Rusty Ring

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Exodus 23:2 (Photo of Fudo Myō-ō statue courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a g...

I practice the religion that suits me. The one that says I'm right and you're wrong. That I'm the ideal, and you the ...

"It's the hole that makes the doughnut." The I Ching. (Probably.) (Pre-certified doughnut courtesy of Wikimedia...

I brought rather austere food when I sat 100 Days on the Mountain . Lunch and dinner were an identical bowl of rice and beans, spiced up...

An intoxicant is any external source that draws you deeper into yourself, your beliefs, your egocentrism, and away from direct expe...

( Boletus edulis. Part of a generous outbreak that burst up not far from my house during the record rains of last month. Some of them w...

incola ego sum apud te in terra et peregrinus sicut omnes patres mei. Psalterium Sancti Hieronymi, 38:13 (English translation...

I first encountered the oft-cited invocation below in a newspaper column by United Congregational minister Dale Turner. At the time I ass...

My very best wishes to all Rusty Ring readers, regular and irregular, on this Christmas Day. May it be filled with warmth and l...

Like a lot of old people, I've come to find myself adrift at Christmas. Family mostly gone. Friends busy with their own. I nev...

Appearing also on My Corner of the World .

This unlikely 1967 Arlo Guthrie classic has become a Thanksgiving ritual for American radio stations, many of which spin it on that day....

One lonely commandment: If you don't like it, don't be it. (Photo courtesy of Danh Đãnh and Unsplash.com .)

(A point I've made before .) Appearing also on My Corner of the World .

Matsuo Bashō (芭蕉) was a wandering Zen hermit of the Edo period, as well as an accomplished poet. Popularly considered the father of mo...

(This entry from my ango log is a timely reminder of how difficult life was in the jungle during those first frigid, rainy months. I...

(Feral apples are almost always the best-tasting, and you can't beat the price. With all the former farmland around here, the scrumpi...

"Strictly speaking, every unenlightened practitioner is mixing their own convictions and belief systems with Buddhism. There is...

Let us walk alone together, comrade sojourner. We will be like pebbles in a bag, polishing each other bright. (Ship's dogs...