We’ve been using Diane Eshin Rizzetto’s excellent book, Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion in our current precept study for Wild Fox students and for those in the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training. I think I can speak for the group and say we’ve found considerable utility in Rizzetto’s working of the precepts. She’s very grounded, in-the-world, and has a keen eye for the psychological or... Read more

Over at Nyoho Zen, Koun has written another engaging blog post, “My Teacher Doesn’t Get Me.” I found myself in agreement throughout, even thought I’d made some of the same points before. But then I got to reflecting on what I actually do. More on that in a moment. First, what does Koun have to say? Here’s a little snippet (selected specifically because it sets up my somewhat different perspective): In a conversation between student and teacher, what is said?... Read more

About a month ago, I stumbled on this well-done essay on residential Zen training, The Freedom of No-Choice, by Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, and posted it on the moodle that we use for the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training. My purpose was to expose Vine householder students to residential practice, if just through reading, in order to inform our work together … and to stir things up, of course. Bodhin’s article has indeed evoked reflection and heartfelt responses... Read more

That’s me and Haju Sunin at the Ann Arbor Buddhist Temple a few years back. Somehow they’ve decided to invite me back and so I’ll be there for a workshop on Saturday, October 26, 9am-3pm, and then on the following day for their Sunday dharma talk at 10am : Giving, Kind Speech, Beneficial-Action, and Identity-Action: A Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance In this workshop, we’ll focus on cultivating virtue, an essential – and often overlooked – aspect of the dharma... Read more

Here’s a very odd thing about Zen practice – a lot of the time, especially the first ten years or so, most of us most of the time are stuck. What kind of a hinky path is that? It’s supposed to be a path, after all, something that goes from here to there. And there’s the rub. In Keep Me in Your Heart a While (described by one reader as “… the best, least read Zen book of the decade”... Read more

Dear James Ford on and in his Monkey Mind has raised the issue of money and dharma in his recent post, Fee for Service Buddhism: A Small Meditation on Money and the Dharma. James cites several blogs that also wrangle with this issue and I have spent time browsing in that varied field. And, dang, the way some people talk to each other on the web. Good lord buddha. Can’t we all just get along? Unlike the monk in the photo,... Read more

“The future’s uncertain and the end is always near,” a line from the Door’s “Roadhouse Blues,” has been on my mind these past days. My little brother, you see, went into the hospital last week having trouble breathing and a couple days later found out that he has multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. Driving to work the morning after I found out, I played the Doors – really loud – working through the anger stage, I suppose. “The end is... Read more

What’s the point of study in Dogen Zen? Given my Dogenophile disposition, I’m asked this question from time to time, and especially now that I’m developing an online study program, Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training (which is full, btw, so if you’re interested in doing this work, stayed tuned for openings or contact me in a couple months). The point, of course, is practicing enlightenment. You might wonder, “How the heck does reading some illogical stuff contribute... Read more

During a recent bunch of practice meetings with students in Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training, I started taking some notes – just a phrase or two that struck me. Here’s the list of things I could read afterwards: “I don’t have anything earth shattering to report.” “Oh, I had kind of a weird experience in zazen today….” “I was just sitting singing the song of poor me….” “All day sitting.” “Working with koans just makes me happy.”... Read more