Zen simple: Japanese Grandma Kinoe

Bodhidharma must be kidding because there's so much we can do, beginning with appreciation

(Lizzy Grant) Before she was Lana Del Rey, she wrote "Gramma" (about bad boy Axl Rose) #LDR

Japanese grandmother leads simple Zen life

(Japanese Grandma Kinoe) Living alone in the Japanese countryside: a day in the life of 93-year-old Grandmother Kinoe.

• 

  Minamoto Yoshiie at Nakoso barrier

  Wisdom Quarterly: Gramma Kinoe, should Lana Del Rey keep obsessing about love, relationships, men, lesbian summer crushes...
• Grandma Kinoe: What's a summer crush?
• WQ: It's like when, you know how sometimes at the all-girl schools in Japan you get carried away admiring the little uniforms they make us wear, and two students get, um, carried away?
• GK: Oh, you mean rezu-dōseiai (女性同性愛者).
• WQ: I guess. Lana just does it for attention and to be inclusive of her big LGBT fanbase.
• GK: What's a fan base?
• WQ: It's sort of, never mind that.
• GK: I mind that!
• WQ: It's like a base, for a fan, or fans.
• GK: Oh, you mean tessen (鉄扇) like for war.
• WQ: Yes, exactly. Look, you're living the "Zen" life. What's it like? Shouldn't you move to a temple nunnery-monastery (zendo) where everyone practices proper form, slows down, and goes the Way of the Tao, with the flow and wu-wei (noninterference)?
• GK: You mean seppuku (切腹, harakiri [ritual suicide])?!



Why does J art look cartoonish?

• WQ: No, no, like royal forms and formalities but in a dojo, bowing and turning, taking your shoes off and sitting correctly for zazen on zafu and zabuton, meditation cushion and mat.
• GK: Oh, you mean go to the senbutsu-jō (選仏場)? I can do that in the comfort of my own home...if my darn grandkids didn't keep filming me for these silly YouTube videos. What is a you tube anyway?
• WQ: It's like a tube for you.
• GK: Oh, you mean shiso-arabiki (粗びき) [sausage].
• WQ: No, no! That's pig slaughter and offal; YouTube is more like crockpot TikTok pig butchering and awful.
• GK: What's offal/awful?
• WQ: YouTube is. It's really gone downhill since all the corporate Google censorship.
• GK: OK, OK, enough chit-chatty. Let's listen to soothing music and talk about 21 healthy foods to add to diet.
• WQ: Yeah, good idea, Gramma.
• GK: "Gramma"? I'm Kinoe! Why does that girl keeping calling me "Gramma"?
• WQ: She's trying to perfect her practice of wabi-sabi (侘び寂び).
• GK: Oh, that makes sense! Good for her. Good luck, Lezzie!
• WQ: No, Grandma! It's Lizzy or Lana now.

Healing sounds of Japanese Zen

Healing sounds of Zen • eliminate negative energy • calm body and mind

Zen: The Art of Simple Living

Zen: The Art of Simple

Editor/translator Allison Markin Powell (shown here smiling) and author Shunmyo Masuno have 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 3,688 reviews) for this handy little guide. Relax and find happiness amid the swirl of the modern world with this internationally bestselling guide to simplifying life by a Japanese Buddhist priest who embodies the wisdom of Zen.

Drawing on centuries of wisdom, renowned Zen Buddhist Shunmyo Masuno applies the essence of Zen to modern life in clear, practical, easily adopted lessons -- one a day for 100 days. Discover how:

• lining up our shoes after we take them off can bring order to our lives
• putting down our forks after every bite can help us feel more grateful for what we have
• spending time barefoot can strengthen our bodies
• planting a flower and watching it grow can teach us to embrace change
• going outside to watch the sunset can make every day feel celebratory.

Author Zen Priest Shunmyo Masumo

In Zen: The Art of Simple Living, readers will learn to find happiness not by seeking out extraordinary experiences but by [moments of appreciation and] making small changes -- to what we do, how we think, how we interact with others, and how we APPRECIATE the present moment (yes, this one right NOW).

[This is what the historical Buddha called sati or "mindful awareness," diligence, vigilance, conscientiousness, wakefulness, and MINDFULNESS].

