Essays
Consider the Marshmallow
Joshua David Stein on the humble and historical marshmallow, and what it teaches us about desire and impermanence.
January 24, 2020
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THIS WEEK'S BLOG
American Poetry
AR Ammons – Still
AR Ammons’ poem Still follows a resolution of a spiritual nature to ground oneself and to identify with the lowly rather than the grandiose. It’s
January 22, 2020
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Sutra Excerpts
Purifying Muddy Water – The Surangama Sutra
The Surangama Sutra was influential in the development of Ch’an in China over the centuries and is particularly valued for its elaboration of samadhi and techniques of emptiness meditation that are available to everyone.
January 20, 2020
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SUBJECTS
Advice
American Poetry
A Sense of Something Greater
Author Q&A
Buddha
Buddhism
Centreing
Chan
China
Chinese Poem
Chinese Zen
consciousness
conversation
Death
Devi
dharma
Dogen
Emptiness
Gary Snyder
Happiness
imminent experience
Jack Kerouac
Japan
Koan
Les Kaye
Literature
love
Meditation
Mumonkan
Poem
poet
Poetry
Rebecca Solnit
Rinzai
Shiva
Shunryu Suzuki
snow
Suffering
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thomas Merton
truth
Vigyan Bhairava
zazen
Zen
Zen Flesh Zen Bones
Forough Farrokhzad – The Wind Up Doll
Kendrick Lamar – Alright
Chiyono’s Enlightenment Poem
One Art – Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem About Learning to Lose
Black Earth – Marianne Moore
Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
Jane Hirshfield’s Ode to Optimism and Resilience
The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton – John Darnielle
BOOK EXCERPTS
On Falling in Love – James Baldwin
January 10, 2020
3 Comments
For activist and writer James Baldwin, falling in love was, ‘Not merely the key to my life, but to life itself.’ In this excerpt he talks about falling in love, a powerful event that shaped him and how he interacted with the world.
Am I Conscious Now?
January 6, 2020
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“What does it mean to ask a question? Is there some magic in the inquisitive brain?” Susan Blackmore’s lifelong investigation into consciousness encompasses Zen practice and the recurring question: Am I conscious now?
Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Cosmic Perspective
December 23, 2019
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We marvel at our intelligence, but what we often miss is the miracle of our own existence and our interconnectedness with everything else in the Cosmos.
Purifying Muddy Water – The Surangama Sutra
January 20, 2020
No Comments
The Surangama Sutra was influential in the development of Ch’an in China over the centuries and is particularly valued for its elaboration of samadhi and techniques of emptiness meditation that are available to everyone.
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta: The Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone
December 27, 2019
1 Comment
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta is one of the many teachings the Buddha gave over the course of his 19 three-month practice periods at the Jetavana Monastery. It conveys the essence of a self-sufficient practice and way of existing – not clinging to the past or living for the future but diligently dwelling in current stability and freedom.
What is the Middle Way that Leads to Self-Awakening?
December 4, 2019
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The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta recounts the very first talk the Buddha gave to a small group of his friends after he became enlightened. The story goes
Know for Yourselves – The Kalama Sutta
July 24, 2019
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This well-known extract from the Kalama Sutta quotes a teaching from the Buddha in which he advises his audience – a group called the Kalamas
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THE ALAN WATTS CORNER
Brahman, God, Allah and the Tao – Alan Watts
August 23, 2019
Among Alan Watts’ most compelling qualities was his fascination with different systems of faith and his
Alan Watts on Beat Zen and Square Zen
March 13, 2019
Our favorite rogue Zen philosopher, Alan Watts had a gift for contextualizing the principles of
Alan Watts’ Pain and Time
October 31, 2018
Alan Watts was one of the foremost interpreters of Eastern philosophy in Europe and the
Consider the Marshmallow
Joshua David Stein on the humble and historical marshmallow, and what it teaches us about desire and impermanence.
January 24, 2020
No Comments
AR Ammons – Still
AR Ammons’ poem Still follows a resolution of a spiritual nature to ground oneself and to identify with the lowly rather than the grandiose. It’s a call to commune with
January 22, 2020
No Comments
Purifying Muddy Water – The Surangama Sutra
The Surangama Sutra was influential in the development of Ch’an in China over the centuries and is particularly valued for its elaboration of samadhi and techniques of emptiness meditation that are available to everyone.
