Showing results by author "Mark Westmoquette" in All Categories

In this book, Mark Westmoquette speaks from a place of profound personal experience. A Zen monk, he has endured two life-changing traumas caused by other people: his sexual abuse by his own father, and his stepfather’s death and mother’s very serious injury in a car crash due to the careless driving of an off-duty policeman. He stresses that by bringing awareness and kindness to these relationships, our initial stance of “I can’t stand this person, they need to change” will naturally shift into something much broader and more inclusive.

This is the podcast about how to turn difficult people and relationships into your best teachers. In each episode we'll be exploring different varieties of people, relationships and situations that we find irritating, difficult or painful. Together with a number of Zen friends, I'll be discussing how the practices of Buddhism and mindfulness can help us see our difficult people – in arenas as diverse as fellow commuters, the workplace, neighbours and family – as troublesome buddhas, our greatest teachers.