhas.” This abiding place is the state of non-duality, of not-knowing and non-separation. The Sixth Ancestor of Zen defines zazen as the state of mind in which there is no separation between subject and object—no space between you and me, up and down, right or wrong. So we can also call this precept “Returning to the One.”
10 Tips for Meditating at Home
Given the chaos, turmoil, disruption, fragmentation and disorientation many are experiencing in our society, mindfulness has become a much need tool for grounding ourselves and strengthening the quality of our attention. Mindfulness can help you in many ways, but it will only help you if you do this kind of meditation regularly. And yes, it’s not so easy. There seem to be numerous obstacles. You are too busy and kind seem to find the time to sit still for 20 minutes each day.
Turn the Face to the Wall
I've learned through my mindfulness practice that our bodies always remember feelings that haven't been resolved or integrated. If we stamp down our feelings and distract ourselves from emotional pain, the pain will return. My practice of meditation gives me space and time to build courage to face feelings that are uncomfortable.
Getting Started with Meditation
So don't turn your meditation into a further struggle and war with yourself. Relax and begin to notice how your thoughts arise; how they come and go. You can't really pin them down. Awareness helps you to appreciate the greater environment in which your thoughts and emotions arise.
Blessing Poem by Roshi Robert Althouse
“We come here together today with deepest respect for our teachers, ancestors and families and sanghas who make our lives possible. We invoke and invite all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to come and witness this joyous occasion of the opening of this zendo at (name and place and date). Let compassion be born in our hearts today to use our wisdom and skills in the service of freeing others from suffering.
Sally Stovall’s Passing
Our dear friend and colleague Sally Stovall died Tuesday, May 21, surrounded by family and friends after a massive stroke Monday evening.
Setting Sail in Stormy Waters
We are living through chaotic, unprecedented and unstable times. It can be hard to find your bearings. It seems we may have taken the values of our democracy too much for granted and now they need to be defended. We need to stand not only for core values but for each other.
The Fruits of Your Generosity Come Due
Our New Home Fund Campaign will conclude at the end of this month, April 2019. So now it’s time to say thank you. Thank you to the hundreds of you who supported us with your generous gifts and your kind support. Thank you to all of you who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this dream a reality. Thank you to the artists who generously donated your art so that we can now enjoy the beauty of our Sangha together in this new home.
W.S. Merwin’s Passing
W.S. Merwin has passed away at the age of 91. In the early 90’s when we first started our Zen Center of Hawaii in Kamuela (Waimea) on the Big Island of Hawaii, he came and gave a wonder poetry reading at our Zen Center. He was a formidable poet who had left behind a large and evocative body of work . . .
The Complete Guide to the Science of Meditation
The terms meditation and mindfulness are sometimes used interchangeably, but the first refers to a complex family of Eastern cultural practices for training mental attention, and the second is the quality of mind that one of these traditions, called mindfulness meditation, aims to cultivate. Mindfulness meditation is the tradition most widely studied by researchers today, but other meditation traditions include mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, yoga, tai chi and chi gong.