Molly

A line from a song confesses, “I’m no good at stories that haven’t ended yet.” I remember telling a friend I just wanted to know what was going to happen in my life. He said, “You know what’s going to happen–you’re going to die.” This

“Nothing in my life has left a trace of the path. Lost between the true and the false. Long days the snow has covered the mountain. This winter the snow is the mountain.” After years of wholehearted practice, the Zen master Eihei Dogen voices his doubt. What has his life

Twice today I’ve stumbled across admonitions against overthinking. I’m beginning to take it personally. What is this overthinking whereof they speak? How can one distinguish between overthinking and mere thinking? There’s no posted speed limit. The “over” variant of thinking seems a subjective judgment–some people consider

“Religion” and “spirituality” are two of my least favorite words, which is inconvenient for a minister. I keep thinking we need a new language to talk about such subjects, but then I think we need a new language for a lot of things. Kodo Sawaki, a Japanese Zen teacher, noted

I’ve determined to try an experiment: to write (and publish) something every day for a year. This possibly foolhardy undertaking was inspired by two members of a writing group I recently joined. The practice doesn’t seem to have driven them crazy, although it’s possible I just don’