Zen Filter
Zen Buddhist websites, news, and discussion
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi
This and more can be found here
Monday, June 11, 2012
6 Things I Learned about Myself through 100 Hours of Meditation | Travel Blog - Tripbase
1) My mind constantly chatters
Most of us don’t realize to what extent our minds are on constant overdrive. The mind produces thought after thought after thought, which we often think of as multitasking. However, it’s just monkey mind.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Copper Meditation Pyramids for Healing and Relaxation
I have been building meditation pyramids for about twenty years now. It started with an experiment in my Brooklyn, New York apartment with copper wire hanging from the ceiling and pinned to the floor at the proper angles. In this makeshift pyramid I had my first out of body experience.

I had read about them in a book, and started playing around with the wires, and noticed a real change in the energy of my meditation. There was something about the space that it created that was special, though I could not pin it down at the time.
I built various types over the years, including some pretty large ones with all the sides in place out of one-inch copper pipes. In the last several years I refined my design to be collapsible and so portable. You can pull it out and set it up in seconds. I posted the design on my blog as a do-it-yourself meditation pyramid. A year ago, I was asked to build one for someone who didn't feel up to it. I used an Etsy shop to make the purchase official.
Copper meditation pyramids offer a sacred space that limits (if not shutting out altogether) invasive thought forms and negative energy, regardless of its source. It drives us deeper into ourselves. After all, pyre and mid (fire in the middle) says it all. It helps us commune with source.
If you want to build your own, visit my website at meditationpyramids.info or take a look at my Etsy offerings, by checking out any of the designs below:

I had read about them in a book, and started playing around with the wires, and noticed a real change in the energy of my meditation. There was something about the space that it created that was special, though I could not pin it down at the time.
I built various types over the years, including some pretty large ones with all the sides in place out of one-inch copper pipes. In the last several years I refined my design to be collapsible and so portable. You can pull it out and set it up in seconds. I posted the design on my blog as a do-it-yourself meditation pyramid. A year ago, I was asked to build one for someone who didn't feel up to it. I used an Etsy shop to make the purchase official.
Copper meditation pyramids offer a sacred space that limits (if not shutting out altogether) invasive thought forms and negative energy, regardless of its source. It drives us deeper into ourselves. After all, pyre and mid (fire in the middle) says it all. It helps us commune with source.
If you want to build your own, visit my website at meditationpyramids.info or take a look at my Etsy offerings, by checking out any of the designs below:
Labels: Copper Pyramids, meditation, Pyramids
Monday, November 28, 2011
An Introduction to Zen Book Review
Click on the title of this post to go to the Japan Subculture Research Center, where there is an extensive review of the book, An Introduction to Zen.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Reference Points
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Buddhist Hip Hop: Skillful Methods Records | A Cultivator
Skillful Methods Records | A Cultivator: "A CULTIVATOR aka Spencer Sanchez is a Buddhist rapper who brings a fresh message to hip hop without beating people over the head with his message. But for every line about peace and love, he balances it with a real life understanding of “Samara” and never backs down from taking shots a the corrupted values of popular culture."
Monday, February 14, 2011
Meditation Techniques
Meditation Techniques
"The natural goal for anyone beginning meditation is to experience some real degree of stillness. It is easier said than done. How many of us continue would continue to meditate without getting some sense of the benefits? In the beginning that obvious benefit is some sense of peace. One needs to experience a degree of peace and relaxation that can be without a doubt attributed to the fact that one has meditated."
Read more about meditation techniques
"The natural goal for anyone beginning meditation is to experience some real degree of stillness. It is easier said than done. How many of us continue would continue to meditate without getting some sense of the benefits? In the beginning that obvious benefit is some sense of peace. One needs to experience a degree of peace and relaxation that can be without a doubt attributed to the fact that one has meditated."
Read more about meditation techniques
Labels: beginning, meditation, stillness
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Lectures and Articles by Nishijima Roshi
Gudo Wafu Nishijima is a very senior and well respected Zen practitioner in Japan. This link will direct you to a web page where you will find a number of articles written by him on various aspects of Zen practice.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Into a Cloudless Sky
my chest is bare
in the path of an arrow
with eyes affixed
i embrace this last breath
savoring sweet intrigue
before being struck
will you also be blinded
by the brightest of mirrors?
will we wobble together
with poor eyesight
drunk on romance
near the cliffs at lovers cove?
if so, let us fall in unison
yet not towards the beach
covered in shells
but away from our bodies
into a cloudless sky
Naked and Free
as i lay on grains of sand
near tide pools by the shore
my looking glass is cracked
the sun has proved its patience
and left all yearning bleached
i hear a gentle call
not from saviors made of stone
for their touch is but skin deep
but from a gentle pulsing
past the center of my bones
telling me to rise and meet the sea
to let each step find its stone
with equal balance and grace
while creatures scurry
remembering my march
oceanic and wild
i reach the door
let me pause to salute her beauty
to greet her shimmer with my own
and praise her dynamic nature
the time has come to jump
and sink in these salty depths
naked and free
Anarchy and Order
zen fire, zen wind
carry this ash far away
carry this ash far away
past all vulnerable notions
of social right and wrong
so we may revel unclad
attuned with the cosmos
dancing in complete contrast
with confident vibration
to telegraph authentically
both cacophonous discord
and notes of harmony
to illuminate the relativity
of anarchy and order
