ARTICLES
 

You are Born
By Karen Maezen Miller
"You are born and no one—neither doctor, scientist, high priest nor philosopher—knows where you came from. The whole world, and your mother within it, was remade by the mystery of your conception."


Karen Maezen Miller -- Sweeping Zen Interview
"Up to this point I had been a dilettante, a tourist, I hadn’t yet stepped fully forward, and I knew that this guy was going to put me to work. And he did."


The Walls Disappear: What it Means to be a Soto Priest Training Rinzai Style
"We each have a biological lineage and a spiritual lineage, even if we don’t recognize it. Anything and everything that comes to us comes through a lineage, because that’s how life works. It can’t come into existence any other way." Karen Maezen Miller, sensei.

Maezumi’s Three Teachings
Karen Maezen Miller, sensei, shares a key set of instructions given by Maezumi Roshi.

The First Noble Misunderstanding
What's the real reason we meditate? An excerpt from Hand Wash Cold, by Karen Maezen Miller, sensei.

You Won’t Believe What I Don’t Believe
What do Buddhists believe? You might find the answer hard to believe. Karen Maezen Miller, sensei.

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The Hazy Moon at Home

Angie Shinnyo Nickol shares her connection to the Hazy Moon with a photo/essay of her "home zendo" in Germany.

Far away.. and yet so close

Sangha member Angie Shinnyo Nickol shares what brought her to practice and what keeps her connected to the Hazy Moon, even though she lives almost 6000 miles away.

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A Bodhisattva Never Hesitates

By

Mary Jotai Rosendale

An old dog's last day at the beach becomes a moving reminder to follow your heart.

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Session at the Black Scorpion
Mary Jotai Rosendale

"I remember vividly the first night I arrived in the cobble-stoned Temple courtyard. I stepped out of the car into the stillness. I turned to a fellow practitioner who had arrived before me. I said nothing, but I guess my face said it all. “I know,” she said. “Isn’t it amazing!”

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Interview with Loi Tran
What draws a new member to the Hazy Moon? "This year I decided to make a bigger commitment to my practice. I had been dabbling in Zen, but I didn’t have faith in the teachings or take my practice seriously. Seeing living examples of practice definitely instilled faith in me."

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An interview with G.E. So Tetsugen Stinson, Hazy Moon sangha member and Grammy winning recording artist. "It's been said many times before but it bears repeating. If we wish to transform the world, we have to transform ourselves first. From there, it ripples out into the world."
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Coming to Sesshin

A quick, illustrated guide to attending your first sesshin.

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"Ango Reflections"

Do you have to be crazy to spend a month at a meditation retreat? On the contrary, Camille Whitney calls her month at our summer training period "luxurious" and even "decadent," full of subtle revelations about letting go and waking up."The insights I had have radically transformed my life," she writes in this reflection, from feelings of fear and suffering into "joy, love and freedom."
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My Cousin's Altar

In this moving account, Hazy moon preist Sharon Ento MacClelland shares a healing practice with a loved one. "Every time I light incense at my cousin’s altar I am humbled by the merits of this practice and eternally grateful to my teacher."
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The Top 10 Reasons I Appreciate the Zen Buddhist Training Program

Highlights from a student talk by Hazy Moon sangha member, Michael Isshin Spiller.
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Full Metal Lotus

Journalist (and recent Shuso) Nick Shindo Street reports on returning California soldiers who tap Buddhist meditation to overcome war’s psychological damage.

The Thing We're Missing...
Shortly before her death, Nick Shindo Street interviewed Laura Huxley in the home she shared her husband, the late Aldous Huxley.
  
 
 


Positive Life!
By Julie Honmei Snider

"Recently Roshi has been encouraging positive affirmation in our practice. When it first began, practicing positivity towards myself was like taking poisonous medicine. Exposing myself to love was like walking into acid fear, but somehow the miracle happens."

Leaving Home
Julie Honmei Snider

"In the Buddhist tradition, when you accept this path as your way, you seal it with 16 vows. For me there is no other way. I took the vows without reservation. I know that nothing outside of practice can satisfy me. I know too that there is a further commitment I can make. Buddhism calls it leaving home. It is to leave your old ways forever."

Sesshin
Julie Honmei Snider

What are the benefits of an extended meditation retreat? In this article, Julie Honmei Snider captures the inexplicable spirit of sesshin. "The energy of the group coming together. The inspiration of everyone pushing hard. The relief of having to take care of just this one thing – the practice – without fear of messing up. The deep, pervading sense of peace."

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Is There Any Reason For a Zen Practitioner to Read About Science?
By Ralph Shikan Levinson

"When scientists teach us that everything is interdependent, entangled, and that seeing an object as permanent and solid is an illusion--is that very different from the Diamond Sutra, which exhorts us not to be trapped by the illusion of finite personhood, a soul?"

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Remembering: Obon at the Hazy Moon
Photo/essay by John Mujo Fritzlen

Obon is a traditional Japanese Buddhist observance which allows families to honor and feel closer to their loved ones who have died. It’s a time for sharing memories, prayers, rituals of food and drink, nourishment and generosity.

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Mount Sumeru
Photo/essay by John Mujo Fritzlen
A monk asked Yunmen, “When not producing a single thought, is there any fault or not?” Yunmen said, “Mount Sumeru.”

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What I Heard The Buddha Say
By Eternity “Joraku” Wauls
"During an intensive sesshin, I found myself sitting at the feet of a Buddha. The very wise Buddha recognized what I was truly asking through my rather immature question. What follows is a description of what I heard the Buddha say..."

An Experience of Oneness
by Eternity Joraku Wauls
"When I first went to The Hazy Moon Zen Center for a few days in July 2010, I was seeking a deeper experience of stillness. I had participated in silent retreats before, but always left them feeling like something was missing and that there had to be more to the experience. I had no idea what I was stepping into when I walked through the front door of the Hazy Moon, a very welcoming and gracious community. ..."

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Paradigm Shifter: An Interview with Robert Lanza

Hazy Moon sangha member and journalist Nick Shindo Street interviews the author of Biocentrism, a book that Nyogen Roshi describes as mirroring his experiences in the practice of zazen as closely as anything he has encountered in a modern writer.
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Where Am I? What Time Is It?
Michael Isshin Spiller

If you've heard Nyogen Roshi's dharma talks you've probably heard praise for the book Biocentrism by the noted stem cell researcher Dr. Robert Lanza. Michael Isshin Spiller shares his own appreciation for the book in this compelling review. "The most remarkable thing for me about this book is that it sounds so much like Nyogen Roshi, the teacher I have been listening to for some 13 years."

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Grateful That I Landed Here
by Kim Donin McDonald

"Since I found Zen and somehow summoned the courage to sit with every blasted thought and feeling that arises, something curious has begun to happen. There has been an opening here, a bit of space there. Forgiveness here. Acceptance there."
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Zen and the Art of Recovery

Hazy Moon sangha members Rev. J.J. Kyoji Anderson (pictured) and Kujaku talk about their experience as Zen practitioners and recovering alcoholics.

My Practice and Mu

In this heartfelt account, Hazy Moon Priest J.J. Kyoji Anderson talks about how she applies her practice when caring for her mother with dementia. "I want to hold onto her good days and to change the bad days," she writes. Knowing she can do neither, letting go of attachment to outcome, the path becomes clear and compassionate. "All I can do is tell her I love her."

HAZY MOON ZEN CENTER • KOUN-JI TEMPLE
1651 S. Gramercy Pl. • Los Angeles, CA 90019 • 323-735-7564 (phone/fax)
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