Koan Conversations
One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It’s the same any place in the world, that heartbeat. It’s the first thing you hear when you’re born — or before you’re born — and it’s the last thing you hear. — Dave Brubeck
Sometimes a memory, sometimes a lot of words, sometimes a poem, sometimes a koan. Nothing more.
“There are conversations you overhear or read in books that are so familiar you feel as if you were a fly on the wall, listening to words you’ve heard before.” A meditative reconstruction of the meeting of St. Francis Xavier and a Zen “bishop” cc 1549.
Further Notes on Jesuit Zen Adepts, 2008
Not including the name of Fr. William Johnston in my article “Buddha, S.J.” was a major oversight on my part that will be corrected.
Issan said, "I have things to do." 2010AA
A long meditation of some memories of Issan Dorsey’s last days.
Case 5 of the Mumonkan and Step 1, 2010
Today I find myself totally swept up in the hanging man's dilemma as I begin to re-work Step 1 of the 12 Steps.
Case 32: A Philosopher Asks Buddha
A friend of mine once said, “The West doesn’t need another religion. If the new Western Buddhists just set up a competing cult, what’s the value in that?”
The Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion, 2012
Maha Shobogenzo Case 105
SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA by Gary Snyder
Please join me and chant the Smokey the Bear Sutra for all those who are working for a green earth! Use any tune you like, or none at all. Sing in the shower or on the street or in a coffee house or in your room.
The Very Short Sutra on the Meeting of the Buddha and the Goddess by Rick Fields
“Thus I have made up …”
The Gift of Tears, 2007
For my Mother, Leona Carroll Ireland. In the few short years before she died, I got really lucky, or was blessed, when I was able to touch the pain her actions tried to mask. That alone took away their power to hurt, and allowed me to experience a kind of love that I could not have imagined.
Zen Bland, 2011
What a really radical notion—living life here and now, speaking about it simply, not altering our experience trying to make it into something else! I think that it applies to meditation practice, and living, as well as writing.
A Poached Egg Koan, 2019
"We Inter-Are," by Morgan Zo-Callahan
A very shocking experience taught me on the deepest level how interdependent we are in life and how I'm connected even with those I consider hostile people. That which is in all people is likewise to some degree in myself.
"We Inter-Are," by Morgan Zo-Callahan
A very shocking experience taught me on the deepest level how interdependent we are in life and how I'm connected even with those I consider hostile people. That which is in all people is likewise to some degree in myself.
A Zen Master looks at Same-Gender Marriage, 2008
Two years before his death in 2010, I asked Bob to write a piece about same sex marriage that could be used as an op-ed in heated debate before California voted on Prop 8 which sought to reverse the decision by the State Supreme Court to open legal marriage to same sex couples. I am posting it as a tribute to Bob and the ever-present encouragement in his teaching,
In memory of Tom Marshall, S.J, 2010
The door to deep meditation opens yet again.
The teaching goes on without end.
Yes. Just look at It All!
Sonja Margulies Roshi, May 15th, 2013
When I heard about her death, I remembered the story she told me about her dharma transmission.
Sister Kuon Elaine MacInnes, 2012
“Spirituality is what you do with those fires that burn within you.”
The three major koan collections, several translations and some other books that I’ve used to deepen my understanding.
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