Welcome to the new home of Wild Fox Zen blog, just moved over to Patheos (click here if you are curious about them) and these good folks have designed the nice new banner above. There are a lot of other religious blogs here at Patheos and so this might allow for some fun with a more diverse group of readers. Jumpin’ into an edge of the market place. Read more

Skeleton performing zazen on waves by Maruyama Okyo, 1787, Daijoji Temple, Hyogo, Japan, lifted from Steve Silberman’s  “What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really?” This from Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement:  “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow... Read more

Friday morning, driving to work in the dark, I listened to a talk by Bodhin Kjolhede of the Rochester Zen Center. Bodhin compares Zen to one of those plastic sheets that art books will sometimes have, that superimpose something on the image.  The Zen plastic overlay, though, is completely transparent. In the process of studying the self, there are lots of contemporary methods that give perspective, that have good stuff on the overlay, that emphasize, organize, and develop a point-of-view. ... Read more

Good thinking from both sides of the brain here (thanks, Ed) with lots of implications for Zen practice and realizing the whole of this incredible life. Read more

We started the introductory class at Dhristi Yoga in White Bear on Thursday. While listening to what brought people to the class and then reflecting on what we offered, what emerged for me freshly is that the most important thing is really not telling people the point of Zen, the posture of sitting, or about developing an open-hearted friendliness for for all of our experience.  Most important (and seemingly rare) is the way-seeking mind expressed by Ikkyu like this: raging... Read more

My dear dog Bodhi and I are back in the several hundred acres of open space near our house. During the summer the swamp rose blocking a key passage but now the water has receded and the ticks have likewise done their seasonal tick thing so are no longer a danger for Bodhi. Taking this shot of the afternoon sun illuminating the afternoon reeds, reminded me of a passage from the rather Verse of the “Universal Gateway” (Fumonbon ge) that... Read more

  Seems like we might be at the edge of something big here – the Occupy Wall Street demonstration is spreading, including to nearby Minneapolis, completely without violence or arrest. The portion of the 99% that I generally agree with are moving to action. Good to see and probably just the beginning of the unrest that is likely to mark the rest of the century or so until we find some new homeostasis on this little blue-dumpling planet.  Everybody knows... Read more

We were up north for a wonderful weekend. Above is the sunrise over Lake Superior.  I love the lake and near environs. 10% of the planet’s fresh water and all.  We are looking for a move in a few years where we could offer Zen practice and so spent some time over the weekend playing with the possibilities of living and practicing near Grand Marais, MN. It’d be a homecoming for me. So if you’re a Zen student living up... Read more

I’m reflecting this morning on how our lives entwine, so much so that it’s clear that our lives are not our lives at all. Mist makes lake.  In the Monday night study group, we’re looking at Dogen’s “Thirty-Seven Wingsof Enlightenment.” The thirty-seven wings are the four foundations of mindfulness, the four proper exertions, the four steps to magical powers, the five roots, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the noble eightfold path.  Here’s the detail: click. Zen... Read more

On the way to work, I listened to an old Katagiri Roshi talk on Dogen’s Baika (Plum Blossoms) and found a few gems. First, Roshi stumbled around trying to remember a poem. “You know,” he said, “the 19th Century French poet.” One of his listeners immediately said, “Rimbaud.”  Clearly, there were more poets in France in the 19th Century … but here’s the poem: It has been found again. What? – Eternity. It is the [sound of the] sea fled... Read more