Poetry and prose from Zen teacher dogo
travel
Of Prayer Flags and Yak Cheese: Diane Barker’s “Portraits of Tibet”
An extraordinary new photo book documenting the daily lives of Tibet’s last nomads
Halloween Rising
Halloween rising,and I’m riding shotgunwith an incandescent raver girlat the wheeland a junkie on the back seatwhen the bars are closingand the desert a mirrorof the moon — Phoenix, Arizona, 2007
Florida Bound
Chasing them Across an emptyField, honking allThe way, he ranFaster than I did It’s finally late October And I feel left behind.
Yet I Am No Brahmin
The shadow of her eyes, a Volcanic ash, timberwolf grey,on the ribbed and barren seabedof a valley before the pyramids. 5,343 feet above the scent of moonshine and charred balsam, clothedin a milky ash, the air is radioactively alive. Like watercress it breaks with a crisp bite – a blade of galactic time,bathed and blended in boiled arrowroot. […]
Realizing anatta (non-self) through Travel
Visiting home. Such a strange thing, to visit one’s home. In this case a period I spent in Montana from 2015-2018. I am no stranger to travels. Despite a youth spent almost exclusively in the rural state of Montana, at age 24 I moved to Bristol, England for a Masters degree in Buddhist Studies. Afterward I […]
A Buddhist Cosmopolitanism
It should make us realize people unlike us were humans just like us, and replace superstition and suspicion—the pillars of tribalism—with curiosity and compassion.”
My wee bit Hill and Glen
Nina with family in Switzerland. “Where are you from?” This question is often asked by new acquaintances, and it is not always easy to answer. To me, it often feels like I am being thrown a Zen Buddhist koan! I was born and grew up in Switzerland. Because, over there, citizenship is not automatically granted […]
Buddhist Media: Jesco Puluj’s Search for Paths Less Travelled
What does it mean to be a follower of the Buddha’s path? The Enlightened One was, after all, the Prime Wanderer, the First Monk. His life, no matter how shadowy from a historical perspective, defines how we see Buddhism and its subsequent presence in human history. In theory, he is not really unique at all, […]
Global Travels, Local Practice
This month I am far from my birth home in Montana and my adoptive home in Seattle. I am in China, currently in a monastery outside of Ningbo called “Golden Mountain.” As I told a friend recently when discussing my travels, there is a saying, attributed to Native American wisdom, that a person should not […]