Shows
Tea and Zen - ThreadsLOVE IS THE ONLY TRUE POWER“Love is the only true power.
Everything else — control, dominance, force — is illusion by comparison. What is so often called power in this world is simply fear wearing a mask.
Fear grasping, defending, posturing. But love has no need to grasp. It does not defend or demand. It simply radiates — whole, free, and undeniable.
Return to it. Let it lead. There is no greater strength.”
If what you’ve read, heard, or felt in this space has opened your heart, brought you comfort, or reminded you of what is sacred —please consider makin...
2025-07-2300 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsNO LONGER THE SEEKER“There is a moment when the search falls away—not in defeat, but in stillness.
No longer reaching, you become the quiet. No longer the seeker, you are the presence that has always been here.”
There comes a moment—quiet, unnoticed by the world—when the seeking begins to fall away. Not because it failed, but because it brought you to the one place it could never touch:
Home.
For so long, the search was sacred. It gave shape to the longing. It kept the heart alive in dark seasons. Seeking truth, see...
2025-07-2303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsBLESSING AND CONTEMPLATIONThe same love that pulses through the stars pulses through each of us. Every thought, every breath, every act of tenderness or neglect contributes to the great balance of light and dark in our world. We are threads in a living tapestry — what we embody, we transmit.
May the light of a thousand candles guide your path. May their warm, gentle glow illuminate your way, bringing comfort and clarity through the darkest of times. Let their radiant presence remind you that you are surrounded by love, hope, and support, and may they lead you safely and peacefully to...
2025-07-2100 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsGUIDED FORGIVENESS MEDITATIONOne of the first thresholds on the path of liberation is the deepening of forgiveness.
It is a quiet expansion into the inner landscape of loving kindness — not as sentiment, but as practice. Forgiveness softens the road beneath our feet, making it walkable again.
It releases us from the hardened grip of resentments born from colliding desires — within relationships, yes, but also within the conflicted terrain of the self.
It is the great unwinding, the gentle resolution of opposites. As Stephen Levine wrote, it is the beginning of freedom.
Nigel Lott teaa...
2025-07-1415 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsFORGIVENESSIn the end, as in the beginning, there is only One of us.
One Love — at the heart of all things — that frees us the moment we surrender to it.
May you find your way there now.
– Nigel Lott
We never put another being out of our hearts without, in equal measure, putting ourselves out of our own. As long as we hold resentment — a posture of non-forgiveness — we are denying ourselves the very Love and peace we long for.
We are, quite simply, hurting ourselves.
That ang...
2025-07-1303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsETHOS I have walked through fire more than once. Through grief, addiction, illness, and the long unraveling of old identities. I have lived the truth that healing is not a destination, but a devotion — a returning, again and again, to what is real, to what is tender, to what is whole underneath the fractures.
For so many decades my life has been shaped by a vow — not in words, but in presence. A vow to sit with suffering. To bear witness. To not turn away, in the lonely hours of my own unraveling, even then I have chosen to s...
2025-07-1105 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Inner TribeThere are those of us who have never quite fit. Not for lack of trying. Not because we were aloof, or too sensitive, or too proud. But because we were listening to something deeper.
Something beneath the noise of culture, the cadence of norms. A frequency not everyone hears. Even among our closest companions, we’ve often felt just slightly elsewhere—as if looking out through the same eyes, but seeing a different sky.
We’re the ones who pause at the edge of things. Who cry at the scent of rain. Who see spirals in the...
2025-07-0805 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Psalm from the Cave“We often speak of the dark night of the soul as if it comes once, passes through us, and then gives way to light. But for those on the deeper path, it is not a singular event. It is a rhythm. A return. A sacred unraveling that comes in waves—each one more honest, more demanding, more luminous than the last.
In this reflection, I share what it feels like to stand in one of those deeper nights, where even the old sacreds—books, music, practices—no longer hold. It is not a place of failure, but of becom...
2025-07-0603 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsLove is my FaithLove is my faith. Not belief, but a way of being.
Not a doctrine I defend, but a presence I serve. It is the silence I return to, the pulse beneath every vow I’ve made.
Even when the world forgets itself in fear or fury, I remember: Love is older than all of it. It is the truth I walk by, the light that does not burn out.
And though I may sometimes feel alone, this Love has never once let me go.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
If th...
2025-07-0403 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsOne Breath, One Body, One SourceMay all love help us remember what we have forgotten: that we are responsible to—and for—each other. Not as a burden, but as a sacred inheritance. For in truth, we are cut from the same cloth, woven of the same mysterious breath, born of the same radiant Source. What we do to one, we do to all.
We move together—however slowly, however unevenly— away from the old wounds that once bound us. Away from the inner chambers of exile, where so many of us learned to live, and learned—falsely—that we were alone.
At the...
2025-07-0405 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsSPIRITUAL COMPANIONSHIP I walk alongside those nearing the final steps of this life, offering quiet presence and spiritual companionship, at a local downtown hospital in Seattle to those who have no family or friends, because no one should die alone.
I honor this journey as sacred—trusting the deep wisdom of the soul as it moves toward release. There is no agenda in this work, no need to fix or change what is unfolding.
I come simply to be—a calm, loving presence in the midst of great mystery. At the threshold of life and death, words ofte...
2025-07-0103 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCARRYING GODNo one can keep us from carrying God Wherever we go.
No one can rob His Name From our heart as we try to relinquish our fears And at last stand — Victorious.
We do not have to leave him in the mosque Or church alone at night; We do not have to be jealous of tales of saints Or glorious masts, those intoxicated souls
Who can make outrageous love with the Friend. We do not have to be envious of our spirits’ ability Which can sometimes touch God in a dream.
