There are many amazing aspects about the process of meeting a new church. Of course there are the challenges of moving into a system that is already well established, of becoming subject to traditions and power-lines that are long established, and to engage congregational dynamics as they flow and shift. … Read more →
Tag Archives: Zen
Self-Forgiveness and Zazen
For Christmas this year, my wife and I took a trip back to the closest thing I have to a hometown, Knoxville Tennessee. It was good to see my mother, and to visit some places that have deep meaning for me. We then went on to spend Christmas Eve and … Read more →
Realizations from Sesshin
Now that I have been home from my first Zen Sesshin for about a week, I feel I am able to write about the experience. I have tried to stay out of my discursive mind as much as possible this week, although that is challenging when you have final academic … Read more →
Ways that Zen Sesshin is Like Military Basic Training
During the Zen Rohatsu Sesshin (7 ½ Day Zen Meditation Retreat in honor of the Buddha’s enlightenment day) that I attended this past week, I began to notice some eerie similarities to my multiple experiences of Military Basic Training. Though this was my first Sesshin at the Zen temple where … Read more →
Defining Religious Language: God
Some words have so many meanings that they become near incomprehensible, and almost unusable. When I use the generic word “meditation”, I usually mean Zazen meditation, or sitting on a cushion and following my breath. But “meditation” means about a thousand different things, from concentration on a passage of scripture … Read more →
Free from action
One of the quotes that is in my journal, (and now rotating through the Wayside Pulpit) is a quote from Eihei Dogen Zenji, the founding teacher of Zen. He said to “Honor the man who is through with learning and free from action”. Now, I know what he meant at … Read more →
A Clean, White Slate
I awoke this morning, the first day of a new year, to a fresh blanket of snow surrounding my Chicago apartment… not an unusual occurrence. But this morning, being a holiday, the city has been sleepier than usual. Often before I wake the streets are cleared, the sidewalks are scraped, … Read more →