With each task, we open ourselves up to a renewed sense of peace and inner calm. More

Maybe centenarians are what they eat?

(PhytoWise) 21 foods that make Japanese people virtually immune to any illness for longevity

1. natto (whole fermented soybean)
2. miso (fermented soybean paste)
3. tofu (vegan soymilk bean curd cheese protein)
4. edamame (young saltwater boiled soy pods)
5. shoyu (umami savory soy sauce)
6. tsukemono (lactic acid pickles, sauerkraut)
7. [taiyaki] (murdered cooked fish)
8. sashimi (murdered raw fish, omega fatty acids)*
9. wakame, nori, and kombu (mineral-rich seaweed)
10. shirasu don (bowl of warm rice, calcium topping)
11. daikon winter radish (enzyme-rich)
12. beni imo (Okinawan-purple-sweet potato, anthocyanins)
13. shiitake and other mushrooms (dried savory beta-glucan)
14. goya bitter melon (bitter gourd, Momordica charantia)
15. J-rice (white and brown, polished and whole integral)
16. soba (buckwheat noodles, gluten-free with its own toxin)
17. matcha (green tea, phytonutrient-rich, antioxidant catechins)
18. yuzu (flavonoid-rich citrus zest, usually for warm soaking)
19. wasabi (horseradish vegetable with antimicrobial powers)
20. umeboshi (salted fermented citric acid apricot-like plum)
21. [*hemp seeds (raw Cannabis sativa, protein, EFA-rich)].

(Dan Martin) Eat like it's Japan every morning (one simple prep)

Unseen Japan: magical land of many worlds

UNSEEN JAPAN | The Secret and Incredible Places in Japan | Travel Video

(World Travel Doc) May 16, 2026: This documentary is a guide through the most extraordinary places in Japan, perfect for planning a trip. Discover wonderful Buddhist Japan through spectacular images and fascinating stories for an unforgettable journey through unseen places that will leave viewers breathless.

I think it's very wabi-sabi. Good work!

01:48 - Yakushima. 04:20 - Ishigaki and Yaeyama Islands. 07:09 - Shirakawa'go. 09:46 - Koyasan. 12:44 - Ise. 15:29 - Hakone. 18:15 - Nikko. 20:59 - Kanazawa. 23:42 - Takayama. 26:37 - Japanese Alps/Nagano. 29:28 - Mount Fuji. 33:14 - Kamakura. 36:12 - Yokohama. 39:03 - Tokyo. 43:12 - Kyoto. 47:09 - Arashiyama. 49:54 - Outro – Japan Beyond the Postcard.

Is this "hardcore" enough for you, American Zen Priest Brad Warner, the punk-monk?

• Egypt's Book of the Dead buried for thousands of years (MSN)
• Jeadora: ZenChic bra, seamless sexy push up wireless brassiere
• Grandma Kinoe; Lana Del Rey (as young Lizzy Grant); Shunmyo Masumo, Allison Markin Powell; Healing Zen Sounds; PhytoWise; Dan Martin; World Travel Doc; Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tai chi (chi gong) is NOT an exercise

(TangSaying) "Tai chi" was never an exercise | What the original actually says

Tai chi is today thought of as a Chinese martial art created for combat and self-defense, but that is tai chi chuan, chuan meaning "fist."

For most practitioners, it has (d)evolved into an "exercise," a relaxation technique, and a sport. As an exercise and relaxation technique, tai chi is practiced in set sequences known as "forms" (taolu), usually in gentle, flowing, circular motions that are often described as "meditation in motion," though they may also be performed in faster and more vigorous routines.

As a sport, competitors are judged on their performance in forms, pushing hands, and free sparring. As a martial art, practitioners master the applications of forms and partner work for effective self-defense.

• 

  Master Lam practicing in Sichuan

  Qigong (Chi gong) is the movement of energy: It is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation [2] said to be useful for the purposes of spirituality, health, and self-defense martial arts training [3]. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance the mystical life-force chi or qi [4]. Qigong practice typically involves moving meditation, coordinating slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. People qigong worldwide for meditation, recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative medicine, self-cultivation, and training for martial arts [2].

