In this talk delivered the the Guemes Island Community Church, Jonathan Prescott explains what a contemplative practice is and how to open the 3 Contemplative Doors. He finishes with a Metta practice to help us feel the practice in our hearts and bodies.

Buddhism has so many elements that it's hard to know how to use them effectively. Jonathan Prescott shows you how to focus your efforts by opening the 3 Doors of Practice.

Jonathan Prescott offers a 3-step process for spring-cleaning our hearts so that we can restore relationships that have soured over the long pandemic winter. This talk was offered to the Guemes Island Community Church

The Buddha taught that ignorance is the root of suffering. To ignore means to turn away from the truth. While speaking to the Guemes Island Community Church, Jonathan Prescott shows how Buddhism and Christianity both point towards overcoming ignorance through awareness and love.

Jonathan Prescott offered this exploration of hospitality to the Guemes Island Community Church. Jonathan uses poems and stories to reveal deeper aspects of hospitality, including the call to welcome those we don't agree with.

In Jonathan Prescott's final talk to the Anacortes Mindfulness Community, he offers a concise map of Zen practice, beginning with the establishment of happiness and ending with the depth of Zazen.

13 centuries ago, Zen Master Deshan encouraged us to grab the life of an ordinary person. What did he mean? Jonathan Prescott shows how our ordinary lives can be our awakened lives. We just need to stop.

In this talk, Jonathan Prescott helps us understand and feel our grief. He describes common types of grief and offers ways to practice so that we can transform our losses into compassion.

Deep within all of us is a golden Buddha. It's been there all along, radiating goodness and wisdom. But because we feel vulnerable in this challenging world, we've covered this precious gift with a 'self' that traps us in a cycle of suffering.

Join Jonathan Prescott for an exploration of our own goodness. We'll look at the price we must pay to awaken, paid bit by bit with the transformed fragments of our separate selves, so that the Golden Buddha within can emerge.

Suffering and liberation are intimately bound together on a continuum of interbeing, intersection, and interpenetration. Liberation is the birthright of our Buddha nature, available to us in every moment. Shining the light within we touch our original nature. Therein lies the liberation we seek.

This talk by Michael Melancon was offered at Radiant Light Zen's Interbeing of Suffering and Liberation retreat, on October 11, 2023.