Our...
2025-06-3005 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Blessing for the Journey WithinMay God be a quiet flame in your heart,
and a clear light in your understanding.
May you be warmed from within,
and see with the eyes of the soul.
May love live you, and all truth move through you,
always, and in all things.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-06-3003 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsMeditation: Once Sacred, Forever Sacred — A Quantum Mystical ReflectionClose your eyes. Breathe in gently… and breathe out even more gently.
Let the breath return you home. And as you settle, listen—not only with your ears, but with the still, infinite field of your being. Whatever is held most sacred in your heart once… is forever held there.
Because in the quantum field, nothing truly disappears. Every intention, every feeling, every sacred knowing collapses into form and lives on in potential. Energy does not vanish—it transforms, and the sacred is the most enduring frequency of all. Once sacred… forever sacred.
One vast...
2025-06-2403 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA PRAYER AND BLESSING - HOPE SPRINGS ETERNALLet this tone of presence—be a hope for enlightenment—let it drift into the quiet of your heart, just beneath the sternum. Don’t try to understand it.
Let it be a meditation. Let the vibration, the breath of it, the feeling of it, move gently through you.
Let it settle into your cells, into the spaces you’ve kept hidden, into the hush beneath your thoughts. Not as something to do… but something to receive.
May You Be At Peace.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
If these words and music...
2025-06-2205 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsWhat Can I Do to Bring Peace?You may ask yourself,
What can I possibly do to bring peace to this troubled world?
The greatest thing—maybe the only lasting thing—is to begin within.
To do the quiet, grace filled work of surrendering and softening, of meeting the darkness that has gathered in you over time. That heaviness—those old wounds, defenses, fears— they’ve simply obscured the deeper truth of who you are.
A being of love. A living thread of the Source itself.
No matter how it appears on the surface, the universe is not bro...
2025-06-2103 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsLOVE’S - GIVEN VISIONVision, as I’ve come to know it, doesn’t begin with the eyes. It comes from elsewhere — from that deep, inward terrain shaped by longing, softened by sorrow, and hollowed by love’s absences.
It’s not something I go looking for anymore. It arrives — unbidden — in the tender ruins. In the aftermath of what has fallen away.
Grief, in its strange mercy, clears the ground. It strips away what’s false and leaves only what’s real. And it’s there, in the silence after the tears, that vision sometimes flickers — not as light, but as presence...
2025-06-1902 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsHOPEI HOPE this inspires.
In the depths of despair, when the weight of the world seems unbearable, the concept of hope can feel distant…..perhaps like a flickering flame in a storm. Yet, from a spiritual perspective, hope is not just a fleeting emotion; it is a vital force that with courage can transcend our circumstances, a divine gift that connects us to a higher purpose.
Hope, in its purest form, is not about wishful thinking or naive optimism. It is rooted in the belief that, despite appearances, there is a greater plan unfolding. In ma...
2025-06-1303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Field Where We MeetThere are words that do not merely speak,
they remember.
“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi
This is not metaphor. This is the soul’s geography. I have stood in that field— not with my body, but with my being. It is the stillness behind all sound, the light behind all appearances. A place untouched by division, where love no longer needs a reason.
“When the soul lies down in that grass,
2025-06-1203 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsWhen the Heart Outgrows What It Once Held Close.There is a kind of grief that doesn’t get spoken of much.
It isn’t always the grief that comes with death, though many of us have known that sorrow too. This is a different kind of parting—a quieter, more interior loss. It happens when we begin to outgrow those we’ve loved. When something within shifts, and the old ways of connecting no longer quite fit.
It’s not something we choose. Often, it unfolds slowly. Over time. Through years of surrender, of silence, of tending to the deeper truth within us. And then o...
2025-06-1103 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsYou Cannot Heal by Harming Another LifeEvery time you harm another life — any life — you harm yourself tenfold.
I’ve shared this truth before, and it bears repeating.
You cannot escape your pain by passing it on to another.
We are all one — all beings, all forms — woven from the same living fabric, born of the same Source: Love.
There is only One of us, in all truth.
Any thought of separation is pure illusion.
You can try to deny this.
You can consciously — or unconsciously — harm another being.
You can contin...
2025-06-0904 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTEA AND ZEN LIBRARYDear Friends,
As many of you know, this path of Tea & Zen — and of my life — has been one of long unfolding.
For many years I have shared reflections, poems, teachings, and spoken offerings — born from the deep river of lived experience: thirty-nine years of sobriety, decades of walking through trauma and healing, and a life surrendered ever more fully to the Great Love that carries us all.
Over time, these offerings have grown — scattered across Substack, podcasts, social media, letters, and my heart’s journals. Now, at this season of my life — at 76 — it h...
2025-06-0902 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThirty-Nine Years Sober: A River of GraceIt seems such a long-ago time now — June of 1986. Another life, another self, another dream. So much water has passed beneath the bridge. A lifetime of tides, eddies, and unseen depths.
Today marks thirty-nine years of sobriety — thirty-nine years since I first laid down the bottle, not yet knowing what it would mean, or where this path would lead.
For beneath the drink, beneath the numbness, there lay an ocean of sorrow — reams of trauma woven into the marrow of my being. Ancestral wounds. The silent grief of a heart long unheld.
The drink...
2025-06-0802 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe End of SufferingMay the countless beings of this world and worlds unseen, bathed in the light of infinite love, be swiftly released from all afflictions of body, heart, and soul.
