Do you have a friend or a loved one who’s going through a difficult time? Healing presence is your natural ability to help someone when they need it the most. You may say very little. You may do very little. Yet, you can make all the difference by holding a space where the other can … Read more
Berthold Auerbach once wrote that music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. This is what happens when you listen to “The Hidden Valley,” a masterpiece by a Norwegian composer Peder B. Helland. His YouTube channel, counting more than nine million followers at the time of this writing, started with a simple … Read more
Ryokan (1758-1831), long beloved in Japan for his delightful verse, exquisite calligraphy, and eccentric character, belongs in the tradition of great Zen poets of Asian literature. His parents named him Eizo, but when he entered the monkhood in 1777 at the local Zen temple Kosho-ji, he adopted the name Ryokan: ryo, meaning good and kan, … Read more
As a lover of ancient wisdom, I’ve been slowly savoring the now classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings — an extraordinary portal into the minds of the greatest sages of the East, oscillating between the transcendent and the mundane in the most thought-shattering way possible. From short stories that … Read more