mrpropter.blogspot.com
Shoshin: March 2013
http://mrpropter.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html
Explorations in meditation and Buddhism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sunday, March 17, 2013. This weekend, rather than spending my Saturday cycling up an enormous hill, I decided to sit on my ass all day. The Stanford Zen group (loosely affiliated with the Buddhist Community at Stanford) had organized a one-day meditation retreat in the inter-religious center. On the top floor of the Old Union. Since I was going to be in the South Bay that weekend anyway, I decided to go along. There were more Asian pe...
mrpropter.blogspot.com
Shoshin: May 2012
http://mrpropter.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html
Explorations in meditation and Buddhism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Saturday, May 26, 2012. Coming back to earth. This morning I went back to the Tibetan Tse Chen Ling Center. At the same time, I could see how these visualizations could be understood as a more vivid form of some of the mental exercises I'd been led through by Jason Newland. And picked up one of the array of hippy dippy Bay Area magazines they have on offer there. It was called Common Ground. Saturday, May 12, 2012. Mind training in se...
mrpropter.blogspot.com
Shoshin: Making it wrong
http://mrpropter.blogspot.com/2013/06/making-it-wrong.html
Explorations in meditation and Buddhism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sunday, June 2, 2013. For the past year I've been living with two philosophers. Occasionally they leave books about ethics the kitchen table. One of those books made me think again about the Buddhist precepts I took about nine months ago. Now, and about the discussions with a teacher that led up to them. Both of these interpretations I found difficult to take. I found it difficult to take my own interpretation of the precepts as r...
mrpropter.blogspot.com
Shoshin: August 2012
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Explorations in meditation and Buddhism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Friday, August 24, 2012. Or, why work if you're paying? I suppose there are overheads, and besides, I felt that $60 was a pretty good deal for the guest room that I got. The other nice thing about going up to Green Gulch rather than going to a sesshin is that you can talk to people at meals. The thing it seems natural to ask people as an opening gambit is always 'how long have you been here? Saturday, August 18, 2012. The other thing ...
mrpropter.blogspot.com
Shoshin: Buddhism without Buddhism
http://mrpropter.blogspot.com/2013/05/buddhism-without-buddhism.html
Explorations in meditation and Buddhism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sunday, May 12, 2013. After we decided to break up, my girlfriend and I turned to the question of. Her preference was 'right away', whereas I favoured waiting until I was actually leaving, in June. In the end, we compromised. We would break up over spring break, at the end of a short road-trip up the California coast. Part of the reason we could agree on the timing was because I'd signed up for a week-long. This was my first retreat w...
mrpropter.blogspot.com
Shoshin: Meditation on drugs
http://mrpropter.blogspot.com/2013/06/meditation-on-drugs.html
Explorations in meditation and Buddhism in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sunday, June 9, 2013. Recently a couple of friends admitted something to me. They both asked me not to judge them, and then sheepishly told me they were taking antidepressants. On both occasions I looked back at them and said, 'Me too'. In my first three years in California (with the help of more liberal doctors) I was on 100mg a day. I had periods when I was pain free, and though I did feel the side-effects (drowsiness and dry mo...
jasongarner.com
Everything is Medicine: The Warrior - Monk - Jason Garner
http://jasongarner.com/spirituality/everything-medicine-warrior-monk
Everything is Medicine: The Warrior – Monk. I’ve been dancing with a Zen koan for the last few weeks — something John Tarrant. Once taught me. It goes,. Medicine and Sickness are in accord. The whole world is medicine. What am I? It’s been a slow, methodical and, at times, difficult dance … like dancing the tango while wearing a heavy backpack. At times I lean into to the koan and at times it leans on me the yin and the yang…. In the first place. But I did want more. Everything I thought I was, my id...
jesuskoan.blogspot.com
Buddha, S.J.: November 2014
http://jesuskoan.blogspot.com/2014_11_01_archive.html
Buddha, S.J. Zen reflections on Xtianity, politics, family, gay and lesbian issues, Buddhism and all from an unrepentant Jesuit perspective. Monday, November 17, 2014. The gift of tears. My mother, Leona Carroll Ireland, died 7 years ago. I was preparing for a talk tonight at the Portola Camp zendo about Hsiang-Yen, and remembered this piece that I wrote when my mother began what would be the last years of her life. I dedicate it to you, Mother, and to all our mothers. May 10th, 2009. Even someone who ha...
jesuskoan.blogspot.com
Buddha, S.J.: David Park's "Three Bathers"
http://jesuskoan.blogspot.com/2014/10/david-parks-three-bathers.html
Buddha, S.J. Zen reflections on Xtianity, politics, family, gay and lesbian issues, Buddhism and all from an unrepentant Jesuit perspective. Thursday, October 30, 2014. David Park's "Three Bathers". I had it restored at the Deyoung Museum in the mid-90’s to refresh it. My friend Bill Belotti helped me frame it. Published by the University of California Press. She included it in her book. 8220;Three Bathers.” (The work is untitled. The three men Park painted give it its name). 1,160,000 that Park's. Skept...
jesuskoan.blogspot.com
Buddha, S.J.: August 2014
http://jesuskoan.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html
Buddha, S.J. Zen reflections on Xtianity, politics, family, gay and lesbian issues, Buddhism and all from an unrepentant Jesuit perspective. Tuesday, August 12, 2014. The Founding of Maitri Home and Hospice for People with AIDS. By Morgan Zo Callahan and Ken Ireland. This is the draft of a chapter from a forthcoming book:. A Thousand Arms: A Guidebook for Buddhist Leaders,. Danny Fisher and Nathan Michon.). Issan Dorsey and David Sunseri at Maitri. Issan and his friends, Ken among them, didn’t set ...
