Yakushi the Medicine Buddha by Enku, 17th Century My friend Sister Petra is a Christian nun who also practices Zen Buddhism with our sangha. A few months ago she told me, “During the pandemic, I’ve been praying for everybody who’s sick, in body, mind, or spirit.” I was moved by this, and it has continued […]
zen
The Last Days of Summer
God is the original face before I was born. The lost part of my brain, drifting across beginninglesslifetimes, bobbing in the embryonic fluid. God is tortoise tracks and prayers bya beachside grave and the last daysof summer. Why the universe is so hot,crowded, and noisy, yet arrives quietly each lonely evening, on my doorstep, a bouquet of suffocating tulips. George […]
Budding Buddha: A Conversation with Artist James Stanford
James Stanford, “Budding Buddha.” From artfixdaily.com James Stanford is a longtime Buddhist artist with a distinct aesthetic and inspiration. Last November, he donated his “Budding Buddha” art to the Art for Tibet exhibit and auction at Gallery Eight in New York, which was organized by Students for a Free Tibet. Can you describe a bit your background in […]
Zen and the Art of Dying
I remember when the thought of dying became real to me. I was 24 years old, serving a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Marines. It was my squad’s turn to act as the quick reaction force (QRF) for our base. QRF is like the 911 of a forward-deployed unit. They’re on standby 24/7, […]
The Blankness of Being
(Inspired by the Zen masters of China) Consciousnessis too freeLike the stars in outer space and the severed head of Kalisweeping away dustforevermaking death howlknowing that we do not want to be in churchLike being buried alive in the same place where we beganas if we had never existed at all. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from […]
Spiritual Melodies: Tully MacKay-Tisbert
The landscape of America is dotted with Christian influences, from the lamentations of oppression and hope of liberation that fused with African influences to form the melancholy blues, to the Christian rock that arose in the 1960s to become a formidable force of conversion in mega-churches. It is extraordinary that the culture of a republic […]
Postcard from Raymond: Merton’s Theology of the Problematic
My colleague Justin Whitaker has just published news about the 50th anniversary of the Catholic monk and writer Thomas Merton. It is no surprise that Buddhists have joined Christians in commemorating his life. I admired Merton to the point of making his work one half of my BA thesis, which was a Buddhist-Christian dialogue between […]
Thinking of that other-other Suzuki: Beatrice Lane
Beatrice Lane Kamakura, 1915. Today I read a student essay which cited B.L. Suzuki. I was intrigued. B.L.? In college I learned about two giants of 20th century Buddhism: Shunryu Suzuki and D.T. Suzuki. I remember many times mixing them up or naively conflating them into a single person. I later did the same with […]
Zen and the Art of Kindness
The second noble truth states that suffering is caused by desire. Generally this is understood to mean that the things we want cause us suffering either by not living up to our expectations or by causing us pain when they inevitably go away. This is an accurate assessment, and a good first step in understanding the […]
The Way of Zen
The Way of Zen is to climb the flattest place on earth. To become a geologic paradox. To crack into the earth, like a creative carving of erosion. The way of Zen is when fire meets ice, like a thundering waterfall made quiet by the sacred nature of rocks. This poem was also published in The […]