The longest journey is the journey inward.
- Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings
. . .
Changes underway at Zen Mountain Journal:
Zen Mountain Journal will be published more frequently and will typically consist of just a painting and a short quote. These will remain free to Substack subscribers.
Each Substack will link to a page on the Zen Mountain Journal website that goes deeper into the subject. Those pages will shortly be available only to supporting members. For example, this page, open to everyone for now:
Carl Jung: “What is the myth you are living?”
I found I did not know.
You can become a supporting member here.
All Zen Mountain Journal original paintings are now either $500 or $1000. Prints, limited to an edition of five, are $300. You can see the selection here.
Zen Mountain Journal is in the process of creating a binder that will hold art, poetry and reflections on the human journey — creating a life based on inner peace, and on nurturing a friendship with yourself. It will also have room for your own journal notes and art. In fact, if you want, it can contain just your own journal notes and art. We plan to ship these binders and their inserts in about a month. As soon as we have a date certain we’ll offer them on pre-order for a discount.
Available inserts will include:
Blank heavyweight premium writing paper (the same Mohawk Superfine 100lb text weight paper as is in the Tao Te Ching Journal), both lined and unlined.
Watercolor paper.
Journal notes, art and poetry. Examples of the inserts that will be available separately:
Journaling as a tool in creating a life.
Wild Waters and the Tao - an updated edition of our book first published in 2013 that quickly sold out. It explores the insights the Tao offers into life in wild nature, paddling wild rivers and water’s way of getting where it is going through surrender.
Creativity as a Way of Life — the inner work underlying creative work, an exploration of the journals of artists, novelists and poets: Steinbeck’s Working Days, Anne Truitt, Robert Henri’s The Art Spirit.
The Heron Dance Book of Love & Gratitude — First published in 2006, it went on to sell 20,000 copies, the most popular book we’ve published. It explores gratitude as a spiritual practice and philosophy of life.
Thoreau and the Art of Life — Thoreau’s journals totaled two million words and offer a fascinating insight into the early thinking behind Walden and his other books.
Emerson’s Laws of Nature, and Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: Reflections on nature by two of our greatest writers.
Meditations on Nature, Meditations on Silence. Reflections on the beauty and mystery of the natural world.
The Pausing for Beauty Poetry Diary. Poetry celebrating the beauty and mystery of nature and of life.
The Journals of Archibald Campbell, Wild Artist. The misadventures of artist Archibald Campbell who lives alone in the woods and paints nude models, and reflects on life, creativity and wild women. This was both the most popular and unpopular work Heron Dance ever published.
The Journey Itself is Home - art, poems and reflections on a life lived on the edges of our culture. From the book arts collection published in 2012.
The Man Who Planted Trees — Jean Giono’s shepherd, and my interviews with Frédéric Back, who received an Oscar for his animated film of Giono’s work. The book and film celebrate generosity as a philosophy of life.
Life is a Daring Adventure or Nothing. An adventurer’s journal.
Supporting members will receive access to downloadable PDFs of all of this work as part of their subscription. The PDFs will be designed in the standard 11×8.5 format and so each page can be printed out on a home printer and inserted in a standard binder that can be purchased inexpensively at any major retail outlet.
Or you can purchase the Zen Mountain Journal binder and inserts all printed on beautiful premium paper (Mohawk Superfine 100lb text) and three hole punched to fit these landscape binders.
There is a more complete description of the themes and inspiration behind this work on the Zen Mountain Journal website homepage here.