Zen Geek, Music Freak

Zen Geek, Music Freak, I’ve been calling myself that for years now. At first I saw these two major passions of my life being at odds with each other. There are some great shows over the years that I have missed because of Buddhism retreats. When I first meet Genpo Roshi at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico I asked to be his student. I had never asked that before of any spiritual teacher and was quite serious about my commitment. I asked him what I should do next. “Coming up to practice with us in Salt Lake City might be a good start,” he said. This was before we could download dharma talks from the digital zendo.

Later that night, I looked up their website on my laptop and saw that the October Bodhidharma Dharma Big Mind Zen Retreat fell perfectly into a week that I already had off from work. I had intended to go to the Hardly Strictly Blue Grass Festival in San Francisco for my vacation. I felt like the universe was asking me how serious I was about working with Genpo Roshi. My response was to skip the festival and sit in SLC.

This weekend is the Coachella Music Festival. For the last few years America has had two regular legendary music festivals, Bonnaroo and Coachella. The second one is a mere four hours from my house. Last weekend, I drove through Coachella, California to get to the Zen Mountain Center, which is five hours from my house. While I was sitting on the mountain last weekend Mirah and Vetiver played in Phoenix and I missed them. The week before Leonard Cohen played in Phoenix and Zen commitments kept me away from that show too.

So am I back over to the desert cities this weekend for music? No. I’ll be sitting for 12 hours on Saturday with my Phoenix Dharma family, the Sitting Frog Zen Sangha. The funny thing is I think I’m the one that picked this weekend for the April Zazenkai.


There was a time when I felt that these two major passions of my life were at odds. Today I don’t feel that way. Ultimately I can’t do everything so I choose to prioritize those activities that involve family.

Saturday I will sit with my Dharma brothers and sisters from 5:30am to 5:30pm. At 7:00pm I will check out the end of National Independent Record Store Day at Stinkweeds owned by my friend for almost 20 years, Kimber. (Who also owns the space where we sit on Sundays, Modified.) Then, around 9:30, I will go to fellow Zen student and friend, Lonna Kelly’s gig, Grand Ole Opry at the Ruby Room. She has asked that Dogo Sensei and I come in robes, cowboy hats and boots. Zen Geek, Music Freak! Odd? Maybe but not at odds.