“Inequality cannot stand in the real and true knowledge of human love. Fear evaporates in the face of recognition and connection.”

-Hanuman Goleman

This Week’s Discussion Topic
How do you maintain compassion when dealing with people who annoy and/or anger you?

“Thoughts—and feelings triggered by thoughts—are mutable and impermanent, and yet because we humans incorrectly identify our being with our thinking, we construct a false notion of ourselves out of ideas and memories that have no actual substance. No wonder the ego is called ‘the false self.’”

-Karen Maezen Miller

This Week’s Discussion Topic
It’s often said in Zen that “All beings are already enlightened.” How do you understand this statement, and how does it relate to practice?

“Liberation is about cutting, or dissolving, or letting go of, or seeing through—choose your image—the attachment to anything. The description of the no-clinging mind may be different in the different schools, but the experience of the no-clinging mind is the same.”

-Joseph Goldstein

This Week’s Discussion Topic
How has koan study affected your practice?

“Buddhism means not being concerned with whether you’re seen as a hot-shot Dalai Lama, or a hot-shot Pope, or a hot-shot parent, or even a halfway decent anything… the ego is just a construct. Get over it.”

-Christine Cox

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Describe your experience with Shikantaza (just sitting) meditation and how it has worked for you.