May the roots of all suffering dissolve into the boundless silence. And may the pure current of wholeness arise in every being, so that no shadow of illness need return, only the eternal radiance of well-being remain, ever flowing, ever free.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
This is a work of the soul — an offering of presence through Tea & Zen, tending the unseen spaces of love an...
2025-06-0601 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Reflection on Rest and Surrender.There is no shame in laying down the sword.
Not every path is meant to be fought for.
Sometimes the deeper wisdom is to let the stream flow softly around the stone —
To rest this weary heart awhile,
And trust that life will bring the next wave in its own time.
I am enough.
The path is unfolding — still and always.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
“If these writings nourish your soul, consider becoming a contributer below to the charity behind Tea And Zen. (Medita...
2025-06-0503 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsMONEY, FEAR, and the COURAGE TO WALK IN TRUTHI was sitting in the quiet this morning, reflecting on how so many of us—often without even realizing—hand over our integrity, our inner compass, out of fear that something we need or love might be taken from us.
We become afraid: If I do not please, if I do not comply, if I do not bend… will I lose what sustains me?
One of the most subtle and insidious ways this shows up is in our relationship with money.
How many times have we swallowed our truth, silenced our voice, or agreed...
2025-06-0303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsIn Memory of BartA few days ago, I was called to sit with a man named Bart. He was nearing the end of his life. There was nothing for me to do. No task to accomplish. No words to speak that would matter more than presence itself.
I was there simply to sit beside him—to offer presence, to rest in stillness, to send the light. To be a spiritual companion for him in those final days. And so I did.
Bart was mostly sleeping.
The room was quiet, held in that particular stillness that so of...
2025-05-3005 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Contemplation and Blessing
Echoes of the Infinite #2
Let us sit quietly now. Let the breath find its own rhythm, unforced, unhurried. Let the body rest upon the earth as it always has—held, supported, safe.
Let your awareness soften like petals opening to the morning sun. And now, from this place within, let this truth rise: I know how precious life is in this moment. Not as an idea. Not as a concept. But as a direct experience—like the hush before a dawn or the hush after a prayer.
This moment is not wait...
2025-05-2703 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsONLY LOVE ENDURES“The whole of planet Earth is a sacred site. All people are the chosen people, and the purpose of our lives is a spiritual one.
May we care for each other, and for the Earth, for everything relates to everything else.
Feeling this oneness, may we radiate the light of love and kindness that all may live in unity and peace."
~ Radha Sahar.
‘‘It occurs for me to say—no, to remember—that any thought, word, or deed we may offer into this world as people, as sentient beings, that is not rooted...
2025-05-2304 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThere Is Not Enough Love for Me: A Deeper Look at Conflict.I wrote recently about conflict — not just as a political or interpersonal phenomenon, but as a field of energy that we all participate in, consciously or not. Whether the battle is waged across a dinner table or across oceans, in Gaza or in our own homes, each conflict is fed — or softened — by the energy we contribute to the world in thought, word, and deed.
None of us are separate from this. We are, each of us, part of the collective field. We breathe the same air. We drink from the same well of consciousness. And what we car...
2025-05-1806 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Bell of ResponsibilityYears ago, I was working as a therapist in a group where, among many, we held a simple but powerful agreement. We understood that in the complex dance of human relationships, conflict wasn’t just possible—it was inevitable. But instead of fearing it or trying to quickly smooth it over, we chose to meet it with presence. We treated it as a teacher.
One of our core practices was this: whenever a rift or tension arose between members, someone would ring a bell. At that sound, everything stopped. No one continued defending their position, analyzing the othe...
2025-05-1705 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsETERNALIn essence, the heart cannot close.
It is eternal.
It is open by nature.
It is only the mind ….our thoughts, our defenses, our stories …..that create the illusion of distance from the boundless grace that lives within us.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
This reflection is freely given as part of a sacred offering. If it nourishes your spirit and you feel moved to help sustain this work, you’re warmly invited to support it through donation or by becoming a paid subscriber—not as a transaction, but as a gestur...
2025-05-1402 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Mother’s Day BlessingToday we take a moment to honor the presence of the Mother….in all the ways she shows up in this life.
To everyone who’s ever given life, or cared for it… who’s held someone through pain, offered love without needing to be asked, listened deeply, or simply stayed close in the hard moments…..thank you. To the mothers of children. To those holding families or communities together.
To the quiet ones whose presence is a kind of medicine. To those who mother in ways that go unnoticed, and to those who have carried gr...
2025-05-1203 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsOn the Other Side of a Black Hole.If I speak from the heart….and in all truth, how else could I speak?….and in the language of metaphor, a black hole…the great void, the collapse of everything we think we know… feels to me like the passage through ego death, deep suffering, or the surrender into the unknown.
I have touched that place before…..many times. The silence where meaning dissolves. Where even light seems to vanish. And yet… something remains.
What lies on the other side?
I believe, with all that I am, that if anything endures beyond the breaking...
2025-05-1003 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA BlessingMay you love and be loved, and know eternal peace in your heart forevermore.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
Meditation Sans Frontieres is a 501(c)(3) non profit charitable organization; contributions are tax-deductible as permitted by law. EIN is 81-3411835
Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-05-0903 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Grace of SurrenderI’m sharing this reflection today from lived experience.
I have known what medicine calls adrenergic storms—states of intense sympathetic overdrive that feel like pure terror in the body. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one, but recently, an episode returned. This time, something was different.
Instead of resisting, I surrendered.
And what I found…..once the intense wave had passed….was not devastation, but Love, the only place it could return to.
This piece arose from that experience.
There is a moment, quiet and unassumi...
