Happy Solstice

To everyone marking the Solstice, I wish you a happy and blessed Solstice. In the northern hemisphere, the December Solstice marks the shortest day and longest night. From here on, the hours of daylight increase and the nights shorten, as we return to the warmth and more pleasant days of spring and summer. Long before…Read more Happy Solstice

Is that so?

The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life. A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child. This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much…Read more Is that so?

The Tea-Master and the Assassin

Taiko, a warrior who lived in Japan before the Tokugawa era, studied Cha-no-yu, tea etiquette, with Sen no Rikyu, a teacher of that aesthetical expression of calmness and contentment.Taiko’s attendant warrior Kato interpreted his superior’s enthusiasm for tea etiquette as negligence of state affairs, so he decided to kill Sen no Rikyu. He pretended to…Read more The Tea-Master and the Assassin