Where do we go when we enter dreamland? Talking with her teacher a week ago, a friend said how for some months leading up to her diagnosis she felt as though her ‘self’ was dissolving into the environment around her. The post Where Do We Go When We Dream? appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

Three teachers whose paths include both Vipassana and Koan Zen talk with Jon Joseph about similarities, differences, and their integration of these two Buddhist paths. The post Three Vipassani Find Koans – A Panel Discussion with Susan Pollak, Doug Phillips & Ewen Arnold appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

Emperor Wu’s “not getting it” may not have been a fail at all; perhaps it was his most generous gift to the world. The post Regrets, I’ve Had a Few appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

Sitting for long hours in the zendo with everyone, the HOP may occasionally make comments called “encouraging words,” intended to help people move from stillness to activity. Pretty quickly I found that shouting words like “Hang in there!” or “Life and death are a serious matter!” were not all that fun. The post The Universe at Play: Tales of Laughter in the Zendo appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

The anthem of the Métis nation is the Red River Jig, a fiddle tune with Indigenous origins in the early 19th century. Says Jordan, “By playing that music, by being accepted by the that community, I’ve come a bit to know what it means to be Métis.” The post The Ancestral Story of the Red River Jig appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

“What has persisted out of my interest in Zen is its devotion to treating the world as sacred in daily life.” (Kim Stanley Robinson) The post The High Sierra – A Love Story: A Visit with Kim Stanley Robinson appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

With the release of The Ministry for the Future, best-selling author Kim Stanley Robinson became the most closely followed voice in science and climate fiction today. Called by The New York Times “the last great utopian,” Stan’s vision of the future is fearsome yet ultimately optimistic in its belief that the human race will learn how to come together to address our growing existential challenges. The post Beyond Space and Time appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

"Creativity comes from a place I can't name, let alone control or anticipate. It is unanswerable; a vast darkness you can’t penetrate. I was talking to a friend in Santa Barbara a couple of years ago and said, 'My writing comes from out of the blue.' He asked, 'What is the blue?'" (Pico Iyer) The post The Half Known Life: A Visit with Pico Iyer appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

There is something wonderful and intimate about feeling that we are not lacking in our lives. Not lacking salt, soy sauce, mayonnaise, grocery stores, Studebaker station wagons, mothers, brothers and sisters. The post The Very Best Sauce appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more

Scotty is an elk-hunting guide who built a cabin on the lake below Kootenay Mountain in the northern Rockies. "One day, an elk came off the mountain into his yard. Somehow, Scotty knew that the elk had come for him ... " (Scotty's story as told by PZI's Jordan McConnell) The post The Elk Came for Him: A Visit with Jordan McConnell appeared first on San Mateo Zen ..read more