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Zen for Aliens

I’m a science fiction fan. I’m one of those guys who can tell you why Star Wars is not science fiction but Star Trek is. I can even argue why the original Star Trek is more truly science fiction than Next Generation, which often ignored the sci-fi stuff to become even more of soap opera […]

Why I Do Zazen

I’m flying on a big iron bird through the sky. Below me is Lake Michigan. I’ll be in New York City in an hour and a half. I’m on my way for a series of talks and public appearances (see the list below). In fact, there’s one more public appearance on Monday that’s not even […]

Fondling the President’s Poodle

I’m going to San Francisco this weekend! See the end of this article for details! Sometimes get emails asking if there’s some special “Zen” way of dealing with obsessive or recurring thoughts. When I get questions like this, there’s usually no way of knowing exactly who is asking. So I don’t know if I’m corresponding […]

What Kind of Guy Was Dogen?

What Kind of Guy Was Dogen?

My new book, Don’t Be a Jerk, alternates between paraphrases of Dogen’s Shobogenzo, an 800-year old Japanese Buddhist classic, and short chapters about topics related to studying Dogen, the author. I wrote a few chapters that I cut out before publication. They just seemed not to fit somehow. But a couple of them are still […]

SCIENCE AGREES!!!!

Whenever I read a headline that screams about how SCIENCE AGREES with anything Buddhist I cringe. Does this only happen with Buddhism? I guess there must be Fundamentalist Christian websites boldly declaring that science agrees the Earth is just 6000 years old. I doubt there are a lot of other religions out there grabbing up […]