Henry Shukman: Zen and the Art… Part 1 of 4
“There seemed to be a natural congruence between writing and the practice of zazen. And practice was demonstrably helpful: through daily zazen I worried less, focused more, had better ideas and produced more.” ~ Henry Shukman
We are pleased to offer this 4-part series, Zen and The Art, authored by Zen teacher and poet Henry Shukman, originally published as Zen and the Art, in the Spring 2012 Issue of Tricycle Magazine and also published on the Mountain Cloud Zen Center website.
read more
Munajat: Sama by Pir Elias Amidon
Munajat: “… a “whispered prayer” … is On its way to endlessness it has no need for hurry. ~ Pir Elias Amidon
Munajat is a book of forty prayers, by Pir Elias Amidon. These prayers “… were originally inspired by the Munajat — “whispered prayers.” Enjoy Sama, another of Elias’ intimate conversations with God!
read more
NEW FREE OFFERING: Subscribe & Receive Exclusive Videos
“If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path …” ~ Buddha
NEW OFFERING: A VERY SPECIAL TEACHING
Over the years, we’ve recorded some videos with teachers that — until now — have only been available on DVD.
Sign up for our email newsletter and we’ll send you one of these amazing teachings for FREE!
read more
Pir Elias: The Mysticism of Music
“If we listen closely to the coming-into-and-passing-out-of-being of each sound we can recognize that here is the very creation and renewal of the cosmos.” ~ Pir Elias
Pir Elias Amidon explores the mystery of music, What happens when music touches us? What is it that enchants us in the mingling of sounds? What is happening that moves us so? Amidon’s aim is to suggest another way of experiencing what is behind the questions.
read more
Henry Shukman: Shinku and What does Being Here Mean?
If you discover the real nothing, everything then becomes wondrous being.
Henry Shukman shares his thoughts on Shinku and Shunyata, true vast emptiness, as defined and encoutered in Zen and Buddhist traditions. He states “being here is not what we take it to be.”
read more
Philip Renard: Non-Dualism, Part 1 of 2
“Non-duality is what remains when the seeking stops, when there is ‘finding’. This happens when the inner struggle is realized as being not based on reality, and in this realization the whole body-mind relaxes. I am not two.” ~Philip Renard
Stillness Speaks is delighted to offer the first chapter, What is Non-dualism of Philip Renard’s book Non-Dualism: Eastern Enlightenment in the World of Western Enlightenment which provides an in-depth exploration of non-duality.
read more
Rumi: Like This
When someone mentions the gracefulness
of the nightsky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,
Like this.
If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like this.
Continue reading to enjoy Rumi’s full post…
read more
Henry Shukman: Who is it that Lives?
“I and all beings, and the whole great earth together have simultaneously attained the way.” ~Shakyamuni Buddha
Henry Shukman shares his thoughts on Shakyamuni Buddha’s pre-awakening journey as he finally resolved, his burning question: “Who is it that lives?”
read more
The Ten Thousand Things: Awakening and Behavior
What is a Koan?
The koan is a little nugget of something an awakened master did during his time. ~ Henry Shukman
Henry Shukman, Sanbo Zen Teacher and long time koan student, answers the question: What is a koan?
read more
Teacher and the Self Inquiry Journey
Exploring The Simplicity of What Is, a 7-part series
“Liberation is the aliveness and immediacy beyond belief. Liberation is when all the answers, explanations and positions disappear, and what remains is the open mind of not knowing.” ~Joan Tollifson
In this seven part essay, The Simplicity of What Is, Joan explores “the imaginary problems that we think are binding us from waking up to the aliveness of this moment, just as it is …” …
read more
Robert Rabbin: Lovers – The Heart of Meditation
“… The heart of meditation is eternity without center or edge …” ~ Robert Rabbin
Continue reading to enjoy Robert’s full poem …
read more
Joan Tollifson: The Simplicity of What Is (Part 7 of 7)
“Awakening is never about achieving something that isn’t right here, right now.”
“Truth is not in the future, but Now. Not hidden, but obvious and unavoidable. Not in concepts, but in actuality.” This post concludes Joan Tollifson’s profound seven part series, the Simplicity of What Is.
read more
Rumi: Gnats Speaking with Solomon
“O Solomon, you are the champion of the oppressed.
You give justice to the little guys, and they don’t get
any littler than us! We are tiny metaphors
for frailty. Can you defend us?”
