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Dharma Journey of the OrdinaryPassage 6: What the Mind Edits, Mindlessly…
Silence lied to me for hours. My tinnitus, screaming the whole time, was the first honest thing my body ever handed me. We think we see the world clearly. We don't. Our brains spend every second filling in blind spots, erasing the blur of our own eye movements, and muting the roar of our own…
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Passage 5: The Reclaimed Desk: Jinen or just Friday…
Three and a half years ago, I walked away from my writing desk and into a zendo. When I returned home, the desk was simply there again—given back in silence, without a word of explanation. No grand plan accompanied my return. Just an emptied bank account, a new microphone, and the realization that readiness has…
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Dharma journey of the ordinary: Passage 4… Eggxactly! A mindful challenge?
Eggxactly! A mindful challenge? Not all koans are found in the dokusan room. Some wait in the dining hall, wearing shells. “You can have as many eggs as you want, after everyone else gets their first serving.” It didn’t stop the egg rebellion. But God was watching — and so were the last ones in…
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Sunlight Through the Gate: Bringing Emptiness to a Metric-Obsessed World…
Twenty years ago, in a room full of people who measured everything, I said something unmeasurable. They laughed. I've been thinking about that room ever since. “As a connoisseur of good beer — and I say this with full sincerity —I am in the business of fermentation — which takes time, darkness, and stillness. Fermentation…
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The Voice and the Rising : The Cold ordinary dailiness of it.
The mind will tell you that not choosing keeps your options open. But not choosing is itself a choice — the choice to stay exactly where you are. This essay follows a single morning in a Zendo in Perumalmalai, from the first reluctant waking to the chant that rises anyway. It weaves together ACT therapy,…
