Colleen Morton Busch

Author of Fire Monks

  • Home
  • Biography
  • Fire Monks
    • Reviews
    • Slideshow
    • Book Trailer
    • Book Groups
  • Events
  • News & Media
  • Writing
  • Blog
  • Contact

Fire Monks don’t stop

July 11, 2021 By Colleen Morton Busch

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...]

Filed Under: fire monks Tagged With: Fire Monks

Willow Fire & Next Generation Fire Monks

June 23, 2021 By Colleen Morton Busch

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...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Fire Monks, Tassajara, Willow Fire

My late father’s ballot

October 29, 2020 By Colleen Morton Busch

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...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: absentee ballot, election 2020, mail-in ballot, Michigan, vote-by-mail

Patience, Playfulness, & the Practice of Care

May 8, 2020 By Colleen Morton Busch

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...]

Filed Under: fire monks, pandemic, shelter-in-place, Zen Tagged With: Austin Zen Center, Fire Monks, pandemic, shelter-in-place, Zen

How can you keep your heart open and mind clear during a pandemic?

April 13, 2020 By colleenmbusch

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...]

Filed Under: fire monks, pandemic, shelter-in-place, Zen

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 12
  • Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 Colleen Morton Busch · Site Design: Ilsa Brink