Continue reading to enjoy Rumi’s full poem …
read more
Deepak Chopra: The Human Universe
“That’s the current state of our cosmology, nothingness. Is that nothing just an empty void? Or could it be the womb of creation? Rumi said, ‘we come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.’ Spinning out of nothingness–that could be you.”
Deepak Chopra discusses the seven universes that human beings have devised to explain existence, leading to the conclusion that the cosmos has evolved to reflect human evolution. This is not a philosophical observation but a “must be so” when it comes to such baffling dilemmas as the origin of life and the appearance of consciousness.
read more
Joan Tollifson: The Simplicity of What Is (Part 6 of 7)
“Liberation is the aliveness and immediacy beyond belief. Liberation is when all the answers, explanations and positions disappear, and what remains is the open mind of not knowing.”
“Boundlessness… means that everything is equally insubstantial, that there are no separate “things” to be joined, that there is no substance to get hold of anywhere.” Continue Joan Tollifson’s brilliant exploration of non-duality in the Simplicity of What Is, Part 6 of this seven part series.
read more
Kaz Tanahashi & Henry Shukman: Dogen Retreat
“Rising, as the mountain
Peaks and valleys deepen-
The twilight sound of the cicada
Singing of a day
Already gone by.”
~ Dogen
We are pleased to announce Stillness Speaks’ first live event in Santa Fe on Zen Master Dogen with co-hosts, Kaz Tanahashi and Henry Shukman. We will co-sponsor this event with Mountain Cloud Zen Center.
read more
Shukman: Sanbo Zen & Unconditional Well Being
It’s not so much that are our existence is separate, it just IS other beings.
Henry Shukman briefly previews Sanbo Zen … and shares his thoughts on where/how “unconditional well being is to be found.”
read more
Pir Elias: The Art of Awakening, Part 2 of 2
“…there is a ripening process that spiritual practices can serve, to bring us to a readiness from which we may more easily open beyond path and ripening and preparation.”
Pir Elias concludes his essay on the “Art of Awakening” by exploring this key question: What, then, does it take for a spiritual path to be effective?
read moreBooks
- A Buddhist Life in America: Simplicity in the Complex
- A Course in Consciousness – Kindle Edition
- A Garden Beyond Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi
- A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution, and Ethics in the Modern World
- A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
- A-U-M: Awakening to Reality
- Advaita Made Easy
- After Awareness – The End of the Path
- All Else Is Bondage: Non-Volitional Living
- Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body
- As It Is Vol. 1 (As It Is)
- As It Is, Volume 2
- Atmabodha
- Atmananda Tattwa Samhita
- Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is
- Awareness Bound and Unbound: Buddhist Essays
- Back to the Truth
- Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life
- Be Here Now (Enhanced Edition)
- Become What You Are
- Becoming Real: Essays on the Teachings of a Master
- Before I Am
- Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death
- Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas
- Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- Beyond Knowledge
- Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World
- Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transendence in Psychotherapy
- Bhagavan: Remembrances of Our Days with Ramana Maharshi
- Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe
- Breath Of The Absolute: Dialogues with Mooji
- Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
- Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation
- Choying Dzod: The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena
- Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas
- Conscious Immortality: Conversations with Sri Ramana Maharshi
- Consciousness Is All: Now Life Is Completely New
- Daughter of Fire: A Diary of a Spiritual Training with a Sufi Master
- Doing Nothing: Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search
- Dying: What Happens When We Die?: A Selection from Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy
- Emptiness and Joyful Freedom
- Emptiness Dancing
- Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy
- Enlightenment: The Path Through The Jungle
- Essential Tibetan Buddhism
- Eternity Now
- Face To Face With Sri Ramana Maharshi
- Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
- Fireflies: a collection of proverbs, aphorisms and maxims
- Flowers Fall
- Foundations of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy
- Free Medicine: Meditations on Nondual Awakening
- From Science to God: A Physicist’s Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness
- From The Walled Garden of Hakim Sanai – Kindle Edition
- Gifts with No Giver: A Love Affair with Truth
- Go In and In: Poems From the Heart of Yoga
- Happiness and the Art of Being: A Layman’s Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of the Spiritual Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana
- Healing Our Deepest Wounds: The Holotropic Paradigm Shift
- Heart of the Brush: The Splendor of East Asian Calligraphy
- Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story
- How to See Yourself As You Really Are
- I Am
- I AM – The Complete ‘I Am’ quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
- I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
- Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within
