Rusty Ring

"Having children takes talent, like any creative thing." Maurice Sendak (Photo courtesy of Seth Anderson and Wikime...

(The Spokane Regional Health District is an arresting sight, inspired as it apparently was by the architecture of West and Central Afric...

"You may not believe in hell, but hell believes in you." (A message from this station and Fudo Myō-ō.) (Ph...

If you haven't discovered Avi Steinberg, you're in for a treat. (And if you have, a welcome visit back.) Avi's deceptiv...

The warbler wipes its muddy feet on plum blossoms – Issa ( Plum Garden, Kamata, by Utagawa Hiroshige, courtesy of Rawpixel.c...

"An infinite number of monks, with an infinite number of zafus, and an infinite amount of time, would eventually get around to...

"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ...

Back in 2023 I wrote a post about another post I wrote in 2015 on the topic of forgiveness. As a prime example, I referred to the cas...

It's been a long time since I had a dramatic sit – the thing Zenners call kensho. This is mostly down to lifestyle constraints that...

Master Dongguo asked Zhuangzi, "This thing called the Way – where does it exist?" Zhuangzi said, "There's no pl...

So I've been at it again – diving into the Ancestors and the movement that produced them. And once again I've come up with ...

Huike said to Bodhidharma, "My mind is anxious. Please pacify it." Bodhidharma replied, "Bring me your mind, and...

"Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow, because you might die tonight." Ajahn Brahm (Photo of rec...

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

This morning a brother in my Twitter sangha posted the following five paragraphs from the Pali canon ( Dutiyaassutavāsutta, SN 12.62 ). ...

"What makes you different makes you valuable." Terry O'Reilly (Painting of Japanese long-tailed rooster courtesy o...

On this Christmas of 2023, all of us here at Rusty Ring wish our readers the best and kindest of seasons. Right in darkness there i...

OK, hear me out: Equani-Mouse. (Interested parties can buy the wall decal from this Etsy store ; illustration from linked page.) 

Since many readers of this blog are engaged in creative endeavours, I would like, on this day of American Thanksgiving, to share a C...

(How do you hide a giant water tank? Well, if you're the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds, you paint an exact replica of the scene ...