So far we’ve raised $8343 for the Great Tides Zen launch. We declare this fundraiser a complete, wonderful, 100% success! Pretty darn good, even, for a new little start up. Our goal, you may remember, was to raise $10,000 and we raised 83.43% of that. So what’s this about a 100% success? For this we rely on Dogen, of course, who declared in his piece on Kannon, “When what should be presented is presented, someone expressing eighty or ninety percent should be... Read more

Ross Bolleter, a Zen teacher in the Aitken-Tarrant line who teaches mainly in Australia, has a fine new book on Dongshan’s Five Ranks. This book will be the constant companion of students who take up the Five Ranks (or Five Modes if you prefer the less hierarchical language) deep in koan introspection or really anyone interested in the system. Most importantly, Bolleter speaks from inside the ranks – not from the scholarly chair of idle speculation. Now some apologists for... Read more

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Recently, at the end of a long day of sorting and packing and hauling (omg, the hauling and stacking!) for our big move from house/zendo to our Portland, ME, Great Tides Zen destination for July 1, I opened up Dogen’s Extensive Record and a lovely koan lept from the page as if I’d never encountered it before. This one doesn’t occur in any of what have become the standard collections. Dogen found it in the Shumon Toyoshu (Collection of the... Read more

Several years ago my parents celebrated their 60th anniversary. Tetsugan asked them, “How did you stay together all these years? What’s your secret?” Without batting an eye, my mom said, “We didn’t think we had a choice.” That’s meaningful on many levels and striking to me that now we have so many choices. One that has been emerging from the shadows lately – now that being gay and lesbian is trendy – is polyamory. It’s even the hot topic in... Read more

This is the fifth installment of six in the Plum Blossom series, based on talks Katagiri Roshi gave for Rohatsu, 1988 – his last Rohatsu before cancer and death on March 1, 1990. You can view the other installments here: Plum Blossoms I, Plum Blossoms II, Plum Blossoms III, and Plum Blossoms IV. Like everything, this is a collaboration by many. Once again, David Casacuberta kindly transcribed the talks and is now really getting Katagiri Roshi’s English. I have again edited... Read more

“Zen Won’t Save You” is the title of the talk that Tetsugan and I will be offering on Tuesday, April 1st, from 7pm to 8:30pm, at the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church, 524 Allen Ave., Portland, Maine. “Zen Won’t Save You?” Yesterday I was working on our new web site for Great Tides Zen with Paul, a Zen student and our web guy. When we reviewed the events page with “Zen Won’t Save You,” he said something like, “You do terrible marketing! You... Read more

On this 24th Memorial of Katagiri Roshi’s death, I offer his “Plum Blossoms IV” to you, dear reader. You can view the other installments here: Plum Blossoms I, Plum Blossoms II, and Plum Blossoms III). Once again, David Casacuberta poured his big heart into the transcribing (thank you, David!) and someone who vaguely resembles the guy on the left (me on my homeleaving day in 1984 with Katagiri Roshi) again made a mess of it by doing the editing. “Plum... Read more

My contribution to Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, Spring 2014, is now out and available. Click here for a bit of a tease. And subscribe if you’d like the whole piece. There’s also an interesting looking piece on the teacher-student relationship and with Koun Franz now involved with Buddhadharma, I’m expecting some really good things from this journal. By the way, my “balanced view” about cybersanghas is creating a bit of a stir in our Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for... Read more