Welcome world, or any individual part of it that’s chanced my way, to my no-longer-quite-so-new blog, which will take a look at political life, country life, city life when there isn’t a tube strike,  and a whole lot more, and do it I hope with a critical eye, a smile, the occasional grump, and underneath and interweaved with it all the belief that this world’s a great place, and that we’re all good people, if we’d only admit it to ourselves.

And why Zen? Maybe it’s too wacky for some, too spiritual, but what I’m exploring here is how it connects to the everyday. The message of Zen is there within all the world’s religious traditions, not always mainstream, and within the humanist tradition too. It can be transformative, and I’d like to explore a little how that might be.

Zenpolitics isn’t just political. It’s about everyday life, about landscape, and whatever catches my attention.

Zen – why not Buddhism? Only because there’s an immediacy about Zen. It aims to bring you up short, to engage you – to hit you if not with a koan or haiku then at least with some kind of insight. That’s what it does for me.