This week Nate looks at willingness as a practice. It's the turn toward your life as it actually is, made before you feel ready.

2026-09-01 I Inquiry I A Gratitude Meditation I Joel Barna by Appamada

In a Way-Seeking Mind talk, a sangha member shares their personal narrative, key turning points, and how the Dharma has moved in their life. Manuel reflects on the experiences that brought him to Zen practice and how it continues to shape his path.

2026-08-23 | Guo Gu Guided Meditation | Joel Barna by Appamada

2026-08-25 I Inquiry I When your room becomes the whole world I Trudy Johnston by Appamada

2026-08-23 | Body Scan is Full Presence | Joel Barna by Appamada

2026-08-18 I Inquiry I Longing I Flint Sparks by Appamada

There's a word at the center of our practice that reads as mundane but might better understood as sacred: attention.

At first attention is not very promising, is it? To the classroom teacher and parent in Nate, it sounds ludicrously ordinary. Paying attention seems so basic, so pedestrian. But Nate has come to think it may be the heart of practice, hiding in plain sight.

For the final talk of our Zen and the Moment series, we treat this small, forgettable word seriously— with Dōgen, a poem by Ellen Bass, and practice together.

Cover art:

Sengai Gibon (1750–1837), ○△▢ (Circle, Triangle, Square), or Marusankakushikaku or The Universe; ink on paper. Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo.

By Sengai - catalogue, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26868326

2026-08-11 I Inquiry I Just be ordinary and nothing special I Trudy Johnston by Appamada

2026-08-09 | Dharma Talk | Nate Smalley by Appamada