January 20, 2020
No Comments
Rebecca Solnit’s Blue of Distance
Solnit pays tribute to the color that fills the space between herself and the object of her longing, and reflects on how this blue can in some ways be understood as love itself.
January 17, 2020
1 Comment
Susan Barba – How Should We Live Our Lives?
Declared ‘a poem worth framing’ by one reviewer, Susan Barba’s How Should We Live Our Lives? dips into a stream of questions and musings reminiscent in style of Mary Oliver’s
January 15, 2020
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Wandering in the Desert: This is our Life
Charlotte Joko Beck was an American Zen teacher who insisted that Zen training must directly address our conditioned reactions, and that meditative awareness was the key to understanding the emptiness
January 13, 2020
1 Comment
On Falling in Love – James Baldwin
For activist and writer James Baldwin, falling in love was, ‘Not merely the key to my life, but to life itself.’ In this excerpt he talks about falling in love, a powerful event that shaped him and how he interacted with the world.
January 10, 2020
3 Comments
Forough Farrokhzad – The Wind Up Doll
Forough Farrokhzad was an Iranian poet and film maker known for her soulful, honest and often controversial work. She wrote with intensity about her subjective experience: ‘One can always be
January 8, 2020
No Comments
Am I Conscious Now?
“What does it mean to ask a question? Is there some magic in the inquisitive brain?” Susan Blackmore’s lifelong investigation into consciousness encompasses Zen practice and the recurring question: Am I conscious now?
January 6, 2020
No Comments
Year in Recap: The Most Read Dewdrops of 2019
Thich Nhat Hanh, Toni Morrison and Seung Sahn: the ten most popular posts from The Dewdrop’s first year.
December 30, 2019
No Comments
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta: The Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone
The Bhaddekaratta Sutta is one of the many teachings the Buddha gave over the course of his 19 three-month practice periods at the Jetavana Monastery. It conveys the essence of a self-sufficient practice and way of existing – not clinging to the past or living for the future but diligently dwelling in current stability and freedom.
December 27, 2019
1 Comment
Kendrick Lamar – Alright
Kendrick Lamar asks, what kind of society would we have if the promise of ’40 acres and mule’ had been the ‘reconstruction’ that actually happened? And where do we go from here?
December 25, 2019
2 Comments
Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Cosmic Perspective
We marvel at our intelligence, but what we often miss is the miracle of our own existence and our interconnectedness with everything else in the Cosmos.
December 23, 2019
No Comments
You Must Go Beyond All Words – Achaan Chaa
Achaan Chaa was a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition who taught a simple practice in nature that did not depend on reading or studying.
December 19, 2019
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Chiyono’s Enlightenment Poem
Adachi Chiyono (also known as Mugai Nyodai) was the daughter of a samurai warrior in the 13th century who became the first woman – and mother – to found and head a Zen monastery in Japan.
December 18, 2019
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Phil Jackson and the Zen of Basketball
‘Selflessness is the soul of teamwork’ was former basketball coach Phil Jackson’s mantra when coaching his players in the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jackson coached his players along the lines of wisdom he had gleaned from his own study of Zen Buddhism and the Lakota Sioux, emphasizing group consciousness and non-ego.
December 16, 2019
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“The Hawk, the Swoop, and the Hare are One” – Gary Snyder on Radical Social Change
There is nothing necessarily natural or inevitable, argues Gary Snyder, about repression, violence and frustrated personalities, and the more we are able to practice and connect with our deeper natures,
December 13, 2019
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One Art – Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem About Learning to Lose
‘So many things seem filled with the intent to be lost,’ writes Elizabeth Bishop in the first stanza of one of her most well-known poems. Having lost her father before
December 11, 2019
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‘The Only Thing You Have to Fear is Fear’ – Ram Dass on the Anxiety of Extinction
In 1961, Ram Dass famously collaborated with Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Aldous Huxley, and Allen Ginsberg, to carry out pioneering research on research psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals. This
December 9, 2019
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“I’m Finding Out that Who and What I am is Vastness Itself” – Deneen Fendig and Duncan Trussell Talk About Active Dying
In March 2013, comedian and Podcast host Duncan Trussell broadcast one of the most touching episodes of his show, a conversation with his mother, Deneen Fendig, who was close to
December 6, 2019
2 Comments