One implies the other in pairs. It is not balance

Many styles of tai chi are practiced, both traditional and modern. While the precise origins are not known, the earliest well-documented practice began during the Ming-Qing transition at Chen Village and Zhabao Village in Henan on the North China Plain, a region where centuries of rebellions, invasions, and adverse economic and social conditions nurtured the development of a wide range of martial arts, including those of the Shaolin (Kung Fu) Buddhist Monastery on Mount Song at the western edge of the plain.

(Inside the Human) Psychology of men who don't chase women

Most modern styles trace their development to five traditional schools:

1. Chen,
2. Yang,
3. Wu (Hao),
4. Wu,
5. Sun.

In the early 20th century, Yang Chengfu, Wu Jianquan, Sun Lutang, and others promoted and standardized the art for its health benefits in programs supported by the Nationalist government.

This approach was further expanded and institutionalized by the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) government after 1949. In 2020, tai chi was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. More

Classical metal guitar soloist Tina Setkic

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata (3rd movement)" Tina Setkic cover

(MD Animations) Where is Yugoslavian French classical metal guitar prodigy Tina Setkic (YouTube's "Tina S"), student of French jazz-rocker Renaud Louis-Servais?

• Rondo alla turca, the Turkish March but heavy metal!
• Yngwie Malmsteen's "Arpeggios from Hell" Tina S cover
• "Vivaldi Tribute" (Patrick Rondat) Tina S cover

(BERNTH Guitar Academy) I tested TikTok's most viral guitar advice

Heavy metal gone wrong: flops

(Feedback Johnny) Sometimes bands like Metallica sell out to make money

Secret of the Golden Flower: Taoism

(Asangoham) The Taoist book that changes everything | The Secret of the Golden Flower

The Secret of the Golden Flower (Chinese 太乙金華宗旨, Pinyin Tàiyǐ Jīnhuá Zōngzhǐ) is a Chinese Taoist traditional medical textbook on neidan (inner alchemy) meditation, which also mixes Mahayana Buddhist teachings with some Confucian thoughts [1]. These are the three blended traditions of China.

 

It was written by means of the spirit-writing (fuji) technique, through two groups, in 1688 and 1692 [2]. It addresses the nature of the Tao.

After publication of the translation by Richard Wilhelm, with commentary by Jungian psychologist Carl Jung, it became modernly popularized among Westerners as a Chinese "religious classic."

It is read in psychological circles for analytical and transpersonal psychology considerations of Taoist meditations [3, 4], although it received little attention in the East [1]. More

Ancient Chinese secret

(BetterU) China's secret learning method. (It's insane)

A calming Taoist story

(Quiet Bamboo) You don't have to be useful | A calming Taoist story

Why Tao Te Ching matters (explained)

The Tao Te Ching explained: The 81 poems that hold everything together

 

(The East Made Simple) An old man (Lao Tzu, Laozi) climbs onto a water buffalo at the western gate of a crumbling Chinese kingdom. His country has torn itself apart for decades. Warlords, poisoned princes, scholars selling their integrity for proximity to power.

He has decided he has seen enough. The gatekeeper Yinxi recognizes him. He refuses to let him pass until the old man writes down everything he knows.

The Tao and its Characteristics

So the old man sits down. And in one sitting, he produces 81 short "poems" on bamboo strips in 5,000 characters, no introduction, no conclusion, no table of contents. He hands the bundle to the gatekeeper, climbs back on the buffalo, and disappears into the mountains forever.

That bundle is the Tao Te Ching — the second most translated book in history, behind only the Bible. Most people treat it like a fortune cookie collection, soft sayings about water and going with the flow, printed on coffee mugs and yoga studio walls.

That interpretation does the book a serious injustice. Lao Tzu was not writing inspirational content for a peaceful audience. He was writing a survival guide for people whose world was burning down around them — and he buried it inside 81 poems that look simple on the surface but operate like a precision instrument underneath.

