Zen teacher Norman Fischer and author Ruth Ozeki talk shop after a Zen meditation retreat at UBC's Liu Centre For Global Studies this weekend. Ruth was Jisha, which means "The Teacher's Assistant," to Norman.

Norman's talk this weekend, and close to 400 earlier teachings, are available for download on The Everyday Zen Foundation website. Norman will be back in Vancouver on July 4th reading from his new book Sailing Home: Using The Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls to be released by Simon Schuster's Free Press in early June.

Norman is the guiding teacher of Vancouver's Mountain Rain Zen community and comes several time a year to lead retreats. He is based in Muir Beach County California.

Ruth Ozeki lives on Cortes Island and is the author of My Year of Meats and All Over Creation, novels published by Viking Penguin.

Photo by Martha Abelson