How can we let go of judgments and self-judgments, living only in the present moment? Can we see this moment as sacred, accepting ourselves and others as they are, accepting and letting go of the past? We're both separate and together, perfect and complete, revealing right here, right now. What are we waiting for? We will examine these questions, these koans together.

Upaya, or skillful means, is a hallmark of not only Zen practice and training, but of the entirety of the Buddha's teachings. How do we live skillfully, moment by moment, in a world on fire, a world with so much division, injustice, and strife? The Buddha's teachings are a prescription for how to liberate ourselves from this pervasive suffering. However, it is not a blanket, one-size-fits-all prescription, but a way of living skillfully with the ever changing circumstances, causes and conditions of life.

In simple terms: we crave more, different and new. When one learns how to 'look' desire is constantly there, knocking and knocking like a sales man who has exactly what you want yet knows you don't need. This seems to be true whether it's for more love or more cars or more fear. The reality is that desire creates this constant conflict within us. This is why most humans breathe very shallowly…like a boa constrictor that's tight enough to hold you down but not tight enough to cut off the flow of air.

Our social contract is based on mutual respect and recognition of our common interest. There are those who have become quite adept at pitting ourselves against ourselves; against each other when we are all truly dependent on each other. There are some who find advantage in focusing on superficial differences rather than our profound shared identity. The Eye of the Heart knows better— we all share a common heritage in the earth, the sea and the stars. We must vow to reinvigorate a view of the sacredness of all things if we are to if we are to survive and even thrive in this life.

Much like creating music, life is of the nature of change and flow. Just as chord changes and progressions constantly create and re-create the flowing rhythms of music, life too unfolds and is constantly in creation according to the ever changing nature of life's flowing rhythms. When we wrestle against that unfolding flow, then life, like music, becomes stagnant and its natural evolution and creative aspect is diminished within us.

In our current state of the world we witness how misinformation spreads like a virus. We witness again and again how easy it is to manipulate others, create division, and spread hatred through wrong speech. In the eight fold noble path the Buddha instructed us on the importance of right speech. When we pay close attention to our words and use them skillfully we can create heaven on Earth. Let us understand and realize the power that lies in the word and how to utilize this power for the benefit of humanity.

"You are Buddha, you are perfect and complete". Most of us would vehemently disagree... for good reason too. We spend lifetimes unconsciously creating fantasies about who we think we are. Just like if you took a dog and trained it to be a killer, there would be no surprise if that were to actually occur. But the dog's true essence is not a killer. We too have 'trained' ourselves to see life through certain filters and so our actions turn out to be direct responses to the distorted lens that we unconsciously created. To understand this, one simply needs a new way of looking. Zazen was created for this exact purpose...it is the ability to recognize the formlessness in the form. Right here, right now, a mental formation...does it contain anything at all?

Eihei Dogen, the great master of Soto Zen, taught that when we know something intimately, it ceases to exist in the old way and, as a result, so do we. Dogen was a lover of nature. He built his monastery deep in the mountains near streams. In the Mountains and Rivers Sutra he wrote about the mountains and rivers, the wind and clouds, as direct expressions of the great body of the Buddha, the whole earth body as well as your body, and my body. These mountains and rivers of the present are the manifestation of the way of the buddhas and ancient sages. Each abides in its own, dharma state, exhaustively fulfilling its virtues. What Dogen is pointing to is the immediate, non-dual experience of our lives using the language of our natural world.

What does it mean to practice the Noble Eightfold Path's 'Right View'? How do we walk the Buddha's teaching of the Middle Way? ​ Master Shitou shared his deep insight into these questions with two profound poems that became the foundation of the Soto Zen School: The 'Sandokai' and the 'Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage.' We will look into maintaining this life of balancing the Absolute and the Relative, not two.

How does one practice without attachments to goals or gaining anything? Zen does not place an emphasis on advancing through stages of practice, or expectations of achieving anything. But when one embraces this path wholeheartedly, we mature as a result of opening the heart, seeing through delusions, and directly experiencing the transformative fruit of practice in our life. ​ Unobstructed, the primordial mind naturally sees the Way. The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures poetically captures this transformation of mind to heart as we travel and mature along this path.