In this episode, I am joined by my good friend Mark Doyu Albin (Yusan), who was my first head monk. An American now living in Germany, he discusses what brought him to Japan in the 80s and what life was like in the early days of Sogenji with Shodo Harada Roshi. He also describes the…
Category: zen
Zen Embodiment Bare Bones Conversations: Episode 2 Laura Cleveland
In this episode with Zen practitioner Laura Cleveland, we hear her story, what brought her to Zen, and about her time at Tassajara. In the second half we discuss topics such as: Why would a young person go to a monastery, feeling energy in zazen, accessing the tanden, as well as what drew her to…
Zen Embodiment Podcast Episode 1 Genryo Bradley Jones
I have begun doing these simple conversations with fascinating people about Movement, Meditation, and Internal Process. Here is the Zen Embodiment Podcast Episode 1 with my very good friend Genryo Bradley Jones. Genryo Bradley Jones went from a punk rock skateboarder to a Rinzai Zen Monk. Now he is a husband and a father. We…
Wuji: Beyond Good and Bad
This post is about something I was trying to talk about in class the other day. When we meet a realized teacher, we see that they are living beyond good and bad. We observe that part of their liberation from suffering is that they are not constantly a slave to the mind’s grasping after…
Internal Process Incomplete Recommended Reading List
I’ve been teaching these Internal Process classes for the last few months. I put together a very incomplete reading list for the people joining the class and in the group on Facebook. These books have been helpful to me in my internal process work. I’ll add to it over time. Please suggest books in the…
Deeper Dimensions of Non-Directed Body Movement
I have written about Non-Directed Body Movement before. As I have been teaching more classes lately online, and we’ve been doing it together, I’d like to give a bit more detail of how it helped me and still helps me to go deeper into my process. I hope it gives some of you permission…
Hopes for Zen in the West
When Teresa and I first went to Tahoma One Drop and experienced Zen we were so shocked by how good it felt there. And how unmistakably cool the head monk was. Teresa was coming directly from college and I was drifting around aimlessly. I guess I kind of expected the head monk to be…
Moving from the Source: Riffs on True Embodimennt
These days, my religion is just walking around. The sutra I’m chanting is this form in space. I’m not interested in yes or no or smart or dumb. I’m worshiping the light beneath my feet. What is it that is stepping? Walking? Standing? Sitting? Laying down? What is it that is holding us up?…
Expressing Something True
It can be extremely helpful if someone acknowledges what we’ve been experiencing in our own internal process or we happen to read or hear someone talk about something which we’ve been experiencing, but no one else seems to understand. It can be a lifesaver. Or at least reading or hearing them talk about some of…
Getting Into the House: Kufu and Zazen
In our training, the Roshi asks us to go into the house. He says, “Go Straight!” In our zazen, we must find a way in. We all go up to the door and try to push it open. It won’t budge. But the Roshi told us to “Go Straight!” So we push and push on…
