Unfinished Vow: One of the frequently misunderstood teachings in Buddhism is acceptance. Acceptance is often confused with acquiescence. They are not the same thing. I believe the confusion of acceptance with acquiescence is one of the ways contemplative life gets domesticated.

From Unfinished Vow: Violence depends on separation and requires the construction of enemies. Nonviolence rests on interconnectedness, recognizes that even those we disagree with remain part of the same family, and seeks transformation, not domination.

Solidarity requires imagination, the moral kind that sees through the present arrangement of things to what a person, or a society, might yet become: communities more compassionate than those we inhabit, economies organized around care rather than extraction,

If we experience ourselves as separate individuals, compassion is generosity directed outward. If we experience ourselves as one body, compassion is simply the natural response to our shared condition, and serving another is no longer sacrifice. It is participation in reality.

www.upaya.org/.../varela-c... www.upaya.org/.../varela-c... VARELA CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENCE RETREAT: Aug 20,-23 with Roshi Joan, astrophysicist Adam Frank, cognitive scientist Molly Crockett, Buddhist philosopher John Dunne, writer Michael Pollan (virtual).

Join the extraordinary Rebecca Solnit at Upaya in person or online, Aug 30, 11AM, MT. Free, donation appreciated. Roshi Joan and Sensei Dainin will be threading and reflecting. Open q and a. www.upaya.org/program/the-... or online: www.upaya.org/program/the-...

Often people imagine that Buddhism is primarily about personal enlightenment, about meditation, transcendence, or escaping from the wheel of suffering. But my own Zen teachers, Thay

Rebecca Solnit: Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation ofthe

Such a wonderful article about Planting Life in the Buddhist Door Global. www.buddhistdoor.net/features/pla...

I cannot promise that the world will be repaired. I have watched too much go unrepaired to say that honestly, and at eighty-four I will not see how most of it turns out. What I can promise, because I have watched it in others and been carried by it

Join the extraordinary Rebecca Solnit at Upaya in person or online, Aug 30, 11AM, MT. Free, donation appreciated. Roshi Joan and Sensei Dainin will be threading and reflecting. Open q and a. www.upaya.org/program/the-... or online: www.upaya.org/program/the-...

A simply gorgeous birthday present from my dear Zen colleague Sensei Flint Sparks. This beautiful image by my good friend Kitty Leaken reflects ancient blue corn, a gift from the old ones of this land. How marvelous, these ancient seeds and this gift.

Upaya Zen Center's calligraphy program with Kaz Tanahashi, a marvelous opening session with the brush!

Recalling a tender moment years ago with His Holiness Dalai Lama.

The Dogen weekend at Upaya is a rare plunge into the teachings of this great master. Join us! In person or online. www.upaya.org/program/doge...

Joy with neuroscientist colleages Cliff Saron and Richie Davidson at Richie's wonderful celebration of his 50 years in contemplative neuroscience. A wonderful reunion of old friends! And the best is Richie as scientist activist! Yes!

Happy 100th Birthday, beloved friend, Brother David. The great gift of your life has touched the lives of so many. We are grateful for your boundless wisdom and courage.

DO NOT MISS! Please join today, Sun, July 12, 11AM-12:30 MT. The brilliant and brave Bhikku Bodhi on the MEASURE OF OUR HUMANITY. www.upaya.org/program/the-... A special time when great teachers speak to the issues of our era and a gathering of the global community. FREE, ONLINE

So many years of encountering His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Now he is 91. We are so fortunate for his many years of powerful teaching. May he continue to flourish and bestow the blessing of his presence on the world.

beauty is what is up

Join Upaya for Residential Zen Training at Upaya Zen Center, a unique and remarkable environment of practice, study and service. www.upaya.org/being-at-upa...

www.upaya.org/2026/06/disc... We often speak of spirituality in psychological language, describing compassion as an emotion, awakening as a state of consciousness, or bodhicitta as an intention residing somewhere within the mind. Dōgen’s understanding is more

www.upaya.org/2026/06/disc... We might imagine that recognizing impermanence would encourage withdrawal, persuading us to protect ourselves from inevitable loss by holding the world at a distance. Dōgen understands precisely the opposite. When we truly see that

Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra,“The mind that sees impermanence is called the mind of awakening.”

www.upaya.org/2026/06/disc... How does this life become available to the welfare of others? How do these hands, this voice, this body, these capacities, and even these limitations become conditions through which suffering is lessened? Almost imperceptibly, the center of gravity shifts.

www.upaya.org/2026/06/disc... The awakened heart is not merely an aspiration. It is the organizing principle of an entire life. It is known not because one speaks eloquently about compassion, nor because one has accumulated profound spiritual experiences, but because

www.upaya.org/2026/06/disc... The awakened heart is not measured by mystical experience or spiritual attainment. It becomes visible wherever one life sustains another.

www.upaya.org/2026/06/disc... Bodhicitta is never outgrown. It is not merely the first step of the path but the whole path continually renewing itself. The awakened heart must awaken this morning no less than yesterday morning, in every conversation, every disappointment, every meal prepared before

www.upaya.org/2026/07/theu... Dogen locates ethics in the present moment rather than in rules or outcomes. Rules are broken the moment conditions overwhelm them; outcomes are hostage to forces beyond us.

July 4, 2026, Interdependence Day, in the great silence of Prajna Mountain Forest Refuge, with a light show in the stillness of dusk, reminding us, as Terry Tempest Williams does, that there is beauty in our broken world.