Notice. Allow. Breathe. Together these words form a powerful koan. This is the text of a brief talk I gave in December 2024 at Still Mind Zendo on the subject of breathing meditation and the biological phenomenon of habituation.
Read More“Ideology -- that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.”
Read MoreThe quote in the headline is from an essay by Stewart Brand, “The Elements of a Durable Civilization,” recently published by the Long Now blog, a site devoted to long-term thinking about the future of life, including human life.
Read MoreI have been working with some of the 300 koans collected by the Japanese Zen Master Ehei Dogen in his Shobogenzo. This short talk is about one of them, Case 21: Panshan’s Cut a Fine Piece.
Read MoreI enjoy giving stupid prompts to the not-really-intelligent large-language model ChatGPT.
Today’s prompt: “Write a 250-word blog post in Gen Z TikTok slang about how to care for cashmere. Give it a headline with a bad pun.”
Read More"Flowers decompose, but this does not prevent us from loving flowers. In fact, we love them more because we know how to treasure them while they are still alive."
That is a quote from the Thich Nhat Hanh, the writer and Zen teacher who died in 2022. It is from an essay he wrote on the topic of impermanence.
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Evil eventually defeats itself. It over-reaches. It is ugly, corrupt, incompetent, and weak. It is powered by greed, hatred and ignorance.
It underestimates the decency, courage and strength of ordinary people. Yes, many people might suffer. But generosity, love and truth will prevail, again.
Addendum: Yes, “eventually” is doing a lot of work here. And so is “itself” — part of evil’s undoing comes when it gives rise to opposition from ordinary, decent people.
I want to examine something that was a barrier for me when I first came to zen. As our teachers say, every barrier is a gate. This gate came in the form of a question: What’s up with all the bowing?
Read MoreIn the middle of hurricane season during the 2020 pandemic, The New York Times sent remote workers a Jackery power station to weather any power failures. No blackout was going to stop the news.
Read MoreI mostly stopped using Twitter, now X, in the fall of 2023, after Elon Musk instituted changes to verification and the algorithm to make the site less useful to me. I had been on the service for 17 years and had more than 35,000 follower at one point. Of the X alternatives, I currently use BlueSky, Mastodon and Threads, although I will probably start phasing out my presence on the latter.
Read MoreText of a talk given on Oct. 19, 2023, at Still Mind Zendo in Manhattan, where I am a senior student.
Good evening. As I understand it, these senior student talks are meant to be words of encouragement about our practice. While I’m talking to you, I’m also talking to myself. This is my first talk, and I’m a little nervous, so thanks for showing up. In fact, that’s the title of this talk: “Showing Up.”
Read MoreI’ve had the honor and pleasure to meet the self-taught Buddhist scholar Bill Porter, who has been translating and writing for decades under the name Red Pine, at events sponsored in recent years at Still Mind Zendo in Manhattan. I own and recommend his books, particularly his translation of the heart sutra. A new documentary, “Dancing With the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation,” is streaming online for $12 through Nov. 25.
I’m a longtime fan of Open Culture, which has a guide to a wide collection of thousands of free movies.
The categories include classics, indies, comedies and drama, Film Noir, horror, Hitchcock, Westerns, martial arts, silent films, documentaries, and animation.
The site can point you to much more, including free online courses, audiobooks, podcasts, ebooks and more.
My Aunt’s Abortion, a series of poems and essays by my wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, details how an illegal abortion affected her family in the late 1960’s. It was published by BlazeVox books, a publisher of experimental fiction. You can order a copy directly from BlazeVox or through the bald devil’s website.. Jane also maintains a page on Facebook called “Writing in the Wake of Roe,” which tracks abortion news and events.
First, a hat tip to Jordan Harbinger, who mentioned Openaudible, a free audiobook conversion and management app, on his podcast. If you want to convert your Amazon audiobooks into files that can be used on any device, this is the app for you. Harbinger converts his then uploads them to Overcast.fm, my preferred podcast player (iOS only, sorry). You can use Overcast to remove dead air and speed up your listening to cut the time it takes to get through a book. And if you’re tired of giving your money to the bald devil’s website, and want to skip the need for a conversion app, Jason Kottke recommends the service libro.fm, where you can download DRM-free audiobooks.
“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”
― Jack Kornfield
I am always amazed when I learn that people do not save as much as they can in their workplace 401K, at least enough to get their company match, if any. Deferred contributions lower your income tax bill, and the money compounds free of taxes until retirement. In some cases, as with a Roth 401K or IRA, you can pay the tax now and then the gains compound without taxes in perpetuity.
Read MoreI retired in July 2024 after 27 years as an editor at The New York Times. Here is the draft of the remarks I gave at a newsroom toast in my honor.
Everyone leaves The Times sooner or later. No exceptions. The only question is whether you get to choose when and how. I’m choosing to leave at the top of my game. People have asked what I’m going to do. The short answer is: whatever I want.
Read MoreI’m resurfacing this well-received column I wrote in The Times in 2023. This summer I did two back-to-back silent Zen retreats, and I am glad I did, given the current news cycle. Free link, no paywall.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for holiday gifts, I have a suggestion. My wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, has written a terrific novel, “Sisterhood of the Infamous.” You can buy it on here. And if you’re interested in learning about her other novels and books of poetry, go to her site.
