News & Stories

This is such a strange and unforgettable time to be alive.  It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that less than 2 months ago (and less for many of us) our daily lives had a sense of (what seemed to be) normalcy. We could (pretty much) plan to go to sleep at night...

By: Anna NacherProfessor of Jagiellonian University, Krakow, PolandFulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Winona State University, Winona, MN   The famous phrase by Dogen Zenji, and one that is featured on the Zen Garland website says: “To know yourself is to forget...

I’m sitting next to the fire as I write, taking time to warm up next to a place I love to be this time of year.  Warmth; something I appreciate feeling, both physically and emotionally. As I sit here, I am feeling grateful about my morning.   I have the honor of...

Our Zen practice is a journey. Our life is a journey, and our small mind is the child in the back seat, always asking, “are we there yet?”

​We all do terrible things to each other… by intent, by neglect, and by ignorance. Up until recently I would have said that mostly this happens unintentionally. These days though, I think cruelty, rudeness, and contempt, in the name of “being real” is celebrated. What...

In the darkness of early morning, lightning in the distance told me storms were on the horizon.

I’m sitting at my kitchen table looking out my window into the bluffs and a forest covered from top to bottom in snow. It’s April 19th and when I brought my kids to school today (which started 2 hours late) the thermometer read 30 degrees. As I sit here now, a few...