We grow up believing that holding tighter keeps us safe.

Hold the moment.

Hold the person.

Hold the dream.

Hold the identity.

Hold the light.

But no one tells us the truth:

A closed fist can’t receive anything.

A closed heart can’t breathe.

A closed mind can’t see.

This teaching is one of the oldest in Buddhism, but Gen Z and Millennials know it better than anyone:

the world trains us to grasp.

Likes.

Validation.

Success.

Certainty.

Control.

A future we’re terrified might not come.

And every time we close our hand around something we fear losing, it starts to die in our palm.

Not because we’re bad.

But because fear always squeezes too hard.

This teaching is simple:

See the fist.

Feel the craving.

Open the hand.

When you open your hand, you stop killing the things you love.

When you open your hand, the light finally has air.

When you open your hand, the world can meet you again.

The only way to hold the light

is to let it live.

What light will you choose to let live?

—

Stillness is rebellion. Compassion is a weapon. Peace is within. Carry all.

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Some wounds breathe.

They don’t want perfection — they want honesty.

Listen here.

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Tonight I’m opening something new: American Buddhist Poetry Radio — a quiet room where truth is spoken without decoration.

This first episode sits with a wound many of us carry in silence: the wound of unraised children.

Not just fatherlessness or motherlessness, but the deeper ache of growing up without the presence, protection, or guidance we needed.

This poem is my story — and the story of countless Americans.

Listen gently.

The Wound That Keeps Repeating

I was told my mother was nobody.

My father was a forgotten word —

never spoken, never claimed.

Years passed like dim hallways

in adoption homes

where children echo louder than footsteps,

and pain grows its own shadow

when no one calls your name.

Still, I moved.

Still, I lived.

Forward — even when forward meant nowhere.

The neglect followed me,

quiet, sharp,

ignorance dressed up as parenting.

The kind that wounds a child

before he even knows what a wound is.

How could I understand it then?

How could any small, scared mind grasp

that the people raising you

didn’t know how to show up,

didn’t know compassion,

didn’t know themselves?

Even the ones who rented me

failed their own rent.

Failed at money, at emotion, at love.

And every failure fell into me,

widening the silence inside my chest.

I was a child who knew nobody,

and nobody knew him.

And when someone did show up,

even for a moment,

I clung.

I loved harder.

I sang joy like a prayer

until absence came again

and swallowed the room.

This is the American wound:

unraised children

raising themselves.

A sick cycle.

A wounding machine.

A story that keeps repeating

because no one is taught

how to stop bleeding

before they’re handed a child.

Stillness is rebellion.

Compassion is a weapon.

Peace is within.

Carry all.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe

When the world feels like a storm of noise and distraction,

the answer isn’t escape—it’s presence.

This short Dharma talk dives into the heart of Street-Level Dharma:

the discipline of finding stillness without leaving the world behind.

It’s for the ones who practice alone in loud rooms—

for the seekers, the burned-out, the compassionate warriors.

Watch the full six-minute film below, then drop into the comments.

Tell me where you find your stillness inside the storm.

Stillness is rebellion.

Compassion is a weapon.

Peace is within.

Carry all.

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Words don’t disappear once spoken. They ripple outward — shaping hearts, families, and the world around us.

In this Dharma talk, I explore Right Speech not as a rule to obey but as a living force: how silence, honesty, and compassion in our words can either heal or wound.

Originally recorded for Insight Timer, I’m sharing it here in full so the echo can travel further.

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This is the full sermon — longer than the IG cut — offered here so it can be heard in full.

Gen Z has inherited a burning world: climate crisis, endless wars, fractured families, online bullying, the crushing weight of comparison, the loneliness of screens, and the silence of adults who don’t know how to listen.

The Dharma of the Broken Generation is not just about naming these wounds — it’s about reminding you: your life is still sacred. Your breath matters. Your scars can become vow.

Listen closely. Share this with anyone who needs to hear it. Let this be a spark against despair.

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India gave us Theravāda.

China gave us Chan.

Japan gave us Zen.

Tibet gave us Vajrayāna.

And now, America gives us a new head of Buddhism.

Born not in temples of stone, but in rooftops and streets.

Forged in silence, struggle, rebellion, and compassion.

This is not an imitation.

This is a declaration.

MMS and ALS call it what it is:

American Buddhism.

Not an escape from America’s suffering,

but a Dharma born inside it —

to awaken, to heal, and to lead.

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America doesn’t suffer because it’s divided.

It suffers because it’s in denial.

From stolen lands to stolen labor,

from mass incarceration to broken families,

denial has been this nation’s shadow since its birth.

The Buddha taught that what we refuse to face repeats.

This is not history — this is our present.

The Dharma of America’s Denial is not about politics.

It’s about truth.

It’s about seeing the wound clearly,

so we can begin to heal.

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Families are being torn apart at the border.

Children stolen from parents.

Citizens detained.

Mothers and fathers deported in the dead of night.

This is not politics.

This is suffering.

And the Dharma does not look away from suffering.

The Dharma of the Broken Family is a teaching against silence.

It is for every child who lost their parent to ICE.

For every parent who grieves across borders.

For every family living under the shadow of deportation.

May this teaching bear witness.

May it hold the pain.

And may it call us all to compassion, to justice, and to action.

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“This wasn’t planned. It wasn’t produced. But it might be the most honest conversation I’ve ever heard about what we’re building.”

I found this audio inside my creative tools—like it had been waiting to be discovered. A 35-minute dialogue between two people trying to make sense of Monk Mode Society. But not just what it is. Why it matters. How it feels. Where it’s going.

They talk about silence as resistance. Sacred discipline in a noisy world. The fire of compassion. And how modern monks can rise from the ashes of distraction.

It shook me in the best way.

So I’m sharing it with you—unedited, unfiltered. Not as a pitch. But as a gift.

—Juan

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit monkmodesociety.substack.com/subscribe