Author: Michael Stevens

I am hiking in the Badlands Wilderness east of Bend and witness a super bloom of Oregon Sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum). This aster family daisy is widely distributed throughout the Pacific Northwest, so it is...

I seem to have lost my muse. Has anyone seen her? She used to live alongside all my thoughts, but I think she got bored and went away. I don’t blame her. I am...

Anachronism: Origin, mid 17th century. From the Greek: anakhronismos, from ana-, ‘backwards’ + khronos, ‘time’. I carry a pocket watch. I do not use a cell phone except in emergencies or when traveling and...

I am fortunate to have met many extraordinary beings. Two of them are Jim Denman and Thomas Merton. Jim was a sangha member who had quite a history helping others through the criminal justice...

The morning sun is beating down on the concrete slabs that make up our back deck. The sweat dripping from my forehead compels me to set up a beach umbrella so I don’t completely...

I am standing on top of a high desert rim and notice a dragon’s tail snaking through the landscape. Silvery strands of drying bunchgrass move in waves across the hill as the dragon prepares...

Today (5/18) is the 40th anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption. It was a very big boom. I remember ‘feeling’ it while lying in bed at my home among the junipers between Bend...

I often wonder about Buddha’s awakening. I imagine it to be simple. He simply sat and watched his mind. He noticed the movement of mind was inseparable from the movement of wind and waves...

In the previous post, I discussed a symbolic meaning of the arrow according to fundamental Buddhism. The Vajrayana Buddhist point of view embraces all the early school teachings but adds a slight nuance according...

In the Sallatha Sutta (Sutra), Buddha is asked to describe the difference between a Dharma practitioner and and one who is unfamiliar with the Dharma—specifically, one who has no awareness of the Four Noble...