The Pathetic Life And Death of Joseph Rosenbaum

Dumped into a riot zone by our pathetic-in-the-inadequate-sense mental health care system, unable to obtain medication that might have helped stabilize him, without even a place to stay the night, perhaps Rosenbaum lost himself in an external chaos matching his inner one.

The Serenity of Shikata Ga Nai

You can't solve the halting problem, you can't make someone love you, and you can't make those you love do what's best for them. And there is a freedom in knowing this. A sadness too; but in the long run even more sadness -- and anger and guilt -- results when we believe we can do the impossible, and fail.

A Sigil For Letting Go

In traditional East Asian medicine, autumn is the season associated with Metal in the "Five Elements" or "Five Phases" (wu xing). Metal is the element of pruning, of letting go and cutting away; of grief and of courage. But my inspiration for this sigil is more personal that the turning of the seasons.

Yoda, Hui Neng, and the Sacred Texts

Star Wars is heavily influenced by the mythology of the samurai; and the philosophy of the samurai was Zen. And one of the most important figures in the history of Zen was Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch, who gave Zen much of its distinctive flavor, and who is famously painted tearing up a sutra, one of the sacred texts of Buddhism.

Dionysus Will F**k You Up

Dionysus can take you places and give you power and freedom if you respect him and work carefully with him and are fortunate. But he will f**k you up without a second thought if you are not careful. Or sometimes even just at random, if you happen to rub him the wrong way.

When censoring fascists, who gets to decide who's "fascist"?

Giving anyone the power to label someone "fascist" and censor them is far more of a threat than a handful of Nazi punks.

1917: The Real Start of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

The story starts with British imperialism

Police violence: seeing the fnords

Imposition of Order = Escalation of Disorder. "Armed with the Law of Eristic Escalation and Fenderson’s Amendment any
imbecile – not just a sociologist – can understand politics."

The Weird Turn Pro: Commentary from a weird perspective.

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” — Hunter S. Thompson Inarguablely, we live in weird times. So: welcome to The Weird Turn Pro. This will be sort of a companion to my blog The Zen Pagan: TZP will focus more on matters of magick and spirit, while TWTP will focus on political philosophy, commentary, and analysis.

Starwood 40

I will be presenting at the Starwood Festival, July 13-18, in Pomeroy OH or on your computer screen.
And Saturday, July 11, after the Concert, I will be working with the Family of Fire to put on the Virtual Bonfire

Seido Karate - Outdoors

We're doing outdoor karate classes during the COVID-19 crisis. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:15pm.

Open to all! We love absolute beginners!

See our website or the Catonsville Seido Karate Facebook page.

Humpback Happy Hour / Virtual House Concert, June 2, 7p,

Grab a drink (from your own fridge) and settle in from some tunes with The Reverend Tom Swiss, in the comfort of wherever you are! Activate your telepresence device and join me for original tunes, traditional songs, and folky rock covers. Maybe a poem or three...

(A whimsical name; there will not, actually, be whales here.)

Confronting young conservatives with illegal fireworks, July 2 2021

Fun times asking young conservatives (I'm guessing by the American flag outfits and calling me a "communist" and a "liberal" and "homosexual" as insults (I'm none of those)) with illegal fireworks at the local middle school to stop rattling my windows and scaring the dog.

Haven't heard someone get called gay for having an earring since the 1980s...

I can see this school from my bedroom window. So when morons let off big fireworks over there (not talking about a few bottle rockets, but big booms), it rattles my windows. A few times I've gone over to ask folks to cut it out, and usually get an "oh, sorry". But these fine young specimens seem to want more attention, so, here you go guys.

Point is, sometimes (often, I think) you can confront people who are acting badly in a non-violent, non-aggressive manner. A lot of people are scared to do that, so, here's what it looks like: it's not really so scary.

"Punk Magick": Tom Swiss at the WinterStar Symposium, 2021

Presented at the WinterStar Symposium, February 12 2021, by Tom Swiss

The Five Step Model of Magickal Ritual

1. Decide what you want. ("Set intention.")

2. Do weird stuff. ("Raise energy")

3. Make the weird stuff connect in your mind with what you want. ("Direct energy")

4. Seal the deal. ("Cool down")

5. Get off your ass!

Lecture notes and more information:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thezenpagan/2021/02/punk-magick-presented-at-the-winterstar-symposium-february-2021/

Zazen, addiction, and substance abuse

Some thoughts about what zazen can teach us about addiction and substance abuse, from the July 19 2020 episode of our Sunday Afternoon Sitting mediation series.

There is a Japanese proverb: the man drinks the first pitcher of sake; the first pitcher, drinks the second; and then the sake drinks the man.

Sunday Afternoon Sitting 6/14/2020: The Thief in the Heart

Easy Zen-style meditation with instructions, and a little talk on the Japanese proverb "It is easier to find a thief in the mountains than a thief in your own heart." (If you want to skip ahead to the talk it start at about 35:17.)

Police Violence: Seeing The Fnords

Vlog entry for this post at The Zen Pagan: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thezenpagan/2020/06/police-violence-seeing-the-fnords/

Even heavily conditioned citizens are finding it impossible to reconcile what they see in viral videos of cop violence with what they’ve been told about their country. People have seen the fnords. The lies are obvious and citizen’s conditioning is falling apart.