2025-05-0703 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Illusion of SeparationThere’s an illusion we carry in these bodies—one so ancient and persistent, we often forget it’s not real. It is the illusion of separation.
And from that illusion, pain arises. A pain so deep and so human that we sometimes try to rid ourselves of it by handing it off to someone else.
But the ache of believing ourselves to be separate—from life, from love, from each other, ultimately from whatever you call God—cannot be offloaded in that way. When we pass our pain to another through blame, anger, or judgment...
2025-05-0603 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHE TRUTH OF ANY MATTERThe facts of any matter, no matter how accurate, can never be the full truth if they are not rooted in loving-kindness and compassion.
Truth is more than information — it is a presence, a way of being.
If what we call “truth” lacks mercy, if it does not bring healing or open the heart, then we are dealing with something partial — perhaps even harmful — no matter how correct it seems.
Real truth liberates. It softens us. It invites us into deeper connection with ourselves and each other.
Let us remember:
Truth wi...
2025-05-0405 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsAN INVITATIONHere is a simple invitation I place before you — though its simplicity may be more profound than it first appears, and its pursuit more vast than any journey you have ever taken.
I invite you to spend the rest of your life being in Love.
Not loving merely as an act, nor seeking love as something to possess, but abiding as Love — becoming its quiet embodiment, its effortless witness, its joyful servant.
And I ask you, with all the sincerity I can summon: Have you ever had anything better to do?
In a...
2025-05-0303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsGuided Meditation on The Geometry of Resistance and SurrenderBegin by finding a quiet space. Sit or lie down comfortably. Let your eyes gently close. Take a slow breath in through your nose, and exhale softly through your mouth. Let your body begin to settle, like a feather drifting to the earth. Again, breathe in… and breathe out.
Feel the ground beneath you — not just as surface, but as presence. Let it hold you like an ancient friend. Beneath you lies a living, breathing earth that has witnessed storms and stars, oceans and fire. You are resting upon something wise.
Now gently bring your awar...
2025-05-0207 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Sacred Balance: Truth, Boundaries, and LoveIn a world veiled by illusion and noise……where confusion masquerades as clarity and conflict often drowns out meaning….truth remains a light that awakens the soul. Yet when truth is delivered without care or held without compassion, it can wound more than it heals. For truth to become a vehicle of transformation, it must be carried gently…..contained within spiritual boundaries that shield our inner life, and infused with the harmonizing presence of love.
Those who have walked the mystical path through the ages have known that truth is not always a comfort. It can liberate, yes…..bu...
2025-05-0102 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsMEDITATIONCome.
Sit here with me for a while.
You don’t have to do anything right now — no effort, no striving.
Just breathe, the way the trees breathe, without thinking about it.
Let the noise of the day fall away, like old leaves.
And when you’re ready, listen — not with your ears, but with the deeper part of
you that has been listening all along:
From the stillness before all beginnings, may your awareness rise again like the hidden river that flows beneath all things.
2025-04-2704 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsFalling in LoveSo often, when someone says they’ve fallen in love, they don’t yet realize ….what they’re really feeling is their own light, mirrored back to them.
The one they love becomes a kind of sacred surface, a reflection that stirs the deep well inside. But the warmth, the beauty, that expansive opening of the heart ….. it’s their own essence rising to meet them.
Love doesn’t come from the other. It’s not something granted or given. It’s what we are.
The beloved simply makes it visible.
And when we see th...
2025-04-2201 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsFIERCENESSFiеrcеnеss is nоt the samе аs ragе. It’s anger, yеs …. but anger thаt hаs remembered lovе.
It’s the sharр edge of truth thаt рrotects what is sacred. The flame thаt refuses to let harm gо unchallenged. The voice thаt rises nоt to destroy, but to defend what mattеrs.
Fiеrcеnеss is the heart on fire with compаssion …..unwilling to stаy silent in the face of injustice, unwilling to turn away when something prеcious is at risk.
It is lovе, stаnding its gr...
2025-04-2004 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Tribute to My Friend NigelNigel was more than a friend. He was a soul companion. . . a brother on the path, walking beside me in this strange world. Our bond was not merely one of friendship; it was a deep recognition of one another. Spirit recognized spirit.
Nigel was a 'quiet light' for me.
He didn’t try to shine.
He just did, naturally and humbly.
There was a way of presence with him, when you were around him,, of feeling important and like you mattered.
What I love about his story of life wa...
2025-04-1903 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsLAY DOWN YOUR BURDENLay down your burdenLay it all downPass the glass between youDrink it upPlace the Light before youCome through the doorThe dragon doesn’t live here anymore
Sing with the choirs that surround youDance to the music in your soulLook into the eyes that really see youPlace all that you have into that bowl
O lay down your burdenLay it all downPass the glass between youDrink it upPlace the Light before youCome through the doorThe dragon doesn’t live here anymore
Colleen Crangle.
Read by Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
Get...
2025-04-1901 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHE GEOMETRY OF RESISTANCE AND SURRENDERThere is a hidden architecture in the way we live and respond to the world …..a kind of spiritual geometry that shapes our inner landscape.
Resistance is angular. It has edges and corners, built of muscle, memory, and fear. It shows up as tension in the jaw, the held breath, the clenched hands. It says, “No, not this,” and erects invisible walls to protect what feels threatened. Like a square, it gives structure and boundary, but it can become a cage if we never learn to open the door.
Surrender, by contrast, is curved. It is the...
2025-04-1602 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsSACRED RETURN - A ReflectionThere comes a moment, amid the depths of suffering, when something within me begins to soften. The resistance that once gripped so tightly starts to release….not because the suffering has disappeared, but because I begin to remember something far deeper than the travail itself.
