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 […]
The One Thing
In his essay Bendowa (A Talk About Pursuing the Truth) Dogen says: Zazen, even if it is only one human being sitting for one moment, thus enters into mystical cooperation with all dharmas, and completely penetrates all times; and it therefore performs, within the limitless universe, the eternal work of the Buddha’s guiding influence in […]
Some Reflections on Recent News
Before you ask, “Where are the supposed majority of moderate Muslims denouncing terrorism?” it might be useful to ask, “Where are the supposed majority of moderate Republicans denouncing Donald Trump?” It’s so easy for a religion, a political party, a race, a culture, a sexual preference, or just about anything to get hijacked by assholes, […]
Frank Zappa’s House
Frank Zappa’s house is up for auction on eBay. Alex Winter, Bill S. Preston from the Bill and Ted movies, is making a documentary about Frank Zappa and the Zappa family is giving their full cooperation. As part of their efforts to make the documentary happen, they are letting Alex auction off their family home. […]