Earth Dreams: Zen Buddhism and the Soul of the World

Greetings Friends,

I remember when I first entered a space dedicated to dharma practice, after sitting in the zendo that first night my body felt like I was home.

Which was strange because the building…

Greetings Friends,

As we begin this new year, I want to spend sometime with the Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra. This chant is one that is chanted across Mahayana Buddhist traditions, within our o…

A monk asked Hongzhi, “What about the ones who have gone?”

Hongzhi said, “White clouds rise to the top of the valleys, blue peaks

lean into the empty sky.”

The monk asked, “What about the ones who retur…

When we enter the path of practice, two paths open up simultaneously—first we have the path of what we think we are doing. This is the practice method, the conceptual framework, the spoken vow that w…

As the calendar year comes to an end, I offer this poem as a re-write of a text that one of my Sanghas has been studying. The text is called The Eight Realizations of Great Beings, one story says it …

While sitting under the bodhi tree through the night, Shakyamuni Buddha saw the morning star, was enlightened and said:

I, together with the great earth and all sentient beings, simultaneously attain …

What do you want?

What do you really want?

The cyber Monday sales have been flashing items, workshops, experiences that we could possibly want, that we should want, that we somehow need.

In one of my Sa…

Greetings Friends!

In these last few weeks I have been reflecting a lot on the story of Matchig Labdron and the roots of a practice known as Chod, a practice that works directly with fear through gen…

It’s beautiful to be taking refuge together in all the various places we find ourselves.

Ah. Here we are. Survivors of the election. Spiritual warriors attempting to live a vow-fueled life. Hearts tur…

A couple weeks ago I heard a sound near our back screendoor, as if an animal were wrestling with a large bag of cat food. I assumed my cat Sasha was trying to break into her bag of treats, and noted …

As part of Autumn Ango with the Zen Community of Oregon, we are contemplating a text called the Eight Realizations of a Great Being. A text that some sources say is the last teaching that the Buddha …

Since leaving the monastery a few years ago, I have become interested in how the ancient Zen teachers talked about the spiritual path. Language about the realizations that compose awakening are neste…

I am just returning from my first in-person Zen sesshin here in Ohio. It was wonderful to practice the familiar rhythm of a silent, Zen-style meditation retreat so close to the place I currently call…

A thousand times at least I asked my Guru to give Nothingness a name. Then I gave up. What name can you give to the source from which all names have sprung? –Lal Ded

Language has a trickster quality. …

We are emerging from the monthly return of the moon’s dark face—where from earth’s perspective the sun and moon appear to kiss, an aspect that astrologers refer to as a conjunction. In the Zen tradit…

Blue Cliff Record Case 39: The Golden Haired Lion

A student asked Yunmen, “What is the pure and everlasting body of reality?”

Yunmen said, “A fence of flowers and healing herbs.”

The student asked, “Wha…

For whom do you bathe and make yourself beautiful?

The cry of the cuckoo is calling you home;

hundreds of flowers fall, yet her voice isn’t stilled;

even deep in jumbled mountains, it’s calling clearly.…

Our attention is a precious resource. We use it all the time, and so, might forget what a resource it is. Contemplative traditions throughout the ages recognized the preciousness of attention. And al…

With this and that I tried to keep the bucket together, and then the bottom fell out.

Where the water does not collect, the moon does not dwell.—Chiyono

This is the awakening poem of Chiyono, a Japanes…

Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment and nirvana there is not a moment’s gap. Continuous Practice is the Circle of the Way. —Dogen Zenji

In Dharma practice we are invited to reflect on our view…