Essays

By Linda Shinji Hoffman At Zen Mountain Monastery we practice ango in the spring and the fall. The shuso can be either a layperson or a monastic. Their role is...

By Linda Shinji Hoffman At Zen Mountain Monastery we practice ango in the spring and the fall. The shuso can be either a layperson or a monastic. Their role is...

By Joel Sansho Benton Last Saturday a group of new residents entered the monastery for the first time—about thirty thousand of them to be more precise. On Saturday I picked...

Residency at our Brooklyn Temple has always been an interweaving of NYC energy with the Zen Buddhism of a lay practice center. In these early weeks of the pandemic, our...

An Informal Contemplation on Healing by Lama Rod Owens You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served. —Nina Simone Are you sure, sweetheart, that...

Technology and Morality in the Age of Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Biodiversity Loss by Richard Heinberg Technology has grown with us, side by side, since the dawn of human society. Each time...

by Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi It is ironic that in countries where food is abundant, disharmony with food and eating is most common. Americans appear to have a particularly unbalanced...

by Thanissaro Bhikkhu These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful...

by Theresa Braine The room was dim. About sixty bodies arranged themselves wall-to-wall in rows, eyes closed, supine on zabutons. Imagining themselves dead. “How did you die?” intoned a voice....

by Suzanne Taikyo Gilman, Mountain Record Editor Not a story I like to tell, but years ago I got into a fight on the subway. A big-shouldered, well-groomed man in...