Today, I arrive at Zen Mountain Monastery, where I will be in residency for the next 2 months. It’s the lived experience, more or less, as a Zen Buddhist monk for a short stint.

Even though life there is quite demanding, the schedule being full from the wee hours of the morning until about 9pm, I consider this a gift that I get to receive. Entering into these spaces tend to be the most difficult things I do in my life and also the most rewarding, the most gratifying, the most important thing I could be doing in this moment.

While the default world provides endless opportunities for me to enter into every day cultivating and growing in my capacity for wisdom, compassion, equanimity and falling in love with life, I often forget. I split myself between many things, I create division where inherently there is none, put simply, I make things difficult for myself.

My time in monasteries has been an ideal container for me to hone in specifically on how I create division, how I create my suffering and how to stop causing it. To unify, to find rest in activity, to be okay with discomfort and to open into the moment with myself and others.

During this time my posts will likely take a bit of a turn, should you choose to read them and ride with me - I hope they are of value to you. Wishing you well, I’ll report in soon enough 🙏