Monthly Archives: December 2023

Dharma Rain, Portland, Oregon – When I was in high school, I became involved with the Mormons for a bit. It had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with a girl, but I acquired a basic knowledge of their belief system. It’s hard to believe someone attracted to it would also beContinue reading “Sallie Jiko Tisdale”

Day Star Zendo – Wrentham, Massachusetts – I met Sister Madeleine Tacy in 2016 when I visited the Day Star Zendo in Wrentham, Massachusetts. That visit is described in the final chapter of my book, Catholicism and Zen. Seven years later, she is now the guiding teacher of Day Star. The group had been startedContinue reading “Sr. Madeleine Tacy”

Adapted from The Third Step East – The story is told that in 1876, a Japanese fisherman—or possibly an itinerant Kegon monk— named Senzaki came upon the body of a recently deceased woman on the Russian Kamchatka peninsula which extends southward towards the archipelago of Japan. At the woman’s breast, there was a newborn childContinue reading “Nyogen Senzaki”