This video reads the Tao Te Ching the way it was meant to be read: as a two-stage operating system for being human. The first 37 chapters reset our relationship with reality. The next 44 reset our behavior inside it.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - The old man at the gate
• 01:10 - Why this book was written in a burning world
• 02:05 - What Tao, te, and ching actually mean
• 03:00 - The two-stage structure of the 81 chapters
• 03:55 - Chapter 1: Why the Tao cannot be named
• 05:10 - Chapter 8: Water and the nature of real power
• 06:15 - Chapter 11: the philosophy of emptiness
• 07:10 - Wu wei: doing without forcing [non-interference]
• 08:20 - Chapter 33: wisdom vs. intelligence, power vs. strength
• 09:00 - Chapter 17: the leader nobody remembers
• 09:45 - Chapter 64: the thousand-mile warning
• 10:50 - Why the book changes every time we change
• 12:00 - What the Tao Te Ching was really built to do

What's covered in this video

• The legendary story of Lao Tzu, the gatekeeper Yinxi, and the writing of the Tao Te Ching — and why this book was born in one of the most violent eras in Chinese history.
• What the three words of the title actually mean: Tao (The Way), Te (inner power aligned with the Tao), and Ching (sacred text) — and why most people who quote this book have never understood the title.
• Why Lao Tzu opens Chapter 1 by warning that the most important thing in his book cannot be named — and what that does to the categorizing, label-making human mind.
• The water metaphor in Chapter 8: Why real power does not look like power and how the softest substance on earth (water) shapes the hardest over time.
• Chapter 11 and the philosophy of emptiness: Why the hole in the wheel, the space in the pot, and the empty room in the house are the things actually doing the work.
• Wu wei – the most mistranslated concept in the book: Why it does not mean "doing nothing" but rather doing without forcing, acting with the grain of reality instead of against it.
• Chapter 33 and the distinction between intelligence and wisdom, between strength and true power.
• Chapter 17 and Lao Tzu's model of the greatest leader: the one whose people say, "We did this ourselves!"
• Chapter 64 and the real meaning of "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" — and why it is as much a warning as an encouragement.
• Why this book reads differently at age 20 than at 40, differently in success than in crisis — and why that is exactly what it was designed to do.

Mentioned in this video: Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Taoism, The Way, Te, Wu Wei, Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, Ancient China, Chinese Philosophy, Eastern Philosophy, Yinxi, Chapter 8, Chapter 11, Chapter 17, Chapter 33, Chapter 64, Ground Effect, Mindfulness, Stoicism, Wisdom

How this was made: made with AI - sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated. Learn more

Kierkegaard: Stop living for others' approval

• The East Made Simple, 7/14/26; CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How shall "I" become Nobody?

(Flowing Void) Why being nobody is the ultimate power of the Tao

Did Zen folk, being Taoists, get it?

• Avenged Sevenfold "Nobody" (official video)
• I went to a Buddhist retreat needing something to happen; nothing happened.
• My friend, a regular American woman into yoga, also went but not expecting anything, hoping for anything, "needing" anything; something happened.
• I asked, "How?! How is this happening? What did you do differently?"
• She claims she didn't "do" anything. She just sat. She just attended to the present moment with bare awareness, almost like that R.E.M. song, "Stand in the Place Where You Are." She didn't say that. She mentioned thinking about the song "Just Breathe" for inspiration sometimes.
• I asked, "You're thinking about music?"
• She answered, "No, but intrusive thoughts come and go. Sometimes by habit I engage them before mindfully-remembering and then letting them go, letting them cross like clouds in a vast open sky." And she mentioned visualizing the in-and-out breath as steam in a steam room or a small whirligig (windspinner) at her nose turning as the breath moved.
• I asked, "You spend your time visualizing?"
• She answered, "No, but sometimes to focus, I imagine some indicator of the breath just to help get focused."
  
• I asked, "How do you stay energized and focused for so many hours of the retreat schedule day?"
  
• She surprised by answering that she used a little peppermint under her nose.
• I asked, "You spend your time huffing essential oils?"
• She answered, "No but it's a nice pick me up in the morning, and it's good to feel a chill on the spot above the lip where I place my calm attention."
  
