zen

Calligraphy by Hakuin. Above the character “Virtue” it reads: “If you pile up money for your children and grandchildren, they won’t be able to hold onto it. If you pile up books for your children and grandchildren, they won’t read any of them. No, th

DHARMA REALM BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY 4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@drbu.edu, www.drbu.edu • Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an accredited university in northern California dedicated to liberal education in the broad Bud

I have just set up camp on a rock ledge when all hell breaks loose. A violent windstorm suddenly sweeps out of the Panhandle, shaking my tent like an earthquake, and me with it. I step out to check the ropes anchoring the tent and blowing sand fills

4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@drbu.edu, www.drbu.edu • Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an accredited university in northern California dedicated to liberal education in the broad Buddhist tradition. 3436 Divisadero

In Conversation with Joseph Goldstein By Gail Stark Wisdom Publications 2020; 256 pp., $18.95 (paper) Joseph Goldstein is a key founder of the Insight Meditation movement in the West; Gail Stark, a businesswoman, has been his friend and student for m

The characters are like hungry ghosts, says ROD MEADE SPERRY, endlessly consuming liquor, drugs—and each other. WHEN WE THINK OF Matthew Weiner’s game-changing AMC series Mad Men, what do we picture? Smoking, suits, and sex. (Not to mention sexism.)

I WAS RAISED IN YORK County, Pennsylvania. My extended family are ethnically Pennsylvania Dutch, and I was steeped in that culture as a child. My relatives were mostly farmers and factory laborers. I attended the University of Texas, focusing on anth

4300 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 665-4300, Fax: (323) 665-4404, service@againstthestream.org, www.againstthestream.org • Founded by Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx, Against The Stream has two centers in Los Angeles and Santa Monica o

DHARMA REALM BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY 4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@drbu.edu, www.drbu.edu • Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is an accredited university in northern California dedicated to liberal education in the broad Bud

I WAS BORN IN FLORIDA and grew up surrounded by woods in an isolated community. Where we lived, people didn’t ask whether you went to church—they asked where you went to church. I had my own horse, and was close with my great-grandmother Rose, a form

Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN By Tara Brach Viking 2019; 288 pp., $28 (cloth) Radical Compassion begins with a hospice worker observing that the greatest regret of the dying can be summed up as: “I wish I’d had th

IN BERKELEY DURING the sixties, “shacking up” was one of the most common forms of dating. Getting married was considered old-fashioned—and not in a good way. My future husband and I were living together as we finished our undergraduate degrees in 196

HAD SOMEONE TOLD Susan O’Connell, when she started her Zen journey over thirty years ago, that one day the San Francisco Zen Center would be a partner in a retirement community, she would have politely questioned their sanity. And yet today that very

Five years ago I began preparations to receive jukai. This is a Zen ritual in which I would commit to live by the Buddhist precepts and formally step into the lineage that I’d been part of at Upaya Zen Center, under the guidance of Roshi Joan Halifax

AGAINST THE STREAM BUDDHIST MEDITATION SOCIETY 4300 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 665-4300, Fax: (323) 665-4404, service@againstthestream.org, www.againstthestream.org • Against The Stream has two centers in Los Angeles and Santa Monica o

Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight University of Hawai‘i Press 2,256 pages (3 volumes); $90 Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight is Paul Swanson’s English translation of the Mohe zhiguan (Jpn., Maka shikan; literally, “great calming and insight”), a massive comp

Homage to Jizo Bodhisattva, protector of those crossing over, guardian of children who have died, comforter of loved ones struggling on the path of crossing over from this life and those who grieve their deaths; homage to your great vow and to the fe

THIS SUMMER, while visiting my friend and close dharma sister, Rev. Dana Takagi, I encountered the teaching of Daikoku. A fellow Soto Zen teacher and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Takagi had recently ret

ZENJU EARTHLYN MANUEL is a Soto Zen priest and founder of Still Breathing Zen Sangha. She is the author of Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging as well as The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender. S

We live in a world more connected than ever. But all this connection leaves many of us feeling stressed. These energising tips stemming from the ancient Japanese art of Zen are the perfect remedy. First practised over 1,000 years ago, Zen is one of t