For years, I have witnessed this rhythm within myself. When trauma resurfaces, when suffering stirs again, a wave of overwhelm often arises. Yet, in time…a quiet shift takes place. I cease to fight it. I begin to lean not into the suffering itself, but into the space around it. A space that...
2025-04-1303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTRUE POWERTo reach into another’s life with the intent to extract, control, or cause pain is not an act of power…..it is an expression of quiet despair.
It is the grief of a soul that has fallen into forgetfulness, losing its remembrance of the Infinite within, and so reaches outward, grasping for fragments of light in another’s field.
Believing itself starved of energy….of love…..it attempts to feed upon what it perceives to be missing. But this is the great illusion: that love can be taken, that radiance can be stolen.
Nothing...
2025-04-1001 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsNegotiating from the Ground of TruthIn every interaction, whether personal or global, the power to negotiate well begins not with the other….but within ourselves. True strength arises from being in full integrity with our own truth, grounded in clarity about who we are and what we stand for.
To negotiate from strength is not about dominance or force, but about self-awareness. It means knowing, before entering any dialogue, what we are truly willing to say yes to…..and, just as importantly, what we must say no to. This inner alignment creates a stable foundation from which our words and energy carry weig...
2025-04-0602 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA Spiritual View of PTSD and DysautonomiaThere are places within us that no scan can see, no test can measure. These are the sacred chambers where spirit whispers and trauma leaves its mark…not only in memory, but in the very breath, pulse, and rhythm of the body, mind, and soul.
For me, the journey with complex PTSD became more than emotional pain. Over time, it spiraled into something deeper….something less understood, what the world of science names dysautonomia. But even that word, though clinical, cannot hold the vastness of what it truly is. In my case, it was an extreme sacred imba...
2025-04-0503 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Master Alchemist…. Awakening the Sacred Flame.You are the master alchemist, the unseen force that turns the ordinary into the divine. With the fire of love, you bridge earth and sky, heart and soul, weaving light into the fabric of all things.
Through your love, the boundaries of existence and nonexistence dissolve. What was once separate becomes whole. The lost are found. The forgotten is remembered. The profane is made sacred once more.
This is the great work of the soul…..to love so deeply that all illusion falls away, revealing the eternal light within. In love, there is no division, no...
2025-04-0302 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHIS MOMENTThis moment this Love comes to rest in me,
many beings in one being.
In one wheat grain a thousand sheaf stacks.
Inside the needle's eye a turning night of stars.
-Rumi
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-04-0103 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCONTEMPLATIONLove is the breath of the soul, the eternal current that flows through us, guiding us home. When we root ourselves in Love….pure, unconditional, infinite….we become vessels for creation, and everything we touch begins to reflect that light.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-03-3003 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Eternal Presence of LoveLove itself does not hurt. It is the illusion of its absence that brings pain. Love is always here, always flowing, seen or unseen. The paradox is that we grieve for what has never left.
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
Meditation Sans Frontieres is a 501(c)(3) non profit charitable organization; contributions are tax-deductible as permitted by law. EIN is 81-3411835
Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-03-2500 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsHOMECOMINGThere is a sacred homecoming that unfolds when you return to yourself…..not one marked by grand gestures or external validation, but a quiet and profound awakening. It is the slow shedding of all that is not yours to carry…..the unraveling of false identities, the soft release of inherited burdens, the deep exhale after holding your breath for lifetimes.
To come home to yourself is to remember that you were never truly lost. Even in the seasons of forgetting, even when you wandered far from your own soul’s voice, you remained……waiting, watching, holding sacred space for...
2025-03-2103 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsForever HeldTake a break from what you are doing, find a space, cup of tea in hand, and dedicate the next ten minutes to Love.
Please sit and remember in the well of your spiritual heart all love deep and abiding, and let it flow from there to all sentient beings where-ever they may be, that all beings everywhere be free from suffering.
“May your heart be forever held in the embrace of light and love, guided by the whispers of eternal grace.”
Nigel Lott teaandzen.org
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2025-03-1605 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Sacred Weave of CreationCan you see it? Emanating from the Source of all creation….Love…..the luminous thread that weaves thought, word, and deed into the grand tapestry of existence.
Yet, in this process….if integrity does not guide the hand, if honor and courage do not steady the heart, if humility….deep and abiding…..is absent, then what is made is but a whisper in the void, fleeting and forgotten.
True creation, the kind that breathes life, must be steeped in compassion and kindness. Without them, even the grandest works crumble into dust, their essence lost to the winds...
2025-03-1501 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Sacred Gift of LifeLife is a miracle. It flows through everything….seen and unseen, great and small. It is in the pulse of our own hearts, in the quiet rhythm of the trees, in the endless dance of the ocean. It is in the moments of joy and sorrow, in the rising sun, in the laughter of a child, in the final breath of the old and the first breath of the new.
To recognize the sanctity of life is to see its value in all forms. Every creature, every moment, every experience is part of something vast and beautiful. Li...
2025-03-1203 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsForgiveness MeditationWhen we hold onto unforgiveness… or when forgiveness feels beyond our reach… we create a rift in the fullness of our hearts. In these moments, love remains veiled in the shadows, both within our own being and in our connections with others.There are times when people and situations appear nearly impossible to forgive, and our hearts may seem completely armored against the flow of love and healing. Yet, even in the face of these challenges, we are always free to open ourselves to the boundless possibility of healing and transformation.We have a sacred duty...
