I don't have a large house by any means.  But there's plenty of room for three cats and two humans.  In addition to our first floor, we have a basement, an upstairs, and an attic space.   If our four-legged children wanted, they could divide the house up into sections and never see each other. Instead, they follow each other around the house in a slow-motion chase.  Every now and again the chase is interrupted by loud hisses and swats when one cat catches another unaware.   They stop for a moment, panting, wondering what just happened, and then the chase be ..read more

Many years ago, I attended a Dharma talk on nonattachment.  The monk explained the teaching by discussing the importance of having bare walls.   He explained that if we decide that we want to hang a picture on the wall, that requires us to buy a frame for the picture.  Then we have to get a nail and put a hole in the wall. What if we put the nail in the wrong place, and we miss the stud? Even if we hit the stud and hang our picture successfully, now we have wonder if the picture is centered properly.  Naturally, once we hang the picture, we'll want another one to go wit ..read more

  As I write this essay, there is an AC/DC album playing in the background.  I like AC/DC for a couple of reasons.   First, they are objectively the greatest rock band of all time; putting out bangers like You Shook Me All Night Long, Thunderstruck, and the infamous T.N.T. Second, the incongruity in their early videos is hilarious.  You have Colin Burgess drumming in the background, doing his job like it's just a 9-5.  Then you have Angus Young running all over the stage, playing guitar in a schoolboy uniform.   The icing on the cake is the raspy, grow ..read more

Acceptance is a big deal in Buddhist circles.  We're told that we must accept suffering, accept mistreatment, accept the opinions of others. We're told to be like the ocean, which accepts all things and rejects nothing.  Much of this thinking is rooted in a slavish dependence on the absolute.   This is especially true in Zen circles where the conventional world is painted as less than, and we're told all things are resolved in the unborn mind. This puts practitioners in a tough spot because right and wrong clearly exist.  2+2 = 4, not 5.  But if we care too deep ..read more

As I write this one of our cats, Finn, is sprawled across my lap.   He is an all-white, American short hair with blue eyes and below average intelligence.  I've watched him carefully plan his leap onto the bookshelf only to jump headfirst into the wall.  And he regularly gets lost wandering through our house; meowing sadly until I or my partner go to find him. What Finn lacks in intelligence, however, he makes up for with love. He is one of the most affectionate cats I have ever known. He rubs his head against my legs when I walk through the house, he watches from t ..read more

A student went to his Zen teacher and found him working in the garden.  The teacher greeted his student and asked, "How is Buddhism in the south?"   The student replied, "There is much discussion."   The Zen teacher paused a moment, and then he said, "Come help me plant radishes in the garden."   The student asked, "How will that help the world?"   The Zen teacher replied, "What do you call the world?" When I was a young man, I didn't make time for what most people would call "domestic duties".  Cooking, cleaning, making the bed; these tasks ..read more

One common misconception about chickens is that they lay eggs every day.  In truth, their levels of production increase and decrease based on the weather.   In the summer months when the days are long chickens tend to lay eggs every other day.   However, they lay fewer eggs in the fall when the days get shorter, and they go through their molt, replacing their old feathers with new ones. In the winter, the chickens rest.  They are less active during the day, and their egg production drops too almost nothing.  Today marks the third day in a row that I've walk ..read more

As I write this, it feels like hundreds of ants are biting my arms and legs.  I have a grass allergy, and prolonged exposure results in itching and small bumps appearing on my skin.   It's been this way my whole life. When I was a child I loved playing outdoors with my friends.  We spent countless afternoons wrestling in the grass and hiking through the forest. This led to countless nights when I complained to my mother, "It feels like my skin is on fire!"  She responded by covering me head-to-toe in pink, chamomile lotion to stop the itching. My siblings would j ..read more

No one ever talks about the connection between homesteading and crisis management.   If one goes to Instagram and searches for #homesteadlife or #hobbyfarm, they'll be greeted with pictures of happy chickens, well-groomed garden beds, and barns that look like they came from a magazine. The message is that growing food and caring for animals is a lazy, carefree way to spend one's life.  You can collect eggs in the morning, do yoga in the afternoon, and pose for pictures with your goats without the specters of stress, fear, or worry ever darkening your door. Dear reader, this ..read more

In the meditation hall, I have an altar dedicated to Amida Buddha and the bodhisattvas Kannon and Jizo.  It contains three statues, which bear their respective images along with candles and an incense burner.   The statues are of good quality, but they aren't that different from other figurines.  They're white, standing approximately six inches tall. I bought them on Amazon, and for most of the day, there's nothing special about them. That changes, however, when I perform my Buddhist liturgy.  Twice a day, I light the candles on my altar, I burn incense as an offerin ..read more