Category Archives: Zelazny

Long Gone: The Ancient Egyptians

When I was in high-school, I remember spending a lot of time at home, reading about ancient civilizations. I would listen to my Seattle grunge music1 and read long books from the school library about the Sumerians, the Egyptians, Babylonians, … Continue reading

Posted in Dune, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, Seattle, Zelazny | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Is There More Than This?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about a quote from Roger Zelazny’s Isle of the Dead:1 Even if they had been real gods, what did it matter? What was it to me? Here I was still, right where I was born a … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Confucius, Literature, Religion, Shinto, Zelazny | 3 Comments

Is Buddhism a Religion, Philosophy, Superstition, Psychology, etc?

Recently, just before my last trip to Japan, I re-read an old, obscure, but excellent novel by Roger Zelazny named Jack of Shadows, which explores an Earth whose rotation has stopped, and Earth is divided into a “light” side and … Continue reading

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Time Waits For Noone

“You will have to develop a Buddhist’s attitude toward the world around you. That world will change from day to day. Whenever you stop to look at it, it will be a different world—unreal.” Something I read recently from Roger … Continue reading

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Happy Halloween 2011!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Halloween one of the funnest holidays of the year, and we’ve been busy at our home. This is a Halloween-themed bento my wife made: A closeup of the “Jack-o-lantern” made with nori seaweed: A couple weeks ago … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking, Family, Literature, Zelazny | 4 Comments

Getting your fix

This comic from Xkcd is a very fun one, but if you read the alt caption (go to the original page, move your mouse over the image), you will see an interesting caption: “If you've never had sex, this is … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Religion, Zelazny | 4 Comments

New Member of the Family: the Medicine Buddha

No, we haven’t had another baby yet; that’s still a work in progress. Instead, I have a new statue in the makeshift collection / Buddhist altar on my bookshelf: This is a statue of the Medicine Buddha, or Yakushi Nyorai … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Hosso, Shingon, Tibetan, Zelazny | 2 Comments

Halloween fun at the JLR

Halloween is fast approaching and we have been having fun here at the JLR preparing for it. Fall has always been my favorite season and Halloween has always been part of the reason why. This year, now that “Baby” is … Continue reading

Posted in Family, General, Japan, Literature, Technology, Zelazny | Leave a comment

One’s Private Hell

Note: I decided to post this out of order, so a few links might be temporarily until other posts get published. Nevertheless, this was inspired by two things. First, lately I’ve been enjoying the most recent album by Alice In … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Japan, Literature, Poetry, Religion, Zelazny | Leave a comment

Japanese Ascetic Training: shugyō

I’ve been inspired lately by reading a certain manga my in-laws gave me a while ago, depicting Japanese Buddhist founders and their lives. The manga, mentioned briefly before (see footnote), is in Japanese, and pretty difficult reading too, so it’s … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Shingon, Shinto, Tendai, Zelazny | 6 Comments