2025-03-1015 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Profound Stillness of TruthIn the hustle of daily life, our minds are often filled with the clutter of thoughts, judgments, and preconceived notions. But in moments of deep stillness, all of this noise fades away, leaving only the pure essence of truth. This truth is not something to be grasped, analyzed, or controlled….it is something to be felt and experienced in its raw, unfiltered form.It is within this sacred silence, free from the interference of the mind, that we come closest to the divine. In this space, answers no longer matter; they lose their significance. ...
2025-03-0804 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsResonance and Tone in CommunicationIn both quantum theory and spiritual philosophy, there exists an intriguing connection between how we communicate and how energy vibrates and resonates within us and around us. The idea that "ultimately in communication it is the resonance and tone that we respond to" takes on a deeper meaning when explored through these lenses.From a quantum theory perspective, everything in the universe, including communication, can be seen as energy vibrating at different frequencies. Each word, gesture, or even silence, emits a particular resonance, a unique frequency. Quantum mechanics reveals that particles are not solid and fixed, but...
2025-03-0402 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA SACRED SPACE“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense”. RumiOne of my favorite and many others pieces of prose mysticism from Rumi.And to me, what he's saying there that beyond the ideas of right and wrong, which are always judgement words, there is a sacred space where the soul can meet in i...
2025-03-0202 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsRooted in CompassionHaving strong beliefs and values is essential for guiding our lives. These principles shape our decisions, actions, and interactions with others. However, it's crucial that these beliefs are grounded in loving kindness and compassion.No matter how firm our values are, if they lack compassion and understanding, they fail to reflect the true essence of any matter. At their core, all beliefs must be rooted in love and compassion to truly resonate with truth. After all, this is the very essence of what the universe is wanting to create…LOVEIt’s not just what we b...
2025-02-2701 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsA SACRED MOMENTThere is a sacred moment in every journey when the search must come to rest. It is only in this stillness, this quiet surrender, at that moment that we can open ourselves to the sacred forces at work around us.In letting go of our constant striving, we make space for the very thing we’ve longed for, to reveal itself. It’s not found through effort or desire, but through embracing the silence within. When we stop seeking, we can receive. The universe, or whatever higher power you believe in, speaks loudest in our mome...
2025-02-2408 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsLET GO LET LOVE“We cannot rationalize our trauma out of existence. We can only release it, by feeling it fully, by crying it out, by letting the energy return to the flow. Like a baby, we must cry out, not just when the need arises, but whenever we are called to release the shadow that clouds our heart. The key to healing is not in the mind’s attempts to make sense of it all, but in the soul’s call to let go, to return to love.” Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen...
2025-02-2402 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCOURAGE-HOPE-FAITHEven amidst chaos, dissonance, and the shadows that occasionally wrap around me, a deeper truth begins to unfurl. Simultaneously, the alchemy of existence, of all truth reveals itself….LOVEThis is my faith. My hope.It has grown from the depths of experience, forged through a journey of pain and darkness I never thought I could survive—pain that surged like a storm at times, a wound so deep it felt as though it would never heal. But it was never about the why of the pain. The reason didn’t matter. What mattered was the tr...
2025-02-2305 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsSERVICE AS SACRED UNIONWhen we open our hearts in service to another sentient being, we are not merely performing a worldly action, but participating in a divine act of spiritual connection. Through service, we are lifted beyond our perceived duality, recognizing the One that has always been present, beyond our imagined separateness. The moment we offer ourselves in service, we surrender to a higher calling…..one that invites us to transcend the illusion of separation and merge with the boundless love at the core of all life. In this sacred giving, we align with the sacred flow, a current as ancient as ti...
2025-02-1605 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsChasing ShadowsThe pursuit of wealth, though often celebrated, is but a fleeting illusion, a mirage that tempts the soul but never truly quenches its thirst. No matter how much we acquire, no matter how many riches we accumulate, there is always a gnawing emptiness that lingers within us, whispering that something is missing. And why? Because we do not truly know what "enough" is. In our blind chase for more, we fail to recognize that what we seek can never be found in material things.At the heart of this insatiable desire lies a deeper longing, a yearning...
2025-02-0903 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsENERGY IN MOTIONThere is an aspect of suffering that stems from the deep-rooted tendency to rationalize our pain. When we experience hurt or trauma, we seek to make sense of it in the mind—creating stories that help us fit the pieces together. The ego, in its wisdom, attempts to explain and categorize our wounds, believing that if it can understand the cause, the pain will dissolve. But this is an illusion. The truth is that the pain, the resonance of the experience, lingers far beyond the reach of reason. It is not the mind that heals the heart, but the bo...
2025-02-0603 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsMANY HEARTS - ONE LOVE"In serving the heart of another, we serve the heart within us and, the one love that connects us all...simply nothing therefore is left undone."Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-02-0406 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCONTEMPLATION"Do you seek the source of your creation here on earth?It is here, always has been. It never left.You only believed it did.This belief—that all LOVE has been lost, in becoming human—is the root cause of all human suffering.Look no further than your own sacred heart, for there in the quiet chambers of your being, you will find what you call heaven.And there, too, you will find your God.You will find LOVE, ever-present, ever-unfolding.May you awaken to this truth now." Nigel Lott teaandzen.org ...
2025-02-0303 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Sacred Balance: Truth, Boundaries, and LoveIn a world veiled by illusion and noise……where confusion masquerades as clarity and conflict often drowns out meaning—truth remains a light that awakens the soul. Yet when truth is delivered without care or held without compassion, it can wound more than it heals. For truth to become a vehicle of transformation, it must be carried gently…..contained within spiritual boundaries that shield our inner life, and infused with the harmonizing presence of love.Those who have walked the mystical path through the ages have known that truth is not always a comfort. It can liberate, yes…..bu...
