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The Stone Mind Zen Story
The Stone Mind is a Zen story that points to steadiness, resilience, and presence that is not hardened or defended. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts attempt to become rigid or unfeeling for protection, while Self embodies a grounded stillness that is firm yet responsive, strong without becoming closed.
2 min read
Nan in and the Scholar Zen Story
Nan-in and the Scholar is a Zen story that reveals how certainty and intellectual pride block learning and insight. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story shows how parts cling to knowledge for safety and identity, while Self invites openness, emptiness, and the willingness to not already know.
2 min read
The Wooden Buddha Zen Story
The Wooden Buddha is a Zen story that challenges attachment to form, symbol, and appearance. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts cling to external representations for safety or meaning, while Self recognizes presence and warmth as living qualities that cannot be contained in objects, images, or ideas.
2 min read
A Buddha Before Buddha Zen Story
A Buddha Before Buddha is a Zen story that points to awakening before concept, lineage, or spiritual identity. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts search for authority, recognition, or precedent, while Self recognizes presence and clarity that exist prior to names, teachings, or formal realization.
2 min read
Bashos What Is Zen
Bashō’s What Is Zen is a Zen story that points beyond definitions, explanations, and conceptual answers. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts seek certainty by naming and defining, while Self recognizes Zen as a lived immediacy that cannot be captured by words or ideas.
2 min read
Bodhidharma and the Emperor Zen Story
Bodhidharma and the Emperor is a Zen story that confronts spiritual ambition, merit-seeking, and the need for recognition. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts chase approval, achievement, and validation, while Self stands free of reward, meeting truth directly without performance or identity-building.
2 min read
The Flag in the Wind Zen Story
The Flag in the Wind is a Zen story that exposes how perception is shaped by the moving mind rather than external reality. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts argue over interpretation and meaning, while Self recognizes the awareness that witnesses all movement without being carried by it.
2 min read
Three Pounds of Flax Zen Story
Three Pounds of Flax is a Zen story that cuts through abstraction, symbolism, and spiritual interpretation. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts search for hidden meaning and elevated answers, while Self points directly to what is immediate, ordinary, and present without conceptual overlay.
2 min read
Obakus Not Mind Not Buddha Zen Story
Obaku’s Not Mind, Not Buddha is a Zen story that dismantles attachment to concepts, teachings, and spiritual identities. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts cling to ideas of mind, enlightenment, or Buddha for certainty, while Self invites a direct presence beyond all labels, doctrines, and positions.
2 min read
Hyakujos Fox Zen Story
Hyakujo’s Fox is a Zen story that explores cause and effect, responsibility, and freedom beyond rigid belief. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts become trapped by fixed views and fear of consequence, while Self recognizes accountability without attachment, allowing liberation from rigid identity and karmic entanglement.
3 min read
Wash Your Bowl Zen Story
Wash Your Bowl is a Zen story that points to awakening in the ordinary, immediate act already in front of you. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts search for special practices or future insight, while Self recognizes presence and clarity in the simple, unresisted moment exactly as it is.
2 min read
Joshu’s Mu Zen Story
Joshu’s Mu is a Zen story that cuts through the mind’s compulsive need for yes, no, and conceptual resolution. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts seek certainty through answers, while Self invites a deeper encounter that dissolves the questioner rather than satisfying the question.
2 min read
Gudo and the Emperor Zen Story
Gudo and the Emperor is a Zen story that reveals humility, equality, and truth beyond status or power. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story shows how parts become intimidated by authority or inflated by rank, while Self meets every being from the same grounded presence, unmoved by hierarchy or fear.
2 min read
Shoichi’s Enlightenment Zen Story
Shoichi’s Enlightenment is a Zen story that reveals how awakening often arises through humility, sincerity, and unexpected grace rather than mastery or spiritual ambition. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story shows how parts striving for attainment can soften, allowing Self-led openness and receptivity to invite insight without force.
2 min read
The Tea-Master Duel Zen Story
The Tea-Master Duel is a Zen story that reveals composure, presence, and clarity in the face of perceived threat. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story shows how parts prepare for danger through fear and anticipation, while Self remains grounded, responsive, and unshaken by imagined outcomes.
2 min read
The Philosopher and the Boatman Zen Story
The Philosopher and the Boatman is a Zen story that exposes the limits of intellect and the quiet wisdom of lived experience. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts rely on knowledge and theory for safety and status, while Self recognizes wisdom that arises through presence, humility, and direct engagement with life.
2 min read
The Big Mistake Zen Story
The Big Mistake is a Zen story that reveals how the mind turns missteps into identity and failure into fixation. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story shows how parts cling to error through shame or self-blame, while Self recognizes mistakes as movements within experience rather than truths about who we are.
2 min read
Zen In A Beggars Life Zen Story
Zen in a Beggar’s Life is a Zen story that reveals awakening outside status, comfort, or spiritual appearance. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story shows how parts associate worth with roles, success, or possession, while Self recognizes clarity and presence as available in any life circumstance, without needing conditions to be different.
2 min read
In Dreamland Zen Story
In Dreamland is a Zen story that questions the boundary between reality, perception, and illusion. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts become attached to stories about what is real or meaningful, while Self recognizes experience as fluid, allowing awareness to remain present without clinging to certainty.
2 min read
Killing Zen Story
Killing is a Zen story that confronts the mind’s fixation on literal meaning and moral shock. Through an Internal Family Systems lens, this story reveals how parts react strongly to words and concepts, while Self perceives beyond surface interpretation, meeting the deeper teaching without collapse, fear, or moral panic.
2 min read
Motivational Interviewing (MI) Course
A free IFS Academy course on Motivational Interviewing (MI) for beginners, taught in plain language as the real method of Miller and Rollnick. Covers what MI is, the spirit of MI (PACE), the core skills (OARS), the four processes, change talk and sustain talk, evoking, and planning, across twelve short lessons. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.
Module 12 — MI as a Way of Being | Motivational Interviewing Course
A free IFS Academy course on the closing idea of Motivational Interviewing: MI as a way of being rather than a toolkit. Covers how every MI skill expresses one underlying stance, why the spirit is what people actually feel, how to recognize good MI from the receiving end, turning MI inward toward your own ambivalence, and using MI in everyday conversations with family, friends, and colleagues. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.
Module 10 — Sharing Information and Advice the MI Way | Motivational Interviewing Course
A free IFS Academy course on sharing information and advice the MI way, using Elicit-Provide-Elicit. Answers whether you can give advice in Motivational Interviewing, and covers asking permission first, the elicit-provide-elicit method, offering options instead of directives, and the chunk-check-chunk rhythm for longer information. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.
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