Summary: Episode Description: Upaya's Ray Olson pokes and prods at the layers of how we exist: as selves and others and as not-selves and no-others. We should not miss the vaster "self" or way-of-existing where, lacking fundamental boundaries, we're always mutually creating each other, and appearing and disappearing without limit; but neither can we ignore the way-of-existing that gives us a name, a passport, and accountability to all our relations. Finally "self" and "not-self" are both concepts, with their uses and limitations, while "not knowing is most intimate" (Daizhang). BIO: Ray Olson an internist by training, was a longtime Professor of Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He has been a Zen student for over 30 years and received Jukai in 1989. He was ordained as a Novice Priest by Roshi Joan Halifax in 2009 and was made a Dharma Holder at Upaya Zen Center in 2010. Ray serves as coordinator of Upaya's Prison Outreach Program, and in that capacity he corresponds with many inmates in prisons around the country, offering spiritual guidance to the incarcerated. He also makes weekly visits to inmates in the high security units of the local state penitentiary. Ray is long-married to Nancy; they have three grown children and four growing grandchildren.
