A New Year’s Koan
From SHINJI SHOBOGENZO translated by Gudo Wafu Nishijima and Michael Leutchford: One day a monk asked Master Kyosei Dofu of Ryusaku Temple in the Ko district: Is the first day of the New Year related to Buddhism? The Master said: Yes it is. The monk said: What is the Buddhist teaching about New Year’s Day? […]
The Universe is Born and Dies With You
I’m not precisely sure what the material I am offering for this week’s blog post is. It may be notes I made for one of my YouTube videos. It may be notes I made for use in my forthcoming book. Maybe it’s both! For many years I have noticed that a lot of my favorite […]
Why Do We Always End Up Back Here?
When I write books I always cut stuff out that I think is good. Sometimes it just doesn’t fit with the rest of a particular chapter. Sometimes I feel like I said the same thing already. Sometimes I feel like it’s good but it interrupts the flow. There are lots of reasons things get cut […]
Collective Karma and Conservative Buddhists
Last week I put up a video titled “Collective Karma and Conservative Buddhists.” Before I made that video, I typed out what I wanted to say. Here’s what I typed out for myself. I didn’t follow this script precisely, but what I said on the video was pretty similar. Tomorrow some kind of online forum […]
The Beer O’Clock Interview 2005
The following is a radio interview I did in Montreal in 2005 with Thibault DuChene. Thibault was then a grad student in psychology who was very interested in Zen. He was a student of Albert Low, a Zen teacher and author based in Montreal. Thibault also ran a radio show called The Beer O’Clock for […]
