Since Buddhism is all about being mindful of fundamental laws of nature, everything teaches the Dharma. If we look carefully, we can find the entirety of the Buddhist Canon plus every commentary, every YouTube video or podcast, and every poem or essay (both classic and modern) in everything that exists—even imaginary things. It just takes […]
Category: Buddhism
Back to the Breath: Commentary on the Arittha Sutta
The Arittha Sutta might be the most concise Buddhist meditation manual ever written: “There is the case where a monk, having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree, or to an empty building, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore (making mindfulness a […]
Kerouac, Cold Wind, & Apple Seeds
“All right,” I said in my head, a soft bedrock of tranquility supporting my resolve, “take me.” I’d been fighting my afflictions for years; resisting them, decorating them, and ignoring them. The struggle against my sorrows has aged me. I’m 32, but I look and feel ten years older. The one thing I’d never tried—the […]
Mind Without Adornment (Poem)
My mind decked out in regal garbs The struggle weathers ancient stone Collapsing towers burning bright Lost valleys that breezes cannot blow Square one—I sit amidst the dream Adornments, toys, and shiny things Distractions from the inner way All wood for burning on winter days Don’t move an inch just rest and watch The wreckage […]
Four Noble Truths of the Heart-Mind
How many times can we keep digging up these dusty old bones for perusal? A lot, apparently. The Dharma is the gift that looks different each time you look at it. Not because it is, but because we are. Sitting around, doing nothing, the Four Truths popped back up again—only this time as the present […]
Buddhism Explained via Space-Time (Teaching)
Space-time. Buddhism. Why not? We can easily take the Three Marks (Suffering, impermanence, not-self) and adapt them to that model. Whenever we view something as separate from space-time, there’s suffering. When we view things as isolated from space-time, we make them into something very small and fragile. A person is tiny and short-lived. But space-time […]
Full Length of a Day (Poem)
Twenty-four hours – What an arbitrary number! What is the faithful measure of a day? Some pass by like clouds, golden dew On golden-green grass. Sweet in their Haste like the eager slips of a lover For weeks unseen. Others limp like cold logs Thudding across a dusty floor Toward tomorrow’s dim embers. As life […]
If Possible, Don’t Practice the Way I Do
My Path is fuuuuucked up. If you can, I recommend taking a sturdy view and method as your own up until you don’t need them anymore. I can’t do that, because I cling way too much to such things. I always have. And I’m like a dog with a bone with this shit. I zero […]
A Sudden Sight (Short)
One thought is the difference between heaven and hell. One feeling, one memory, one glance and the mind spins on its axis. A series of ripples, sparks in the cortex trail off like embers stolen from a fire by a sudden breeze. I saw her face, and the world shook. Not much to look at, […]
Dripping Sky & A Visit to the Vet
The car’s brakes whistle through the drizzling night like some kinda solitary bird, echoing across the blacktop and against the imitation-granite building. I’m standing in the closed pharmacy drive-through, vaping away my lunch hour. Zero nicotine. I quit smoking at the beginning of the year, but in some ways, we are our habits. A suped-up […]
