Attending to the breath​ is the simplest of instructions for marshaling our attention into the current moment. Yet we tend to fall back again and again into thinking about, musing, judging and projecting our wants and needs upon our experience of it. Fortunately we can train the mind with a simple hint to maintain our focus and deepen our practice of zazen — stealing our attention back from the wandering mind and into the silent source of being.

For many traditional religions, doubt is often seen as a weakness, a lack of faith, or the very antithesis of faith. Seen in this way, mere belief can harden into unquestioned dogma or doctrine. However, in Buddhism, and perhaps especially in Zen, Great Doubt is one of the foundations of practice, and is interconnected and inseparable from Great Faith. The great Zen Master Boshan taught that unlike the hindrance of skeptical doubt, we must always arouse Great Doubt in our practice, for it holds our continuous practice upright and awakens our sense of wonder. We will look at the significance of Great Doubt in our life, and its interconnectedness with Great Faith, not as dogma or doctrine, but as a living and unfolding experience.

It's been 50 years since the fall of Saigon, the moment that ended the Vietnam War. The fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, signaled the end of South Vietnam. In the chaos leading up to that day, hundreds of thousands fled, many by sea, in search of safety and a future. The total loss of human life from the war is staggering. According to the Buddha, the mind is the source of all actions. It is most dangerous when we believe that our way is the only way for humankind. If we see deeply into the fact that all beings are interconnected, we will stop blaming, arguing, and killing. To practice nonviolence, we first need to create true harmony within ourselves.

Conditioned by a world that strives to "win," it's not easy to see how this sense of "I must become something or someone" is the underlying cause of suffering. For many reasons, it's rare for us humans to recognize that what we are, at any given moment, is enough...and so ambition becomes the con-man for the ego...the dog chasing it's tail. If you can step back (or out) of the clouds of the one illusion, you may get a glimpse that even when you succeed at whatever you're striving after, there is also this sense of "not enough" behind it. This is discontentment or, if you like, suffering. Passion on the other hand expects nothing in return...it sees the whole process as the reward, as well as the understanding that the skill which one acquires has very little to do with it anyway. That's the gift. You simply return the favor by illuminating it whichever direction you walk.

"There is, monks, this way that leads only to the purification of beings, to the overcoming of sorrow and distress, to the disappearance of pain and sadness, to the gaining of the right path, to the realization of Nirvana – that is to say the four foundations of mindfulness". These are the opening words of the Buddha's discourse on mindfulness in the Satipatthana Sutta. We will examine the Buddha's instructions relating to the seventh practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Mindfulness. These instructions for meditations exploring the experience of our bodies, feelings, states of mind and objects of mind lead us toward the attainment of liberation and the complete end of suffering.

This sutra is a wonderful example of how easy it is to misunderstand teachings of the Buddhadharma. The sutra recounts a story of one of the Buddha's monks, Arittha, who lived in the Anathapindika Monastery in the Jeta Park with the Sangha...Arittha was heard by his brothers to say that 'sense pleasures were not an obstacle to the practice', which of course went contrary to the teaching of the Buddha. The monk, in his refusal to admit that he was wrong, continued to spread this message wherever he went. The point to this sutra is that, not only is it easy to misunderstand the Buddha's 'words,' but also the spirit of such teachings, and in doing so, actually bring harm to oneself and others... the Buddha uses a metaphor of knowing how to properly catch a snake, and intrigues us with a very deep and intricate teaching about the six 'wrong' perceptions.

"The Great Way is not difficult, it only avoids picking and choosing." These are the words of the Third Patriarch of Chan, Seng Ts'an. This phrase is perhaps the greatest single-sentence summary of Zen practice. In other words, if we transcend all preferences, distinctions, and opinions or dualistic views, the true nature of reality is revealed and "everything becomes clear and undisguised." However, the mind experienced by us in daily life is not totally the True mind; it seems as though the distinctions and opinions become like 'films' that we project onto the world and, because of this, it has become very difficult for us to see reality...or in the words of Suzuki Roshi, "things as it is." To experience each moment without the 'film' that blurs our reality, we must learn to recognize that the film even exists...this is discovered through samadhi meditation.

Humility, the feeling that we all share common ground – feeling neither superior or inferior to others – is both a prerequisite to awakening and an expression of mature spirituality. Central to our practice is the phrase "I don't know" which permeates every aspect of Zen. It stands as a powerful symbol of humility and openness. It's an acknowledgment of the inherent limitations of our understanding, a conscious letting go of certainty, and an embracing of the profound mystery that characterizes our existence.

In Zen Buddhism, faith and doubt are inseparable. Along with determination these three make up what are known as the three pillars of practice…. Great Faith, Great Doubt and Great Determination. Faith in Buddhism has nothing to do with believing in anything outside of ourselves. It's faith in our own true nature. However, it does require faith that Zen practice is worthwhile, faith in the reality of what the practice can lead to, faith that there is the possibility for awakening, and faith that it is possible to find our way to that reality in spite of seemingly endless obstacles.

The lines of reality have always been blurred by the fantastic hallucinations and desires of the mind...this is at the core of the Buddha's teachings- The 'mind made reality' and Reality are very different. In the last 200 years or so, man continues to make impacts on the earth and the psyche of future generations that propel us faster and faster into a state of believing that more and more stuff will bring true happiness...stimulate me!!! Because of that, we see more hyper sensitivity, more anger, more division, more desire and less compassion, community and joy. Though the times may be different than that of Siddhartha, the mental states are the same. We all get stuck. The Buddha way is a means of returning to what is important and how to BE that in life. The Three Refuges encompass that...they show us how to live in a way that respects ALL life; How to learn from All experiences and how to share that in ALL our activities.