I have an additional practice during each retreat… cooking meditation! I have the honor, along with Paul, of preparing the meals for those attending. In the Japanese tradition, the title is “tenzo”, or heavenly monk. I don’t know about all that… but we certainly do our best. The meals are vegetarian and quite simple. For example, lunch and dinner are generally rice, salad, and some kind of bean-based soup. Each meal always ends with tea. There is a lot of form to meals – each

Two weekends ago my head-teacher was in town, Zen Master Ji Bong (Robert Moore). He comes up from California a few times year to give talks, lead retreats, and conduct ceremonies. We had all three this most recent visit… so I thought we’d shift gears from acupuncture, to the other core component of my practice, zen. While daily meditation is greatly beneficial, there is nothing quite like a retreat to really deepen one’s practice. Many times throughout the year I’m in retreat

2 days ago I had the honor of working with a woman who shared a brief experience that really touched me. With her permission, I wanted to put it out there into the world. Because it is something I’ve heard before in various ways from many people, but for whatever reason… this time it really connected with something. During the Autumn season, the time of the Metal Element, many difficult experiences and questions arise. We are asked to let go of what is no longer serving us to