Category: Dharma Journal

One insightful way of hiking in the wilderness is to have no destination. It is exploring without seeking an outcome. I think this is why I like to wander away from the beaten path....

We are hiking up to the caldera rim in the Newberry Volcano. The trail begins as a dry, dusty slog through a stand of lodgepole pine. The understory looks like the aftermath of a...

And all shall be well andAll manner of thing shall be wellWhen the tongues of flames are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one. This passage from T.S....

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...