• I started to see the pattern. Everything I asked and conceived was about getting and gaining.
• And everything she answered was about letting go, relaxing, and staying aware without "thinking" (i.e., ruminating, perseverating, proliferating, drifting away on a tide of discursive thinking).
• A Buddhist retreat, like a Christian church service, is not somewhere to go to gain. It is a place to go to lay down the burden and let go a little, release, share, give, abandon, listen, allow with radical acceptance of what is. Imagine only ever going to church (mass, temple, the sabbath ritual) with a laundry list of wishes for the God. How well was that ever going to work? But a person with a purer heart goes just to receive the Word or the Spirit or advice embedded in the sermon to give more donations to the church or whatever nonsense most sermons are on nowadays. Surely that purer person would get more out of the experience than the person with the list treating the God of that church like a restaurant, ATM, or the lap of Saint Santa Claus (Nicholas).
• So let us follow in the example of the woman who "succeeded" in getting what everybody else on that retreat was after. About three other women got it, too, including Buddhist meditation teachers Shaila Catherine (Wisdom Wide and Deep: Jhana and Insight) and Dr. Nikki (The Persian Buddhist: Dr. Nikki).
• Oddly, strangely (coincidentally?), these three women are all from California, but the long retreat was on the east coast at IMS with a rare enlightened master. I do not now recall if there was a male among the very small group of retreatants/meditators who "succeeded" in getting somewhere very deep with their meditation. But it was impossible to overlook the fact that even if there were, it was still 75% women who succeeded. So I asked her about this.
• She answered, "I did notice, and I asked the Teacher, and he explained, 'It's easier for women.'"
• I asked, "Why in the world would it be easier for women? Surely, they have it harder than men in this world, which after all we are told is 'a man's world.'"
• She agreed, and she mentioned that she asked him the same question, and the great master, a successful scholar-practitioner not teaching only from theory but having a great deal of direct practical personal experience with the historical Buddha's Path, answered. He explained that it is how women are (by nature at this time) and how they are treated now (by injustice). Their way, as anyone can see in terms of American sex-role stereotyping and gender asymmetries (that they are treated less than, overlooked, underestimated, ignored, disregarded, and all that) actually gives them an advantage in meditation and spiritual progress.
• I said, "Why? Why would that be?"
• She answered, as it came right back around to slap me in the face and punch me in the gut, that it is because women, generally, are NOT striving, struggling, needing, demanding, insisting, interfering, pushing, muscling, and all the "wrong" (disadvantageous, self-defeating, dysfunctional) things we men generally do.
• I asked, "Well, isn't everyone there -- having paid and taken time off work and putting in all those hours of silence, getting up early, eating only in the morning, detoxing from technology, giving up their cell phones, social media, and email accounts -- doing EXACTLY that?!
• She answered, "Yes, except for the four of us, for some reason. It's not like we knew each other or knew what the others were doing. We were each just minding our business, not socializing, not looking around, not taking walks, not arguing, not demanding, not all of that stuff that everyone else [being American] were in the habit of doing."
• I said, "Oh, I see! It's exactly all that grasping, needing, struggling, striving, and kicking @$$ that is getting in everyone's (well nearly everyone's) way!
• She answered, "It would seem so."
• Then I realized I was pushing her for these answers, and she was kind enough, because we had known each other for so long and been such friends, and because I encouraged her and made sure she got to this retreat, that she tolerated this interrogation of sorts. I was startled by what she was saying, and she was saying precious little unless I pushed. I realized anyone with common sense and common decency would never push like this or ask pointed questions. But this is how I pressed that very teacher to answered and explain things, which he did as he kindly inquired about my practice and how I was doing and why I was so worried or interested in what anybody else was doing. (I didn't have enough sense to trust in him that when I was ready, I would learn all these things directly and not need to be so bullheaded in asking). But because I had not made progress, I'd been left to wonder what I was doing wrong, aside from everything. It was only my luck, my precious good karma, that I had the good fortune of knowing more than one person who had done it right (or was currently doing it "right" in the sense of the eight path factors of "right mindfulness, right effort, and so on) that I could see by comparison where I veered off. I already knew about my veering off. What I needed to know, for myself and Wisdom Quarterly readers was, What's the right road, the right path, the right practice? Now I was getting a dose of it. I had only been "a little" off but that little had grown to a complete derailing and going off the road, as a boat traveling a long distance -- with course correcting along the way -- would end up way off track like a wayward Columbus. I was stressed out in asking all these things.
• She answered without stress, gently smiling at my silliness, manliness, foolishness, and blindness.
• But there is an extraordinary thing I realized/remembered as I was talking to her about these things (Dhamma), these matters so rare in the universe that only someone with a real kalyana-mitta can ever hope to hear, and it came when I formulated a preface to a question like a lawyer would, establishing common ground, being on the same page. I wanted to ask her about her level of attainment and that of the others. But to do so, I needed to establish that she was ahead of all the others on the retreat, or was it the case that the elder and much more experienced meditator and teacher Shaila Catherine was ahead, and where was Nikki Mighafori in the ranking, and for that matter, at what level was the teacher?
