Rusty Ring

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

Enlightenment is the stated goal of Buddhism, possibly the only doctrine all denominations share, though variously defined. As ...

No board, no checkers Calligraphy worth nothing Round-eyed hermit monk

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

The wildlife of the North Pacific rainforest is famously reserved; where the East has its flashy cardinals , red efts , and indigo bunti...

Though this seems at first glance avant-garde sculpture, in real life it's the famous one-legged torii of Nagasaki. You can fil...

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

(Fried eggs from real chickens, barbecued cheese curds, and salsa over steamed vegetables and brown rice. Why envy the immortal gods?) A...

(From the monks' graveyard. Evidently, Brother Lawrence also worshipped at the altar of the Seahawks.) Appearing also on My C...

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

(So I'm not sure whether to pass this monastic tee shirt into the rag bag or mass-produce them for sale to teenagers.) Appearing...

Appearing also on My Corner of the World .

I was homophobic as a young man. It's true the logging town I grew up in wasn't the cultural nexus of the world, but that's...

( 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...

After 20 years of this I know that practice is not like mending a roof and now the roof doesn't leak. It's more like patching...

In my university years I lived in a comfortably adequate basement apartment, where I developed a friendly rapport with my landlords – ...

(Each summer I gift myself a new teeshirt . This is last year's; I forgot to upload a photo of it then.) Appearing also on My Corner...

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

(I'm a monk, it's a sunny day... WHAT??) Appearing also on My Corner of the World .

(Deck the halls with black monastic laundry. Same shrub you saw last December .) Appearing also on My Corner of the World .