Category: Dharma Journal

The fundamental mystery of the universe cannot be reduced to words. Mystery is like that. In Buddhist teachings we come across a mysterious word: emptiness. In the Sanskrit language the word is Śūnyatā. Śūnya...

I am hiking near a lake in the Cascade Mountains, meandering through a maze of deep cracks in the surrounding basalt flows. The trail emerges from the rocks and climbs to a knoll the...

The horizon is clear on the Oregon coast today. Blue sky meets a vast gray-green ocean without a perceptible dividing line. Terns fly inches above the surf as waves roll in, gently caressing the...

Our human body, mind, and emotions crave intimacy. We want to have close loving relationships. But the relationships we attract are affected by karma. Unliberated past experiences seem to surface in the context of...

I have been standing in line for three hours at the Antiques Road Show, waiting to get an appraisal of an old painting. I gaze out at the thousands of people here and reflect...

Western coralroot (corallorhiza mertensiana) is an orchid species common to Pacific Northwest conifer forests. It is a myco-heterotroph, meaning it feeds upon (parasitic to) a kind of fungus for its nutrition. And that fungus...

I am perched on a basalt boulder as I peer through strands of lovely fireweed and columbine toward a small a waterfall on Paulina creek. The roiling white caps flow over strands of deep green...

While hiking on Browder Ridge I see a beargrass community in full bloom—rising like spears of white piercing in the forest understory. This year I also see the brilliant orange of tiger lilies intermingling...

I am surrounded by a towering stand of old growth conifers that seems to absorb every sound. Not a breath of wind stirs the air. Even the the birds and insects have disappeared. The...

The Merganzer mom led her clutch of fluffy ducklings through eddies and ripples created by a series of spring fed waterfalls flowing into the Metolius river. It seems strange she would choose this route....