à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Zen
On the Importance of the Right Container
Imagine you’re handed a precious elixir that requires immediate refrigeration. All you have is a used plastic supermarket container. You wash, rinse and wipe it dry before transferring the elixir. The next day you notice a leak from a pinprick in the bottom. Quickly, you tape it. Shortly thereafter, you observe that the amount of … Continue reading
When the Landscape Changes
If you’re lost along Colorado’s Front Range, just look for the mountains. They are to the west, their craggy outline an unflinching and unfailing navigational aid. When I moved to Colorado, just seeing the Rockies’ profile against the huge sky helped me feel more oriented as I adjusted to my new home, my internal compass … Continue reading
What is “Spiritual Practice”?
When I began this blog nearly 18 months ago, I chose not to limit myself to a single topic or focus, curious to see what would emerge. Last week, buoyed by an increase in traffic, I redesigned the blog, making the home page more user friendly and dynamic. And I tried to look at my … Continue reading
Windsurfing as Zen Practice
We are going to do one thing at a time. My tanned Colorado windsurfing instructor uttered those words on the shore of Big Soda Lake, but they could have also come out of the mouth of a Zen teacher, sitting on a black zafu at the front of a room. He repeated that phrase frequently, … Continue reading
Now Playing: Spiritual Ping-Pong
My internal experience reminds me of Ping-Pong. On one side of the net is gratitude, well-being and acceptance. On the other is, as Zen monk Cheri Huber points out, ego’s insidious chorus of “something is wrong” or “not enough”. And my attention is the ball, bouncing over the net between the two sides, or flying … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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