Zen Moments

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 woman, small, [...]

“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 hold and several [...]

“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, people come [...]

“Just me and the water and the deepest blue sky above…”

It was the first time I had gone swimming. I wasn’t scared of the water but there was apprehension about going under and not getting my breath. So when my friend who was helping me learn to float told me to dunk my head in [...]

“In making our minds up, we set them up to be broken down.
We create the conditions for doubt by trying to create certainty.”

Once upon a time I knew what I wanted out of life. I knew where I was going. I was going to be a Great Inventor.
And I revelled in that sense of confidence [...]

“I invite the new year to energize me with the courage and exertion to live every moment as if it were my very last…”

Greetings from San Francisco!
I’ll be spending the last day of the year watching the sun sink into the ocean. I plan on following the sunset, to first gather in, then let go [...]

“…I saw how it bends, flowing with the wind…”

newborn – we are tender and weak
in death – we are rigid and stiff

living plants are supple and yielding
dead branches are dry and brittle
so the hard and unyielding belong to death
and the soft and pliant belong to life
an inflexible army does not triumph
an unbending tree breaks in [...]