2025-01-3102 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsEVENING CONTEMPLATIONLove is the breath of the soul, the eternal current that flows through us, guiding us home. When we root ourselves in Love….pure, unconditional, infinite….we become vessels for creation, and everything we touch begins to reflect that light.Nigel Lott teaandzen.orgMay all Love watch over you this night. Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-01-2604 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsINTEGRITYAt the root of much of our pain and suffering lies a profound spiritual truth: we are out of alignment with the deepest wisdom of our own hearts. Most of us, much of the time, are disconnected from the sacred truth that resides within us. We say "yes" to people, places, and things that we long to say "no" to, driven by a deep-seated fear that, if we speak our truth, we might lose something precious—something that we believe gives us love, validation, or a sense of belonging. But the paradox is this: the love we are seeking ex...
2025-01-2404 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsAN INVITATION and CONTEMPLATIONHere is a simple invitation….though perhaps profound in its complexity,in its pursuit,I invite you to spend the rest of your life being in Love.And I ask you,have you ever had anything better to do?In all honesty,has anything else ever truly mattered?Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-01-2103 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHIS MOMENTThis moment this Love comes to rest in me,many beings in one being.In one wheat grain a thousand sheaf stacks.Inside the needle's eye a turning night of stars.-RumiNigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-01-1803 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsAN ASPECT OF GRIEFGrief is often seen as something to be avoided….something painful, something dark. Yet, if we look beyond its surface, we find that grief is not an enemy, but a sacred release. It is the soul's way of shedding old wounds, ancient pain, the illusion that we were ever separate from love. The truth is, we were never apart from the Sacred. Grief, in its alchemy, reconnects us to the eternal oneness we have always been a part of, even when we’ve forgotten.Yes, grief is painful, but it is not merely sorrow; it is a prof...
2025-01-1804 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHANK YOUI am filled with deep gratitude for each of you who have supported this journey of growth and healing. Your continued engagement with this podcast and blog has been a true blessing, not only to me but to so many others whose lives have been touched by our interactions.Your dedication to listening, learning, and growing with me has helped build a vibrant community centered around healing and transformation. It’s your presence, your energy, and your openness that make this work possible.Beyond the podcast, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for your on...
2025-01-1503 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsLOVE DOES NOT HURTLove does not hurt. Love is the healing. It is the balm that soothes the wounds of separation, the light that dispels the darkness of ignorance. When you realize this, you are home. You are whole. You are Love.Nigel Lott teaandzen.org Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2025-01-1302 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHE HEART OF EXISTENCEAt the heart of existence, beyond the realm of time and form, there is a profound truth: we are all One. All that we see, touch, and feel, all is woven from the same sacred thread. This thread is Love…..pure, unconditional, and eternal. It is the creative force of the universe, the soul of all things.When we carry pain…..whether it is the weight of old wounds, unspoken grief, or the ache of longing….it is easy to think that in releasing it, means casting it onto others, often the people our hearts are mo...
2025-01-1204 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHE MORNING POEMAgain, the work starts as soon as you open your eyes in the morning. Hopefully you got some good rest last night.Why go into the city or the fields without first kissing the Friend who always stands at your door? It takes only a second.Habits are human nature. Why not create some that will mint gold? Your arms are violin bows always moving. I have become very conscious upon whom we all play.Thus my eyes have filled with warm soft oceans of divine music where jeweled dolphins dance, then leap...
2025-01-1001 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTRUE WISDOM"This is yet another in the series of quotes that have emerged over the years, some stretching back decades. This time, however, they are accompanied by a written reflection, a window into the workings of my mind. Yet, I must say, these words did not spring initially from thought, not by a long shot; they flowed from a deeper realm….one that resides within the heart and soul, a place beyond the grasp of the conscious mind.""In coming to the true wisdom of the heart we offer no resistance to circumstance, surrendering to it all with th...
2025-01-0508 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHE WISDOM OF THE HEARTThis is yet another in the series of quotes that have emerged over the years, some stretching back decades. This time, however, they are accompanied by a written reflection, a window into the workings of my mind. Yet, I must say, these words did not spring initially from thought, not by a long shot; they flowed from a deeper realm….one that resides within the heart and soul, a place way beyond the grasp of the conscious mind."“In embracing the true wisdom of the heart, we offer no resistance to circumstance, surrendering fully with the utmost humi...
2024-12-2803 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsFOREVER SACREDThis is yet another in the series of quotes that have emerged over the years, some stretching back decades. This time, however, they are accompanied by a written reflection, a window into the workings of my mind. Yet, I must say, these words did not spring initially from thought, not by a long shot; they flowed from a deeper realm….one that resides within the heart and soul, a place way beyond the grasp of the conscious mind.“Whatever is held sacred in our heart once is forever held there, once sacred forever sacred master that you are...
2024-12-2802 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsIN SERVING THE HEART OF ANOTHER WE EMBRACE THE ONE LOVE THAT CONNECTS US ALL."In serving the heart of another, we serve the heart within us and, the one love that connects us all...simply nothing therefore is left undone." Nigel LottIn the quiet acts of kindness, compassion, and love we offer to others, we discover something profound about our own humanity. The simple truth is that in serving the heart of another, we serve the heart within us, and ultimately, the one love that connects us all. This interconnectedness, often called the "oneness of being," teaches us that every act of love reverberates back to the giver, creating a...
