On June 4, 2014, Stephen Batchelor and Henry Shukman sat down for an engaging conversation at the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico on “Going Back to the Source.” Their dialogue covers : Eastern and Western thought, the great doubt, dismantling of knowing, ancient greeks and buddhism, zen and classical philosophy, seeing […]
Archive | Dharma & Teachings
Me
It turns out this “me” is a seed — as Jesus said, it’s the “corn of wheat” that must fall to the ground and die. Zen always says: Die! Be killed! Why? Because this little agent of separation called “me” – this identity that creates itself and in doing so creates its own separation – […]
Angst
“… If we could just flip the angle of light, the trick of perspective, we would see exactly what we do not see, rather than what we do see…” What about the angst we modern humans are heir to, the “vague nameless dread” that comes with our moral and spiritual uncertainty, as Yamada Koun Roshi […]
The Ancestors’ Love
What do we have to do to receive the love and help of the ancestors, ever more deeply and thoroughly, until finally we know that we do nothing, and they do everything? We act through and for them. They act through us. We are their hands in this world. And as we allow them to […]
Addiction to Suffering
Suffering is a system to which we attach ourselves. In a way, that’s OK. If that’s what we choose to do, then so be it. Except in another way it’s not OK, because we suffer. We find it painful. Yet, on the whole, we are quite reluctant to disengage from it. We imagine the price […]

About Zen
Zen is a practice of meditation and action designed to free us to live compassionate, healthy and energized lives. The word “Zen” simply means meditation. The practice of meditation can bring many benefits: greater attention and awareness, the settling down of our emotional life, a growing sense of goodwill and kindness, and a desire to […]
Hokusai says …
Hokusai says look carefully. He says pay attention, notice. He says keep looking, stay curious. He says there is no end to seeing. He says look forward to getting old. He says keep changing, you just get more who you really are. He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself as long as it is […]
The fundamental position of Sanbo Zen (formerly the Sanbo Kyodan)
YAMADA Kôun Roshi stated as follows: “The fundamental position of Sanbô Zen is to stand at the origin point of Buddhism through the Dharma gate of Dôgen Zenji.” The “origin point of Buddhism” means Shakyamuni, especially his great enlightenment experience itself. After a long period of ascetic training Shakyamuni was confident that true enlightenment was […]
States and Facts
Something we should try to be clear about is the difference between a “state” and a “fact.” In America the early popularity of Zen in the 50’s and 60’s was bound up to some extent with the counter-culture’s fascination with psychedelics. A number of well-known zen teachers from that era have said that LSD brought […]