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IN THE BARDO
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...
“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...
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...
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
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...
69 views0 comments
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...
21 views0 comments
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,...
26 views0 comments
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...
84 views0 comments
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...
59 views0 comments
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...
50 views0 comments
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...
76 views0 comments
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...
21 views0 comments
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
Ken Byalin
Jul 5, 20237 min read
Cowardice and Courage
I have been slowly reading my friend Nancy Mujo Baker’s new book, Opening to Oneness.[1] I say slowly because it takes me two or three...
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Ken Byalin
Jul 5, 20235 min read
To Profit or Not To Profit
I was rereading Bernie Glassman’s Instructions to the Cook, in anticipation of leading a seminar on it for the Zen Peacemakers. (You can...
86 views0 comments
Ken Byalin
Jun 29, 20233 min read
Oh, Billy.
In Zen funerals, we talk directly to the departed. Happily, my friend Bill Wingate was able to read this blog over breakfast a month...
104 views1 comment
Ken Byalin
Jun 23, 20235 min read
My Multifaith Journey Continues
The multifaith journey is not without bumps. When Bernie left Yonkers, energy for the multifaith House of One People dissipated, although...
19 views0 comments
Ken Byalin
Jun 23, 20237 min read
Older Brother Bob
Roshi Robert Kennedy. S.J., always introduced me as his Dharma brother, Dharma brothers because Roshi Bernie Glassman was both of our...
56 views0 comments
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