- Initiation into Reality
- Inner Revolution
- Introduction to Vedanta
- Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation
- Letters to a Spiritual Seeker
- Letters to a Young Poet
- Living Realization: A Simple, Plain-English Guide to Non-Duality
- Love Your Enemies: How to Break the Anger Habit & Be a Whole Lot Happier
- Love’s Quiet Revolution: The End Of The Spiritual Search
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections
- Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind
- Moon In a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen
- Munajat: Forty Prayers
- Natural Perfection
- Natural Rest for Addiction: A Revolutionary Way to Recover Through Presence
- No Man Is an Island
- No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering
- Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda: Volume 1
- Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda: Volume 2
- Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda: Volume 3
- Nothing to Grasp
- Old Man Basking in the Sun
- Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs About Nonduality
- Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
- Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide
- Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart
- Prayers and Meditations of the Quero Apache – Kindle Edition
- Presence Volume I – The Art of Peace and Happiness
- Quantum Healing (Revised and Updated): Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine
- Rainbow Painting: A Collection of Miscellaneous Aspects of Development and Completion
- Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
- Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You
- Return to The Sacred: Ancient Pathways to Spiritual Awakening
- Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved
- Samvidullasah: Manifestation of Divine Consciousness, Swami Lakshman Joo, Saint Scholar of Kashmir Saivism — A Centenary Tribute
- Sangam: The Jhansi Legacy By Balkrishna Naipaul
- Savage Pilgrims: On the Road to Santa Fe
- Seeds of Contemplation
- Seeing Inside
- Self Realization in Kashmir Shaivism : The Oral Teachings of Swami Lakshmanjoo
- Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination
- Silence
- Silence Of The Heart: Dialogues with Robert Adams
- Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
- Sivastotravali of Utpaladeva
- Sky Dancer: 1st (first) Edition
- Sound Bites from Silence: Scouting Reports from the Frontier of Consciousness
- Spaciousness
- Speak Truthfully: Speak Your Way to an Authentic Life with Awareness, Courage, and Confidence
- Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis
- Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing
- Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment
- Sri Ramana Reminiscences – Kindle Edition
- Standing as Awareness: The Direct Path
- Stillness Speaks
- The 5 Principles of Authentic Living: How to Live an Authentic Life in 10 Words
- The Adventure of Self-Discovery
- The Art of Communicating
- The Awakening West: Conversations with Today’s New Western Spiritual Leaders
- The Book of Listening
- The Book of One
- The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life
- The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
- The Brain Book: Know Your Own Mind and How to Use it
- The Central Philosophy of Tibet
- The Complete Poems and Plays: 1909-1950
- The Diamond in Your Pocket: Discovering Your True Radiance
- The Direct Path: A User Guide
- The Ego From Birth to Rebirth
- The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience
- The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live–and How You Can Change Them
- The Escape To Everywhere
- The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master
- The Essential Rumi
- The Explosive Silence of Meditation: 48 Sutras for Modern Mystics
- The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom
- The Garland of Guru’s Sayings
- The Gateless Gate: The Classic Book of Zen Koans
- The Gnostic Gospels
- The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
- The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism
- The Hero’s Journey
- The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture
- The Human Encounter with Death
- The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most
- The I Ching or Book of Changes: A Guide to Life’s Turning Points
- The Impersonal Life
- The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism
- The Love of Uncertainty
- The Mind of Ramana Maharshi (Kindle Edition)
- The Mind’s Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation
- The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
- The Most Direct And Rapid Means to Eternal Bliss
- The Nature of Man According to the Vedanta
- The Nisargadatta Gita
- The Open Path – Recognizing Nondual Awareness
- The Path of Initiation: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of Karlfried Graf Durckheim
- The Path of Sri Ramana – Part One
- The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- The Precious Treasury of Philosophical Systems
- The Precious Treasury of Pith Instructions
- The Precious Treasury of The Way of Abiding
- The Red Book
- The Sacred Landscape
- The Self-Aware Universe
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
- The Seven Storey Mountain
- The Silent Life
- The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems
- The Spirit of Zen: A Way of Life, Work, and Art in the Far East (Wisdom of the East)
- The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi
- The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence
