Welcome to Dharma with Jonathan

The Scope of This Watch

While much of my life is spent in the Scriptorium—navigating the digital spheres of world federalism and sacred texts—this blog chronicles the two hours a day (currently 1-3 PM) when the Dharma becomes tangible. It is a record of:

• Vegan Permaculture: Intentionally designing my small cell of Spaceship Earth as a non-violent, regenerative act.
• The Sacred Rhythm: Finding the Absolute in the flow of mindful movement and deep rest.
• Simple Living: Decluttering and tidying to maintain a modest but resilient material footprint in the changing seasons of upstate New York.
• The Dharma Body: Occasionally reflecting on the interdependent nature of Buddhakaya, Dharmakaya, and Sanghakaya.

The Path to the Watch

While my ultimate goal is to establish a dedicated vegan permaculture hermitage - perhaps in a skete or some other form of new monastic community - this blog documents the journey from where I currently stand. I am not a formally recognized Dharma teacher, but rather a student and practitioner whose path began in 1989, when I started Zen meditation at the age of seventeen. My life has been a steady evolution of these values: 

I became a vegetarian in 1990, studied with the Order of Interbeing in my twenties, and transitioned to veganism in my thirties while working intensively on permaculture in Maine.

During those years in the field, I was deeply influenced by the vegan homesteading model of Helen and Scott Nearing and the "do-nothing" philosophy of Masanobu Fukuoka’s The One-Straw Revolution. Although I earned my Permaculture Design Course certificate in 2010, I now find myself applying those principles to an urban, deskbound cyber-monastic life. This blog is an exploration of how that decades-long practice informs the simple, disciplined work of mending the world, one Dharma watch of the horarium at a time.

Conceived, directed and edited by Jonathan. Drafted and illustrated by Gemini.