Karen and Baz attended morning meditation at the Land of the Medicine Buddha Retreat Center and Buddhist community. We gathered with about 25-40 other meditators for some guided meditation, a Dharma talk, and some time for reflection on the talk. The gallery below contains a few photos from our visit. (Click on each for the photo viewer.)
A Guest Post by Baz
In 2012, I authored The Practical Buddhist, a spiritual memoir that chronicled my journey from what I call ‘Big Religion.’ My journey from organized religion to what I later termed Practical Buddhism was focused on rejecting Big Religion’s focus on the assumption of truth from another’s perspective (in my case, the Bible and all it includes as literal fact) in favor of the Buddha’s emphasis on living with honest, mindful intention and accepting as truth only that which you experience.
Not long after I made this change, my entire world view morphed from one that simple preached doing good and the consistent need to be redeemed for something for which I played no part whatsoever (original sin), to one that allowed me to discover my own truth.
I soon composed a sense of mission for my life as it represents what I’d most like to accomplish in the years I have left. It’s included above as an image.”
ZenJi and I worked together to reframe this new path in what we now call ‘Walking the ZenJo Path™. You can read about the path here. ZenJi also asked me, as a non-monastic, to share my thoughts about what it means to me to be walking this path. I’ll attempt to answer that, and why I think you should also, in the paragraphs below. [Read more…]
Greetings! I have some good news for those of you who have questions about setting up and using your Zen-Journal Notebook™ or have questions about walking the ZenJo Path™.
I recently set up a forum here on the site (you can register for free by clicking here) to serve as a place to post questions and obtain answers about using your notebook or anything related to the four essential practices of the ZenJo Path™.
The landing page looks like this: [Read more…]
Greetings! I am ZenJi, the Zen-Journal (ZenJo) Monk and today I want to reveal to you how I go about my day, my work, and my life while guided by my ZenJo.
First of all, you could say that I am Baz’s alter-ego: Deep within his heart Baz wishes he’d followed the monastic path, however, having discovered ‘the middle way’ late in life (not to mention that we aren’t all meant to take the vows of a monastic), Baz would be the first to tell you that he hasn’t taken monastic vows.
It could be said that all who live the ZenJo Lifestyle are, in their hearts, monks and nuns. Zen monks and nuns are those who live in continual retreat from the material world, usually in a Zen Center or monastery, spending their days working in support of themselves and their community, and devoting themselves to the study of the Buddha’s teachings.
But labels are meaningless. Like Baz, you’re also a ZenJo Monk in my mind. You’re here, and by whatever miracle you ended up here, I hope my message is meaningful and helpful to you.
Regardless of our level of commitment to live the ZenJo Lifestyle, we all have a choice in how we live, how we behave, and how we treat others. The adoption of the ZenJo Lifestyle doesn’t mean you’re a Buddhist, a Practical Buddhist, or anything at all for that matters.
Living the ZenJo Lifestyle is an experiential rather than religious life. As a very brief review, it involves the following four practices that even Zen monks engage each day: [Read more…]
We all want more of some things. A second helping of that yummy pot roast, an extra zero at the end of our bank balance, as well as wanting to achieve more in 2020 than we did in 2019.
There are some things that we’d rather have less of in our life such as less crankiness from our boss, less unsubstantiated news on Facebook (shall we just say, less Facebook?), or less negativity in general.
My girlfriend Karen is a teacher and her focus is reading intervention, assisting children who read below their grade level to do so with more speed and comprehension. It’s a noble undertaking and one that she performs with compassion, kindness, and total devotion.
In fact, she’s the one who shared with me this genius and more mindful way to increase your productivity that works for kids and adults. She recently used this method with her students to help them choose what they’d like to achieve in 2020.
It’s called, aptly, the “More of This & Less of That Approach” and here’s how it works. [Read more…]
Happy 2020….I’d like to tell you about my New Year’s Resolutions, but I don’t have any. Instead, each year for the past decade I’ve put some thought into the areas of my life within which I feel the most energy.
For this year, the following are serving as my Areas of Focus (AoF):
Beside each AoF are the top three goals I’d like to achieve. In case you’re interested, I’ve used the free version of XMind: ZEN (for macOS). This is the final map after several iterations. Here’s how I go about deriving this information.
As I stated above, every year I go through a process of determining the six most relevant areas of my life where I feel most of my current energy should be focused. It’s a method I learned a number of years ago and for nine years six seemed to be the right number of AoF to manage. However, in the template provided above, I’ve decided on seven AoF instead of six. It seems appropriate this year, but if this is your first time doing so, I’d recommend no more than six; It seems to be the best number to successfully manage.
As I approach 2020, beginning not only a new year but a new decade, I’m committed to delivering the definitive course on using Zen-Journal to further your productivity and enjoyment of the one precious life we have.
I’d love to say that many have requested this course, but that’s not true. I’m creating the course because I see a need within the site to provide more complete information and offered in a way that helps other Zen-Journal users live more mindful and purposeful lives.
Although there are posts and pages that teach new users the ins and out of using Zen-Journal, I’ve always found that there’s something beneficial about watching someone -in real time- set up, use, and benefit from their notebook.
That’s what I intend to create for you.
That’s it for today and I wish you all a very happy and productive (if not mindful) new year!
The reasons we quit are varied and not limited to these:
Whatever the reason, quitting doesn’t mean failure. It merely means we stopped doing something.
Yes, that’s right. Even the creator of Zen-Journal has stopped using this fantastic tool from time to time. One reason is that I become bored pretty quickly. I become complacent or, for some other reason, fall out of the habit of documenting my Zen-Journal.
If you were once fired up about your Zen-Journal, but lost interest and allowed your practice to fade, you’re not alone. I’ve quit using my Zen-Journal many times. [Read more…]
I’ve been a fan of Bullet Journal® for a number of years. In fact, multiple years spent using and improving the system contributed to ZenJo’s development.
About 10 days ago, in a post that was long overdue, Ryder Carroll acknowledged that his original model had become overshadowed by (and synonymous with, in my opinion) the colorful, artistic collections and spreads that are so prevalent in social media. [Read more…]
I’ve been thinking about 2019 and how I’d like to live in a more intentional manner. In years past, I’ve created a list of goals for the approaching year, but this year I’ve decided to take another route.
In 2017, I spent some time with an old friend in the United Kingdom. We are both online creators and often read a lot of the same books.
As I left on my continuing journey, he kindly gave me his copy of Gary Keller’s and Jay Papasan’s book, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. In it, they write about what they call the focusing question. [Read more…]