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Welcome to the Infinite Smile Blog. We’ve set up shop at Substack.

Dialogs With My Teacher #71

May 3, 2011  Student: What is jealousy? Michael: It’s a brutal celebration of separation. Student: Nice. Michael: Is that all you wanted to talk about? Student: No. I’m dealing with something pretty brutal and yet, at the same time, interesting... and it ties into...

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Double the Power of Your Generosity

Your Gift Will Be Matched December 2012 Dear Friends, We have exciting news! One of our members has generously offered to match any donation up to five-thousand dollars made between now and December 31st. This means that your power as a donor has just been doubled....

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Breaking Through the Dharma Wall

Ben Hutchison's piece for The Under 35 Project is a great reminder of how our path unfolds when we are no longer caught by the path itself. In practicing Buddhism, in whatever form or lineage you choose, there is going to be loss and disappointment. As Dogen writes in...

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Dialogs With My Teacher #70

Here's another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning the Summer of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching. ___ April 27, 2011  Student: Since our last talk, it’s like everything,...

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A New Bodhisattva Path?

How might a Buddhist most effectively respond to the many pressing (often scary) issues facing humanity today? It's not very bodhisattva-like, for example, to merely cloak oneself in "non-attachment" when an "appropriate response" is to be helpful to all beings. So...

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Getting Back to the Great Matter

Barbara O'Brien offers us an interesting take on how contemporary Buddhism runs the risk of getting watered-down. In Zen monasteries, a flat board is hung near the meditation hall, next to a mallet. This is the "han."  Striking the han with the mallet calls everyone...

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Dialogs With My Teacher #69

Here's another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning the Summer of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching. ___ Apr. 19, 2011 Student: So the last few days have been amazing and...

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Christianity Enriched by Buddhism

Susan Stabile offers us an interesting read over at the HuffingtonPost: ... Buddhism has helped me understand in a richer way some of the truths of Christianity. Although expressed in different terms, many of the truths of Buddhism have resonance in Christianity...

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Dialogs With My Teacher #68

  Here's another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning the Summer of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching.   ___ Apr. 1, 2011 Student: Where is freedom in commitment?...

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We Need Your Help…

Two Simple Words...   November 2012 Dear Friends, It was important to us that this email not to get lost in the shuffle since we, as a community, wanted for you to hear two simple words: Thank you. For over a decade, the Infinite Smile Sangha has been able to...

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