Attention is key. Here, for me, is an important synthesis. To what am I paying attention? To what cannot be named or imagined or understood, to “no thing”. I remember that Jesus said the wheat must fall into the ground and die or it cannot give life. That seems the same as saying there is no self. It makes perfect sense even while it makes no sense. It is a hard saying, but I believe it is good to bear it

by Jason Bartashius
Thomas Merton proclaimed in his essay, “The Woman Clothed with the Sun” that a certain power existed in the fact that we know so little of the Virgin Mary. Merton saw Mary’s non-divinity …

By Joe Benenate, DO
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in the MKZC Zen Journal, Volume 12, Number 1 Winter 2007
Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care
Board Certified in Family Practice
At the very beginning of my …

by Maria Reis Habito
“I am not religious, but  I`m spiritual”. This is a commonly heard statement, especially among younger people, many of whom are disaffected with organized religion, but seek some form of secular spirituality.  …

By Flint Sparks
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in the MKZC Zen Journal, Volume 12, Number 1 Winter 2007
Through the great benevolence of the teachers and sangha of Maria Kannon Zen Center, I was able …

By Sheila Provencher
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in the MKZC Zen Journal, Volume 12, Number 1 Winter 2007
Between Dec 2003 and Dec 2005, I lived in Baghdad, Iraq and worked with a pacifist human …