One Bright Pearl

Things change in the vast emptiness of ever present changiness(Yup, it’s a new word, it represents itself, a complete expression). Anyhow, I will be laying this blog to rest and starting something else that cost’s less money. Think Blogger or Wordpress or something that is free like my spirit.
The good news is that I have [...]

Rohatsu Sesshin is upon us here at Sanshinji. We will begin by having dinner together at 6:00pm and then meet again at 7:30pm for Okumura Roshi’s orientation talk. When he finishes sharing his words of encouragement, we will turn and face the wall, as the Buddha did all those years ago.
We sit a classic Uchiyama [...]

the wind murmurs
ghosts
through gnarled limbs
this old pine
feels like home

Dogen instructed,1
Students of the Way, do not worry about food and clothing. Just maintain the Buddha’s precepts and do not engage in worldly affairs. The Buddha said to use abandoned rags for clothing and beg for food. In what age will these two things ever be exhausted? Do not forget the swiftness of impermanence nor [...]

From a travellers perspective, new directions are all I see.
It has been awhile since I posted here. Everything keeps changin’. Slowing me down, speeding time up. Discombobulated, maybe. Yet, it is a good day today.
I woke up at home… yes, at home. Not living on the road, at least for now. Kris and I moved [...]

I have always loved the poems of Han Shan. One of my favorite is number 26 -

Since I came to Cold Mountain
how many thousand years have passed?
Accepting my fate I fled to the woods,
to dwell and gaze in freedom.
No one visits the cliffs
forever hidden by clouds.
Soft grass serves as a mattress,
my quilt is the dark [...]

A large, spacious room, unfolded before me. It seemed to be part of a rustic lodge, with beautiful blonde ash woodwork, framing a grand window, that looked out upon a natural mountain vista.
Outside the window, a herd of ancient buffalo, or perhaps muskox, munched placidly in a high alpine meadow. I noticed that their coats [...]

Truly there is one root to pivot from, here and now. It is not found in yesterday or tomorrow, it is never coming to be,  it is never leaving a trace behind; turn back and face yourself, immediately.
Thinking of the source, it is missed and yet it is the source itself, manifested momentarily. Sequentialality is [...]

I’ve had vocation on my mind for quite a long while, probably most of my adult life, this thirty odd years. There are a lot of things, a lot of subjects that I have come to know. A few I am pretty adept at but no joy has manifested there to sustain my interest, my [...]