Start your day with a fresh perspective
Zen priest Kurt Spellmeyer discusses cigarettes, samadhi, and “dwelling in emptiness.”
Embracing interdependence as our hidden common ground is our best hope for the future.
Even timeless teachings must meet each moment anew.
A Zen priest and scholar considers the role of aesthetics in a renunciant tradition.
The nonstop novelty of cell phones distracts us from the true root of our suffering, says Zen priest Kurt Spellmeyer.
Seeing the Buddha as both human and divine opens us to our own limitless nature.
Meditation can be painful. Especially if it’s practiced for long hours in a Zen retreat. But that’s not why Rinzai Zen teacher Genki Roshi once described meditation to his student Kurt Spellmeyer as “dying on the cushion.” In this series, Spellmeyer, now a Zen priest, takes a closer look at what exactly “dies” on the cushion—our sense of self, the death of which allows us to exist in perpetual harmony with the surrounding world. When meditative insight rids the self of barriers, what remains is an open gate of awareness and communication.
The dharma’s true home is neither here nor there.
Start your day with a fresh perspective
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