Rusty Ring

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

So here we are on another Bodhisattva Day . The statement has subtly become more emphatic in the current environment; even a touch confro...

(That's me in my cardigan on Bodhisattva Day 2014. This year Bodhisattva Day falls on Thursday – i.e., tomorrow. For information on t...

The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. Be brave. – Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Photo of young Iranians standing ...

They warn you not to meet your heroes, to leave them unknown quantities, to avoid disappointment. But have you considered this: ...

In the fifty-odd years I've worked with pets and farm animals, I've learned that anxious and abused ones often fear men – but wo...

"One uncomfortable explanation for why so many aspects of modern life corrode our attention is that they do not merit it." ...

I talk a lot about gratitude on this channel. It's a habit that has two not-very-subtle origins: 1. Gratitude is the wheel of mo...

So it's July again, the month when the Internet takes a vacation and I can post stuff that's just cool and not necessarily abou...

Back in 2014 I shared a little one-man Christmas cheer game I indulge in at this time of year, a simple Google search string that fills...

This is a preaching Buddha (not to be confused with a teaching Buddha ). As you can see, he's enumerating something on his fing...

In my university days I T.A.'d for a professor whose insights would have an enduring effect on my understanding of the Path. (Shout-...

Something I much appreciate about Zen is its clear-sightedness in the matter of human behaviour. Where other religions talk about sin –...

Greetings, honoured sangha. This week I offer Japanese for Zenners , with this basal concept: マインドフルネス 。 Can't read it? Let ...

We're catching a lot of reality these days. First a plague swept the planet, laying waste to technocratic pretentions of invuln...

Humanity: "If a tree falls in the forest, and no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Rest of the Universe: ...

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

In 1962, the number of playable guitars per million inhabitants on this planet was 200. By 2014, that figure was 11,000. In case yo...

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

"A watched mind never boils." Gil Fronsdal (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)