In news, student talks, interviews and personal reflections, members of the Hazy Moon Sangha share the ways practice has transformed every aspect of their lives—at work, at home, in relationships, and in handling the change, pain, loss, and fear that all of us face at times. The consistent message from any serious Zen student is that practice works.
Bathing in Nature
A review of Forest Bathing by Dr. Qing Li
Forest Bathing tells us what we instinctively know to be true about being in the natural world: it “can restore our mood, give us back our energy and vitality, and refresh and rejuvenate us.”
Statement from Rafael Doshin Carrasco, Head Trainee for Summer Ango 2018
I am from Santiago, Chile and I have been meditating for some years. I do not have a Sangha there, so I usually practice alone. For me, it’s really important to know that I have my teacher and my Sangha here in Hazy Moon…
My Life As It Is
I was looking for a teacher. My busy life as a mother, wife, and physician was becoming more chaotic. Meditation had intrigued me ever since I’d had a lesson at a spa. For the first time, my mind had felt relaxed—quiet yet alert. After searching local meditation groups and Zen centers, I found the Hazy Moon…
A Physicist Encounters Naked Awareness
A review of The End of Suffering: Fearless Living in Troubled Times by Russell Targ
For a number of years at the Hazy Moon, Nyogen Roshi has been talking about science. Specifically how a number of scientists from different disciplines increasingly are hitting upon a track that parallels the insights of classical meditative or spiritual practices…
On Turning TEN
Reflections from the Sensei and Sangha of the Black Scorpion Temple on its 10th anniversary.
Already 10 years have passed since the Eye-Opening Ceremony of the Black Scorpion Temple in Tepotzlan, Mexico…
Not So Religious
In the hospital where I’m a chaplain intern and in the hospice where I volunteer, patients rarely ask about my faith. When they do, I take care not to raise any walls between us. I don’t think of myself as a Buddhist chaplain, or any other kind. Rather, my experience of chaplaincy is meeting people in a deeper place than religion…
Don’t Be Seduced by the Cool in Quantum
Entropy is often thought of as a measure of randomness, disorder and in information theory, ignorance. It seems to be on the one hand trivially statistical and on the other hand deeply embedded in our experience…
Sewing the Rakusu: A Formless Field of Self-Observation
In our Japanese Zen lineage the precept-taking ceremony is called Jukai. Those who wish to take Jukai begin by sewing a Rakusu, a bib-like garment assembled from cloth strips. The practice emerged from the custom set by the Buddha, whose followers sewed their own robes. On the back of the Rakusu, the teacher writes the Dharma name chosen for the student…
Every Moment is an Opportunity
Years ago, after a decade of practicing law as a partner in a workaholic, intense, and very adversarial corporate New York law firm, I drastically shifted gears and took a job as General Counsel for a nonprofit social services organization. A major impetus behind this terrifying change—with its resulting 95 percent cut in pay—was a […]
Vickie Reiju Cumberland’s Jukai
When Vickie Cumberland attended her first formal Zen retreat five years ago, she drove eight hours from Kansas City to Cincinnati to sit with a fledging group that would later become the Dewdrop Sangha, an affiliate of the Hazy Moon. Since then, she has practiced at the Hazy Moon and at retreats in Ohio, Wisconsin, […]
Ordinary, Extraordinary Life
Although chronologically I’m in the early winter of my life and older than most students at the Hazy Moon, five years of practice here is helping to shift my outlook. I know I don’t want to grow old simply chasing pleasures while waiting for the end. My life before I arrived at the Hazy Moon […]
Nate Kojun Hayes’s Jukai
After practicing with Maezen Sensei at retreats around the country, Nate Hayes returned to the Hazy Moon from his home in Athens, Ohio, for his Jukai, receiving the Bodhisattva Precepts and the dharma name Kojun, which means “genuine effort.”
