One River Zen

02/18/2026

SPEND ALL OF YOUR JOY TODAY

Many of us spend our whole lives learning and internalizing the basic accounting principles of the small self. We believe that if we give too much away, eventually we’ll become depleted. If we’re too generous, we’ll have nothing left. So there’s a way we begin to hoard. We hoard experiences. We hoard memories. We hoard our valued and cherished opinions about ourselves. And somehow, no matter how much we store up, the bank never seems to fill.

So today, I want you to experiment a little with what I would call Dharma accounting.
Look deeply within yourself and find the joy you have locked up there. You have memories, past events, things that bring you a real sense of joy and abundance. Take them, and give them away today.

When you encounter gaps, when you see difference, when you notice someone or something not experiencing joy, give yours. Make sure that joy circulates. Make sure it spreads.

And then at the end of the day, take a good, honest look at what’s left.
This is an important lesson, but it’s not something to think through. It’s something to experience directly.

So get to spending that joy today, and see where your account balance stands at the end of the day.

Have a wonderful morning!

oneriverzen

02/17/2026

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

One of the most dangerous things on the spiritual path is blaming causes and conditions — or blaming other people — for our inability to practice. For our inability to function freely in our own lives.

We have to mind our own business.

The distinction between inside and outside is constructed. There isn’t something “out there” stopping you, and there isn’t something “in here” that’s broken. Everything you encounter is a reflection of your true nature. Which means it’s always about cultivating wisdom and practicing skillfully — working with causes and conditions to manifest compassion and bring suffering to an end.

But the second you say, I can’t because of this — or I can’t because of them — you step down off the throne of your original nature and collapse into the idyll of the small self.
That’s the move.

So today, look carefully at what you’ve labeled impossible.
What you take for granted.
What you’ve decided you’re stuck in because of something outside yourself.

Take it in.
Practice with it.
Transform it.

Have a wonderful morning!

02/13/2026

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE

When I was a little boy, if I did something that didn’t align with my mom’s idea of how I should behave, she would say, “Who do you think you are?”

Over time, many of us receive that same message in different forms. When we push against expectations — even our own — we begin to retreat. We start to carry a subtle sense of insufficiency. A feeling that we are somehow lacking.

But today, I want you to revisit that question:
Who do you think you are?

Because you have real power.
You have the power to uplift or to push down.
To bring happiness, confidence, and joy — or to bring despair.

The world is waiting for you to show up and affirm that it is enough. That the circumstances of this life, exactly as they are, can be worked with skillfully. That suffering can be transformed into wisdom. That difficulty can give way to joy.

But that takes knowing who you are.

It takes recognizing that you are capable of being the medicine that is needed.

So today, stand firmly in that.
Who do you think you are?

Have a wonderful morning.

confidence wisdom transformations practiceinlife oneriverzen

02/12/2026

EXHAUST THE MIND ROAD

We often talk about practicing not knowing and maintaining wonder in Zen practice. We hear this, and it can go in one ear. Maybe we can even see the objective truth in it when we reason it out. But it’s difficult for us to actually let go and practice that way.

We still revert to some sense of knowing, some way of trying to appreciate the world through our rational mind. The issue is that when we do this, we fail to actually be moved by what is present. So it’s still important that you go ahead and reason it through — reason it through until you recognize that that mind road is going nowhere, and that reason isn’t going to make you intimate with your lived experience.

Once you get to that point, and you can open your heart and allow yourself to be moved by what’s at hand, you stop thinking things through with your head and start actually making your way in this world with your hands — transforming the circumstances as you experience them, particularly the experience of suffering, through wisdom and compassion, into joy.

But the first step is that you have to exhaust the mind road. Lather, rinse, repeat — over and over again — until you’re cured of the notion that reason is the most intimate way of being.

02/11/2026

If you’ve been meaning to start…
this is your sign!

Meditation tonight at One River Zen:
📍 South Campus — 121 E. Prospect Ave, Ottawa, IL – 6 PM


You don’t need experience.
You don’t need to be calm.
You don’t need to know anything.

Just come through the door.
We’ll guide you.

02/11/2026

PUT IT DOWN

One of the definitive signs of our modern neurosis — this attempt to forge an identity out of thin air — is tension.

We say we carry it in our shoulders.
We say it lives in our back.
And yes, after a long day, there is stress. It’s hard to relax. Hard to breathe and put the weight down.

