Today's guest is Koshin Paley Ellison. He is A Zen teacher, Jungian Psychotherapist, and Cofounder of the NY Zen Center where he, and his partner Chodo, have numerous trainings and gatherings.

His new book is called, ironically, Untangled. Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion. The book takes us through the process of creating profound change, both inside and out. Life can be so fragile and subject to ever-changing circumstances, good, messy, difficult and all of the above— and these changes have the tendency to “tangle" us up in our own web of stories. This, he says, tends to create suffering, so Koshin offers many insights and inspirations for how we can untangle the tangles, allowing for greater clarity AND acceptance.

We can learn to find balance with the whole range of joy and pain. He says that we can never be free until we can be still with our pain AND…that everything we encounter in life can be a place of practice. What a great piece of wisdom.