Spiritual Practice One: Why Reinvent the Wheel

I am not a Zen Master but I can point my finger to those who are... Sit still... breath in and breath out... count your breaths.... breath in-one... breath out-two... breath in-three... breath out-four... breath in-five... breath out-six... breath in-seven... breath out-eight... breath in-nine... breath out-ten... REPEAT Start with doing this for 15 minutes daily.... increase after a month.... increase to 30 minutes..... Do this daily!!! This is a Tool anyone... anyone can use!!! http://zmm.mro.org/teachings/meditation-instructions/

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE ONE + zazen meditation

"The discipline of sitting and simply paying attention to one's breath naturally brings forth the first fruit, as one is able to "center" one's whole existence in the here and now of every breath, bringing together all the mental. emotional, psychological, and other elements that constitute our personality and otherwise tend to get dispersed in our usual hectic daily lives. A strengthened power of concentration is a natural result of disciplined attention and awareness, in sitting as well as in the activities of daily life. One who practices zazen for a considerable period of time tends toward a greater integration in one's life, bringing the pieces together, so to speak, toward a wholeness that is also wholesomeness" LIVING ZEN, LOVING GOD, Ruben L.F. Habito pg 3 Those of us in the west have become numb and non-aware of what is going on around us. We are filled with noise and the constant flow of images that make us blind to what is really happening around us. We have lost the ability to encounter the heart. It is not so much having lost the ability to encounter the heart as much as not recognizing that deep call of the heart... Encountering the heart is to encounter our true self and when we encounter our true self we encounter God within us... This is scary as hell because this encounter causes us to realize that we are connected... all of us are connected to all of creation... It is a call to holiness, liberty and true freedom... a call to be fully AWAKE... Breath in...Breath out...

Brother Turtle

Brother Turtle was rescued this morning while he/she was trying to cross hwy 14 this morning... He/She requested addmission into the Order of the Wild Goose... Abbot Tiger and Abbess Blue received Brother Turtle into the Novitiate... Brother Turtle is standing vigil and making his cell below the monastic house...

Abbess Blue wrestling with a zen koan!!!

WOOF...WOOF...WOOF...woof...woof...woof... beginners mind...

Abbet Tiger in a moment of self-actualization...

Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow... breath in+Breath out... Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow....

Awakening to the Cave of the Heart...a faith journey?

Today I lead a tour into the Discovery Trail Caverns at Blanchard Springs Caverns and like most tours I had a sense of descending into my own heart...the Cave of the heart... As Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindi, Muslim and any number of those following a spiritual path we are all called to realize our true nature as part of embracing God or ultimate reality. Central to our decent into the Cave of the Heart is practicing spiritual disciplines. These spiritual disciplines are not about dogma or a set of rules to live life by...they are simple activities that bring us to the present moment... Over the coming weeks I am going to share some spiritual disciples that are universal throughout all of the world religions... they involve breathing or sitting or walking... simple human activities that are focused and controled by our intentions... /\Namaste/\

Abbess Blue Walking Saint Brendan's Labyrinth

Sometimes Abbess Blue will walk the Labyrinth with me... As I walk the path towards the center sometimes she follows and other times she leads... most times she steps over the rocks and doesn't follow the linear path to the center... eventually I make it to the center...sit...meditate... Abbess Blue will join me in the center through a nonlinear path... but we end up together in the center... Her path to the center+God+self differs from mine... there is always a playfulness in her step and there seems to be a desire to be near me and for me to rub her head... She seems to fully enjoy being a dog... I don't always enjoy being a human... There are things that confound me about Blue... What does she dream about... I'll watch her sleeping at night and she will be moving her legs and making noises... If I wake her up she has this weird confused look on her face... The other thing that confounds me about Blue is her insistence on eating Abbot Tigers cat poop out of the liter box... Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!!! “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.” ―The Bhagavad Gita