Look Again

Te Shan

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:21:00 +0000

When Te Shan left northern China on foot heading south, determined to destroy what he had heard as the teaching of a special transmission outside of doctrine, he was a dedicated Buddhist scholar...

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Oliver Trust Fund

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:48:00 +0000

As many of you already know, Oliver Schroer died last Thursday July 3. He was living in hospital, but going out to the studio every day to work on his last album. That morning, he knew he wasn't...

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Bad News, Good News

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:55:00 +0000

"You can buy a ticket, but you can't pick the destination." — Ken McLeod When beginners sit down to meditate, they generally hope for certain experiences: calm, clarity, a sense of well-being, even...

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More Thoughts from Oliver

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:17:00 +0000

More thoughts on death from my eloquent friend Oliver Schroer, who has untreatable leukemia. Dying is a funny subject. Very slippery when you try to get in there. I mean, I am dying now, am I not?...

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Defying Comfort

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:34:00 +0000

Some time ago a multimedia item in the on-line New York Times captured my attention: "A Death-Defying House". A pair of artist-architects design houses that deliberately violate several assumptions:...

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Dharma Name Generator

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:47:00 +0000

It is customary, when embarking on a spritual path, to adopt a new name. In the Tibetan tradition, one receives a new name with each vow. Some people take this VERY seriously...and when I consider...

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Total Life

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Update: Tickets to Ollie's Last Show on His Tour Of This Planet (June 5) are now on sale through ticketpro.ca. My friend, violinist Oliver Schroer, has leukemia, and has recently received the news...

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Working for Treats

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:17:00 +0000

Watch a person training a dog. When the dog does the right thing, the person says "Yes!" or "Good dog!" and gives the animal a treat. Watch a parent and child: when the child does something great,...

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I Never Metempsychosis I Didn't Like

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:43:00 +0000

Human beings in general share the same overarching illusion: that there is this thing called the "self". Imputing permanence to that "self" is an obvious extension of that illusion, in fact it's...

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If a beam falls and nobody notices, does it change anyone's life?

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:37:00 +0000

An excerpt from Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon". Sam Spade tells the story of a Mr. Flitcraft, who has a good life, but completely disappears, abandoning his wife and two small...

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8 Tips for Waking Up Over the Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:47:00 +0000

You've developed a nice meditation practice. You sit every day, you face the stresses and strains of daily life with calm and equanimity, and you feel that, finally, you're beginning to get some kind...

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Working with Your Inner (and Outer) Critic

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:34:00 +0000

Image: a gargoyle of a nagging wife from a church in Grendon, Northamptonshire. One of the best ways to avoid experience is to project material out onto others. Let's take being critical as an...

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Getting to the Good Bits

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:43:00 +0000

Meditation is a delicate balance. We're in this because we want to end our suffering. That is renunciation, and is actually essential to a good practice. But when we start looking for a specific...

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Thoughts and Feelings

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:02:00 +0000

A lot of people hold the assumption that the objective of meditation practice is to stop having thoughts and feelings. More specifically, that a "good" meditation session is one in which no thoughts...

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How to See Things We Can't See

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:44:00 +0000

One of the toughest challenges in any kind of learning is that we have to go from not seeing something to seeing it. We generally don't relate to "the world" itself, but to our mental model of it...

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Two Wolves

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:59:00 +0000

An elder was talking to his grandson. “Sometimes I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart,” said the old man. “One wolf is vengeaful, angry, and violent. The other wolf is loving and...

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"I want to learn to meditate. Where do I start?"

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:15:00 +0000

Start with a teacher. A good teacher can communicate skills, clarify background information, answer questions, and help you test your understanding. Prepare to do some shopping around for someone...

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Why come to class?

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:59:00 +0000

Recently someone asked me what the advantages of a meditation class were as compared to self-teaching. For a lot of people, the first introduction to meditation is through books, and the jump to...

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Eastern Robes for Westerners?

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:51:00 +0000

When Buddha started ordaining his followers, they wore simple robes and shaved their heads in order to symbolize letting go of their previous social ties and castes. A Brahmin and a lowly untouchable...

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The Google Map Problem

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:51:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time browsing over Google Earth, the free program that lets you interface directly with satellite views of the planet. It occurs to me, though, that they have a problem: where to put...

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Meditate? Why on earth?

noreply@blogger.com (franca) — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:33:00 +0000

Lots of people write me saying that they don't know anything about meditation, but would like to do it. Why on earth? Meditation is quite boring. You just sit there for 10, 20, 30 minutes or more....

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