The aptly-named A Simple Morning Prayer pleads for understanding and love, for connection and illumination in a handful of terse lines. This piece is evidence that a poem need not be complex or long-winded to be a thing of authentic beauty and power.
In her beautiful poem Bhakti, Vanessa Able gives life and imagery to action--specifically the action of the devotional philosophy of Bhakti yoga, which is focused on the love for a personal deity.
In “Do You Have Any Advice for Those of Us Just Starting Out?”, Gay Guard-Chamberlin poses a common question with the poem's title, which is then succinctly answered in the four brief lines that comprise the poem itself.
In Hirshfield's poem, calamity turns to calmness when things turn into themselves, a principle that goes to the heart of transformative practice.
Leonard Cohen on how the teachings of a Zen master can manifest in unexpected and obtuse ways.
According to Katagiri, it can be difficult to find the words or modality to enter back into the world from a place of silence, but it is something we ultimately have to do.
Chan teacher Guo Gu on silent illumination, punk music and his teacher Sheng Yen's legacy.
Japanese Zen Master Eihei Dogen invokes an oceanic state of non-identification as something that expresses the true Dharma, or our true nature, according to the teachings of Buddha.
Zen teacher and poet Norman Fischer on where and how poetry and Zen practice meet and interact.
Baso's Very Mind is the 30th case or koan in the Mumonkan, The Gateless Barrier, a collection compiled in the 13th century by Rinzai master Wumen Huikai.