• She answered no answer, just a perplexed look, a series of sounds and utterances that gave me to believe we were not sharing common ground and not on the same page.
• I pushed, "Look, regular people are 'uninstructed ordinary worldlings,' right?"
• She answered, "Okay?" as if confused by my very lowest common denominator question.
• And I kept pushing, and any Aryan (any "noble" disciple, any attained person of whatever ever rank, stage, or level) is greater than that, right?
• She answered more perplexed, "Okay??"
• I pushed to the point of breaking, "What? You won't give me that? There are ordinary people and there are attained people, and they're not the same because of a 'change-of-lineage' (gotrabhu), riiiiight? The Buddha said as much! It's foundational to the whole Teaching in this school of Buddhism. This is not hard. This is not a trick question..."
• She responded, "And why are you asking?"
• I, exasperated, kept pushing through, as if I were doing a set of heavy weights at the gym and just needed to get a certain number of reps in even if it hurt, "I'm trying to establish that there's a difference. There are ordinary people there and extraordinary. And among the latter group, there are gradients..."
• She looked puzzled, dismissive, not catching on, "Okay???"
• I barked, "Well, come on! There's that, right? And this is when she blew my mind. Did you, dear reader, know that enlightened people (in the specific Buddhist sense of the word bodhi and not what other traditions, religions, or systems think or mean when they use the exact same word) DO NOT THINK OF THEMSELVES as better than anyone? Sure, you did. Anyone can figure that out. They know there's no ego; they go lording it around over anyone's head. BUT, did you know, enlightened people (of whatever stage or level) DO NOT THINK OF THEMSELVES as worse than anyone? Sure, come on, that can be deduced by anyone who gives it a little thought. "Saints" (Aryans, the noble ones) are nice. Here's the mindblower: Reader, did you know that enlightened people DO NOT THINK OF THEMSELVES as equal to anyone? 🤯 (See the Pali canon sutta "With Khema" AN 6.49: Khema Sutta—translated by Bhikkhu Sujato for suttacentral.net) And this is what was happening here. We were getting snagged and tangled up on the very first presupposition of stages and levels. It's not that she didn't know or had forgotten that there were levels, but what had happened is that she had DIRECTLY REALIZED that in reality she is no better, no worse, and not equal to others. These Aryans just don't think that way. It doesn't occur to them. They don't frame things that way anymore. And they may not even remember ever having done so, or so it would seem as I tried to remind her that this is how the whole world thought, including the Buddha, if we can deduce this from his teaching that there were levels of attainment and therefore it is possible to designate someone as higher, lower, or equal to someone else, anyone else.
• She just looked at, as if remembering, then came back to herself, "And????" leading me to make my point, whatever my point was originally going to be. I didn't remember, and there was no sense in asking if we could not agree on that much for starters. This was a nonstarter.
• "Wow," I thought, the things in the ancient sacred texts are really true: Aryans are this way or that, whether it makes sense to us or not, whether it fits our frames, whether we agree or would have it otherwise. Buddhism (the Buddha Dharma), what the Buddha taught, was not "hammered out by mere reasoning." The Buddha directly saw these things, knew these things, taught a path-and-practice for others to be able to DIRECTLY know and see these things. I bowed to her and left it at that for the moment. There are some things we are not meant to know before we are ready to know it. And all of this, it seems, was none of my business. It would become my business when I directly experienced these things and became one who knows-and-sees. This is a teaching for the wise, after all, not for those sunk in worldliness, distraction, delusion, resentment, aversion, fear, greediness, selfishness, self-centeredness, or all manner of wrong view arising from ignorance, delusion, and holding views.
• And now I realize that one way to talk about all this might be through the Taoist video at the top of this article. Maybe on this path we are becoming what we always were and have been -- nobody. Certainly, nobody special. Not better, not worse, not equal. The worldly mind will completely reject this out of hand. It's preposterous! This is a patriarchy founded on a hierarchy as taught by the oligarchy and a lineage of worldly rulers all the way up to the first heaven. And we must submit to them because that's the way God wants it. 🙄 That's ludicrous and preposterous, but it just might be closer to the truth than the way we've been carrying on here in the world IF "the God" we are talking about is the Monad (the One in Gnosticism, the Brahman not Brahma in Buddhism, possibly even the Tao in Taoism). That GOD doesn't want or not want, doesn't look on needing it to be one way or another. In that sense, there is just being. We can just be (though technically there is no "being," only becoming, this ceaseless impersonal process of radical impermanence as everything falls apart and rebuilds all the time, marked by three universal characteristics the Buddha taught again and again, implicitly and explicitly: All things are radically impermanent, utter unable to ever fulfill us, and impersonal whether we imagine there to be a stable "self" or not. That's reality. Here we are over here never really in touch with what's real due to all the distractions, talking, ruminating, thinking, and everything else coming at us all at once. If we slow down, let things be, allow, accept, welcome experience as it is without needing to change or "improve" it, we can quite possibly make quick progress to the end of all suffering and the arising of liberating-insight, the wisdom that has gone beyond, that which we set as our goal when setting off on a spiritual path. So "be nobody." After all, that's what really are already, and the sooner we get right with it, the happier we are likely to be so we can see things sa they really are and always have been.

