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.
Transform Mishaps into the Path {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Obviously it's normal to want to avoid difficulty whenever we can. The problem is that we can't avoid all of the challenges life will throw at us. In fact, a lot of the time pretending that we can avoid the...
Shantideva on Mindfulness {The Eightfold Path}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Shantideva was a monk and scholar in the Mahayana tradition who lived at a popular monastery called Nalanda, in India in the 8th century. He wrote a text called Way of the Bodhisattva that is still revered by...
Just Being Here: How Mindfulness is Helpful {Eightfold Path}
By Daniel Scharpenburg “Mindfulness is helpful everywhere” ~ the Buddha When we say mindfulness, we’re really just talking about being here, experiencing this moment, rather than being somewhere else mentally. It’s a mind that...
Those Who Do Not Pick and Choose {The Eightfold Path}
By Daniel Scharpenburg "The great way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose." That's how the classic Zen text Faith in Mind begins. I think it's a statement on Right View. It has increasingly become one of my...
In All Activites: Practice, It is All Sacred {Lojong Teaching}
I’m not just being a Buddhist when I’m in a temple, sitting, writing, teaching, volunteering at a local charity…it would be easy to say those are the times when I’m being a Buddhist but that’s not what we’re talking about.
Objects and Poisons are Seeds of Virtue {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg This is part of the Lojong teachings. I think it's a little more confusing than some of the previous slogans, so I'll make sure I try really hard to unpack it well. Objects refers to people. I know that's...
The Practice of Tonglen: Sending & Receiving with the Breath {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg The first time I heard about tonglen practice I thought it sounded really weird. I don't connect with visualization type practices very well a lot of the time, so when I read that this was (sort of) a visualization...
After Meditation, Be a Child of Illusion {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg One key idea is implicit in this slogan. We aren't just practicing when we're on the cushion---we're practicing all the time. Our practice isn't about going to a temple or going on a retreat for a while and then...
Rest in the Openness of Your Mind {Lojong teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg The idea of resting in openness is just being here. It's what Ram Dass described in "Be Here Now" and what Rob Bell described in "How to Be Here". It's what the Buddha was talking about when he said, “Do not dwell...
Don’t Get Stuck on Peace {Lojong Training}
By Daniel Scharpenburg Sometimes our spiritual practice can make us feel removed, separate from the rest of the world. That's not the Bodhisattva way. The Bodhisattva way is to be in the world, open and vulnerable; awake in the world, not separate from it. This is...
Examine the Nature of Awareness {Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg The last Lojong teaching we discussed was: “Train in the Preliminaries.” This leads us to the next teaching, "Examine the Nature of Awareness." That seems really profound, doesn't it? The implication in this statement is that awareness is what...
See Everything as a Dream {Lojong Training}
By Daniel Scharpenburg This is from the mind training teachings called Lojong. See Everything As A Dream This is the Lojong teaching that comes from the section on Bodhicitta, or the mind of awakening and compassion. Slogans 2-10 are considered part of...
Resolving to Begin: The Preliminaries {The First Lojong Teaching}
By Daniel Scharpenburg This is the first part in a series on the mind training teachings called lojong. "Train in the Preliminaries." The lojong teachings begin with this simple line. I read about meditation practice for a long time before I actually tried it....
Lojong: Training the Heart and Mind
By Daniel Scharpenburg Almost two years ago I was given the title "Gegan" (teacher) and trained to teach lojong practice at the Rime Center. I spent a lot of time preparing, studying and learning. It was all very exciting, and I appreciate all opportunities to...
Showing Kindness Even When You Don’t Agree (& Don’t Feel Like Being Kind)
By Daniel Scharpenburg I want to talk about a thing that happens a lot in life. We see people and we don't meet them with kindness, with an open heart. We sometimes reserve our Bodhisattva intention. But that's not what we're supposed to be doing, and we come...