I’m celebrating Dee. It’s her birthday, and I’m so grateful for all the years that she has been my partner, grateful for all the gifts that I’ve received. I am remembering our early days. I don’t remember now why we were driving near Bear Mountain, past the Japanese restaurant, high up on a mountain, that you can see from the highway. This time we drove up, late afternoon, but still a long wait for a table. “Enjoy the grounds,” they suggested. We walked around the Japanese ga

Mark Twain got it right. He’d quit smoking hundreds of times. My teacher, Roshi Bernie Glassman, was channeling his inner Twain when he described Enlightenment, the realization and actualization of the oneness of life. Bernie talked about his cigar smoking. He knew all about the Surgeon General’s Warning. He realized that smoking was bad for his health, but he loved his cigars and kept on smoking. There was realization but no actualization. What did I think Bernie was point

What was Roshi Bernie saying when he said that? I hear many people – I think it may be mostly people who didn’t know Bernie – taking it as a license to treat their own opinions as gospel. Almost. What the teacher said is just an opinion, and what I think is just opinion; all opinions are equal; one opinion is as good as another. “Just My Opinion” is a koan which somehow I began working with years before I met Bernie. It was my “boss” koan when I’d first moved into middle ma