It’s been ten years since Fire Monks was published! With Tassajara facing another wildfire threat just last month and the drought-dry west bracing for another relentless fire season, this story of a Zen community’s wisdom, humility, and grit continues to inspire. NowThis interviewed me for this short video about the natural affinities between Zen and firefighting: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/1443536685998814 … [Read more...]
Willow Fire & Next Generation Fire Monks
The Willow Fire burning in the Los Padres National Forest is a long day hike away from Tassajara. The good news is that a professionally trained resident crew of fire monks is in place, ready for whatever comes. A silver lining to the pandemic is that it offered time to step up fire training and preparations: no guests had to be evacuated, only residents not on the fire crew. The Dharma Rain sprinkler system from 2008 is fortified and on duty. Forest Service and Cal Fire engines have been in the valley assisting with training and prep. Please keep these monks and … [Read more...]
My late father’s ballot
Read my Washington Post piece about my family's deliberations over what to do with my father's Michigan mail-in ballot when it arrived one day after he died. And please vote! https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/29/dad-died-michigan-ballot/ If you can't penetrate the Washington Post paywall, you can read the article here. … [Read more...]
Patience, Playfulness, & the Practice of Care
A Q&A with fire monk Mako Voelkel Mako Voelkel. All photos by Melissa Brisko. It’s been nearly a dozen years since Mako Voelkel stood on the Overlook Trail above Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and saw the Basin Complex Fire pouring into the valley. These days, Mako is head teacher at Austin Zen Center. When I caught up with her one recent afternoon on FaceTime, I reminded her that she once told me she just might leave the monastery to go to medical school. Clearly that didn’t happen. “Not yet!” she pointed out, laughing in dappled sunlight in her … [Read more...]
How can you keep your heart open and mind clear during a pandemic?
Near the end of March 2020, ten days into the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order, I reached out to Fire Monk David Zimmerman to inquire about the parallels between his experience protecting Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery from a wildfire in 2008 and his current experience, as abiding abbot at San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center, during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is our exchange. May it open your heart, settle your mind, and help you to remember that we’re in this (and every) conflagration together. Tenzen David Zimmerman CMB: Is your experience during the … [Read more...]
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