A contemplative journaling practice. A companion at turning points.
Zen Mountain Journal:
An exploration of questions at the core of a fully lived life.
The Inner Journey and the Outer Journey: A Taoist Path
Our life and work in the world are manifestations of our inner work, our inner world.
Zen Mountain Journal explores what it means to create a life out of the quiet within. It is about nurturing your inner song, nurturing your inner beauty, and manifesting it in your life and work.
Drawing from Zen poetry, Taoist hermit wisdom, and the Tao Te Ching, the Substacks and journals published by Zen Mountain Journal invite you into a practice of stillness, reflection, and creative emergence. The roots of this work are in ancient Taoist and Zen poetry, wilderness solitude, and a creative life lived on the fringes of our culture. Together we explore the inner quiet that shapes our outer lives—our work, our relationships, our place in the world.
The heart of this work is the nurturing of a friendship with yourself. Journaling can help us understand the hidden currents that underly our lives, and the repeating patterns that shape our lives for better or worse. Journaling can help us discover and nurture the tiny seed within ourselves that wants to manifest itself as our unique contribution to the lives of others. And it is about the role of rest and downtime in that process — in Taoist terms wu wei.
. . .
Life is a desperate struggle to be in fact that which we are in design.
- Ortega Y. Gassett
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing oneself is wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering oneself is true power.
- Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33Do I Dare?
A good life is one hero’s journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco. But there’s also the possibility of bliss.
– Joseph Campbell
Receive the Zen Mountain Journal Substack
Yielding is the way of the Tao.
The softest thing in the universe
Overcomes the hardest.
- Chapter 40, The Tao Te Ching
In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added.
In the pursuit of the Way, every day something is let go.
- Chapter 48
. . .
Lao Tzu (~4th century BCE):
Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river. . .
The anxious person is always looking for a foundation outside themselves. But the sage rests in the foundation that is inside.
. . .
According to the Taoist way, you need to nourish your vital spirit. To do so, you need to be silent...Conserving one’s inner energy is the essence of Taoism.
- From an interview of a hermit nun in the Zhongnan mountains of China by Bill Porter.
Zen Mountain Journal is shaped by time alone in wilderness, and by a creative life lived on the fringes of our culture.
Meditation in combination with journaling can help us understand the hidden but profound patterns that shape our lives, often without us knowing it.
Emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness,
Silence, non-action: this is the level of heaven and earth.
From the sage’s emptiness, stillness arises;
From stillness, action.
- Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), 4th century BCE
I never get lost because I don't know where I'm going.
- Zen master Ikkyū, 15th century Buddhist monk
The Tao Te Ching Journal: A Path To Inner Quiet
Zen Mountain Journal blends Taoist hermit poetry, contemplative art, and reflections drawn from a lifetime shaped by wilderness, solitude, and decades doing creative work on the outer boundaries of our culture. These journals are companions for seekers — guides in the reconnection with inner quiet, beauty, and the “soundless music” of a life lived with simplicity and meaning.
• Size: 9.25 × 8.5 inches — convenient size for desk or lap.
• Hardcover — the book can be written in without a table or desk.
• Double wire-o bound to lay flat.
• Printed on Mohawk Superfine, a premium uncoated paper for a beautiful writing surface.
• 160 pages.
