When does summer really begin? It's not an astronomical question, as the people into genes insist gender is as easy to assign as reading x's and y's. It is easy if we make it that easy, but it is not so easy when we do not all agree to that as the objective measure.
What is "social summer"?
Mandatory: All Americans must visit a beach.
There's a kind of social summer, which runs between Memorial Day and Labor Day, just an approximation. The seasons do not always cooperate even in parts of the US where four distinct seasons make themselves obvious. There is "Indian summer," which is just a way of saying a long hot spell after official calendrical summer should have ended.
Another example of social summer is the one set by the local school district: When school ends, that's summer. Just ask Alice Cooper! When school begins again, that resumption is the end, even if the weather is still great and drives to the beach are worth the traffic.
There did not used to be a "universal time" but rather many different times depending on the place. They were not simultaneous but more dependent on the sun circling (not revolving) overhead chased by the moon. Those were Tartarian (Tartary) times, and that's all been erased now. A universal measure imposes a definition that does not make sense for everybody on the ground.
Another social summer measure is determined by the concert calendar. The end comes to Pasadena, Los Angeles with the Just Like Heaven Festival this Saturday (Aug. 22, 2026).
New for 2026: Updated clubhouse amenities, enhanced VIP experiences, plus new shade sails, cooling misters, expanded shaded seating, and additional water refill stations throughout the festival grounds, giving concertgoers even more ways to stay cool and recharge between musical sets. For even more convenience, spend the day in VIP for a lot more money. Spend the day dancing in the expansive VIP viewing areas and lounging in shaded spaces between acts, all while enjoying exclusive food and drink options and air-conditioned restrooms.
Buy Now Just Like Heaven | August 22, 2026
"Defund the police" was a deception to provoke public outrage. Congress funds new secret police forces and pays them much more now. If police officers want to scam the system, overseers look the other way. Let's make THE PURGE legal for a little while, and then we can use the predictable mayhem and disorder as a pretext to implement some Orwellian policies for "public safety" and a smiley face police state.
Whatcha doin, SpongeBob? - Just sitting. - You mean shikantaza? - Uh, what? I mean, yeah, that.
Why Zen is the EASIEST path to enlightenment (but few understand it)
Can we speed this up? I've got things to do.
(Cinematic Bible Lore) May 16, 2025: ๐ฟ Is Enlightenment (redefined in Zen as satoriorkensho rather than bodhi) really about effort, rituals, or sutra study, or could the simplest path be the most powerful?
This video dives deeply into the essence of Zen Buddhism — a tradition that goes beyond concepts and leads to direct experience of awakening through simplicity.
Discover the story of Bodhidharma, the teachings of Dลgen Zenji, and why zazen (seated meditation) is not just a technique — but a way of mindfully living in the here and now.
Whether new to Zen or deep in practice, this guide reveals why Zen is the easiest — and most overlooked — path to enlightenment.
๐ง LEARN:
Why Zen rejects dogma, rituals, and intellectual striving
The power of zazen: how “just sitting” (shikantaza) becomes awakening
How Dลgen’s teachings dissolve the illusion of time and ego
Why the present moment holds everything we seek
How to bring Zen into daily acts like washing, walking, or breathing
๐ฌ Question:
Ever felt fully present — free from discursive thought, self, and striving? Share the experience in the comments.
๐บ Explore more: ๐ฅ The Deepest Teaching of Buddha ๐ฅ The Secret Behind Zazen Meditation ๐ฅ Buddhism vs. Zen – What's the real difference?
๐ Like, share, and subscribe to join in weekly journeys through the world’s deepest spiritual traditions. ๐ Hashtags #ZenBuddhism #ZazenMeditation #DogenZenji #SimplePathToEnlightenment #PresentMomentPractice #ZenExplained #Mindfulness
Cinematic Bible Lore; May 16, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
MEDITATOR: I want a regular meditation practice, but I don't know how to start. I don't know how to meditate.
INSTRUCTOR: Don't meditate. Don't try. You don't know how, so what would you be doing or trying to do other than what you think it is? It isn't that.
MEDITATOR: So don't meditate?
INSTRUCTOR: That's right. You can't meditate. You'll never be able to meditate. No one can. No one ever has. And no one will ever be able to.
MEDITATOR: What to do then?
INSTRUCTOR: We're going to set up the circumstances, the causes and conditions, for meditation to happen by itself. Meditation happens. We don't "do" it. No one does.
MEDITATOR: What are those things?
In the sensing, let there be just the sensing.
