Category: Dharma Journal

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...

Sometimes the Dharma seems complicated. Sometimes we have trouble making it relevant to what is going on in the moment. Sometimes we have difficulty maintaining our practice in the face of overwhelming challenges. All...

I wonder what they think. A small gathering of cattle stare at me while I am hiking in one of my favorite areas of desert east of Bend. The bovines are here as part...

I met a man in my neighborhood who just returned from the hospital after suffering an anxiety attack. He thought it was a heart attack. I remember when I was dealing with my father’s...

A surprising number of trucks are parked along the road paralleling the Crooked River below Bowman Dam. The season is open and fly fishing is in full swing on this popular shallow river snaking...

The Tamil culture in southern India and Sri Lanka traditionally eat with their fingers. The food is often placed on a banana leaf. A Tamil saying goes something like this: “Eating a meal with...