Thanks Joan! Just what I needed to read today :) Your first book changed my life in so many ways...it is a blessing and a curse (haha). It got me to Springwater in fact:) ... I am coming away with "Burn the extra bridges" (or maybe "Where you put your focus is where life is actually happening?"), and "Now is it". .. I am wondering , DO ALL teachers get cancer? Is that a requirement? A badge of honor? Ok I guess with having had my Dad die of cancer too...it is a sore point. SO what really fuels cancer? underneath everything?....maybe what really fuels Dis-Ease? perhaps non-acceptance? ....I guess I will have something to continue to play with!! However isn't it better to put ones energy into what brings one alive than what pisses one off? SO many questions....to distract. haha... Yes PLEASE respond if can :))
Hi Amanda, good to hear from you. It does seem like lots of spiritual teachers get cancer (Suzuki Roshi, Maurine Stuart, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Mel Weitsman, etc), but then, lots of people get cancer. 😎 While it seems that some of the things that can cause cancer have been identified (smoking, pollution, radiation, too much sun exposure, genetic markers, etc), in the end, it's a mystery why one person gets sick and another doesn't. A smoker who eats junk food and never exercises lives to be 100, while a vegan who does yoga, works out, meditates, etc. dies at 50. And while there is definitely a mind-body connection (they're not really two separate things), I've never liked the popular impulse to blame cancer on psychological-emotional-spiritual conditions. There may be some truth to it in some cases, but basically, I find it serves mostly to blame or shame people for having an illness. And there's the common error of mistaking correlation for causation. Diseases and dis-ease are part of organic life. We may cure one, but another will pop up. Good wishes...🙏
I have the strong feeling that the two kinds of cancer I’ve had (one I kind of still have)…..happened after I wrote books. It was very stressful… think my immune system was super challenged. Then again, I could be full of shit. 😂
Well, we're all definitely full of shit. 😎 And again, I'd say, beware of mistaking correlation for causation. There does seem to be a link between stress and illness, but then, Ramana Maharshi died of cancer, and he seemed like the epitome of being relaxed and un-stressed (although who really knows).
Correlation and causation...interesting isn't it? In the moment that we're having that internal debate, of course, it's academic, irrelevant - the resulting situation has already arisen and it's too late to change the "causative" conditions anyway. I now see stuff as co-incidence...arising together. Like Cher, we can't turn back time...😂🈚️🫶
Joan, this is just beautiful. I will be sitting with this for some time, as my first read whispered to me, “That’s what I’ve been struggling with.”
I had been thinking I would reach out for a one on one when you were ready; but this will be deeply reflected on as I think the answer to my question lies within.
Everything you have posted, and all of your books, have given me such a quiet, beautiful connection to what is, right here and right now. This particular sharing seems to have struck another beautiful chord.
“Accomplishing nothing since 1967” may secretly be one of the healthiest spiritual slogans ever written.
Modern spirituality keeps getting hijacked by optimization culture. People turn meditation into emotional CrossFit for becoming a more efficient ego. Meanwhile these old Zen teachers keep pointing back to the scandalously simple thing nobody wants to hear: this moment is already your life.
Yes, and as Mel told me (and as Suzuki Roshi told him), you're perfect just as you are, and there's room for improvement. Can't land on either extreme. Meditation is beneficial, but approaching it that way misses the very thing that makes it beneficial. And yes, it was a great slogan. Zen humor.
Thanks. I’m glad you mentioned the difference between living in suffering and living in “enlightenment”. But the quote about the way out of hell is to be completely in hell was really helpful.
When my wife and I were living in a student neighborhood and working as janitors at Oklahoma University, I began hanging around with the kids on the street. One of them ended up becoming our foster son. He’s done really well and 50 years on, he lives close by with his wife and kids. I became a special Ed teacher because I was too ADD to do anything else and kept at it for 40 years. Getting ill from the stress got me to meditation. It was really hard but I wouldn’t change a minute of it for anything in the world.
Thank you! My heart is full and empty at the same time reading this💗
Thank you. So helpful. Feel blessed after reading this.
