A winter storm is coming. Heavy snow. Cold, cold for New York. The city is sending out warnings. Be prepared. Especially old people. You didn’t need to remind me. I can feel it. We live in an old house, have lived here over thirty years. Old pipes. Once, years ago, the pipes in the kitchen froze, burst. What a mess. We had an electric heater installed and haven’t had a problem since, but still we worry. They’re predicting a foot of snow – a lot for New York – and anticipatin

Want to put an end to the suffering in your life? The Buddha pointed to a path. He had an idea on how to get there. Coming back to the Day of Reflection liturgy, reading it as if for the first time, I am startled. The Precepts are guideposts on the path to peace. Not just the Grave Prohibitory Precepts: there were also the Three Pure Precepts.   The first Pure Precept is traditionally translated, “Cease from Evil.” I prefer the Hippocratic formula, “First, do no harm.” I rec

Between a rock and a hard place? We’ve all been there. What do you do? There’s a Zen koan which really ups the ante:   You’re a Zen teacher and you’re up in a tree, hanging from a branch with your teeth. You can’t reach a branch with your hands or feet. A student appears below and asks, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?”  Scary situation? Some koans are even scarier. Sometimes there are lions or wolves at the bottom of the tree waiting to devour me i