In my email this morning, I find this question: “How does one become one with Mu?” There is no way, really, and each of us must find the way.  Indeed, a common experience while working with mu, is for mu to seem like the island in the Pirates of the Caribbean film that you can’t find unless you’ve already been there. Fortunately, each of us and all living beings is already there. At the same time, there are many pointers... Read more

I was driving to a doctor appointment ten years ago when I heard on NPR about the first hit in New York and remember the ache in my chest that returns as I consider this again. Nevertheless, I’m reluctant to beat the drum for 9/11. There has been such manipulation in the name of the dead. And maybe some good – more “democracies” and some impact even that may have influenced the Arab Spring. And such cost. According to a... Read more

Yesterday I found the end of the rainbow. Turns out that it’s just north of here, near the eastern shore of Otter Lake. Who’d a thought? Meanwhile on this Labor Day, I’m getting ready for another school year, hopeful that lots of the alienated young people will find us and that we’ll meet them. Also struck this morning by the news of stock markets dropping worldwide, the likelihood of a deeper recession, and all the fallout that’ll have. So many... Read more

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf “By the end of this year there will be a billion people on this planet that actively use social networking sites. The one thing they all have in common is that they’re going to die.”  So begins Adam Ostrow’s fleeting TED talk.  One implication of where the technology’s going: the more you put out there, the more accurate will be your post-mortem, computer generated blog simulation. Imagine, Wild Fox Zen and Monkey Mind, etc., off-gassing for eternity! The holographic... Read more

Click the picture for Jon Stewart’s scathing rebuke of Fox News criticism of Warren B. Read more

After a nice dinner last night in Stillwater, G and I took a stroll by the St. Croix River. As we crossed the street at the point in the above photo (except that it was 9:30pm and dark), we heard someone calling for help. A large, heavy-set man rumbled toward us from a big truck. He spoke in a thick accent, maybe Russian, explaining that he was told to take Highway 36 to 95 to 64 across the St. Croix... Read more

“Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth…When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:4, 7. So begins Terrance Malik’s newest film, The Tree of Life. Great flick! The film is more about fleeting mood – from awe to near patricide and the subtle affective message of mood itself than any other narrative. Except maybe the play of fundamental and in-our-face daily life. The beyond-words wonder of the... Read more

Don’t think I’ve gone two weeks without a blog post since I started this thing 3+ years ago. My energy has been elsewhere, jumping into a new job. There’s a rising awareness (check out the NPR series here) about drop-out kids and the impacts that dropping out has on them and everyone. Even in Minnesota where we think we’re all so above average, we have only a 65% graduation rate. 3,800 young people drop out of high school every year... Read more

I’m back from a sweet vacation, mostly lounging in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. This was an especially timely trip because I start a new job on Monday (working with teenagers on the edge as usual). I am a great lover of Lake Superior and deeply enjoyed the Maha Lake from this new perspective. The Keweenaw is largely and wonderfully uninhabited so we had miles of beautiful sand beaches with few other humanoids in sight.  And Bodhi enjoyed it... Read more

Above is Zen teacher Bomun (a.k.a., George Bowman, successor of Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim and long-time student of Sasaki Roshi).  My 14-year-old son just got up for breakfast (at 12:24pm), saw me working on this post and said, “Wow, that’s one bad-ass looking dude.” Don’t minimize this point. It is a comment from someone who spends a good part of his day in various cyber battles with horrific creatures. Let me emphasize – don’t take his comment lightly!  It... Read more