Surf's up! Triple threat: wavy, hot, humid

Fat Happy Zen monk Budai can surf

Why do waves go so well with Buddhism? There's something about sex, sand, and suffering -- which one meets with while reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the beach. But becoming a greater surfer has much more to do with wu wei (the ease of effortless flow), wushu (martial arts), and applying Taoist principles like yin and yang to Zen (jhana) Buddhist practice, which involves mindful in-the-moment awareness and radical acceptance of what is.

Southland facing a triple threat of heat, humidity, and high surf

Temperatures topping 100 inland raise fire risk

Rong-Gong Lin II (July 21, 2026, Los Angeles); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Bethany Hamilton, attired in surf wear on fancy board, all part of surf culture

.

Super Girl Surf Fest 2026

Southern California will face a triple threat this week of dangerous heat, muggy weather and, along the coast, hazardous high waves. It may be better for surfing, but it will be risky for all beachgoers who get near the water.

"We're looking at an at least several days -- if not longer -- heat event, which can really be concerning," said meteorologist Robbie Munroe of the National Weather Service's Oxnard office. Hollywood may catch fire on the Sunset Strip from all the tourists dripping sunblock.

• Surfing analysis: Brad Gerlach on Mikey February

We only watch to, uh, um, observe her form

Prepare: World Surf League 2026

From Tuesday through next Monday, temperatures could hit 109 in Paso Robles, 108 in Lancaster, 106 in Canoga Park, 102 in Santa Clarita, 99 in Covina, 92 in DTLA, and 87 in Long Beach.

Officials warned of elevated fire danger across large swaths of SoCal starting Tuesday, with a high risk of fast-moving and "plume dominated" fires driven by heat and instability. Such blazes have large vertical growth and can spread rapidly even when not driven by the wind. More: latimes.com

• This SoCal heat wave could be hottest of the year: 5 things to know | union-bulletin.com
• Super Girl Surf Festival, women's competition, LA, 2026
• If only California could combine surfing with soccer

Woo Way: The Tao of Surfing

It all started with my coach...then 10,000 hours later I was riding the face of Poseidon

No, BRUCE, bad boy! Let go of the surfers! They're not sea mammals or salty snacks!

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With no "self," there are only conditions.

Wisdom Quarterly's new book on going with the flow while out to sea among brutal sharks, cancerous sun, chapping wind, and rich territorial surf punks suffering from localism and getting into fights about it.

Why do waves go so well with Buddhist practice? There's something about "sex, sand, and suffering" -- which one meets with while reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy safely on the beach. But it has much more to do with wu wei, wushu, and applying Taoist principles to Zen practice.

Ancient surfboard from 1600s found in Hawaii

For instance, when out on a wave about to ride, instead of "doing," try "allowing." Go with the flow. Rather than interfering or trying to cut against the grain, embody radical acceptance of what is and ride it out. That's what Wisdom Quarterly's resident Meditation Teacher Seven says is a far better approach than struggling to dominate.

