Ideas on calm, focus and living well
Practical, unhurried writing on Stoicism, Taoism, ADHD, focus, productivity and the age of AI, from the authors behind our books. Search the journal.
How to Find Inner Peace: What Zen Teaches About Letting Go of Control
Inner peace sounds like a destination you arrive at once and keep. Zen treats it as closer to a practice, a way of meeting each day that you return…
What Is a Zen Koan? Meaning and Famous Examples
A koan is a short, baffling question a Zen student sits with for months: the sound of one hand, a dog and Buddha-nature. It looks like a riddle and…
How to Calm a Racing Mind: Zen Practices for Everyday Stress
A racing mind rarely responds to being told to calm down. Zen takes a different route: give your attention something concrete and let the churn…
Amor Fati: What It Means to Love Your Fate
Amor fati is Latin for love of fate. The Stoics, and later Nietzsche, used it to name a hard discipline: to meet whatever happens, even the parts you…
What Is Zen, Really? A Plain-English Guide
Zen is a school of Buddhism built around direct experience rather than doctrine. It grew from the meeting of Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism, and…
Zen Meditation for Beginners: How to Start Zazen
Zen meditation, called zazen, is almost embarrassingly simple: sit still, follow your breath, and come back when your mind wanders. The simplicity is…
How to Structure Your Day in Retirement
For forty years something else decided when your day started, when it broke for lunch, and when it ended. Remove that and most people discover the…
How to Stop Overthinking: A Zen Approach to Quieting the Mind
Overthinking is the same handful of thoughts on a loop, dressed up as problem-solving. Zen has spent centuries on this exact habit. Here is what it…
Loneliness After Retirement, and How to Rebuild a Circle
Loneliness after retirement is one of the most common and least discussed parts of leaving work, and it is not a sign that something is wrong with…