Waking Up from War (and Other Trauma)

Dear friends, Check out this page for audio and video—interviews, meditations and presentations— on  integrative approaches that transform trauma and generate post-traumatic growth. Also, our Coming Home retreats with veterans, families and care providers and the healing process we discovered: Turning Ghosts into Ancestors. Good wishes, Joe

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Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog. I’ll be posting on a range of topics, from psychotherapy to Zen, from poetry to social justice. Often, I’ll begin with my experience of the world we live in— its beauty and ugliness, its pains and joys— and take off from there. I’ll post links to talks and interviews, audio…

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Opening to the Ordinary

Our minds work like a search engine. Type in a word or phrase (or experience a series of lived moments) and a slew of “answers” emerge. On a computer or a smartphone, we see auto-fill activate; experientially we jump to conclusions. It is this, or it is that, or it is the other. From just…

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Radical Inclusion: A Key To Peace

My teacher Robert Aitken Roshi was once asked how to enlighten a quadratic equation. He responded: “Include it.” We are, with all beings, the warp and woof of a vast fabric without dimension and without time, existing right here now. A connective tissue. But we feel isolated and disconnected. As groups and countries, we amplify…

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Being Peace in Divisive Times: An Evening With Sister Chan Khong

On October 12, 2016, Deep Streams Zen Institute invited people of all backgrounds to spend an evening with Sister Chan Khong (True Emptiness). Sister Khong has been Thich Nhat Hanh’s closest collaborator for over half a century. She is a spiritual teacher, activist and humanitarian of the first order. The event began with a short…

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