Category: Zen Buddhism

Oryoki is the Zen practice of eating a meal as if it matters, because it does. The word is often translated as “just enough,” and…

View More Oryoki

Every so often someone asks this in a way that feels almost innocent—like a sincere hope. Can’t I just sit down, read a few good…

View More Do We Really Need a Teacher in Zen?

I’ve heard it said so many times that it almost becomes background noise: the Buddha taught that life is suffering. People say it with a…

View More Suffering Is Not “Suffering”

Zen has a reputation—sometimes earned—for being the tradition that shrugs at forms. “Just sit.” “Don’t get stuck on words.” “Let body and mind drop away.”…

View More Why Liturgy?

A year ago I knelt in a room that felt both ordinary and impossibly charged, and I received Jukai. On paper it was simple: a…

View More Jukai – One Year Later