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December 2025

December 27, 2025

The Suchness of Crows: The Zen teachings of Two Koans

The following is the talk my friend Roshi Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer gave at our...

September 2025

September 21, 2025

Yogi Chen & Chinese Vajrayana: A Personal Account

My friend Ken Ireland wrote this memoir of his encounters with the Chinese Vajrayana teacher...

September 07, 2025

Zen and the Dance of Not Knowing

My dear friend the Roshi Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer, currently guiding teacher of the Empty Moon...

September 05, 2025

Zen, Unitarian Universalism, and a Writer’s Life

Nineteen years ago on the 5th of September, 2006, at 12:53pm (Eastern time), I posted...

September 02, 2025

What is a Zen Koan?

The Case Zhaozhou visited a hermit. He asked, “Is anybody in? Anybody in?” The hermit...

July 2025

July 08, 2025

Mahayana Buddhism 101

“One is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths: All...

June 2025

June 21, 2025

Faith, Christian and Buddhist. And One More Step

Changsha sent a student of the intimate to ask Master Hui, “What about before you...

May 2025

May 27, 2025

Zen at the End of Religion

When I was notified that my first book, published as This Very Moment, and a second...

May 03, 2025

Zen, Sangha, Authentic Spiritual Community

(I had the privilege of reading Teshin Matthew Sweger's recent talk at the North Carolina...

April 2025

April 24, 2025

Mr Arnold & His Light of Asia

On my Facebook account a friend just announced that Edwin Arnold's epic poem the Light...

April 05, 2025

Celebrating the Buddha’s Birth

The actual date when the person Gautama Siddhartha who became the Buddha was born is...

March 2025

March 31, 2025

No One is an Island: A small Zen appreciation of John Donne

I am quite fond of John Donne, and I look for excuses to point...

March 22, 2025

Zen teachings of Eihei Dogen

Eihei Dogen was born on the 19th of January in 1200. He is recalled as...

March 15, 2025

Like everything else, Zen is a work in progress.

A friend just pointed me to this article I wrote for Huffington Post in 2013....

March 08, 2025

The Zen Way: Considering the Fourth of Dongshan’s Five Ranks

(At our Empty Moon Zen half day intensive meditation retreat, Roshi Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer gave...

March 01, 2025

Two Robots Discuss James Ishmael Ford’s Intimate Way of Zen

An old friend just told me about...

February 2025

February 15, 2025

The Buddha’s Last Words: A Light to Guide the Way

“Make of yourself a light” said the Buddha, before he died. I think of this...

February 08, 2025

Ten Zen Pointers for Engaging the World

A friend recently posted on social media ten pointers for engaging with the world and...

January 2025

January 19, 2025

Abandon Hope? A Zen Meditation

(On Saturday the 18th of January, Dr Chris Kaishin Hoff, an Empty Moon Zen Senior...

January 04, 2025

Recalling the complex spiritual life of T. S. Eliot

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be...

December 2024

December 25, 2024

The Third of Dongshan’s Zen Ranks as a Christmas Meditation

(A Dharma talk first delivered by Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer, Roshi a couple of days ago...

December 21, 2024

All people surpass the ordinary current: A Zen Dharma Talk

(A Dharma talk republished here with permission by Roshi Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer, resident priest and...

December 03, 2024

Francis Xavier and Early Buddhist Christian Encounters

The 3rd of December has been declared a feast or saint's day for Francis Xavier....

November 2024

November 28, 2024

Zen and the Fine Art of Thanksgiving

I try to offer a few words on our American Thanksgiving from a Zen Buddhist...

November 24, 2024

Keiji Nishitani and the Philosophers of Zen

Keiji Nishitani died on the 24th of November, in 1990. I mean to mark this...

November 02, 2024

Casting our Net into the Great Night: a Zen Meditation

(At our half day sit with Empty Moon Zen today, our guiding teacher Roshi Edward...

October 2024

October 27, 2024

The Zen Poetry of R H Blyth

There are people I try to...

October 23, 2024

Karma and Rebirth: The Basics

I have an interest in the thesis that the Heart Sutra, beloved of the Mahayana,...

October 12, 2024

Zen and the Beauty of Ancient Days: Dongshan’s First Rank

At our Saturday morning zazenkai on October 13th, 2024, my dear friend and co-conspirator at...

October 02, 2024

A Buddhist Reflection on the Great Soul Mohandas Gandhi

The 2nd of October is Bandhi Jayanti in India. It is one of three national...