- The Teachings of Zen Master Dogen
- The Ten Thousand Things
- The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore
- The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead
- The Transparency of Things [Book]
- The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Three Hundred Koans
- The Truth Is
- The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment
- The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death
- The Unfindable Inquiry: One Simple Tool to Overcome Feelings of Unworthiness and Find Inner Peace
- The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
- The Walled Garden of Truth: The Hadiqa
- The Way of Zen
- The Wonder of Being: Awakening to an Intimacy Beyond Words
- The World Is Made of Stories
- The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace
- Thoughts In Solitude
- Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo
- True Meditation: Discover the Freedom of Pure Awareness
- Truth Love Beauty
- Vaster Than Sky, Greater Than Space: What You Are Before You Became
- Vijnana Bhairava The Practice of Centering Awareness
- Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature
- Wake Up and Roar: Satang With H. W. L. Poonja, Vol. 1
- Waking Up in Time: Finding Inner Peace in Times of Accelerating Change
- Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy
- When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities
- White Fire
- Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
- Women of Wisdom: The Journey of the Sacred Feminine Through the Ages
- Writing on Water
- You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
- You Are That
- You Are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters
- Zen Chants: Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary
- Zen: The Authentic Gate
Articles
- “One Aesthetic Illumination:” Thomas Merton and Buddhism by
- 3 ways science can inform good leadership
- A Buddhist Life in America {WIT Lectures}
- A Course In Consciousness
- A Walk with Dogen: An Interview with Kaz Tanahashi and Peter Levitt on Their New “Essentials” Book
- Absent – Wolter Keers
- Actually with Wolter Keers
- After Awareness – The End of the Path Book Summary
- Afterword to Philip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen, by Bodhin Kjolhede
- All Else is Bondage – Excerpts
- An Interview with Buddhist Scholar John Dunne on Mindfulness
- Atma Bodha – Francis Lucille Translation
- Becoming Real: Essays on the Teachings of a Master
- Being Met by the Reality Called Mu
- Bliss
- Cardiovascular and Nervous System Changes During Meditation
- Chapter 1: Non-Dualism, by Philip Renard
- Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Research on Mindfulness and Meditation
- Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death …
- Dr. Jean Klein by Andrew Rawlinson
- Eating for Peace
- Evan Thompson’s ‘Waking, Dreaming, Being’
- Exploring Vedic Archetypes: How to Get Started
- Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi
- Fact: Consciousness is What the Present Is
- Fact: There Is Nothing Greater Than Consciousness
- Francis Lucille: Love in the Other
- Free Medicine: Meditations on Nondual Awakening – 3 Chapters
- Fundamentals of Dogen’s Thoughts
- Guided Meditations
- Guru Vachaka Kovai
- Happiness and The Art of Being
- Health Care in the Himalayas – The New Yorker
- Hudson Valley Healing Buddha
- I Am Unborn – Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
- Impact Study/BWD: Supportive & Palliative Care (2009)
- Indifference Not Acting – Wolter Keers
- Infinity is a synonym for being
- Introduction to Non-Dualism by Philip Renard
- Inventory to the Stanislav Grof Papers, circa 1955-2008
- Listening In With… Robert Thurman
- Love In The Other
- Love of Uncertainty – Excerpt
- Meister Eckhart’s Sermon 87 – Francis Lucille Translation
- Menla Mountain Retreat Interview with Robert Thurman
- Mindfulness for Cancer and Terminal Illness, 2011
- Mystical Poems by Susan Kahn
- Nan Yar? ( Who Am I?)
- Natural Perfection
- Nondualism in Western Philosophy
- Notes on Spiritual Discourses
- Parmenides’ On Reality
- Preface to A New Map of Reality: the Worldview of 21st CenturyScience
- Realizing the unreal: Dharmakı ̄rti’s theory of yogic perception, by John D Dunne
- Reasons for Retranslating the Heart Sutra
- Reflections on Receiving Jukai
- Shobogenzo: The Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching
- Some Teachings from Sri Atmananda (Krishna Menon)
- Tantrasara
- The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success
- The Altruist – Mind & Life Spring 2014
- The Awakening West: Interview with Robert Rabbin
- The Book of Listening – Excerpt
- The Circle of the Way
- The Complete I AM Quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
- The Complete Red Book by Carl Jung
- The Consciousness Revolution: New Perspectives in Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy
- The discipline of disappearance
- The Four Keys to Well-Being
- The Fourth Precept: Deep Listening and Loving Speech
- The heart of the world – Wolter Keers
- The Impersonal Life
- The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
- The Keys to Ultimate Freedom
- The Nisargadatta Gita
- The Old Woman’s Rice Cakes
- The Rabbit In The Hat – Wolter Keers
- The Six Emotional Styles
- The Ten Thousand Things: Awakening and Behavior
- The Transparency of Things – Excerpt
- Thoughtless Buddha, Passionate Buddha, by John D Dunne
- Utterly One
- Waking Up
- Yoga means connection – Jean Klein
- You are YOU
- You Can Change Your Brain
- Your Guide to Healthy Eating