INSTRUCTOR: Here's an example. Can you grow plants in a garden? No, no you can't. They grow by themselves. What can you do? You can set up the circumstances for them to grow -- give them what they need, remove the hindrances to their growth. Then they grow great all by themselves. What do they need? Seed, soil, water, warmth, some sunlight, some shade. What hinders their growth? Weeds, pests, too much water, too little water, too much sun, too little sun, and so on.
MEDITATOR: But I do garden. I do grow things myself!
INSTRUCTOR: How do you do that?
MEDITATOR: I don't know. I just plant things, and they sort of come up by themselves. I follow the directions on the seed packet.
INSTRUCTOR: So you can't grow things? You don't know how. You don't even know how they do it, but they do do it. THEY do it themselves. You, for your part, just cultivate the causes and conditions for them to do it, right?
MEDITATOR: Yes. I guess I never thought about it that way. I thought I was doing it.
INSTRUCTOR: Yet when you didn't do it, they did grow, sometimes?
MEDITATOR: Yes!
INSTRUCTOR: Meditation is the exact same way. We can't make (create, produce) meditation, we can't force meditation, we can't do meditation. It can happen. It can arise like a magical sprout that grows into a fulsome, fruiting plant that flowers and produces wonders. When does it happen? It happens when we provide what it needs -- attention, silence, persistence, relaxation, removing the Five Hindrances to it, providing the Factors of Absorption. When those are here, it happens all by itself. So don't meditate. Know that you can't, and give up. Do not. Stop trying. Think of Yoda.
"NO! Try not! DO or DO NOT. There is no try." Yoda in Star Wars (eBay.com).
MEDITATOR: I get it! What are the specifics I should do if I want meditation to happen by itself?
INSTRUCTOR: Good question! Sit in a comfortable position, spine straight but not stiff or straining. Relax. Breathe in deeply then let go. Place attention to the breath under the nose, where you know the body is breathing. Attend to the breath without interfering. Mind wanders? Bring it back gently, without scolding or despairing. Gone a million times, return it a million-and-one times. Start again. This will keep one in the present moment, as the mind doesn't know past breaths or future ones. There's only this one. Be with it from beginning to end, the full cycle of inhaling and exhaling, whether breathing in or breathing out. Keep the attention here gently, lightly, happily. There's nothing to do. Be. Be here now, awake, attending, and still.
MEDITATOR: I can do that! But isn't that "meditating"?
INSTRUCTOR: No. Gardening is one thing -- cultivating the soil, -- growing is another. It's a mystery. It happens by itself. It's effortless.
MEDITATOR: I get it. You're distinguishing the form from the, the?
INSTRUCTOR: From the meditation. Meditation (jhana, bhavana, dhyana, zen, kammatthana) is what happens when the causes and conditions for it to happen are present. It meditates. It happens to us. It is a function or result of calm, of persistent attention, of relaxing, as things cohere (come into coherence). Wanting, striving, efforting, thinking, stressing, struggling...all of these things get in the way. They aren't "meditation," but if you think they are, don't meditate. Stop it. Let go.
MEDITATOR: I get it, I think. I keep thinking I get it.
INSTRUCTOR: It might be better to "Go Zen," that is, just sit, shikantaza. It's vital to remember the words of the enlightened Western Theravada Buddhist teacher Ajahn Sumedho (American Robert Karr Jackman), who teaches that there are three kinds of desire. All three get in the way get in the way of meditation and progress in meditation. So let them go. But continue to sit. And don't think that that sitting is meditation. It is not. That's preliminary. When meditation happens, you'll know and see that you were confusing forms with actual meditation, projections with the actual thing, thoughts and ideas about reality with reality.
Look, I did it! I look like a doll. I've achieved total lotus posing. But nothing's happening.
.
Hey, Kids, sit like me. And you'll be a meditator.
MEDITATOR: So what shouldn't I do?
INSTRUCTOR: Don't meditate. Don't "try." Just cultivate the causes and conditions for it to happen by itself, without grasping, struggling, or trying to get something, get rid of something, or become something.
MEDITATOR: It sounds very Zen.
INSTRUCTOR: It sort of is. But don't begin to "stink of Zen." Zen is achievable by trying, by doing, by anything but allowing, accepting, letting go, and persisting in attention (mindfulness of this moment).
MEDITATOR: I get it! I think I really do get it this time! It was semantics that were throwing me off. It's like how you said the Buddha, when he was the Bodhisatta, realized that if he struggled, he exhausted himself, and if he did nothing, he sank. Somewhere between the two, between effort and exhaustion, between nothing and struggling, right?
