Wild Beast Jerky
Here’s an Oldie But Goodie that seems appropriate to re-run today. Thanks to Chris Burnham for reminding me. I’m on my way to Ohio for two (2!) big events this weekend in Cleveland and Kent (scroll down for details). See you there! *** I have no idea what Zen is or how it should be […]
Challenging Cherished Beliefs
This morning a reader forwarded me an open letter written by Lichen Brown to the folks in charge of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) about her father Ed Espe Brown. The letter can be read via Ed Brown’s website, Peaceful Sangha. More on the case including SFZC’s response can be found at this link. […]
Inclusivity in Zen
American Zen people enjoy wringing their hands about inclusivity. The demographic at Zen centers in America tends to skew mostly white. This leads some people to make the absurd assumption that white people dominate Zen. In fact, white people are a tiny minority of Zen practitioners. The vast majority of Zennies are Japanese, Korean, Thai, […]
Retreating from Judge Kavanaugh
Someone brought up the Judge Kavanaugh hearings during the talk and discussion period after zazen at our Zen thing at Angel City Zen Center this past Saturday. I wasn’t the speaker that day. I don’t remember who brought up Kavanaugh. But I was there, so I used my veto power and said, “Uhhh… I think […]
Religulous Beliefs
I finally watched Bill Maher’s movie Religulous last night. Only ten years too late! But nothing much has changed in terms of what I want to say about it. Bill Maher and like-minded people such as Richard Dawkins always make the same complaints about religions. They attack the religion’s cosmogony — its myths, its creation story, […]
