I’m the one who got pulled off the bus today. I had just spent a week in Vancouver visiting with my very sick friend Robin. I was going back to Seattle to catch my return flight to New Mexico, to finish out my time at Upaya. What are you doing in Santa Fe?, the US …
Being with Robin
I finally stepped out of the SkyTrain after the long journey from Santa Fe. I walked over the Grandview Cut and all all my pores opened wide , my lungs filling with moist forest air. After five months in the desert I felt like a parched epiphyte coming home. I am in Vancouver for a …
New Year’s Renunciations
Renunciation! Now there is one scary word. Joyless ascetics giving up all worldly pleasures. Shaven-headed cave-dwellers. Celibacy. Ugh. Well I am thinking, never mind the resolutions that stem from feelings of failure and inadequacy. New Years is a great time for renunciation, and so I renounce all the hindrances that hold me back from shining …
Zen in a napkin: how oryoki kicked my ass
My first Zen sesshin introduced me to oryoki: the Japanese ritual of extreme table manners. For the full week of sesshin we sit zazen meditation for upwards of five hours a day, plus walking meditation and dharma talks. We eat all our meals in the zendo, oryoki style—seated on the floor on our round …