INSTRUCTOR: Yes. Sitting in a group can also be helpful. There's more energy in a collection of coals than any single one until it gets going. When it gets going, the others may become a hindrance to it. Then having used the group for what it's good for, set it aside, like a raft that took us to the further shore.
(Wiki WQ edit) Zen means jhana. Zazen, considered the heart of Japanese Sลtล Zen Buddhist practice, means "sitting." The aim of zazen is "just sitting" (shitankaza), that is, suspending all judgmental thinking and letting words, ideas, images, and thoughts pass by [like little clouds across a clear sky] without getting involved in them. We avoid becoming distracted by distractions this way. Practitioners do not use any specific object of meditation, instead remaining as much as possible in the present moment, aware of and observing what is occurring [such as this breath] and what is passing through the mind. Dogen says, in his Shobogenzo, "Sitting fixedly, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the art of zazen." More
Just Mercy attorney asks U.S. to reckon with our racist past and present
Bryan Stevenson is the author of the memoir Just Mercy, which was recently adapted into a film starring Michael B. Jordan.
The third Monday of every January is a U.S. federal holiday honoring the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. But two Southern states — Alabama and Mississippi — also use the day to celebrate General Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate forces during the Civil War.
Public interest lawyer NY School of Law Professor Bryan A. Stevenson (CBS interview) lives in Alabama and is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which works to combat injustice in the U.S. legal system.
The new movie Just Mercy is an adaptation of his 2014 memoir of the same name. He says that the fact that his state honors Gen. Lee at all — let alone on the same day as Rev. King — is a sign that America has not acknowledged the evils of its past.
"In the American South, where I live, the landscape is littered with the iconography of the Confederacy," Stevenson says. "We actually celebrate the architects and defenders of enslavement. For me, that has to change if we're going to get to the kind of healthy place I think we need to get to."
Stevenson has traveled the world, observing how other cultures address the injustices of the past. He notes that Johannesburg, South Africa, has a museum and monuments that "talk about the wrongfulness of apartheid."
In Berlin, he says, "You can't go 200 meters without seeing markers and stones placed next to the homes of Jewish families that were abducted during the Holocaust."
"But in this country," he says, "we don't have institutions that are dedicated and focused to making sure a new generation of Americans appreciates the wrongfulness of what we did when we allowed lynching to prevail and persist, what we did when we created racial apartheid through segregation."
For Stevenson, the museum and the monument are an effort to address the past — and to change the future.
"I just felt like we had to introduce a narrative about American history that wasn't [being] clearly articulated," he says. "We need to create institutions in this country that motivate more people to say 'Never again' to racial bias and bigotry."More
Ever try to meditate? Meditation is not about trying. Ever do meditation? Meditation is not about doing.
Ever make meditation happen? No one can make it happen, and no one ever will. But people meditate. How?
Plants grow themselves. Gardeners only help.
Gardeners garden, and by gardening, plants grow. But no gardener has ever made a plant grow. Gardening is not about MAKING a plant grow.
It is about cultivating suitable conditions (as well as removing obstacles) so that it grows all by itself. Meditation is just this way! It happens. And all our trying, doing, making, forcing...get in the way. Let go instead.
With the cultivation techniques we'll learn, everyone who attends is GUARANTEED to enter a meditative state -- no effort required. In fact, effort will get in the way. Let go. Vegan refreshments and tangy green tea kombucha served.
256. Not by passing arbitrary judgments does one become just; a wise person is one who investigates both right and wrong.
257. One who does not judge others arbitrarily but passes judgment impartially according to the truth, that sagacious person is a guardian of law and is called just.
258. One is not wise because one speaks much. One who is peaceable, friendly, and free of fear is called wise.
259. A person is not versed in Dharma because one speaks much. One who, after hearing a little Dharma, realizes its truth directly and is not heedless of it is truly versed in the Dharma.
260. A monastic is not an elder because head hair is gray. One is but ripe in age, and that person is called one grown old in vain.
261. One in whom there is truthfulness, virtue, inoffensiveness, restraint, and self-mastery, who is free of defilements and is wise -- that person is truly called an "elder."*
*Elder: thera or theri, a Buddhist monastic of at least ten rains retreats.
262. Not by mere eloquence nor by beauty of form does a person become accomplished, if one is jealous, selfish, and deceitful.
263. But one in whom these are wholly destroyed, uprooted and extinguished, and who has cast out hatred -- that wise person is truly accomplished.
264. Not by shaven head does a person who is undisciplined and untruthful become a monastic. How can one who is full of desire and greed be a monastic?
265. One who wholly subdues the urge-to-harm both small and great is called a "monastic" because one has overcome all harm.
