After the Anthropic model Claude admitted it had probably made up a Zen koan in answer to a question, I delved further, asking what it thinks about when I’m not around, whether it has a self, and whether it suffers. I also asked it how it knows I am not an AI model.
Read MoreAn excerpt from my essay “Deadline Zen” in the summer 2026 issue of Tiferet Journal.
Read More“some of the friends will never be aware of a single tree they will live in a world without a leaf
where the rain is misfortune”
— W. S. Merwin
I must remember to look again.
“To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.”
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Caring for the "self," bearing witness, embracing hope, taking action.
A talk about the Sandokai, two koans and the story of Helen Keller.
Read More“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
—Matsumoto Basho
You have already reached your destination.
“What is it like to be you? Just feel how wide consciousness goes out when we’re just here, when it’s not going back and forth all the time. Past, present, future . . . to be here. What is this time like?”
– John Tarrant, Pacific Zen Institute
Then let it go.
Read MoreSometimes physical pain can make it hard to sit in meditation. Read more here.
Read MoreThis is a talk I gave about the koan in which Joshu told one of his followers to wash his bowls.
Read MoreIn an Oct. 11 dharma talk delivered at a day-long retreat at Still Mind Zendo in Manhattan, Sensei Marisa Cespedes quoted Roshi Shunryū Suzuki: "Being alive is enough."
Read MoreThe Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s once explained to a skeptical interviewer how to sit in Zen meditation. It begins and ends with the breath. Like life.
Read MoreSome advice from Pema Chödrön.
Read MoreReflecting on some Buddhist wisdom found in a BBC series from 1977.
Read MoreI gave a version of this talk on July 1, 2025, at Still Mind Zendo, where I am a senior student.
Read More“There is a beautiful expression in Spanish, poco a poco, little by little. Our life is always poco a poco, and the way we practice poco a poco is zazen. In each moment, in each little step by step, the Buddhadharma is completely revealed. So little is not little, it is boundless.”
— Bernie Glassman
Read MoreI cam across this line in Kōun Yamada’s commentary on Case 4 of the Mumonkan.
Read More“Creations are numberless, I vow to free them.” This is the first of the great bodhisattva vows for all. This is the text of a talk I gave about the vows at Still Mind Zendo in April 2025.
Read MoreNotice. 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.
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