Rusty Ring

This graphic illustrates the grandfather paradox, a secular koan demonstrating the inability of the human mind to grasp reality. A...

I've been gratified over the years to encounter a small but steady circle of fellow hermits on social media. It's always encour...

Practice isn't just sitting; nor is it just form. Practice is what happens in your head while you're out living . This tr...

There’s always a very inconsiderable minority of these non-joiners. [...] But you will find that insecure societies are the most in...

For some years I've enjoyed sporadic correspondence with a fellow Zenner in England. After a few less-than-uplifting experiences with...

( Update, 13 October 2025: The YouTube file I originally embedded here has gone 404, but I found this one to replace it. Though I have...

Among many incisive observations in Adam Savage's maker manifesto Every Tool is a Hammer , I found this boldest: "There is no...

My practice tends to veer back and forth between sitting and teachings, and acting and responding. Sometimes mostly one, sometimes the ...

Some time ago I surfed into What You Need to Know about Mindfulness Meditation , an article made available to military personnel (an...

"There was an anchorite who was grazing with the antelopes and who prayed to God, saying, 'Lord, teach me something more....

After a recent very pleasant afternoon spent in the companionship of a beloved sangha-mate, I've fallen to contemplating the bl...

I often meet people who "used to do" Zen. Many were deeply engaged, once; some were students of famous teachers. It's...

I hold the word on my tongue, bullshit , so he'll know that I'm serious about this. I'm not just complaining. He needs to me...

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

This is a long post. It needs to be. If you're a Buddhist, or just a fan of the Buddha, please read patiently; the topic is of importa...

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

I'm not a big incense guy. Some Buddhists are. They like to set up an exotic Asian vibe, and incense is one of the foreign accoutrem...

In Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits , Bill Porter writes:    "Throughout Chinese history, there    have always bee...

Candid portrait of my practice: written and recorded teachings;  twine and rings for making fudos;   mat where my bowl rests;  lapto...