Category: Dharma Journal

I am not used to hiking in dense forest. My usual haunts are desert trails and high mountain paths near timberline. So the dark lushness, humidity, and mossy smells in the area near Salt...

Today, I see mom waving to me from her Subaru as she stops for a crosswalk to allow me safe passage. She is about seventy years old and carries herself as a much younger...

Interface: the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other. It used to be our senses and mental processes were the only interface between ourselves...

It is a cool summer morning in the high Cascades and our Tacoma bounces through deep ruts and over exposed rock on the road to Broken Top trailhead. Arriving at the parking area, we...

The skies are hazy from all the wildfires burning to the southwest of us but Sparks Lake is nonetheless beautiful. Although the water is low this time of year, it does not prevent numerous...

Lama Rinchen is sitting on a low stump overlooking a trail along the Metolius River. He chants an Amithaba practice and the Tibetan syllables spill down the bank, merging with the river. Seed sounds...

“I don’t know what I am doing,” is often a dharma practitioners refrain. Not knowing is very auspicious, although it may seem a bit frustrating in the moment. When I am learning a new...

To say Buddhism in America is at a crossroads is to understate the obvious. Standing at a crossroads always entails a decision as to which way to go. We have received transmission of the...

Although it is adjacent to a neighborhood, one can still hear the Deschutes softly whispering as it flows along a popular hiking trail. It is an urban river at this point, but one can...

We are on the bank of the North Santiam River where it flows into Detroit Reservoir. This is apparently a very good fishing spot. Several fishing boats, with antenna-like rods sticking out in all...