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Shopping and spending money is a major part of our culture, and few of us are immune to the seductions of consumerism. Big business knows this, and they count on the fact that we are all conditioned to crave what we do not have. It is possible, however, for us to stop living out of our conditioning and realize that nothing is really missing.

How much of your daily life is taken up by fantasy? The reality is that most of us go through our entire day, indeed, our entire lives, caught up in make-believe stories. Although fantasy seems more compelling than everyday tasks like sewing, sweeping, or cooking, it's an incredibly wasteful activity that takes us away from the vivid world of the present moment.

The moment a child is born, a parent is created; you can't have one without the other. Daido Roshi explores the love between parent and child, and the complete intimacy that exists between the two. We see this intimacy in the way children mirror their parents, the way children reflect how we use our body, speech, and mind.

Babe Ruth hit 704 home runs, but no one ever mentions that he struck out about 3,000 times. In our goal-oriented culture, we tend to forget that you can't hit home runs unless you strike out; we think that failure is something bad, and as a result we become afraid to take action.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to study ourselves and understand who we truly are. Dharma talks are an essential aspect of Zen training, and the talks offered here were given at both the Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City.

At the root of all conflict and violence in the world is the way we use our mind to perceive differences. The differences themselves aren't the problem; they make the world interesting. The problem is our deeply ingrained habit of attaching to those differences and investing them with meaning and permanence.

We bring uniqueness to every situation. How can we cultivate intimacy within the sparkling, diamond-like differences among us? How can we live in reality seamlessly, without edges, without smoothing out differences or polishing edges so that they disappear? This is the work of a lifetime - and of this moment.

When we are confronted with worries and challenges, it can be difficult to get in touch with our spiritual center. Barriers are a fact of life, and no matter how challenging our everyday life we all possess an inherent spiritual light.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to study ourselves and understand who we truly are. Dharma talks are an essential aspect of Zen training, and the talks offered here were given at both the Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City.

All societies have laws to prevent physical and verbal violence, but what about the violence we create with our thoughts? Daido Roshi states that our minds are incredibly powerful, and they create a force that shapes the reality around us. We can only bring peace and healing to ourselves and others if we first have peace in our minds. But we can't quiet the mind until we see how much time we spend talking to ourselves, and until we let go of our almost constant inner chatter.

Many of us yearn for a deeper spiritual connection, but few of us know how to manifest spirituality in our daily lives. We buy into conditioning from the media and our schools, and as a result we experience life as limited and painful. Daido Roshi says that this dilemma is like someone sitting by a river and dying of thirst.

Practice requires and cultivates a profound trust in ourselves. Delusion lies in a sense of separation, a sense that something is hidden from us. Yet these feelings are what we call delusion. We need to cast off all our opinions, judgments, arrogance and self-doubt, and stop comparing ourselves with others. In this way, there are no hindrances. We can just be ourselves and trust profoundly in our Buddha nature.

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? It's a preoccupation with something other than where life is happening.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to study ourselves and understand who we truly are. Dharma talks are an essential aspect of Zen training, and the talks offered here were given at both the Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City.

The concept of karma is often misunderstood - and therefore misused - in the West. Karma is not retribution or punishment, it is simply cause and effect. But understanding karma deeply has profound implications for how we lead our lives and affect those around us.

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. Whatever the size of the conflict, it's clear that violence never solves conflict. So how can we end conflict?

Often our minds seem like prisons we can't escape. Even when we are worn out by our stories and repetitious thoughts, we continue to think and act in ways that keep us caged. Holding onto these patterns takes a tremendous amount of energy, and that's why we get worn out. Meditation practice lets the mind come to rest, and allows us to experience our lives with freshness and fluidity.

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. Letting going of knowing is hard because we think that if we don't know where we¿re going, we won't get there.

Buddha taught that all beings have the capacity to gain freedom - and that only each one of us can do this for ourselves. No one will come to save us. Instead, we must trust ourselves, getting in touch with real silence, listening with our whole bodies and minds, and seeking the true dharma’s guidance.