Zen Mountain Journal

Reflections on the search for inner peace.

Our life and work in the world are manifestations of our inner work, our inner world.

Zen Mountain Journal explores perspectives on the search for inner peace. While Zen and Taoist thought, in particular the poetry of the ancient mountain hermits, is a primary area of interest of this work, we cast a wide net from Thoreau and Emerson to Calvin Rutstrum’s wilderness cabin to Helen Keller, Thich Nhat Hanh and Louise Dickinson Rich. And then there are the hundreds of interviews Rod has conducted over the years. Before Zen Mountain Journal, and before its predecessor Heron Dance Art Studio, Rod traveled the country interviewing people who had a vision of the kind of life they wanted to live and pursued that vision with single-minded determination. The interviews were for a book, Free Spirits, that was never published, but those interviews formed the foundation of the publication that Heron Dance was to become.

In Colorado he interviewed Jeff Casebolt, then a Colorado Outward Bound instructor, who had traveled the entire west coast of North and South America — kayaking from Alaska to just north of Vancouver and then, from there, cycling to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. Jeff opened the interview by probing Rod's motivations for the book: was this about thrill-seeking adventure, or about the deeper questions surrounding what it means to live a life on your own terms? Satisfied, Jeff let the interview continue. Rod wrote:

The intensity of his gaze startled me. The first thing I asked him was why he did the trip. "It was both a physical and a spiritual journey. The word ‘spiritual’ has a lot of negative trappings associated with it, but I think all of us are on an inward journey. On the trip, people kept asking me why I was doing it, and the answer always changed. The picture changes. I am realizing, more and more, that it really was something that I was looking for internally. The external was certainly an incredible adventure, but it is more and more clear to me that we are all looking for inner peace."

I questioned that. It has been my impression that very few are actually searching for inner peace, and in fact, if more people were on that search, the world would be a much different place. He answered: "I think a lot of people are not conscious of what they are looking for, they couldn't articulate it, or even think about it. But yes, I think everybody is searching for an inner kind of place that is more peaceful."
‍ ‍- Jeff Casebolt, Colorado Outward Bound Instructor, long distance cyclist, long distance ocean kayaker.

Zen Mountain Journal is created by a fellow traveler, a searcher and seeker on the trail rather than someone ready to proclaim that he’s found inner peace. In fact, he says, sometimes he’s experienced deep peace and then somehow gotten lost. Wandered off the trail. At times, he’s easily distracted by shiny objects.

Zen Mountain Journal is his journal — a chronicle of what he’s reading and experiencing in his efforts to stay on the path. Journaling can help us understand the hidden currents that underlie our lives, and the repeating patterns that shape our lives for better or worse. Journaling can help us discover and nurture the tiny seed within ourselves that wants to manifest itself as our unique contribution to the lives of others. And it is about the role of rest and downtime in that process — in Taoist terms wu wei.

Zen Mountain Journal is published two or three times a week on Substack. You can sign up here.

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Life is a desperate struggle to be in fact that which we are in design. 
- Ortega y Gasset

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing oneself is wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering oneself is true power.
- Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33