From the Cushion

I love etymology- the study of words and how they grow and change and move across time and through cultures. Through an understanding of their

Woke up. This morning. Easily. Rested. So lithely alive. Sweet, after a month of wretched asthma. Breathing deeply, ahhhh. And I thought, if I were

A few years ago, when I was feeling really out of sorts, my psychologist recommended getting out in the garden and pulling up some weeds.

In spring of 2018, our Abbot traveled to Kyoto. Click here to read his travel blog. 

Peace isn’t luck for six years stand facing a silent wall until the you of your face melts like a candle –Ikkyu   Don’t wait

This month in America we celebrate our freedom and independence. But according to Buddhism, we are not as free or as independent as we might

I’m re-reading a book I first read as a monk in training – “The Gift of Fire” by Richard Mitchell.  It’s a book about thinking

Earlier this month I led a retreat at North Carolina Zen Center, where I started my Zen practice 28 years ago.  Among the participants were

Ten years ago we started a Children’s Program at the Zen Center.   We’ve done all kinds of fun things over that decade – lots of

Traditionally, when a monk or nun enters the Buddhist order, they vow to uphold the many precepts; that is, to behave properly. This has traditionally

That’s what I was taught during my training at Mt. Baldy Zen Center. It didn’t matter what your past was. It didn’t matter what mistakes you’d

As a landscape laborer in high school, I couldn’t believe the amount my boss told me to prune back bushes. “They’ll grow back better this way,” he