only now starting to view umbrellas differently it took this long as in younger years i looked at you with some disdain thinking thinking umbrellas you are a mere diversion from exposure to the inclementies of the skies in nine years of living dans une chaumière en haute normandie où les pluies sont reine not once did i take a look at you refreshing mea culpa to let go the dilluded view that keeping humans dry is your higher purpose in life sound box to ashen clouds dome of t

it measures all things itself cannot be measured to silence no entry or exit gate enter or leave it you cannot in the midst of noise it doesn't leaves you it is what carries you carries everything along wherever unnoticed unheard in the midst of silence we are forgetful of it lest we listen to raindrops pattering on the roof to a crow’s cawing as it flies over treetops on hillside slopes forgetful of it though it indwells the deepest we can never leave it as we cannot leave s

Carl: So, where is my talk? I'll need a moment to find my talk. Where is it? It's funny. Please patient. There it is. Okay. So now I see only Hamid. Good. Okay. So, my friends, this talk is a kind of . . . it's about silence. It is an echo of silence from our last retreat in Karuna. In the last talk on Saturday afternoon, Hamid spoke about silence. This talk should be different. It should be a talk where the audience, we who were sitting around, could also take part answering

not yet begun the ever ending year knowing there is no soul soothes soul the most look how with ease dharma gates open before you open to no gate to no dharma at all open to what early morning to wake up to swallows darting across a beclouded sky more joy than enough pemuteran, bali, december 2022

sitting still are we this moving circle of night and what comes with night a bonfire holding the center tongues blazing ascend into darkness quiveringly but the sparks their fate a door open to the mystery we face at the still point where knowable ends all come to rest vanish all

Walls, floors, and windows eaten by time. Photo credit: Jorge Zamora What an experience it was to have the opportunity to sit, share meals, laugh, and listen to Master Tokuda. I honestly didn’t know what to expect; I was simply thrilled to meet Hamid and his teacher. Witnessing the way they interacted and how the teacher carries himself through life was something very special. A lot happened during the retreat, but I won’t recount everything here — those are stories for the

One week has passed since the end of our sesshin  (a week of intensive meditation practice) with Zen master Ryotan Tokuda, a Japanese monk who has been a missionary in Brazil and France for more than half a century. I don’t understand what brought us there, and where it’ll lead us to. But it is always through the unexpected that the path weaves itself, and one just walks, step by step, into the unknown, as countless others have walked and paved... just for you to walk.   Abru

ei-tai ji monastery, le rocher de la baume, septembre 2025 twenty-five years on retreating at ei-tai ji who i really am eternal truths ... morning mist covers the valley full circle comes back the beginning is that was that another's lifetime you you erring on mountain trails leaf fall cold water mossy rocks murmuring

some photos of our retreat at ei tai-ji temple with sensei tokuda that may give you a glimpse into the week we spent in the mountains...

I had been repeatedly listening to a song that goes "if you don't like your job, quit; if you don't have enough time, stop watching TV;...

talk transcript, edited version : June 24, 2025 I would like to explore today ways in which dissonant notions such as confusion and...

insects chirping the jungle slowly darkens this is our moment in time as silence lights her candles in a flurry sparks leave the glow of home streak deep into night sky we follow their suit not knowing where where awe is taking us leaving fire seeking fire going home __________________________________________ last night of silent retreat july 2025 , payangan, bali

zazoom on tuesday 22 nd  of july 2025 Carl: So, good morning again. Do you hear me clearly? Okay. Because that was a problem some weeks...

remember it was april standing side by side on the temple terrace the cherry-tree abloom easterly a breeze un- petalling the whiteness as we looked beyond the pond at misty southern ranges -what doesn't change as everything changes? - -change doesn't - simply seeing seamless mind and mind one mind no mind hearing a hand's sound echo in the valley this was the scenery. we had just finished a week-long sesshin. an exchange with our teacher, master ryotan tokuda, inspired me to

. ZAZOOM 1 st July 2025 Carl: Here we are as I called us last time, the thinkers. Ahmed:  Is it a good thing or a bad thing to think?...

not arriving not starting on the move still   who is a vagabond a cloud above an island adrift at times human a passingness whether still or on the move nowhere to go is we are reaching port carried away by the sea take the tides with you you wander on to wherever lands no not alone the road goes with you travel companion true

June 17th 2025 Carl's talk: One week ago, we met here and practiced Zazen together. Afterwards, Hamid presented us with a text on the...

June 10th, 2025     Hamid’s talk: Today I would like to talk about what came up in the presentation Carl gave about this notion of...

za-zoom gathering: the circle drawn, the circle erased may 30, 2025 Hamid's talk: Greetings to those who joined us after we had already...

Today I became a cat, not a sprawling one sat on a mat. One perched delicately in pose, until such time the chimes did clang and up...