I made a comic! For the first time ever. It involves an angst-ridden human and a sorta-Zen tortoise and plenty of strangeness. I’ll leave it at that. I hope you enjoy. A version of this essay was first published at HighExistence. Refine The Mind is now on Patreon. For the cost of buying me a [...]
“Zen Buddhism is a way and a view of life which does not belong to any of the formal categories of modern Western thought. It is not religion or philosophy; it is not a psychology or a type of science. It is an example of what is known in India and China as a ‘way [...]
“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.” ― Chuang Tzu A sizable number of humans who hear the phrase, “go with the flow,” probably barely register it or associate it with some reductive hippie philosophy of yesteryear—a philosophy of laziness [...]
“Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don’t say that you’ve wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky I’m guilty, I confess: I love quotes. In our meme-saturated, sound-bite culture, it seems almost [...]
“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes and grass grows by itself.” Zenrin Kushû It is notoriously difficult to define Zen Buddhism. For one, Zen has been co-opted and disfigured by countless ‘new age’, ‘spirit science’ types, transformed into quasi-religious tripe. Furthermore, Zen “masters” themselves have disagreed for centuries as to the importance and validity of various Zen [...]
Zen Buddhism is pretty chill. Really, I daresay there are few beings as low-key and drama-averse as a Zen monk calmly sampling the fragrance of a rhododendron. Okay, maybe sloths. One particularly awe-conjuring Zen Buddhist is a fellow by the name of Thích Nhất Hạnh. A Vietnamese monk, teacher, author, poet, and peace activist, Nhất Hạnh has published [...]
“I would only believe in a god who could dance.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche Religion is like Rob Ford: intense, divisive, and running for political office. But seriously, religion. One word which encompasses a galactically colorful range of ideas and meanings. The quintessentially human phenomenon has been around forever, and virtually everyone has an opinion about it. I’m not here to put [...]