But if you sit honestly and open to your direct experience, you might notice something else in a spiritual sense:

The tension is in your hands.

There is a lot of grasping there. A lot of holding on. Trying to keep what’s “yours.” Trying not to lose yourself in a fast-paced world where identity feels fragile and everything seems to clash.

So today, practice something simple:
Breathe into your hands.

Open them.
Release your grip.
Put it down.
Just for a moment.

Notice what happens when your hands are free. They are free to interact. Free to meet what appears. Free to participate in the dance of life — the intermingling of everything you encounter with the creative energy you bring to it.
But that can’t happen while you’re clinging.

As long as you hold on for dear life to what you think you want, what you think you need, nourishment never arrives. Life only exists in interaction.

So before you begin your day, let go — even briefly — and see what unfolds when you engage freely.

Have a wonderful morning.

nonself mindfulness somaticpractice presence compassion identity practiceinlife oneriverzen

02/10/2026

WHAT CURRENT ARE YOU RIDING?

Each of us wakes up today already floating on the current of life. The question isn’t whether we’re moving — it’s which current is carrying us.

Most of the time, it’s a karmic current: the momentum of our thoughts, expectations, and assumptions about who we think we are. That stream pulls us along quietly, steering us this way and that before we even notice.

Practice begins by judging the current. By seeing clearly where it’s taking us. When we do that, we can become skillful oarsmen — using those same thoughts and assumptions consciously, steering the raft toward the actual current of lived experience.
That current is always right here.

Right now.
This very moment.

There is momentum here too. Causes and conditions are constantly presenting themselves as opportunities to respond, to manifest compassion, to turn circumstances, to lessen suffering. But first, we have to notice what weight we’re being carried by.
So before you step out the front door this morning, take a close look at the direction your raft is moving.

mindfulness karmicmomentum rightnow presentmoment compassion practiceinlife oneriverzen

02/09/2026

JUST DIE ALREADY

As we sit here on the dawn of a beautiful new week, take a moment to reflect on the power you already have at your command:

The power to give life to what feels dead.
The power to offer happiness and compassion.
And, just as importantly, the power to withhold them.

This week, you will be met with countless opportunities to respond to questions of scarcity, love, and connection. But you will only see those opportunities if you are truly aware. As long as you are caught in the economy of propping up this small self—this story of who you think you are, or how you think things should be—you will miss them.

That is why I often start meditation periods during retreat with: you should just die already!

Let that story go so you can really live.

You will never accumulate enough or exchange enough to make that version of yourself feel substantial. But when you drop it—when you stop trying to secure it—you discover something else. As you respond directly to the suffering you encounter around you, your true nature appears. And it appears as compassion.

So don’t waste time circling the problem.
Cut to the chase.
Die already. Die to that story so you can live.

And make a difference where you are!

nonself letgo compassion mindfulness awakening ordinarymind practiceinlife oneriverzen

01/25/2026

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01/24/2026

Congratulations and deep bows for Rev. LaRose as she begins her life of service…

Sensei Michael Brunner with newly ordained Zen priest Rev. Kōsei Urasaki LaRose at One River Zen in Ottawa, Illinois. Rev. Jennifer Dressler of Open Table Church offers the Vow of Interfaith Cooperation to Rev. Kosei LaRose during a Zen ordination ceremony at One River Zen in Ottawa, Illinois. One ...

01/19/2026

LOVE IS THE ONLY FORCE CAPABLE OF TRANSFORMING AN ENEMY INTO A FRIEND

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” Not rhetoric. Not political affiliation. Not even protest. Love.

As we sit, thoughts begin to drop away, and we resonate with a universal frequency—love itself. That is compassion. It belongs to all of us, without distinction, when we step outside the small self.

Today, notice the enemies you have jailed in the cells of your own mind, and release them. Watch how the transformation happens right where you are.

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01/17/2026

SHUKKE TOKUDO: NEW PRIEST ORDINATION

Today, at One River Zen, we rejoice in the ordination of our newest Zen Buddhist Priest, Rev. Kōsei Urasaki LaRose.

Ordination is not a culmination, but a vow — a public turning of one’s life toward practice, service, and responsibility. It is the willingness to be shaped by the precepts, to show up again and again for the sangha, and to embody the Dharma in ordinary life.

We honor Rev. Kōsei for stepping forward with sincerity, steadiness, and courage. May this vow deepen endlessly, for the benefit of all beings!

🙏
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