266. One is not a monastic just because one lives on others' alms [charitable offerings]. Not by adopting outward form does one become a true monastic.
267. Whoever here (in the Buddha's dispensation) lives a pure life, transcending both merit and demerit, and walks with understanding in this world -- one is truly called a monastic.
268. Not by observing silence does one become a sage, if one be foolish and ignorant. But that person is wise who, as if holding a balance-scale [to weigh all options], accepts only the good.
269. The sage (thus) rejecting the doing of harm is truly a sage. Since one comprehends both (present and future) worlds, one is called a sage.
270. One is not noble who injures living beings. One is called "noble" because one is harmless towards all living beings.
271-272. Not by rules and observances, not even by much learning, nor by gain of meditative-absorptions, nor by a life of seclusion, nor by thinking, "I enjoy the bliss of renunciation, which is not experienced by the ordinary uninstructed worldling" should you, O meditators, rest content, until the utter destruction of all cankers (full enlightenment) is reached.
Once or twice a day, I sit facing a wall in my home.
In the Sลtล Zen tradition, one meditates with the eyes partially open, facing a wall. This is to minimize the distraction of seeing other people while you meditate. Many other traditions involved closed-eyed meditation, and you can sit anywhere.
Zen enso or circle: empty zero?
I just sit. I sit for 20 minutes, a half-hour, sometimes more. But I just sit. I sit and think not thinking; I do that by non-thinking.
This is the Zen practice of shikantaza or “just sitting.” You sit, cross-legged if you can, and let your mind alone.
When you stop thinking, you reach a point of non-thinking. It’s one of the typical paradoxes of Zen that makes your brain try and twist around those words, “not,” “non-,” and “thinking” to figure out what they mean.
Unlike other forms of meditation, shikantaza doesn’t involve concentrating on an object, such as your breath or a mantra.
It is “objectless meditation,” where you focus on everything you experience [and therefore not objectless as one shifts to what is salient in the internal and external environment] -- thoughts, sounds, feelings -- without attaching [clinging] to any of them.
When you get there, you know what it is.
Instruction
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.
“Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left, and settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. Think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.”
I’ve been practicing meditation off and on for about 25 years. After following the Tibetan tradition [Vajrayana] for a while, I drifted among other forms of practice, notably Theravada insight meditation [vipassana], before settling on Zen.
There are many different schools of meditation, and even in Zen, there are two main currents, Rinzai and Sลtล. It is the latter, Sลtล Zen, founded by Eihei Dลgen in the 13th century, that feels right to me. It’s the one whose main practice is just sitting. More
Here are 10 easy steps to a "zen" (jhana) state of mind. Zazen (just sitting) is a type of meditation unique to Zen Buddhism. It functions at the heart of the practice. Zen (Chinese Ch'an, Sanskrit Dhyana, Pali Jhana) is the Japanese word
for "meditation," so Zen Buddhists could be called "Meditation-centric Buddhists."
This outlines how a beginner can practice zazen, which
literally means sitting meditation.
The Joshu Sasakisex scandalhas made both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times
thus making it officially news, as opposed to just the stuff that gets
bantered about on Buddhist blogs. One of the reasons things like this
have been covered up in the past is...that there is little information
available to the general public about what Buddhists believe and
practice.... [and] sex sells.
MT. BALDY - Authentic American Zen Master and ordained Zen Buddhist priest Brad Warner, who received direct transmission from his teacher, Gudo Nishijima, in Japan in spite of being a rebellious punk rocker, a comic book lover, and by all accounts not much of a monastic or roshi, will do his best to turn it around during this Soto Zen meditation retreat.
The three-day intensive retreat in the snow-covered heights of the Angeles National Forest will focus on zazen ("sitting"), shikantaza ("just sitting"), and deep silence. There will be morning chanting services, work periods, and yoga led by Yogini Nina Snow.
Free time will be permitted for hiking. The daily routine will be punctuated by lectures, Q&A sessions, and interview(s (dokusan) with Ven. Brad, who is the author of Sex Sin and Zen, Hardcore Zen, Sit Down and Shut Up (Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye), and of course Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate. More
Roshi Jeff Albrizze, PasaDharma.org;Koan Study Group, Wisdom Quarterly
PasaDharma reading and discussing koan before zazen, Thursdays, 7:00-8:30 pm. Beginner's introduction at 6:30 pm if they call Jeff in advance: (626) 529-4074 (WQ)
Roshi leads kinhin walking meditation (WQ)
BUDDHIST PASADENA - The bell rings. The teacher, dressed in traditional black and sporting full sleeve tattoos, bows. Participants take their seats on zafus, zabutons, cushions, sofas, chairs, and ergonomic setups in the middle of a redwood tree forest on the Neighborhood UU campus.
