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IN THE BARDO
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...
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...
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...
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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Ken Byalin
Dec 3, 20234 min read
Daddy's Gone
Long before it was Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, December 8th was Daddy’s birthday. I loved that. My birthday was December 7th. Our...
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Ken Byalin
Dec 3, 20235 min read
Working Alone
I became aware this morning of how much time I spend alone. Maybe the big change this Fall has been in the increase in the amount of...
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Ken Byalin
Nov 20, 20236 min read
The Candle
Emma’s Place holds an annual candle-lighting ceremony. The grieving kids and their parents and their counselors and the friends of Emma’s...
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Ken Byalin
Nov 17, 20236 min read
Fiction as Zen Practice
Giving thanks! So much to be thankful for in this stormy world. Thankful to all those who are out there everyday, doing good for others....
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Ken Byalin
Nov 14, 20237 min read
My Path to Fiction
DON’T FORGET! I’d love to have you on my Emma’s Place Mala. Did you see my blog last week? If you missed it, check it out. Will you...
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Ken Byalin
Nov 7, 20234 min read
Mala Again
I am doing a mala again. I am as surprised as you are, probably more surprised. I thought I had retired from fundraising when I retired...
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Ken Byalin
Oct 31, 20233 min read
Roshi Bernie is My Teacher
When Richard Baker, Suzuki Roshi’s first Dharma successor was caught up in his sexual impropriety scandal, Isan Dorsey, himself a...
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Ken Byalin
Oct 22, 20234 min read
Oh, Israel
By and large, I don’t let the news feeds into my life. For approximately the same reason that I don’t watch horror movies or read Stephen...
77 views0 comments
Ken Byalin
Oct 13, 20235 min read
My Endless Pursuit of Discipline
One of my retirement projects is a book which I have tentatively entitled, The Zen Imperfections, reflections on the Paramitas, generally...
47 views0 comments
Ken Byalin
Oct 9, 20235 min read
Thwock
It is one of the Zen stories which is told and retold, the story of the transmission of the Dharma by the Fifth Chinese Patriarch,...
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Ken Byalin
Sep 28, 20236 min read
Baal Shem Zen
On July 7, 2020, I left Morrigan’s second birthday party early in order to get to a Zen Peacemaker Gathering near Santa Barbara scheduled...
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Ken Byalin
Sep 23, 20236 min read
Yom Kippur
At the center of my teaching in my role as President of Integration Charter Schools was, “Learn from your mistakes.” We were committed to...
31 views4 comments
Ken Byalin
Sep 15, 20236 min read
Aimless Meandering
Last week, we talked about the joys of stability. Aimless meandering seems to be the opposite. There’s a lot of joy in aimless meandering...
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Ken Byalin
Sep 7, 20236 min read
Stability
Every year as 9/11 approaches, I realize that we have been sitting together a long time, a group that has become very stable. We sat...
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Ken Byalin
Sep 1, 20236 min read
Painted Flowers
What’s real? Roshi Bernie Glassman takes up this question in the “Prologue” to his book, Instructions to the Cook. Zen people love to say...
39 views1 comment
Ken Byalin
Aug 24, 20234 min read
The Kitchen Sink
What do you do when you know have to do something and you don’t know what to do? I learned this lesson working as a therapist with...
61 views0 comments
Ken Byalin
Aug 12, 20236 min read
You Listen, God
“Sit still and listen.” Listen to the voice of the Universe. Listen to the voice of God. What am I doing talking about God? Roshi Anna...
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Ken Byalin
Aug 5, 20235 min read
Appreciating Aitken
Robert Aitken Roshi died on August 5, 2010, at the age of 93. He was among the most important of the early American Zen Teachers. At Zen...
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Ken Byalin
Jul 21, 20236 min read
Beginning Zazen
Zen is meditation, quite literally. The Sanskrit word for meditation, “Dhyana”, became “Chan” in Chinese and then “Zen” in Japanese....
37 views0 comments
Ken Byalin
Jul 10, 20235 min read
Zazen Works
After 30 years, I was finally sitting every day. Already, in just a few months, Zen practice was making a difference. My life was...
73 views0 comments
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