2024-12-2502 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsSILENCE“It is the silence within meeting the silence without. In that place out of time, all truth is to be found, beyond even a whisper”. Nigel LottIn the stillness of our own hearts, a profound truth awaits, one that transcends words, thoughts, and even the most subtle whispers. There is a space, quiet and infinite, where the silence within us meets the silence of the universe. In this sacred union, time dissolves, and what remains is a pure presence, untouched by the fluctuations of the world.This silence is not merely the absence of soun...
2024-12-1702 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsTHE ETERNAL 'FRIEND'"Long may your awareness of love and its power abide within you, its undying beauty always to remain. If you should forget its presence in you, however, in times of trial and tribulation, do not worry, for it will never forget you, its truth forever your guide and friend." Nigel LottIn the grand design of life, love is the thread that weaves all things together. It is the divine essence that moves through every moment, transcending time, space, and circumstance. Love is not an external force that we must seek, but an inner truth that resides...
2024-12-1503 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsThe Timeless Nature of Love“Love is on every breath we take; it was there before the breath we took and will be there still, when breath we take no more.” Nigel Lott“This profound statement encapsulates the essence of love as the most fundamental aspect of our existence, and our founding principle” Nigel Lott Get full access to Tea and Zen - Threads at teaandzen.substack.com/subscribe
2024-10-1502 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsDANCING WITH THE INFINITE.LOVE stands as both the enigma and the answer, rather like the core essence of quantum mechanics. It's a creative force that defies definition yet permeates every aspect of existence. In its purest form, LOVE transcends boundaries, embracing all, yet paradoxically, it exists in the very absence of boundaries, in the voids and silences that punctuate the web of life.LOVE is omnipresent, threading its way through the fabric of the universe, binding atoms, galaxies, and souls alike. It's the cosmic glue that holds together the fragments of creation, infusing them with purpose and meaning. From the...
2024-04-2805 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsSOUL SPARK - A call to embrace compassion."Here, soar not with wings, but with your moving hands, feet, and sweating brows - standing by your beloved's side, reaching out to comfort this world with your cup of solace drawn from your vast reservoir of truth."“This statement is a clarion call to embrace a compassionate and benevolent attitude towards every life form encountered in life, in thought word and deed. In emphasizing the importance of treating others with care, empathy, and understanding, regardless of their background, beliefs, or circumstances. By embodying love and kindness in our interactions, we contribute to fostering a more harmonious an...
2024-03-2203 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCONTEMPLATION ON STARDUSTBeing that our atoms in our body were created at the start of our universe during the Big Bang. So if you look at it this way, then you’re about 13.7 billion years old.But your body also has heavier elements like copper and zinc. These atoms were created in the dying stage of an exploding star called a supernova.These elements were flung into space as dust and gas (stardust). Eventually, they coalesced to become part of a new forming solar system and our planet Earth.Because you are made from matter fr...
2024-03-1603 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsSTAY CLOSEStay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive - HafezThough life’s journey always begins and ends within our own infinite heart space and the LOVE always found there, it is important to be connected with people, places and things that, by their very presence in our lives, bear witness to our authenticity. To remind us of that LOVE within, particularly in those moments of sadness and fear, lest we forget our own LIVING TRUTH, as we are want to do from time to time. Nigel LottMay all love become yo...
2023-12-1804 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsUPDATE ON MY WORK“I shall be returning Tuesday 26th…I am in the process of opening to new inspiration and content. I want to be able to serve more and expand my work with MEDITATIONSANSFRONTIERES.COM and TEAANDZEN.ORG for which this has been a platform to link into my deeper work and what I offer on my website…...teaandzen.org. I believe very strongly out of my own journey I have so much to offer that I want to share.”For those who don’t know here is my portfolio so to speak and what I do in service, in my miss...
2023-09-2402 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCONTEMPLATION ON SILENCEYou may have noticed that I prefer to communicate from my heart to yours through music. The resonance and tone of the music conveys what I want to say.We all respond to the tone of what is being said primarily rather than the actual words. A mother might say to her teenage daughter, don’t speak to me in that tone, she is reacting to the resonance, more deeply than words by themselves could possibly convey.So I tend to struggle with words though I hope to get better at writing, for some reason th...
2023-09-2004 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsFORGIVENESSA fundamental reminder….that in the end as there was in the beginning there is only ONE of us, ONE LOVE that lays at the heart of it all and that will set you free, sets us all free…….may you find your way there now.” Nigel LottWe never put another being out of our hearts because as we do so, we put ourselves outside of our own hearts equal measure.That is to say as long as we hold resentment, a non forgiving posture toward another we are in essence keeping ourselves out from the...
2023-08-1704 min
Tea and Zen - ThreadsCONTEMPLATIONMusic ‘Give My Love Back’ Francis WellsAnger masks the fear that hides the longing. Anger is a pointed moment of grief, as is fear - it tends to mirror a deeper aspect of our underlying sorrow, of grief.If we do not wish to be angry then we find a way to work through our anger and fear states and allow the tears to flow from underneath which then in turn allows us to be at peace again - one with all that is….in time.Easier said than done, indeed it is - o...
2023-06-0402 min
2020-01-1300 min
TEA AND ZENMorning Poem, Mary OliverMorning Meditation to open the heart and soothe the weary mind.For $1.00 become a patron of the work done by Nigel Lott at www.teaandzen.org by clicking here https://www.patreon.com/teaandzenThank YouTax EIN 81-3411835 501 (C) 3 Non Profit Registered Charity
2020-01-0501 min
TEA AND ZENInvictus by William Ernest Henley, Read by Nigel LottA poem of courage in the face of profound adversity...
2019-09-1501 min