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. […]
Can You Do What is Right Without Belief?
The following is the first draft of a chapter for my new book. I just wrote it yesterday. I’m not sure why, but I feel like sharing it. Is it clear? I want to take a little digression here before we go on to the rest of the Eightfold Path. Because one way that the […]
Freedom, Equality, & Justice
A commenter on my YouTube channel asked if I’d do a video about the Buddhist views on contemporary ethical values such as freedom, equality, and justice. When I thought about doing a video on these topics, I thought it could easily turn into a political discussion. It might even turn into a big argument. And […]
Prayer in Zen
Someone asked me, “What about prayer? Or perhaps, what do you think of prayer in the context of buddhism at large, the zen tradition and your own life?” Here’s my answer: Prayer is a funny thing to me. I wasn’t raised in a religious family, so I don’t have a whole lot of experience with […]
