The second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path is Right Intention, sometimes translated as Right Resolve, Right Thought, or Right Aspiration. It is the inward…
View More Renunciation for the Householder: Right Intention Without Running Away from Life
Author: Ian
Right Intention: The Direction of the Heart
Right Intention is the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. If Right View is learning to see clearly, Right Intention is learning to aim…
View More Right Intention: The Direction of the Heart
The Heart Sutra: The Zen of Emptiness, Compassion, and Fearless Practice
Among all Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, few are as brief, beloved, mysterious, and widely recited as the Heart Sutra. In many Zen temples it is chanted…
View More The Heart Sutra: The Zen of Emptiness, Compassion, and Fearless Practice
The Imagination of Snoopy
One of the great mysteries of Peanuts is that its most imaginative character is not one of the children, but the dog. Charlie Brown worries.…
View More The Imagination of Snoopy
Kensho, Satori, and Glimpses of Enlightenment
There are certain words in Zen that should be handled carefully, almost as one would handle a candle flame in a dark room. Kensho and…
View More Kensho, Satori, and Glimpses of Enlightenment
Against Contempt: Why Popular Artists Deserve Serious Art-Historical Attention
Introduction: The Problem of Popularity Few charges are more damaging in elite art discourse than the accusation that an artist is “popular.” The word should…
View More Against Contempt: Why Popular Artists Deserve Serious Art-Historical Attention
Zen and the Motorcycle: Riding, Freedom, and the Practice of the Road
There is something about a motorcycle that strips life down to essentials. There is no wall between the rider and the world. The air is…
View More Zen and the Motorcycle: Riding, Freedom, and the Practice of the Road
Harriet Glickman, Charles Schulz, and the Quiet Revolution of Franklin in Peanuts
In the spring of 1968, the United States was grieving, burning, arguing, and changing. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated on April 4. Cities…
View More Harriet Glickman, Charles Schulz, and the Quiet Revolution of Franklin in Peanuts
The Greatness of Fantasy Art: Frazetta, Vallejo, the Hildebrandts, and the Visual Imagination of the Modern Mythic Age
Fantasy art is often treated as a lesser branch of visual culture, as though dragons, warriors, sorceresses, strange worlds, heroic bodies, enchanted forests, alien landscapes,…
View More The Greatness of Fantasy Art: Frazetta, Vallejo, the Hildebrandts, and the Visual Imagination of the Modern Mythic Age
Equanimity Is Not Indifference
Equanimity is often misunderstood as emotional distance, passivity, or detachment from life. To some, the still mind appears cold. To others, silence looks like withdrawal.…
View More Equanimity Is Not Indifference