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...

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...

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...

Zazen doesn't solve anything; it just makes things possible. (Photo courtesy of Gerald Ford and Wikimedia Commons.)

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

A few years ago I read a Brad Warner post about getting others into Zen. Brad was typically circumspect on the notion, but he did ad...

"When the Devil is old, he goes to a monastery." (Photo of the Monastery of the Temptation, built on the backcountry site w...

"If my Zen only works at the monastery or at the temple, my Zen sucks." Jay Rinsen Weik (Photo courtesy of Wikime...

(Brothers' cemetery in the forest behind the Benedictine monastery in my home town. One of my favourite places since childhood....

If you've ever been to a Zen centre or monastery, you will immediately recognise this man's genius. What you're seeing...

Events this week have me thinking about my favourite Zen teaching story. (I say that about all of them, though my very favourites a...

(I have so been there .)

Zen monasteries traditionally close in midsummer, when the zendo gets too hot for comfortable (or safe) sitting and the travelling is g...

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

Zen monastery. Wait for it. (Photo of Rinsaiji courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)

I normally turn to one of several online public-domain graphics services to illustrate these posts. But figure this: on most or all of...

(Saw these in town the other day. Turn 'em upside down, you got a monastery's-worth of cheap zafus .)