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.
Going Forth From Home: Buddhism is Rebellion
By Daniel Scharpenburg Walking the Buddhist path is an act of rebellion. I think people sometimes lose sight of that. In the Buddha’s time there was a really rigid system where people weren’t allowed to move up in life. If your dad was a...
Not Happy? Change What You’re Doing
By Daniel Scharpenburg My kids fight with each other. They’re three years apart and they’ve had quite a struggle over the last few years. I hear a lot of, “He’s being annoying!” and “She’s yelling at me!” and “I want him to stop...
Recognizing Buddha Nature
By Daniel Scharpenburg "I glean what the harvesters have overlooked or rejected. So why are their baskets empty while mine is bursting with so much good food? They just didn’t recognize their Buddha Nature when they saw it. Everything in life...
Raw: My Journey from Anxiety to Joy {Book Review}
By Kathleen Willis Amid a lovely recollected scene in which a healer that Mahaya Carter has gone to see tenderly turned her in each direction to pray and gather blessings, she quotes the Indian poet Tagore, “For years I have been stringing and...
This is the Reason Why I am a Reluctant Monk
By Daniel Scharpenburg My first blog was called Reluctant Monk. I named it that because religious authority makes me nervous. Well, I guess authority in general makes me nervous, but especially religious authority. I was a Zen Monk back...
Light My Fire: How to Make the World a Better Place
By Daniel Scharpenburg “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -the Buddha I've been thinking a lot about...
There’s Only One Point & That is Compassion {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg There's only one point. The point is to have an open heart. The point is to stop being so self obsessed. It's about being real with ourselves and others, and developing compassion. We can use this slogan...
Why Zen?
By Daniel Scharpenburg Siddhartha sat under a tree for a long time trying to understand how to be free of suffering and how to help others. After his long journey this is what he set out to do. He asked questions like who am I?...
Practice for Death and Life {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg We want to be able to face our pain and the pain of others. If we ignore pain, it's difficult to manifest compassion. We can't transform our difficulties and challenges into the path if we aren't facing our...
Practicing the 5 Strengths {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Practicing the five strengths is about taking our practice seriously. Plenty of people think that spiritual practice is a good idea and that living in a more awakened way would be nice, but they also think they...
What You Meet is The Path: The Good, the Bad & Everything Else {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Whatever we find in life, whether it's good, bad, or somewhere in between, can be part of our spiritual path. Our path is our life and we're always on it, even when we think we're not. Sometimes things go bad and...
4 Practices That Help Us on the Path {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg This is a list of four seemingly simple things we can do that are great, that will be really helpful to us on the path. Do Good Be nice. Say hello to people. Ask how you can help them. Hold open doors. Say...
See Confusion As Enlightenment {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg This means we have to turn our minds, to adjust our understanding of our ordinary confused way of seeing the world. We want to change our relationship to our confusion, suffering, fears, etc. Rather than trying to...
Be Grateful to Everyone {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Be grateful to everyone. It sounds simple and profound. Just be grateful. We have a lot to be grateful for. Consider everything in your life. You didn't grow the food you're eating. You didn't build the building you're in, or...
Drive All Blames into One {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Drive all blames into one. The one we're talking about here is ourselves. We want to stop blaming everyone around us for our problems. It's an easy thing to do---to blame others for everything that happens. As a dad I see a...