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In this episode I explore ideas about nirvana, awakening and what we mean by ‘the self,’ as described in the Buddhist traditions founded by Gotama Buddha - whom scholars reckon may have lived around 400 BCE. I suggest that awakening and ourselves are processes, rather than fixed states or things, and that we can cultivate them through mindful awareness or Zen meditation. Rather than being accessible only to a few people endowed with special powers, awakening is an art we can all learn and benefit from. I hope you will find it to be of interest, and maybe helpful, as you navigate along your own Dharma road.

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In this extended episode I talk about another American poet, essayist and environmental activist, Gary Snyder. You might like to take a break in the middle!

As I mentioned in Episode 34 both Snyder and Kenneth Rexroth explore the natural world in their work – literally, as hikers through the American landscape, and in their poetry and other writings. Snyder, who is now in his nineties, spent a lot of time with Rexroth in the 1950s and for a while Rexroth was something of a mentor to the younger poet.

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The brevity of life and the nature of time are topics that humans have puzzled over for at least two thousand years – and probably for as long as our species has walked the earth. In this episode I want to offer a few thoughts on these matters and on the mysterious phenomenon we refer to as ‘the present moment.’ What I have to say is rooted in my experience of zazen, Zen meditation, and in my study of Buddhist thought and other philosophical traditions. The practice of zazen is the practice of bare attention – just being here, being present.