Believe In Nothing!

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi was the founder and abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center beginning in 1962. He practiced in the Soto Zen tradition, which teaches that direct understanding comes from just sitting zazen (zen meditation) and does not rely on doctrine or sutras (scriptures). Under his guidance, additional properties were acquired: the Green Gulch […]

A Poem About Inner Life By Norman Fischer

Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a Zen priest in the tradition of Suzuki Roshi. When I first started learning Zen meditation in the mid 1980s, he was one of the priests I really connected to. I felt honored to be able to have dokusan (a private interview with a Zen teacher) with Norman some time around […]

How Much Is The Clock?

When I was growing up, my aunt Zlota from Chicago used to ask for the time of day by saying, “How much is the clock?” This must have been a literal translation from Yiddish or Russian. The memory of her and this lovely expression remains with me today. Adam Frank is a professor and an […]