Tucson Trains As Promised

“I got so down and out in 'Frisco
Tired of the pills and the rain picked up, headed for the sunshine
I left a good thing behind
Seemed all of our love was in vain
My baby's coming in on the Tucson train

I come here looking for a new life
One I wouldn't have to explain
To that voice that keeps me awake at night
When a little peace would make everything right
If I could just turn off my brain
Now my baby's coming in on the Tucson train

We fought hard over nothing
We fought till nothing remained
I've carried that nothing for a long time
Now I carry my operator's license
And spend my days just running this crane
My baby's coming in on the Tucson train

Hard work'll clear your mind and body
The hard sun will burn out the pain
If they're looking for me, tell 'em buddy
I'm waiting down at the station
Just praying to the five-fifteen
I'll wait all God's creation
Just to show her a man can change
Now my baby's coming in on the Tucson train”

That’s Bruce Springsteen’s ode to one of the coolest, most transformative Western towns around. The pic is of my Teacher, the great Shinzen Young, crossing paths with my trusted sidekick, Rosalita Bernice Tootalian,at an impromptu Christmas Day Dim Sum. Rosalita (Don’t) Jump a Little Higher! Like a good Heyoka, I’m trying to talk Shinny into visiting Crooked Tooth or Borderlands or some other Tucson brewery, before RoZie and I turn the boat around to complete our perhaps now annual mission, and head back East on Interstate 10.

Relishing our time under the Sonoran Desert sun, our off-season odyssey will soon have us back in South Haven, Michigan for a cold minute. Then we’ll visit Vietnam for Tet, welcoming the New Year of the Horse (Ngựa). Post Lunar NYE, we venture Northwest to spend some quality time with the Pachyderm Nation residing in The Golden Triangle, the mountainous region where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand come together, and the Mekong and Ruak rivers meet. Goods times. And we’re grateful to be able to renew our own practice on retreat.

We’ll be back in March for more 2026 planning, but, for now, if you’re interested in discovering a happiness that has little to do with the outer world’s worsening warble, then come out for April’s Way of The Contrary Ceremonial Retreat Weekend. Or join us for a deep dive into the Meditation Master Shinzen’s teaching on what the entire sweep of Mindfulness is truly about: Concentration, Relaxation, Insight, and Unconditional Love, coupled with days of stillness practice, at our Spring Noble Silence Meditation Retreat Weekend (NMSR). Sending good thoughts and prayers from The Road that Truly Leads Somewhere. Until the Next, P + R

Próspero Año y Felicidad + FAM (First American's Museum)

Happy New Year — Feliz Año Nuevo (!) — from the American Southwest, where we’re comfortably tossing around the traditional Spanish New Year greeting, with high hopes for a prosperous year and mucho happiness ahead. Our crazy, cross-country jaunt took us from a semi-frozen South Haven, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Amarillo, Texas, Sante Fe, New Mexico, and finally Christmas eve in Tucson, Arizona, hence the festive Feliz Navidads. Along the 2,032 mile way, we saw old friends, made new ones, and, while thundering thru Oklahoma, made a meaningful stop at The First Americans Museum (FAM).

Seeing as how we’re just about to saddle up for the blessed New Year of The Horse, we found the pictures and words featured in the gallery’s signature exhibition OKLA HOMMA particularly engaging. Honoring each of the oral histories and diverse stories of the 39 tribes present in Oklahoma today, audio pods and a cool, immersive theater evoked the tribes’ historic perspective, bringing forth stories both tragic and triumphant, describing the people’s practices and experiences on ancestral lands, the hardship of removal and assimilation, as well as present day progress and hopes for the future, a very forthright history from the perspectives of America’s tribal people.

The FAM Mound shown above rises 90 feet high, with a circular shape recalling the movement of the sun across the sky, honoring Mound Builder cultures that thrived across North America from 3500 BCE to 1751 CE. Regarding time, It’s actually 11:57 p.m. Arizona Mountain Time, and while I was eager to toss up a post on January 1st, 2026, it appears to be registering January 2nd and so, more thoughts shortly on FAM, life-giving indigenous spirituality, tonight’s Wolf Super Moon, Tucson trains, etc.

Zen Hacks As Promised

Been a minute since we’ve been on the blog, with so much happening since Halloween it’s been a bit spooky. I started this piece weeks ago, but closing out the Fall retreat season temporarily pulled me away from the bounding growth experienced during my teacher Shinzen’s final virtual retreat in November, which was off the charts. Speaking of charts, two pictures grace this post. One is the world’s greatest meditation teacher giving a hopeful underling some well-deserved grief during our session together while on retreat. Shin said looked like Darth Vader, which I found apropos. The other photograph is of Shinzen and Unified Mindfulness’s Happiness Chart. Who knew such a gauge even existed? That’s the depth and width of Shinzen’s teaching. Find Relief. Elevate Fulfillment. Understand Yourself. Act Skillfully. Build Relationships. And, one day, finally, transcend all our personal conditioning as well as the pull of the past, accessing the moment-by-moment unlimited growth our practice promises.

We’ll be spending more precious time with Shinzen in Tucson soon, and hope to practice and convey more of the teachings and techniques picked up on retreat. Regarding Zen Hacks, one of the exercises we engaged in was what I jokingly call What’s My State? It’s a new game show with Shinzen as host. Here’s how it works: parsing the moment by moment feeling of sensation and action, it’s always helpful to have more than one laser beam angle on a topic. So we sliced the pleasantness or unpleasantness of each moment into four logical possibilities, with relatively better detection and resolution clarity than we do in general, daily life. Ask yourself this: is this moment pleasant, unpleasant, of mixed valiance (both) or neutral? It’s not uncommon for neutral to turn pleasant, because we feel relative relief from anger, fear, sadness impatience, embarrassment, disgust, interest, joy and physical discomforts of a gazillion possible origins, as well as terminal states.

You can potentially experience neutral sensations by way of contrast to the unpleasant. And the sought-after taste of purification that signals dropping into equanimity creates reward flavors, as well as a healing loop that works against other loops, loops where the physical or emotional pain is so bad you fight against it, or the fantasy is so compelling you continue it. If you get a little bored or caught up in memory, fantasy, or planning, just gently return to “Whats My State”. You’ll experience insights related to cause and effect, especially when the channels are open and there’s “No Self” fighting against the hierarchy of processing. Pleasantness or unpleasantness more mindfully perceived reveals a universal connector to everything, This is how we clean up the past, construct a more reasonable future, and dwell more peacefully in the present moment. More growth and stories from the road and our personal retreat time soon. Until then, Merry Christmas and HNY!