Resolve Conflict by Becoming It

Common knowledge amongst emotionally intelligent people is that when there is interpersonal conflict, the two most helpful things the involved parties can do are to extend empathy and listen. These practices can truly be helpful, yet I see them as only a first step. By diffusing tension, they set the stage for what I think…

Seeing Through Our Biggest Blinders: Prejudice and Fear

 The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Becoming Nature: Learning the Language of Wild Animals and Plants, scheduled to be released this upcoming spring with Inner Traditions. When we Become Nature, we are at-one with our surroundings. We move among the animals and plants as if the forest were our home. Our sense…

Be as a Question

A short while ago, two Seekers brought me a conifer branch they wished me to identify for them. If I did so, they would have their answer and likely be content, learning little about neither the tree nor the learning process. So I turned the question back to them, along with some guidance as to…

The Power of Everyday Awakening. Or not.

I have a confession to make: I’ve been ignoring my spirituality. In fact, I’ve been acting just like an animal, with no higher purpose. I eat, I shuffle things around (my substitute for the hunt), then I sleep and get up to do it again. Am I missing something? Alright, I’ll get serious (I said…

Being Zen

If I were allowed only two words to describe the Way of Zen, they would be conscious living. Our modern lives tend to be quite un-Zen like: we tolerate a humdrum existence on the promise of a peak moment at some point in the future. It might be a concert, a movie, or connecting with…

I’ll Take Shubert

I participate in a Zen blog, where we’ve been exploring whether or not we separate ourselves from something by labeling it. I replied that the question took me back to a discussion I had in college with a professor and another philosophy student. We were trying to get a Handel on whether Mo’z art reached…

I’m OK Having Sh…I mean Swiss Cheese, for Brains

If you noticed that this post is similar to the one it replaced, I encourage you not to dwell in the past. After all, I merely replaced one illusion with another. It’s all the rage to glorify the now. We’re told it’s the key to success in everything from golf to satoric bliss. The book,…

Do We Really Want More of the Same?

Popular forms of toning exercises, such as yoga and qigong, along with modern martial arts, are based on repetition and memorization of forms. The approach fits well with our civilized training to be mind-centered and lead repetitive task-based lives. We are designed to function differently, as we evolved in the natural world, where nearly every…

Are We There Yet?

How do I know when I have achieved Zen? When I no longer ask the question. When I am comfortable but not complacent. When there is no more contradiction. When truth ceases to exist for lack of an opposite. When I ever listen and seldom talk. When I am sad but still joyful. When I…

Zen Happens

I hear persistent rumors that Alan Watts has died. In fact, some say it happened way back in the ’70s. I really should get into town more often. But when I do, I find that the more I learn, the less I want to know. Like that Watts is actually dead. Or worse yet, that…