Soon after I originally published this article in 2021, a young Japanese woman working in a Tea school approached me to say that she had liked it—in particular the “very interesting” title which she feigned not being able to remember.

Good Zen advice is usually blunt and never a direct answer to your question. The best Zen advice here is basically, whatever you decide to do, do it completely.

My first book, Three Years On The Great Mountain: A Memoir Of Zen And Fearlessness, will be released by Shambhala Publications next June!

A single dad asks, “How would one with extremely limited resources further their practice?”

An interview with Chenxing Han, organizer of May We Gather and Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard, and author of “Be the Refuge” and “one long listening”.

For a guest lecture as part of the New York Zen Center’s Foundations in Contemplative Care Program, I spoke about the Zen precept to not hold on to anger from the perspective of my training in both Zen and the martial arts (as Zen training).

This inaugural installment of COURAGE & STRATEGY, a new section of my newsletter, is an interview with Victory Kaishin Matsui, the Director of Sōshinji—Ancestral Heart Zen Temple, a residential Soto Zen temple in upstate New York founded by the Brooklyn Zen Center.

“How do you practice with your anxiety?” asks one reader of DEAR ZEN, and another, “How would someone maintain healthy connections with loved ones who may have biases that conflict with your values but you can’t or don’t want to cut ties with them?”

Spiritual training can refine us to the point that we can be kind in this life and bring light to the world as long as we live. Even when we are tired and in pain. Even when we're struggling and suffering, or simply old enough to be irreversibly set in our ways. And even when our bodies and our minds are decrepit.

How training in Zen Buddhism isn't all about compassion, calm, and just being chill.

Nothing is as delicious as freshly pounded mochi. Even without the sweet fillings, fresh mochi brings with it an indescribable pleasure.

Students at Chozen-ji have read Sun Tzu's Art of War for decades. Personally, doing so has given me new tools with which to analyze anything I'd consider a campaign or a conflict in my life, professional or personal.

“Here, among life's many questions, I have been mulling one toughie: not the question of whether or not to have a child (for which any answer is fine), but that of how to *decide* whether to do so.“

Some reflections on a virtual speaking event I participated in recently, hosted by The Embodiment Institute and addressing some of the cultural roots of spirituality and Wellness today.

Yelling, learning, and connecting with the future of American Buddhism at Naropa University's conference in Garrison, NY, June 2-5.

Why we fire a wood-fired ceramics kiln to 2500℉ at a Zen temple.

A while back, I put a call out on social media for questions people would like me to answer if I had an advice column. Within just a few minutes, I received two questions that I, indeed, had a lot to say about. My first question comes from Jakob Lagerstedt, an entrepreneur leading a new tech startup.

Reflections on the death of climate activist Wynn Bruce, self immolation as not (just) a Buddhist act, and moving beyond climate grief.

“From now on, Brother," Father Thomas Merton lectured, only hours before he died, "everybody stands on his own two feet. If you forget anything else that is said, I suggest you remember this for the future: From now on, everyone stands on his own feet."

In my recent interview with Yumiko-san, I asked her about how she first started training in Tea, how it changed her, its history, and how she'd like people to understand The Way of Tea.