Rusty Ring

The theory is really simple. The only problem is that theory alone will not help us to be content with our practice. Although...

"If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him." This well-worn Chàn koan, attributed to Linji Yixuan, has the sting befi...

Shítóu Xīqiān (called Sekitō Kisen in Japan) is having a moment. Fixture of contemporary Soto, his Sandōkai , a memorable exposition of...

If you'd like to explore a rich source of provocative, not overly-technical Zen reads, check out Sotozen.com . Among its many offe...

As non-Vajrayana Western converts to Buddhism will tell you, we have a slightly awkward relationship with Tibet. Not that we have an...

So another visit to the annals of early Buddhism has yielded a further bit of provocative trivia: subitism is very old. Possibly as old...

I've been rereading The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching , the succinct little Thich Nhat Hanh book that amounts, so far as I...

My brother Fletcher – formerly an ordained Zen monk, now an ongoing seeker after insight on another path – recently described to me his ...

San Francisco is the capital of Western Zen. The sangha there – the Western one; Asian residents were already practicing for over a centu...

Most books available in the West on life in Japanese monasteries are written by Westerners. Perhaps that's why they tend to take...

"This is gonna be a short movie." That's what I thought when I bought Zen (禅), a biodrama about Eihei Dogen , founder ...