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Joshu Sasaki

I heard this morning that Joshu Sasaki Roshi, founder of the Mt. Baldy Zen Center, passed away on Sunday July 27th at the age of 107. I found this out just a few hours after I arrived in Portland to visit my friend Logan who has stage four esophageal cancer. I decided I should post something […]

What Should We Think About Death?

The video above has been making the rounds of the Internets lately. It’s narrated by Stephen Fry and put together by the British Humanist Association. It’s titled “What Should We Think About Death?” The basic message is that we’re all going to die and none of us really knows if there’s an afterlife or not. […]

Will Enlightenment Save The World?

Last week, Malaysian Airlines flight 17 was shot down over the Ukraine. Most of the people who died on board were Dutch citizens headed for Amsterdam. I have a lot of Dutch friends these days. I’ve been doing talks in the Netherlands each year for the past four years and I’m going back again in […]

Classic Punk Rock Drummer Passes Away

Classic Punk Rock Drummer Passes Away

Last week, the world was saddened to learn of the death of Tommy Ramone, the Ramones’ original drummer and last surviving founding member of the group. But few knew that just over a week before Tommy Ramone died, the world lost another drummer from an early punk rock band. On July 3, 2014 Mark McKelvey, […]

Focusing on Nothingness and Apatosauruses

Here’s a variation on my most frequently asked question. It’s a pretty good version, so I’m answering it on the blog: “When sitting zazen, if thoughts come to you and you begin to focus on them instead of ‘nothingness’, how do you deal? Do you ever let thoughts take full shape and form or do […]