David Jones is a retiree after an enjoyable 35-year career with the American government. Diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, he works through things by sitting with the breath and other meditation techniques. David writes about mental health and enjoys exploring the intersection of Abrahamic religion and Buddhist teachings. Scary movies, reading, writing and helping folks as they walk along their paths are among his most favorite things. He dearly loves his wife, their five children, and all their grandchildren. And yes, he’s aware that he’s weird.
Yes, Even Your Teachings Can be Impermanent
By David Jones Like other ancient religious movements, Buddhism started off with oral teachings. That's great for a teacher because you can read the room (or hillside or mountain top) and decide on the fly if you need to tweak things a bit. As the book Two...
One of Buddhism’s Dirty Little Secrets: The Superiority Issue {Book Review}
By David Jones My last public talk as one of Jehovah's Witnesses was called, How Should You Serve God? It's the only recording of my talks I have left. Listening to it recently, I chuckled at some of the things I used to believe, but one major theme kept...
Seeing That Your Enemy is Suffering: A Dream of Anger and Prayer
~ By David Jones I went to bed Sunday night feeling sullen and dejected. Not only was I facing spiritual questions of my own, it seemed like my social media feed had filled up with disdain of religion. Now I'm not a big fan of "organized religion" myself, but...
Do Buddhists Believe in Reincarnation?
By David Jones One day in the mid-'80s my friend and I were waiting for a comic book store to open, and we talked about his upcoming Dungeons and Dragons campaign. He asked a favor: he wanted me to play a cleric so that he could present a triune goddess to the...
The Mindful Blessing of Upheaval
By David Jones In 2020, suffering and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson have a couple of things in common: You can't really escape either of them for half a minute. They have the same attitude about your comfort. (Hint: IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU WANT!) (Wrestling...
Overwhelmed and Mentally Jammed: A Tingsha Breaks Through
By David Jones My job is mentally taxing some days, trying to analyze customer requests for help, then trying to meet needs which they often don't know how to adequately express. Some days are quite easy. Other days I spend eight hours throwing my brain at...
Mental Health and the Morning After
By David Jones There's a song by Maureen McGovern titled The Morning After. It's an uplifting song about uniting with others to emerge from the storm, the long dark night, and realize the sun comes up after the cataclysms of life such as elections, storms,...
Zen Flesh Zen Bones: Not a Light Read, a Bit of Nonsense & Completely Zen {Review}
By David Jones On Monday I had most of my teeth removed and now have a full upper and partial lower denture. I have waited a long time for this, since bad teeth was something in both mom's and dad's familial DNA. I kept spending the money for this procedure...
Practicing Compassion for Others Sometimes Means Getting in the Mud with Them
By David Jones A woman stood waist-deep in mud, crying. A humble laborer in sackcloth stopped on the road and hollered to her, "What can I do to help you?" She replied, "I feel alone and scared, and I need comforting." "Come out of the mud to me and I'll...
A Pandemic Problem of Faith
By David Jones I'm worried about something I'm hearing: people going to church or other functions without protection, saying that their God is stronger than this virus. I believe that's true, but it's not the problem. The problem is that...