Thanks Joan! Just what I needed to read today :) Your first book changed my life in so many ways...it is a blessing and a curse (haha). It got me to Springwater in fact:) ... I am coming away with "Burn the extra bridges" (or maybe "Where you put your focus is where life is actually happening?"), and "Now is it". .. I am wondering , DO ALL teachers get cancer? Is that a requirement? A badge of honor? Ok I guess with having had my Dad die of cancer too...it is a sore point. SO what really fuels cancer? underneath everything?....maybe what really fuels Dis-Ease? perhaps non-acceptance? ....I guess I will have something to continue to play with!! However isn't it better to put ones energy into what brings one alive than what pisses one off? SO many questions....to distract. haha... Yes PLEASE respond if can :))
Hi Amanda, good to hear from you. It does seem like lots of spiritual teachers get cancer (Suzuki Roshi, Maurine Stuart, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Mel Weitsman, etc), but then, lots of people get cancer. 😎 While it seems that some of the things that can cause cancer have been identified (smoking, pollution, radiation, too much sun exposure, genetic markers, etc), in the end, it's a mystery why one person gets sick and another doesn't. A smoker who eats junk food and never exercises lives to be 100, while a vegan who does yoga, works out, meditates, etc. dies at 50. And while there is definitely a mind-body connection (they're not really two separate things), I've never liked the popular impulse to blame cancer on psychological-emotional-spiritual conditions. There may be some truth to it in some cases, but basically, I find it serves mostly to blame or shame people for having an illness. And there's the common error of mistaking correlation for causation. Diseases and dis-ease are part of organic life. We may cure one, but another will pop up. Good wishes...🙏
I have the strong feeling that the two kinds of cancer I’ve had (one I kind of still have)…..happened after I wrote books. It was very stressful… think my immune system was super challenged. Then again, I could be full of shit. 😂
Well, we're all definitely full of shit. 😎 And again, I'd say, beware of mistaking correlation for causation. There does seem to be a link between stress and illness, but then, Ramana Maharshi died of cancer, and he seemed like the epitome of being relaxed and un-stressed (although who really knows).
Yes ma’am. I must say, though, that it’s stopped me from writing another book.
Correlation and causation...interesting isn't it? In the moment that we're having that internal debate, of course, it's academic, irrelevant - the resulting situation has already arisen and it's too late to change the "causative" conditions anyway. I now see stuff as co-incidence...arising together. Like Cher, we can't turn back time...😂🈚️🫶
Awesome.
Joan, this is just beautiful. I will be sitting with this for some time, as my first read whispered to me, “That’s what I’ve been struggling with.”
I had been thinking I would reach out for a one on one when you were ready; but this will be deeply reflected on as I think the answer to my question lies within.
Everything you have posted, and all of your books, have given me such a quiet, beautiful connection to what is, right here and right now. This particular sharing seems to have struck another beautiful chord.
Thank you and well wishes 🙏❤️
🙏❤️
Thankyou for the heads up on Jiryu Rutschman-Byler's mother's day talk. It was delightful. A gem indeed.🌹
“Accomplishing nothing since 1967” may secretly be one of the healthiest spiritual slogans ever written.
Modern spirituality keeps getting hijacked by optimization culture. People turn meditation into emotional CrossFit for becoming a more efficient ego. Meanwhile these old Zen teachers keep pointing back to the scandalously simple thing nobody wants to hear: this moment is already your life.
Yes, and as Mel told me (and as Suzuki Roshi told him), you're perfect just as you are, and there's room for improvement. Can't land on either extreme. Meditation is beneficial, but approaching it that way misses the very thing that makes it beneficial. And yes, it was a great slogan. Zen humor.
Thanks. I’m glad you mentioned the difference between living in suffering and living in “enlightenment”. But the quote about the way out of hell is to be completely in hell was really helpful.
I love all your writings Joan and this is my new favourite till the next I am sure 😊💛💛💛
Thank you Joan. I feel the presence of this moment.
When my wife and I were living in a student neighborhood and working as janitors at Oklahoma University, I began hanging around with the kids on the street. One of them ended up becoming our foster son. He’s done really well and 50 years on, he lives close by with his wife and kids. I became a special Ed teacher because I was too ADD to do anything else and kept at it for 40 years. Getting ill from the stress got me to meditation. It was really hard but I wouldn’t change a minute of it for anything in the world.