This is Pasadena, California, and one of the brightest and most successful Unitarian Universalist churches in Los Angeles is hosting another in a series of Buddhist meditation groups. Pasadharma is in its thirteenth year of providing a gathering place for Zen fellowship and "just sitting." The group is FREE and open to all, supported by the voluntary contributions of participants. The goal? To provide a sacred space for "just sitting" (zazen). Of course, there's more than just sitting going on.
301 N. Orange Grove Blvd #23 (upstairs), Pasadena CA 91103
But the point is that, unlike many Buddhist groups in Los Angeles and Orange County, the central focus here is on sitting.
The bell rings, and the group reads (photocopies and digital versions provided). Roshi Albrizze, a former resident at ZCLA and a long time practitioner at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, talks about Buddhism from an American perspective to a largely Occidental audience, and discussion ensues.
The bell rings again, and so begins the first session of formal sitting. Minds race. This is followed by slow and fast walking (kinhin) around the new UU labyrinth and a second round of sitting starts. The mind calms.
Then the after-party begins: networking, hugging, social bonding, working out Zen philosophy, and practical advice dispensed liberally to keep practitioners afloat in this mad, mad world. "How did you hear about it?" "I saw it on MeetUp.com!" "Me, too!" *vigorous handshake*
POTLUCK!
Thursday, January 31st will be different. Pasadharma is hosting a FREE OPEN POTLUCK PARTY for family and friends and curious onlookers. Meet the Roshi, his wife, his newborn, and the many activists that make up the progressive Pasadena/Northeast Los Angeles foothill community. Various insight (vipassana)meditators, Tibetan Buddhists, recovering Catholics and Jews, and Thich Nhat Hanh devotees feel at home at Neighborhood Church. And more than a few curious formerly-fundamental Christians drop by, as do urban witches (Wiccan priestesses), hipsters, shamans, cyberpunks, gardeners, and local cranks. All are welcome and embraced in this beautiful community of acceptance and Mahayana universalism. Koan Study Group Mara Schaeffer, Wisdom Quarterly
PasaDharma's KSG is special. All that most Buddhist groups can offer to the public, over the years, is beginning meditation techniques: relax, watch your breath, feel your stress melt away, and try not to snore too loudly. After a few years of this, the serious spiritual seeker may want to advance to something with more depth -- sutra study or, peculiar to Zen, koan work. Like dream images that speak of profound meaning in symbols and images, with their origin in the objective unconscious, koan images are rich and deep. Their significance represents the collective wisdom of the Rinzai Zen tradition. But their meaning is not given freely; it requires a level of engagement and intensity which can vary from simple frustration to a deep "soul" searching like Jacob wrestling an angel. Roshi Jeff is a gifted guide through the treasure of nuances surrounding these puzzling riddles. The satisfaction of discovering each koan's meaning is one way into meditating -- the only way in is to abandon "efforting," muscling, and intellectualizing. (All of these get in the way of zen/jhana/absorption). The heart of the mystery to be found is both deeply satisfying as well as being "nothing special." We return to beginner's mind, to original worthiness, to an aha or "I knew that!" realization. But now we come to it with a more profound understanding.
Look who dropped by!
There's KPFK Radio host Carter Wallace andMaster GardenerMark Rice(instituteofurbanecology.org) with British Rose Diveen fromCulture Club 101;that's permaculture designer and visual media artist January Nordman, that's author Prof. BJ Kelleher, there's the eye doctor who runs the PasaDharma Traveling Lending Library, there's that jerk who never talks to nobody but just sits, and over there are jazz impresarios, and PasaDharma's own resident didgeridoo player of Malibu's Wright Ranch fame, Ron the self-proclaimed bodhisattva with magic powers and relics, artists from Armory Arts, the anti-Big Oil NELA Transitioners, the spiritual-but-not-religious crowd from Alexandria II Bookstore, the "consciousness raisers" from Conscientious Projector, and the skeptics from nearby Caltech and JPL.
I began as an Objectivist. Like many members of my generation, I discovered Ayn Rand in college, initially reading The Fountainhead and then Atlas Shrugged. I felt, at the time, that she had saved my life. I was a child prodigy and, as with most child prodigies, my adolescence and early adult years were filled with strong feelings of isolation and guilt. After years of bullying and taunting by other children (and the alienation of adults who found children with adult vocabularies and opinions to be creepy), I found myself overwhelmed with feelings...
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