I was looking for a teacher. My busy life as a mother, wife, and physician was becoming more chaotic. Meditation had intrigued me ever since I’d had a lesson at a spa. For the first time, my mind had felt relaxed—quiet yet alert. After searching local meditation groups and Zen centers, I found the Hazy Moon…
My Life As It Is
On Turning TEN
Reflections from the Sensei and Sangha of the Black Scorpion Temple on its 10th anniversary.
Already 10 years have passed since the Eye-Opening Ceremony of the Black Scorpion Temple in Tepotzlan, Mexico…
Not So Religious
In the hospital where I’m a chaplain intern and in the hospice where I volunteer, patients rarely ask about my faith. When they do, I take care not to raise any walls between us. I don’t think of myself as a Buddhist chaplain, or any other kind. Rather, my experience of chaplaincy is meeting people in a deeper place than religion…
Don’t Be Seduced by the Cool in Quantum
Entropy is often thought of as a measure of randomness, disorder and in information theory, ignorance. It seems to be on the one hand trivially statistical and on the other hand deeply embedded in our experience…
Sewing the Rakusu: A Formless Field of Self-Observation
In our Japanese Zen lineage the precept-taking ceremony is called Jukai. Those who wish to take Jukai begin by sewing a Rakusu, a bib-like garment assembled from cloth strips. The practice emerged from the custom set by the Buddha, whose followers sewed their own robes. On the back of the Rakusu, the teacher writes the Dharma name chosen for the student…
Science Gets Personal
A review of Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death by Robert Lanza, MD with Bob Berman
Is it any wonder that some of us find ourselves uninterested in science that espouses lifeless mechanics and randomness theory? What if science were an exploration of mind? Your mind. How does it work? Where does the world I am living in come from?
Appreciating Life: A Profile of Bob Berman
You would think that the discovery of potentially habitable planets orbiting a nearby star would excite an astronomer. Bob Berman—a columnist for Astronomy magazine, the astronomy editor of the Old Farmers Almanac and the author of ten popular books—was unimpressed…
Celebrating Our 20th Anniversary
On August 26, 2017, a full house of members and friends gathered to celebrate the miraculous occasion of our 20th Anniversary. Services, including memorials for departed priests and honorary founder Maezumi Roshi, were followed by informal remembrances by long-time students. Nyogen Roshi’s wholehearted teisho paid tribute to our rare lineage and the tradition we embody […]
Reflections: The First Years
This collection of photographs, gathered in honor of our 20th Anniversary, depict the busy first days of the Hazy Moon Sangha including its inception as an informal group practicing at the home of Mr. Kelly Stevens Sr.; the August 1997 purchase of 1651 S. Gramercy Place, where the zendo was in the living room and […]
Aidan and the Dragon Girl Save the World
Hazy Moon member Ralph Shikan Levinson recently published his first novel, a Chan-themed adventure story for children. In Aidan and the Dragon Girl Save the World, 11-year-old Aidan Alvarado receives the key to his grandfather’s wondrous study and a student membership in the League of Dream Detectives…
Possibilities. Possibilities. Possibilities.
A friend asked me to go to New Orleans a couple of months ago. I said no. She was going there for a convention, and we could split the convention hotel rate the week before. I checked the hotels in the area. It was a great rate. I said no. I had always wanted to visit New Orleans. I said no. I checked into the airfare: $220 roundtrip non-stop. I said no…
Signs of Progress
How does practice enhance your life? In this excerpt from a talk, Doman Sensei speaks candidly about noticing little things going more easily in his life because he is less self-conscious or afraid and therefore more relaxed and engaged in the present moment.
