Zen Moments

“…You think you can choose God like you choose a pair of shoes?…” There is something spiritual and magic about old book stores and libraries. Maybe it is just the smell of old books bringing back forgotten childhood memories, or maybe there is a deeper spiritual connection I can’t explain, but every time I am [...]

“It’s cracked like this because it’s perfectly in line with the Buddha’s teaching” A friend of mine bought a Blackberry the other day. The new Blackberries are pretty slick – email, contacts, calendar, sat-nav, camera… He got it set up, but he couldn’t get the email or the sat-nav to work properly. After waiting on [...]

“The natural state of the human mind is calm and clear…” I was in my mid-fifties when I met my soul mate. It’s not that I never wanted to get married, the problem was that I never met anyone I wanted to marry or if I did, she didn’t want to marry me. Anyway, I [...]

“…inner peace is the ultimate source of happiness…” His Holiness the Dalai Lama: A 2 minute video clip from Khashyar “Ultimately we want happiness. We do not want suffering – everybody – every sentient being. Now we are actually creating more unnecessary suffering. I think it’s very important to make clear to the public – [...]

No matter our disposition, we still have a choice…” By Lara Owen March 12 2008, Soreze, France. I walked Balthazar this afternoon a little way along the lane to the next village, accessible from Soreze by a path that runs along the edge of the mountain. On the way back we met a sad-looking older [...]

A man surprises people at a gas station and offers to pay for their gas. He selects his target cars almost at random and tells his amazed recipients: “Just do something nice for somebody else…”

“As heartbroken as I felt, my world had become richer for loving.” I was in Southern India at an Ashram at the foot of a sacred mountain. During my time there I would go from the mountain to the place I was staying. There were many people living on the streets and many animals, as [...]

“We can all use a little piece of Zen in our lives…” Webster’s defines Zen as a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation. The online Urban Dictionary gives this definition: “One way to think of zen is this: a total state of focus that incorporates a total [...]

“Mooring on Chien-Te River” The boat rocks at anchor by the misty island Sunset, my loneliness comes again. In these vast wilds the sky arches down to the trees. In the clear river water, the moon draws near. Meng Hao-Jen Translation from the Chinese by Gary Snyder Photograph kindly contributed to Zen Moments by Sam [...]

“So – stand back and look at what it’s costing emotionally. Forget the money for the moment…” Having been a Buddhist monk, and now running an IT support business, I find that these two worlds sometimes overlap in surprising ways. In running my business, I never sign contracts with people. Everything is done on trust, [...]