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    Memoirs of a Lingerie Monk Paid Member

    By Michael Attie
    Hindus traditionally divide life into three stages: youth, householder, and finally, on retirement from a full life, spiritual seeker. In the enthusiasm of this last half-century’s discovery of Eastern mysticism and meditation, my generation often reversed this progression.More »
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    Little "Aha!"s Paid Member

    By Ram Dass
    Ram Dass says of his latest book, One-Liners, "It's a kind of spiritual brandy, a distillation of the lectures I've given over the course of the past decade or so. At my lectures, I like to say that my name, Ram Dass, means 'servant of God,' but that 'R-A-M' is also an acronym for 'Rent-a-Mouth': that is, my listeners and my readers rent my mouth to tell us what all of us already know. What I say comes not from me, but from the consciousness common to all of us. And the quotes in this book are the little 'aha!'" More »
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    Zoo-logical Zen Paid Member

    By Robert Aitken Roshi
    The following are untamed outtakes from Zen Master Raven: Sayings and Doings of a Wise Bird. Essential NatureOne early morning, Woodpecker flew in for a special meeting with Raven and asked, ''I've heard about essential nature, but I'm not sure what it is. Is it something that can be destroyed?" Raven said, "That's really a presumptuous question." Woodpecker ruffled her feathers a little and asked, "You mean I shouldn't question the matter?" Raven said, "You presume there is one." Mosquito More »
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    Closing the Circle Paid Member

    By Marc Peter Keane
    The following is an excerpt from his recent book, The Art of Setting Stones. More »
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    Thinking Like a Mountain Paid Member

    By John Suiter
    In the 1950s, poet Gary Snyder worked as a fire lookout in the Cascades of Washington State. Perched at 8,129 feet on Crater Mountain’s Desolation Peak, Snyder practiced calligraphy, sipped green tea, and learned to sit as the days flew by. The following is excerpted from John Suiter’s Poets on the Peaks. More »
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    Spiritual Friends Paid Member

    By Mariana Caplan
    The following is an excerpt from her essay, “Adventures of a New Age Traveler.” A few years ago, I began to attract a new breed of men that over time I came to call Zen boyfriends. I use the term Zen loosely here because a man doesn’t have to be a Zen Buddhist to fall into this category. He could be a Tibetan Buddhist, a Sufi, or even a practitioner of some obscure brand of yoga. The more rigid the tradition, the better for this type. What defines a Zen boyfriend is the manner in which he skillfully uses spiritual ideals and practices as an excuse for his terror of, and refusal to be in, any type of real relationship with a woman. He is both too identified with his balls to become a celibate monk and, at the same time, too little identified with the wider implications of them to take responsibility for them. The result: a righteous, distant, and very intelligent substitute for a real man. More »