Ordinary Mind
True wisdom is found through embracing the simple and commonplace.
The Central Point
The heart of practice is the recognition that each moment is already perfect.
What Is Sitting?
It isn’t about being in a special state. It’s about just being—without interfering.
A Substitute Life
Meditation can help us notice the gap between who we are and who we pretend to be.
Be What You Are
True peace often comes once we accept, rather than flee, our most difficult emotions.
A Capacity for Crisis
Life’s challenges are inevitable. Seeing them as part of practice makes us stronger.
Whole Being
“All that we see at this second—the apparent universe—is just arising. Here it is.”
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The Practice of Life
In The Practice of Life, celebrated Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck (1917-2011) explores how we tend to avoid what is right in front of us: the beauty and simplicity of this ordinary moment, right now. In seven archival recordings, from various points throughout her teaching career, she describes—often in humorous, brutally direct detail—how, when we run away from the problems of everyday life, we ignore the very doorway to our own freedom.
“We’re always looking for something, waiting for something—for the time which will be perfect, peaceful, better, different, happy,” she says. “But we’re not suddenly going to find some mysterious place where all our troubles disappear. Our great life truly is just what we are at this very second.”
to listen to all 7 sessions in this series.
Artwork by Andrew Walker