Last night I decided to log in and join my zen sangha’s Wednesday night meditation group. Every week there is a different theme for the meditation, and last night’s was loving-kindness. I haven’t been feeling much loving-kindness these days. Quite the opposite, really. So I wasn’t sure I wanted to…
Category: Zen
Blog
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Blog – 6.12.24
A few weeks ago I read this article in TIME Magazine about why obesity is rare in Japan. The whole thing was interesting, and it’s definitely worth considering how the Japanese lifestyle choices differ from ours. But for me, this was the real money quote: Western cooking, he said, is…
Blog
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Blog 5.22.24
This evening I have the opportunity to lead our koan meditation group, and I spent some time yesterday selecting a koan for us to consider. After reading several, I decided upon Jizo’s “Not Knowing is Most Intimate” as translated in The Book of Equanimity by Gerry Shishin Wick: Attention! Master…
Creativity
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Writing as an Embodied Practice
After several months of valiantly trying to turn out a consistent word count I realized I had jumped into the deep end of the pool before I knew how to swim. This is not unusual for me. I’m known for foolishly running headlong into impossible challenges. But this time, something was different. Writing a novel isn’t just a random creative impulse, it’s a lifelong dream. I was crestfallen to discover that I sucked at it.
Interview with Rose Aslan on Rahma With Rose Podcast
Last month I had the immense pleasure of being interviewed by Dr. Rose Aslan, host of the Rahma With Rose podcast. I hope you’ll have a listen – especially if you are a person who has struggled with religious and/or spiritual abuse. Listen to the episode here.
Zen
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The Moon is in the Sky
We are all like Chiyono to some degree or another. Carrying around a rickety bucket, anxious that it will break at any moment, and convinced that we hold the moon in our hands. But of course, this is a lie. The moon is not in the bucket at all.
Mental Health
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Life is Good.
What I realized this year is that the purpose of life is simply to be alive. Fully. At all times, in all moments. To meet each living thing with respect and camaraderie, recognizing that we are all struggling in some way or another; offering relief without cost; receiving support without shame.
Religion
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Heaven is a Place on Earth
My budding Zen practice has helped me recenter and reorient my whole self – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual – around the idea that we are not some separate, special creation made in the image of some male-centric, authority figure modeled on patriarchal, tribal cultures.