I’m going to give Second Life a whirl and give a talk at Kannonji on Sunday, 6pm CST (UMT -6), November 29. I thinking of talking about studying the self in this virtual environment where identify creation seems so salient.  If you’d like to check it out, here’s how: Click Here to visit Kannonji in Second Life(requires client application install)  The photo is of Kannonji with “my” avatar standing near the altar. My 13-year old son and I have been... Read more

There’s a bunch of themes tugging at me today, including my upcoming talk at Kannoji in Second Life and the Zazenshin book that I’ve started but want to find more time for.  In addition, in the virtual practice period we’ve begun to get into some conflict – necessary and healthy – and are beginning to explore some issues around boundaries in the cyber world. I’ll save that for another day…. In the nonvirtual practice period, we’ve recently had a session... Read more

Here’s webinar 8 on the Genjokoan (click here and when the video roles, click View and Video).  Palpable community development in here in the cyber version of Wild Fox Zen. I’m very encouraged to continue playing in this air. Here’s the passage we’re working this week.  What story from your life illuminates a piece of this? When a fish swims, no matter how far it goes, it doesn’t reach the end of the water.  When a bird flies, no matter... Read more

A practitioner emailed me recently about the flip side of the fear of annihilation – what I see Dogen reassuringly addressing by bringing up in the moon-in-the-water metaphor (click here) – by raising the desire for annihilation: I’m going through one of my cyclical periods where zazen is… unsatisfying… even a bit turbulent: the ‘old black dogs’ from the past are growling at each other a bit down there/up here and I get that grating frustration that comes with the... Read more

Here’s the webinar from this morning: Click here. As usual, after you get the recording going, click View and then Video. We’re working with the following passage this week that points to opening our hearts to a perspective that we haven’t appreciated before – getting ourselves upside-down, if you will. This one is also about getting over our selves and our attainments. [10]When the Dharma has not yet fully penetrated into body and mind, one thinks that one is already... Read more

Above is a copy of the first part of Dogen’s Universal Recommendations for Zazen (Fukanzazengi) reputed to be in Dogen’s own hand. If you’re a Dogen-ophile like me, that’ll make your heart go titter-patter. Really. This is from Mike Cross’ website, The Middle Way. He provides a very clear and concise character study of this very important text and the opportunity to see the meaning inside the words.  I got into this last night while preparing for Saturday’s webinar and... Read more

Retreived my bike from the repair shop today and road around Bald Eagle Lake for the first time in a couple weeks – a very smooth and cool zip. Minnesota turns golden this time of year as you can see above. This week in the 100-days practice we begin to focus on the culminating passages from Dogen’s Genjokoan, including this call to realization:  When a person attains realization, it is like the moon reflecting on the water….In order to investigate... Read more

First, sorry about the weird formatting here. I “upgraded” to the new blogger and am struggling with it. We have a couple day sesshin here at Transforming Through Play, starting in a few hours and going through Sunday morning. We’ll focus on the next part of the of the Genjokoan work: Investigate: Is water great or small and discerning the width or narrowness of the moon in the sky. Sound like fun? Along these lines, this morning I worked on first chapter of my upcoming book (due out in 2014 if I work really hard at it).... Read more

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf Here’s a film from TED: Ideas Worth Spreading that I found on Irina’s blog – wonderful dharma presentation! Check it out. Read more

For my sweet 16th birthday, my oldest sister (I’ve got five) gave me Alan Watts’ Way of Zen. I devoured it and then immediately put it on my bookshelf for about five years and had a freaky kind of feeling whenever I’d see it there. The message I received was that Zen was about destroying the self and it scared the hell out of me. Now in the 100 days practice session we’re investigating and practicing this part of the... Read more