Go away with no string on your straw sandals. —Dogen Zenji Today I left home and arrived home. I wedged the door of the turtlebus closed with a stick, and rode the ferry across the Salish Sea. Home to the Appias, Apt. 306. Home to my storage locker full of clothes and photographs and love …
Category: Zen & Dharma
The circle of the way
Mindfulness and a respectful heart in each moment are applied equally in meditation and other daily activities incuding work, interaction with others, and cleansing one’s body. Practicing and living in this way helps us to clearly see, understand, and value what is right before us as none other than the wholeness of life itself. As …
Commitment is a process of perpetual self-forgiveness
By the time I landed on this tiny wee island three weeks ago I had managed to slightly psych myself out. The Project (previously known as “the Book”) seemed by turns foolish and daunting and trivial and overambitious, narcissistic and deluded. I was calling myself all sorts of names. Then, I remembered that commitment is …
Delusions are inexhaustible
Bodhisattva Vow #2: Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to transform them. This is about cutting through the bullshit. My own bullshit. The bullshit that started the moment I was born, when I was a tiny perfect baby and someone said, “don’t cry!” And somewhere in my little baby brain the thought formed, that I should …
Saving all beings
Bodhisattva Vow #1: Beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Save all beings? Whoa. That’s just a bit over the top. The word ‘saving’ makes me squirm, visualizing Jehova’s Witnesses at the door. Superheroes flying down from the sky to scoop up the sick and the downtrodden. There’s a lot ego wrapped up in …