zen

The next few months may well determine the foreseeable future of humanity. There is great urgency, yet most people, on the reasonable left and rationally right, want only a return…

Randomness is part of nature, but where humans are concerned, I don’t believe in coincidences. I’ve been encountering a lot of Catholic people lately. Since I didn’t begin rising as…

A woodpecker lands across the stream shortly after I arrive. I’ve never seen one drinking at the water’s edge before. Something about the late afternoon light, the rippling water, the…

I’ve never been one for Zen koans. They’ve always seemed to me to be trick questions designed to produce insights that simple, undivided observation can engender. But here’s a kind…

Bernie Sanders says, “We need a political revolution.” As much as I agree with his sentiments, there’s never been a political revolution in history without violence. No, we don’t need…

Recently I watched a documentary about a species of heron that had learned how to fish, but is unable to transmit that knowledge to its offspring. It raised the question:…

There is something so blatantly, metaphysically, evil in the latest made-for-social-media slaughter in the United States that one wonders how anyone could not see it. The dominant news media, having…

Autumn is at its peak in northern California, and the normally muted colors in this Mediterranean climate are more intense than usual this year. A path behind the entrance is…