One very important part of my morning ritual is sitting down with my cup of French Roast and clicking on my favorite blogger Genkaku Sama. Being a professional writer he is easy relaxing reading and what I like most, a tad irreverent on the subject of Buddhism.

In any case he recently posted a piece called Climbing The The Greasy Pole and some of things he mentioned on sesshin silence brought back memories of monastic life. For those not familiar with sesshin it is usually two to five days of d… Continue

Just a word to extend a warm welcome Jim Morgan as our new member. Will be looking forward to your observations and contributions down the road. Please make yer self right at home Jim.

Tamcho

It seems like environmental responsibility is being symbolized by the florescent conversion bulb. I know people that have gone out and bought a few and installed them and then felt satisfied they had done their bit in the fight against global warming. They then went about their business as usual with their hair dryer that will heat a room, the always on computer, the 52" TV, that ever so sheik side by side stainless monolith refrigerator, the electric clothes dryer that attempts to heat the out… Continue

Today in my travels I happened to open what they used to call a "news" paper. You know, that wasteful paper product that actually put the town crier out of business, just as the internet is now putting them out of business. It's that silly assed rag sheet that serves the interests of it's owners and advertisers at the expense of the truth and the interests of the public it alleges to represent. Thank god it is being replaced by the electronic media and most of us are no longer spoon fed the prej… Continue

I was thinking the other day about how we accumulate so much stuff in our heads and wouldn't it be cool if we had a delete button so we could overwrite all that stuff we don't need or want anymore. Old memories, some of which we may very much want to forget perhaps, or just all that silly stuff that floats to the surface during our meditation practice. Ah, but that we could wipe the drive in one swadel foop and see it in it's original clean, elegant uncluttered state. I wonder how many of us wou… Continue