In surfing as in life, prepare for the gnarly.

Let the waves dominate so that the only thing to do is allow, allow, allow. Then in this allowing, suddenly it becomes effortless and intuitive, perfectly obvious and impossible to explain with words.

People do sometimes try to express it in words, but it all becomes a jumble of oohs and ahhs like surf slang or Himalayan shoestring spiritual seekers on ayahuasca down in the jungles of the Amazon with shamans Michael Harner.

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  Natives knew plant medicines

  As a graduate student in the 1950s, Michael Harner undertook field research on the culture of the Jívaro (Shuar) Natives of the Amazon in Ecuador [5] as he began to pursue a career as an ethnologist. His UC Berkeley doctoral dissertation (1963) became the basis for his book, The Jívaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls [6]. In 1960-1961 he reported that he became a participant-observer by experimenting with the powerful plant medicine ayahuasca with the Conibo of the Peruvian Amazon [5]. He wrote about in the articles "The Sound of Rushing Water" (1968)[7] and "The Role of Hallucinogenic Plants in European Witchcraft" (1973)[8]. Dr. Harner, Ph.D. returned to the Native Jívaro in 1964, 1969, and 1973, at which time he learned the use of the psychoactive entheogen maikua (Datura brugmansia, jimsonweed) [5]. More

Dr. Michael Harner: shamans know their plants

There's a similar feeling to be had by skateboarding or hang gliding, BASE jumping or surviving the pit (slam dancing to a favorite song at a concert). Surfing seems very safe by comparison. It all becomes instinctive and beyond thinking. It's a good place to be just for that moment, rising above the turmoil of the mind or diving into the silence of the heart. Rumi would understand. The historical Buddha pointed out the detailed Path to it.

What is surfing?

Hawaiian surfer on North Shore near Sunset Beach Paumalū (Daniel Ramirez/Wiki)

I'dunno, Bro, looks pretty gnarly. Let's just tan.

Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual surfer (or two) uses a carefully modified wood, fiberglass, or polyurethane board to "ride" on the face, the forward section, of a swelling wave of water. This swell usually carries said surfer toward shore or to a watery death by drowning for not respecting Mother Nature enough. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found on ocean shores. But they can also be found as standing waves in the open ocean, artificial simulators, lakes, rivers in the form of a tidal bore, or wave pools (and also in a physics experiment when a tide pool is sent back to sea). More

• Where to Surf in Los Angeles | Discover Los Angeles

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  Woman applies a lot of sex wax before surfing

  Surf Spots - California Beaches: The Wedge? That's Newport Beach. LA's Palos Verdes Peninsula isn’t known for its surfing outside of local circles, and there is a sad reason for that. It’s called “localism.” The area has a severe case of the disease. Located between Los Angeles and Long Beach, and possessing some excellent breaks, one would think this place would be much better known. Locals know all about surf spots like Palos Verdes Cove (near the crumbling peninsula called Palos Verdes Estates), Lunada Bay, Haggertys at Malaga Cove, among others.
• Best Surfing in California (South Counties) | Billabong
• Best surfing spots in California: 12 waves to surf | Red Bull
• Southern California surf spots: Which one is best? | Los Angeles Times
• California’s Best Surfing Waves | Visit California
• Discover the Top 10 Surfing Beaches in Southern California | Pacific Surf
• Online Newspaper & Magazine Publications Catalog | PressReader

What's going on in the SoCal water?

Giant LA all drains into Santa Monica Bay

A few weeks ago, LA and OC beaches were being subjected to king tides, riptides, with dangerous surfing conditions for experts only. The cause this time seems to be a tropical storm elsewhere disrupting the height and frequency of waves. Surfers may love it as they avoid great white sharks, but others will find it hard to take a dip or swim. Localism is, of course, a greater danger as human sharks with a sense of entitlement circle strangers and drive them out. Expect swells, tubular conditions at The Wedge and elsewhere. Warning: Water may be a little contaminated due to crumbling infrastructure. Sharks are a tiny worry compared to the microscopic contaminants and plastic particle debris. Enjoy.

• Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jennifer B., Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly