Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Audio

Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to study ourselves and understand who we truly are....

Pick up a newspaper or turn on the television, and you're bound to see suffering. And it's not just on the news; we struggle with great and small issues all the time, as do our families and friends.

We all want to maintain control over our lives: our relationships, our work, our health, even our moods. We want to know where we're going and what's going to happen when we get there.

What happens when we die? This is one of life's most puzzling questions, but is our preoccupation with death any different from our preoccupation with what's for dinner or our dentist appointment next week?

One of the main reasons people embark on the spiritual path is to identify what's causing their pain. Oddly enough, when we try to find our pain we often can't put our finger on it, and this is because our pain comes from an idea.

Conflict exists not only between nations and political parties; it's also battling with our neighbor, bickering with the person in the next cubicle, struggling with our spouse.

It's very difficult to experience life directly. Our conditioning and ordinary way of perceiving often creates a haze that prevents accurate perception.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to study ourselves and understand who we truly are....

Why is it so difficult to study? It's a deep aspect of human nature, but most of us are educated to simply learn facts and repeat them.

The 21st century is a critical time for our environment. Global warming, pollution, deforestation: the problems are large, and it's easy to feel helpless.