Here I am, sitting in a Starbucks, part of a rest area on Interstate 90, about a hundred miles East of Rochester, New York. Early this morning I started driving to Chapin Mill in Batavia, which is outside of Rochester, to attend this year’s gathering of the American Zen Teachers Association. Only twenty-seven are attending this year, not one of the larger meetings. I look forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some I hope will become friends. I’m... Read more

So, I was standing on line at the Seven Stars Bakery when the door to the restroom swung wide. Out walked a three-year old boy wiping his hands on a paper towel, proudly proclaiming to all and sundry “I went. I went.” His father followed, blushing ever so slightly. My companions on line smiled and expressed sotto voce that going is a great thing. Gradually I made my way to the front of the line. I requested a half loaf... Read more

One day during meditation, I was contemplating global warming…. With some anguish, I asked Nature this question: ‘Nature, do you think we can rely on you?’  I asked the question because I know that Nature is intelligent, she knows how to react, sometimes violently, to re-establish balance.  And I heard the answer in the form of another question: ‘Can I rely on you?’  The question was being put back to me: can Nature rely on humans? And after long, deep... Read more

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Over at Carl McColman’s Anamchara: the Website of Unknowing, one of my favorite Christian blogs, Carl reflects briefly on chapters seventeen and eighteen of the anonymous Medieval mystical text the Cloud of Unknowing. There the author reflects on the story of Martha and Mary and how Martha, who has been doing all the work while Mary has been sitting with Jesus, wants Jesus to instruct Mary to get to work. Instead Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better... Read more

So, here I am, sitting in a Starbucks in Watertown square working on my book. I’d dropped Jan off at Perkins and will be going to my dermatologist in a couple of hours (after the basal cell a couple of years ago he said we were going to be very good friends…) I’m rummaging through sermons and monkey mind columns hoping for bits of wisdom that might fit the book. There aren’t lots of people at the tables, but there... Read more

Following our family holiday down to Washington D.C. for the fireworks and then a brief visit to the great Gotham, we’re now back to Providence. We have family plans over the weekend which involve exploring Rhode Island and a quest for the perfect Clam shack. Otherwise I won’t be too far away until the American Zen Teacher’s Association gathering the following weekend. Before taking off Melissa and I were able to send off the ms for the Book of Mu:... Read more

Well, the family vacation is winding down. Spent the night in New York City where we took in the delightful Memphis. But its getting to be that time… Read more

I see that Tenzin Gyatsu, the fourteenth Dalai Lama turns seventy-five today. His Holiness certainly is one of the more attractive figures on the public stage today. Well deserving of his Nobel Peace prize, no doubt. Here in the west those who don’t pay attention to such things often consider him the Buddhist pope. Which, of course, is absolutely not so. Buddhism, while about five hundred years older than Christianity has never had a central authority or one that claims... Read more

The sister reveals my mind during practice, well, except mine features a man cave. Bless the barcalounger and its moral equivalents which some can find even on a zafu… Read more