by CJ Daiyo Sensei Once when I was ten years old, Dad took us out West and we drove across Kansas. It was as flat and uneventful as you might suspect, a vast sea of wheat as far as the eye could see. As the hours passed it seemed as though we were uncertain if…
Category: Buddhist writing
This is a worthy moment
by Marilyn Chiyo This is a worthy moment. I have rested with this mantra now for much of the past year. Its sound, spoken silently in my head, is so commonplace that the phrase is a companion of sorts. In the midst of those glorious moments, like last night listening to my daughter’s clear,…
Lessons from a Micorwave Oven
by Patty Kayo My Dharma glimpse came to me at about 2 a.m. the other day, when I got up to microwave heat a rice-filled thingy I use for neck pain, something I do just about every night. Like ten thousand times before, it was just me and the microwave in the middle of the…
Life Cycle of a Rock
by Ken Kenyo The word “Cycle,” refers to a process that repeats itself. Rocks change their state and composition throughout time. This cycle repeats itself in the vast scales of geologic time. Rocks begin deep in the Earth as a molten liquid material called magma. This magma may be pushed to the Earth’s surface through…
Tall Pines
Pine Trees. By Hasegawa Tohaku. (1539-1610), by Mike Shinyo One day in Germany, I watched some tall pine trees sway in the wind. These trees were very tall and strong. The wind was heavy toward the top of this hill that they stood on. It would seem that these strong trees could stand up to…
Peaceful Heart
by Richard Doyo The Peaceful heart…what is so hard about this? Daily, moment to moment we go about killing one another with words, apathy, bullets, of course, hurtful thoughts, and the list could on and on. If something, is so good, why is it so difficult to reach? As Buddhist, we must set the example…
Opening Buddha
by Ajita Choyo To glimpse the Dharma is to gleam the Buddha. I would like to look at the word “Buddha” as it appears cross-culturally. Those who follow the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism know the word “Buddha” to mean “the one who is awake” or “the enlightened one”. Buddha is awake to Absolute Truth/Reality….
For My Sensei
By Paul Toyo In this adaptation of an ancient story, the teacher is compared to a host in his own house. The guests are those who are trying to study the Way. The guests are people who have never been in a house before and they only have vague ideas about what a house may be. Nevertheless,…
Look Deeply
by Ginny Parkum It’s early August in Harrisburg. At Wildwood Lake, the green sea of tall lotus plants are in full bloom, creamy yellow-white flowers following the sun as it crosses the blue sky, some leaves wrapped tight as sausages, most slowly waving like bright parasols over the murky water. These are real American lotus, Nelumbo lutea,…
Buddhist Traveler
by Toyo Teru I am a traveler of sorts. I have traveled through myself. I have traveled across many pages of books. I have traveled the endless sky as I lay on my back gazing upward at a perfect sky. I have traveled in the memories of yore. I have traveled with many of whom have…
A Bright Dawn 