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IN THE BARDO
The Balancing Act
The original Buddhist teacher, Shakyamuni, called it the middle way, to steer a course to peace by avoiding extremes. My teacher, Bernie...
Zen Mothers
I had initially thought that I might hold this blog back until Mother’s Day. I was horrified – as soon as I came upon them – by the...
Survivor’s Guilt
I spent 12 years as founding president of Integration Charter Schools, building a network of schools which provided opportunities for the...
Oh, Dirk.
In Zen funerals, we talk directly to the departed. I am at a loss for words. I am hoping that words will come. I am picturing you....
Bringing to the Societal Table Those Who Have Been Excluded
This has been the expression of my vow since I found the words in Bernie’s Instructions to the Cook. “Bringing to the societal table...
Visionary Leadership
This has to be the Zen practice. I love the story of the Golden City which the Buddha tells in the Lotus Sutra. It has inspired me. It is...
Magic
Catching the magic is sometimes not so easy. Stumbling into the magic of success is not something to be taken for granted. It has always...
What is Social Action?
The selflessness of social action is not self-neglect just as self-care is not self-neglect. There are four phrases that come to mind,...
No.
What is my “No!” When do I shout it? Do I really shout? “No!” Jesse and Theresa Peterford first met at ICS. Theresa, star teacher, chief...
Infinite Onion
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to transform them. When I was doing koan practice with Jishu, very briefly in the last year of her...
Infinite Circle
We were serving special needs students at double the district rate. As we have built our schools, I have been guided by, anchored in an...
Mother's Day 2020
Zen’s relationship to mothers has always seemed a bit strange. Mother’s Day, 2020 is also the twenty-fifth anniversary of Maezumi Roshi’s...
Zen Budgeting Through the COVID-19 Pandemic
No one likes budget cuts. They are always painful. This was shaping up to be our most painful budget. Business people say when they are...
The Zen of Budgeting
Coming Soon, a case study in Zen Budgeting: Budgeting through the Covid-19 Pandemic. I am too grandmotherly. The Gateless Gate is the...
Oh, Richard
At a Zen funeral, we talk directly to the person who has left us. Oh, Richard, thinking of you, I smile. We had so much more to do. So...
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The Balancing Act
The original Buddhist teacher, Shakyamuni, called it the middle way, to steer a course to peace by avoiding extremes. My teacher, Bernie...
Ken Byalin
6 hours ago5 min read
4 views
0 comments
Zen Mothers
I had initially thought that I might hold this blog back until Mother’s Day. I was horrified – as soon as I came upon them – by the...
Ken Byalin
Mar 255 min read
58 views
1 comment
Survivor’s Guilt
I spent 12 years as founding president of Integration Charter Schools, building a network of schools which provided opportunities for the...
Ken Byalin
Mar 184 min read
83 views
0 comments
Unforgiving Buddha
It took me a while to become the Unforgiving Buddha. It wasn’t easy. I was in Jishu ’s precept class, working with non-anger, and my...
Ken Byalin
Mar 116 min read
69 views
0 comments
Succession Screw-Ups
Succession is a big deal in Zen and in most organizations. Recently, I acknowledged at lunch with Theresa and Ron that I had made...
Ken Byalin
Mar 45 min read
323 views
0 comments
To Tell the Truth
How do you tell the truth? How do I tell the truth? I’ve been working on this question a long time. Francine Prose quotes Hemingway’s...
Ken Byalin
Feb 254 min read
58 views
0 comments
Birthdays
It bothers me that I still can’t remember my mom’s birthdate. I don’t have any childhood memories of her birthdays. What I remember from...
Ken Byalin
Feb 184 min read
45 views
0 comments
Going Gray
Two years ago, filling out my passport renewal application, likely for the last time, I stumbled on my height. I’ve been getting shorter...
Ken Byalin
Feb 115 min read
32 views
0 comments
Lifelong Learning
When I invited the teachers who’d told me that they’d already found their dream job to put down on paper what it was that made our...
Ken Byalin
Feb 35 min read
44 views
0 comments
Zazen
Listening to Bernie and Genpo talking about what, if any, were the absolutely essential ingredients of Zen, it disturbed me when they...
Ken Byalin
Jan 285 min read
22 views
0 comments
Don't Forget Me
I am listening to a decade-old conversation between Bernie and Genpo , their reflection on forty years of friendship and Zen practice. I...
Ken Byalin
Jan 215 min read
38 views
0 comments
“I’ve Got It”
It has never been easy for me to talk about kensho, the big “I’ve Got It,” the direct experience of the oneness of life without at least...
Ken Byalin
Jan 145 min read
27 views
0 comments
Succession
“When the student is ready, the teacher will come.” I have been intrigued for years by the notion that when the teacher is ready, the...
Ken Byalin
Jan 75 min read
54 views
0 comments
Building Spiritual Muscle
Last week, Dr. Gala put in my third and fourth stents, nine months after he’d done the first two. He’d expected to do them last spring,...
Ken Byalin
Dec 30, 20245 min read
41 views
1 comment
No Merit
The account of Bodhidharma ’s meeting with Emperor Wu, the first case in The Blue Cliff Record , is one of those koans to which I return...
Ken Byalin
Dec 24, 20244 min read
18 views
0 comments
Working With Koans
When I have talked about koan study, I have often noted how little instruction I received in how to actually work with a koan. The advice...
Ken Byalin
Dec 17, 20244 min read
13 views
0 comments
Rewriting
It’s almost two years now since I ventured back into fiction writing. In high school, I fancied myself a fiction writer. In college...
Ken Byalin
Dec 10, 20245 min read
28 views
0 comments
Enlightenment Day
It has been 52 years since my father passed, three days after his birthday, in 1972. I had just turned 30. His birthday, December 8, was...
Ken Byalin
Dec 4, 20244 min read
35 views
0 comments
Practicing Zazen
We are told as beginning Zen students to notice our thoughts and let them go. As a beginning Zen teacher, I repeated that instruction. It...
Ken Byalin
Nov 26, 20245 min read
26 views
0 comments
Imagining ZCLA
The Zen Center of Los Angeles occupies a special place in the history of American Zen and a very special place in my Zen iconography. It...
Ken Byalin
Nov 21, 20244 min read
21 views
1 comment
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