The Origin of Greed Hate and Delusion
Someone asked me where greed, hate, and delusion come from. Here’s how I answered. Where do greed, hate, and delusion come from? People have been working on that question for centuries! My guess is that it’s rooted in the very existence of the separate self. Now, there’s self and there’s Self. There are Buddhist teachings […]
Gummy Bears for Dinner and LARPing Zen
Last night at the Angel City Zen Center’s usual Monday meeting the folks there got into a discussion about LARPing Zen. LARP stands for “live action role playing.” Google’s online dictionary defines this as “a type of interactive role-playing game in which the participants portray characters through physical action, often in costume and with props.” […]
What Makes Someone a Zen Buddhist?
Here’s a question from the mail bag: What makes someone a Zen Buddhist? Perhaps, for I assume many others that come from Western Christianity, it is a holdover idea that we have to meet some kind of bar that makes us “valid” or “true believers.” Would it be someone who does zazen, follows the Eightfold […]
The Colors of the Mind
From my forthcoming book: Anyway, next Dogen delivers another one of my favorite lines in the essay. He says, “Thus, the colors of the mind excited by a flower or the moon should not be seen as self at all, but we think of them as our self.” And he concludes the section by saying, […]
Responding to Fear
Someone asked me how to respond to people that you know and care about when they seem hooked on fear-based ideas about life. He asked how to answer people in day to day situations when the conversation ends up about the state of the world right now — especially people who are not practicing Buddhism. […]
