Teacher

Norman Fischer



Norman Fischer is an American poet and Soto Zen Buddhist priest who has been practicing for more than three decades. He is the founder of the Everyday Zen Foundation and a longtime leader and teacher at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Norman Fischer
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Coming Home to the Body

The practice of meditation is a journey of return to who we really are, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer. We come home to the body—so vulnerable, ever-changing, magnificent—because it is “the soil in which understanding grows.” It is the vehicle of enlightenment.

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Norman Fischer
2008
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02:44

Norman Fischer: Expanding Your Life—Awakening Joy

"This life that we think we're living is a failure of the imagination. It's too small for us. It's not who we are." Compassion requires a movement outside and away from our usual preoccupation with our self.

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Norman Fischer
2016
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Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up

This engaging contemplation of maturity addresses the long neglected topic of what it means to grow up, and provides a hands–on guide for skilfully navigating the demands of our adult lives.

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Norman Fischer
2004
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The Perfection of Patience

The perfection of patience is kshanti paramita in Sanskrit. Kshanti can be translated as “patience,” “forbearance,” or “tolerance,” but these words don’t capture the fullness of what kshanti connotes because they all imply a kind of quietism or passivity.

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Norman Fischer
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Impermanence Is Buddha Nature

Change isn’t just a fact of life we have to accept and work with, says Norman Fischer. To feel the pain of impermanence and loss can be a profoundly beautiful reminder of what it means to exist

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Norman Fischer
2019
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Making Friends on the Buddhist Path

Because we are fundamentally alone when we meditate, it’s easy to think of Buddhism as a solitary path. That’s a mistake, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer. He extols the beauty and benefit of spiritual friendship.

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Norman Fischer
2017
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Nothing to Give, No One to Receive It

Norman Fischer on why giving is the Buddha way.

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Norman Fischer
2014
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43:24

Sailing Home | Norman Fischer | Talks at Google

In Sailing Home, renowned Zen teacher Norman Fischer deftly incorporates Buddhist, Judaic, Christian, and popular thought, as well as his own unique and sympathetic understanding of life, in his reinterpretation of Odysseus's familiar wanderings as lessons that everyone can use.

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Norman Fischer
2008
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Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care

This book isn’t about dying. It’s about life and what life has to teach us. It’s about caring and what giving care really means.

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Koshin Palley Ellison, Matt Weingast
2016
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When You Greet Me, I Bow

When a couple sees their relationship as practice, their love is grounded in a deeper knowing of one another. Even if there are tough times, says Norman Fischer, practice brings them back to appreciation and affection.

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Norman Fischer
2016
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Photo Credit: Public Domain