Daniel Scharpenburg
Daniel Scharpenburg lives in Kansas City. He’s a Zen Priest and Teacher in the Dharma Winds Zen Tradition. He regularly teaches at the Open Heart Project and he leads public meditations.
He believes the path is really about opening ourselves up and becoming more genuine and real. He has been called “a great everyman teacher” and “really down to earth.” He believes in meeting people where they are and sharing teachings as widely as he can.
His writing has appeared in Lion’s Roar, The Secular Buddhist, Patheos, and Elephant Journal.
He has given public teachings at the Rime Buddhist Center and at the Heartland Pagan Festival.
Review of The Power of Mind: A Tibetan Monk’s Guide to Finding Freedom in Every Challenge {Book Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg The weekend of August 12th-14th 2022 Khentrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche visited Kansas City. He led a weekend retreat for the Rime Buddhist Center. It was the first in person weekend retreat the Rime Center had in a long time. I wasn’t able to...
The Path to Peace: A Buddhist Guide to Cultivating Loving Kindness by Ayya Khema {Book Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg The Metta Sutta is one of my favorite old texts. It’s less than two pages but encapsulates so much of what is important in our efforts to be wholehearted beings. I’ve been looking for books on the Metta Sutta and this one came to me. The...
That is Not Your Mind! Zen Reflections on the Surangama Sutra {Book Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg “Nothing is hidden, but there is an infinite field we cannot see.” Many modern Buddhist authors have written books where they explore ancient texts like the Surangama Sutra. It’s a hard thing to do. A person has to figure out how...
The Path of Aliveness {Book Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg I had never heard of Christian Dillo when I received his new book, The Path of Aliveness, so I came into this with no expectations and no ideas about him. He lives and teaches at the Boulder Zen Center and he’s a former student of...
On the Passing of Thich Nhat Hanh
By Daniel Scharpenburg "It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community-a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be...
What If Human Life Is Good?
By Daniel Scharpenburg We are lucky to be here. I just want to say that. It can be so hard to have a positive view of human life, the world, our place in it, etc etc. When things are hard, we struggle. And things are always hard. The older we get, the more we...
Review of Zen is Right Now
by Daniel Scharpenburg A student asked what kind of practices Suzuki could advise us to do in order to keep ourselves pure. He said, “Zazen practice. There is no secret.” I didn’t know what to expect when this book came in the mail: Zen is Right Now by...
Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening by Guo Gu {Book Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg I was very excited to get this book. Guo Gu is one of my favorite living Dharma teachers. His teacher, Master Sheng Yen, wrote a book that I like a lot called, The Method of No Method. That has been one of my main guides to practice for a...
The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans {Book Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg “Yesterday was unsettled. Today is settled. We’re all going, kicking and screaming or not. Might as well care for each thing as we go.” -Dosho Port I was excited to review this book---The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic...
How Vipassana Spread to the West: S.N. Goenka Emissary of Insight {Book review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Before I read this book I didn't know much about S.N. Goenka. I knew he was a teacher from Burma who spread Vipassana Meditation to the west, and I knew about the Ten Day Vipassana Retreats that he created. As far as I know, those...
The Essence of Chan {Review}
By Daniel Scharpenburg “Legend has it that more than a thousand years ago an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma arrived in China. His approach to teaching was unlike that of any of the Buddhist missionaries who had come to China before him. He...
Why Don’t We Just Call It Meditation Buddhism?
By Daniel Scharpenburg The question I want to ask is “Why don’t we just call it Meditation Buddhism?” Or even, “Why don’t we just call it the way of meditation?” We could go that far. Although the title of this article is a question, I don’t really have an...
The 3 Main Reasons Why We Don’t Meditate (even though we know we should)
By Daniel Scharpenburg I have this friend who said, “I really want to come to your event, but I’m terrible at meditating, so I’m not going to come.” I want to talk about how hard it is to meditate, because it is very hard. I don’t do it...
My One Weird Experience with Police & Why Black Lives Matter is Necessary
By Daniel Scharpenburg Back when I was in college someone once called the police on me for no reason. I was going for a walk in my own neighborhood and someone thought I looked like trouble and they called the police. Presumably they...
Taking Refuge: The Buddha’s Teaching on How to Get Through a Plague
By Daniel Scharpenburg As I'm writing this a lot of the world is in a sort of lockdown because of Covid 19. It has claimed a lot of lives and there's a lot of uncertainty regarding when the world will open up again. And it's...