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, [...]

“He put his whole heart in to his work…”

Each year in July, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola – the founder of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits).
The Society has over the centuries been known to produce men of great intellect and vision. Apparently, when seeking permission from the Pope [...]

“so many shadows whirl, one into another, in silence…”

I crossed the street with my boy. He was one and a half, so it was 3 months ago. We walked away from the grocery store and sat on a hill next to the old Barnes and Noble. We ate a bit of peanut butter and jelly [...]

“Nothing happens next. This is it.”

The Grass-is-Greener Syndrome:
Challenges to Being Present
Have you ever had an experience like this: you might be walking on a beautiful wooded trail, or watching a sunset over water, or relaxing with good friends at the end of a day’s work; you are doing something at least mildly enjoyable or pleasant, [...]

With a worried look on her face she asked me:
“What did I do wrong?”

This is something I wrote for a lady in Sri Lanka who decided she wanted to develop her meditation practice in daily life. She resolved to bring more mindfulness into ordinary day-to-day activities. So she set out to go shopping mindfully.
She [...]

“I felt the forest growing, heard it growing…”

The magnitude of life in the rainforest is incomprehensible. I couldn’t take it all in. Everywhere life stacked upon more life. Clinging orchids. Feathery tree ferns. Climbing lawyer vines. Tiny, delicate, creeping plants with green crinkled leaves. I felt the forest growing, heard it growing, inching forward as [...]

“How’s the water? “

“..There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other [...]

Test your powers of observation with these three short YouTube videos…