Hiroshima

Sixty-four years ago the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Today in the harbor stands the statue of a young girl holding aloft a paper crane.

For several years now I've been folding paper cranes ... my prayer and hope for peace

Cucumbers, radishes and Zen Masters

Ed Brown is a Zen Priest and chef. He's produced a lovely DVD called How to Cook Your Life. Cooking lessons, meditation, walking, chanting and bowing at Tassajara and Green Gulch.

He went to Tassajara first in 1966 where he got a job as a dishwasher, learned to make bread and soups, and scrub the floor. His anecdotes are humorous and heartwarming. After several failed attempts at breadmaking, he had success and wrote a book The Tassajara Bread Book and later another The Tassajara Recipe Book

There are clips from the early days of his teacher, Suzuki Roshi, a laughing and joyful man. David Chadwick wrote a wonderful full biography of his life and called it Crooked Cucumber

Ed Brown talked about his Mum, who died when he was three years old. He said something that grabbed my heart and held on. He said, "she was getting ready to die". That's often how I feel when I meditate (not in a morbid way) ... a letting go, and it feels right. I used to say, when people asked what I was doing, "I'm learning how to die", but "getting ready" is a better description.

I rented this DVD, but I think I may buy it ... it really is lovely.

first morning

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the morning, praise for the singing
God's re-creation of the first day

Cat Stevens

for Grant

I wonder in what fields today

he chases dragonflies in play

my little boy who ran away

Chiyo-ni

on the death of her son

at the Monk's Cabin

ENDLESS VOW
The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa


A monk living alone
maple leaves
cover the entire mountain



So hitori sumu manzan no momiji kana

This is a sketch I made of the monk's cabin I lived in at Sonoma Mountain

Spring Sesshin at Palolo

Robert and I cooked for the spring sesshin in Hawaii. He came from Florida and I came from Canada

Enso

The universal enso on my new t-shirt symbolizes enlightenment and oneness with nature. Zenga are the ink paintings and calligraphy of Japanese Zen Buddhist monks from approximately 1600 to the present.

The calligraphy reads:

Pure white birds set against

emerald waters,

Green mountains ablaze

with blooming flowers.