Arnie Kozak's Blog

An unexpected book arrived in the mail the other day. A gift from my friend’s at Wisdom Publications. Zen Master Raven: The Teachings of a Wise Old Bird. by Zen Master human form, Robert Aitken.

Here the koans are told by and to animals of the forest: raven, porcupine, owl, woodpecker,...

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The post Buddhist Wisdom for Living Today: Zen and Buddhism 101 appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

Good things come in small packages especially when it is The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy edited by the poet John Brehm and published by Wisdom. Wisdom has a habit of producing beautifully crafted books, packed with, well, wisdom! By way of disclosure, two of these...

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A surfer and a shrink, sounds like the start of a joke … walk into a bar … . What do they talk about? Turns out the surfer dude is an expert on fear, has even written a book about it and the shrink is a crack snowboarder. They’ve got a lot to talk about. In fact, they are going to teach a workshop about it. Kripalu, here we come.

They’ve both study Buddhism and...

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The post A Workshop for Opening to Life: The Surfer and the Shrink appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

Stephen Batchelor: Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World contains twenty-five years of his writing. You may be familiar with some of these articles from his contributions to Tricycle and I recently enjoyed reading his article arguing for a Buddhism...

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All Our Waves are Water: Stumbling Towards Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride is the latest book from my friend, dharma brother, and workshop collaborator Jaimal Yogis. This books picks up where his first book, the touching, profound and compelling coming of age story, Saltwater Buddha leaves off.

All Our Waves takes the reader through...

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The post All Our Waves are Water: Surfing Life’s Ocean appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

If there is ever any doubt about life's impermanence, mud season starting in February erases it. Our dirt roads are rutted, the snows are melting, and flooding in some areas is an imminent threat. This isn't supposed to happen until April.

Yesterday, I neglected to bring my phone with me on the walk. Thus, I couldn't take pictures of some very interesting...

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The post Life is Impermanent: Exchanging Gratitude for Entitlement appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

President Trump does not appear to have the ability to distinguish between fact and fiction, or he just doesn't care to. For him, truth is whatever he says it is. The New York Times recently published a sobering piece on the falsehoods promulgated in his first week in office.

Trump might be an extreme and very public example of a process that...

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The post Trump and the Truth: Feelings are not Facts appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

Over the course of a lifetime, we will experience ten billion moments. Without mindfulness, will we squander them reaching for the future and dragging along the past? Who is it that spends these moments and how they'll be spent will determine if the coming New Year is a happy one. 

Andrew Olendzki tackles these questions and more in his latest book, 

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The post 10 Billion Moments: How Much Mindfulness? appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

If you suddenly lost a huge manuscript that you were working on, how would you react? Could you receive this news with equanimity and pick up your pen and start writing all over again?

This is what happened to Thomas Carlyle, as recently presented in the Writer's Almanac (Sunday 4 December 2016). I have had this...

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The post Losing Your Darlings: The Ability to Let Go When Life Disappoints appeared first on Mindfulness Matters.

The celebrations of Thanksgiving have seen travel, entertaining, and being entertained. I am now recovering from all the socializing, eating, and cheer. I've tapped out my introvert reserves and am enjoying some quiet time now. I know this season is challenging, especially the introvert amongst us.

Starting a few years ago, after reading Susan Cain's revolutionary book, Quiet, I started thinking about my own introversion and writing about. I've written two books on the...

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