Living in Indonesia, my only access to group Zen practice is via the internet with online sanghas like Jundo Cohen’s Treeleaf Zendo. It was a joy to find the folks sitting Zazen on a return visit to my home state of Iowa. I discovered that the tradition there runs deep, with American and Japanese teachers as part of a lineage that courses back through China and India to the Buddha, himself.

Before viewing some of the most ancient and beautiful temples in Japan, I would like to share a look at a tea house in Tokyo where we experienced a private traditional Japanese tea ceremony for Christmas. This is Happo-en, former residence of 17th century samurai Tadataka Okubo, a close confidante of shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. The […]

As a Soto Zen practitioner I am especially interested in the forerunner of Japanese Zen, Chinese Chan Buddhism, and its modern expressions in the Chinese mainland and overseas. Chinese temples in general speak to me as ancient cultural and spiritual resources. Living in Jakarta, Indonesia, I have most ready access to Chinese temples in Jakarta […]

In 2006 I put my black Masonic briefcase into storage and headed westward to go to the East. Apparently, the Earth is round. We stopped in San Francisco and left for Hong Kong. Of course, I had to pay my respects to Bruce Lee along the way. The Hong Kong-American Bruce Lee (1940-1973) spent years […]

India has had a profound cultural impact on Southeast Asia, especially in regards Hindu religion and Buddhism, which has led to the region being called Further India, Greater India and the Indosphere. Great temples have been built in this part of the world over the centuries and Hindu and Buddhist communities still remain in each […]

When I lived in the Washington, D.C. area I became the librarian and curator of the national Masonic memorial to George Washington known as “the face of American Freemasonry.” I was made a Mason in a room at the memorial and raised a third degree Freemason in a courtesy degree by George Washington’s own lodge […]

This post will just briefly touch upon a few important temples in Europe. Western civilization is said to have begun with ancient Greece and Rome, but the roots of these cultures extend back into Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia (modern Iran). I have yet to get to Egypt, Israel, Iran, Turkey or Greece, so I still […]

My interest in church buildings began when I was in college at the University of Iowa and a chorister at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City. At one time, a faction of the choir invited me to join them on an organ crawl, visiting various churches in the region to learn about and admire this magnificent musical instrument’s presence in the Midwest United States. My eyes opened to the history and legacy of the Christian church and its architecture.