Zen Quotes

“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

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.

Hit the link to read the rest

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:

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.

Is That So?

Reference Points

Poems about Life



Reference Points
he was a man
of awareness

now he's an
awareness
of a man

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."

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

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.

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

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