Do You Want to Solve the Problem or Do You Want to Be Right ?
Often when I look at politics, and in particular the way people argue about political matters on social media or in YouTube videos and suchlike, I think, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to solve the problem?” The folks I’m looking at are usually deeply concerned with some issue — like […]
Life is Analog, not Digital
We have a strong tendency to try to eliminate nuance. Things are one way or they are the other. There is no in between. This is a real problem right now in Western society, particularly in the United States. I’ve been reading Stephen Batchelor’s excellent new book After Buddhism and I came across this […]
Securing Our Borders
According to an article titled The Personality of Political Correctness by Scott Barry Kaufman on the Scientific American website, “The thinking of Jacques Derrida has been particularly influential on university campuses in America. Derrida criticized the psychological process of categorization, suggesting that making any divisions is itself an act of motivated exclusion, serving the interests […]
I Vow Not to Destabilize Society
Starting soon, Angel City Zen Center will have a monthly Full Moon Ceremony. This is basically a Jukai ceremony, except rather than individuals taking the precepts, the entire community renews their commitment to them together. In both Jukai and the Full Moon Ceremony, participants make a public vow to devote themselves to Buddha, Dharma, and […]
The Zen of Fripp
Before I got into Zen, there were a few people outside the world of Zen who influenced my worldview in deep and significant ways. A lot of my understanding of Zen comes not from within the Zen tradition, but from these outsiders. The main ones would be novelists Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K Dick, and […]
