About

Welcome to Wrenzai Insight Journal!

Wrenzai Insight Journal was founded in 2014 after a great deal of thought and deliberation, the brainchild of years of communing, observation, reading, writing, reflection, and travels along the path of enlightenment.

Wrenzai is a wordplay combining “wren’s eye” and “Rinzai,” the latter being a major sect of Zen Buddhism whose practice involves “seeing one’s own nature.” Wrenzai suggests birds (singing and flying), point of view and perspective (relative), seeing (insight), nature (nature of), mind (a house of smoke and mirrors), and freedom (many claim to value it).

Because they fly and sing, birds, at least symbolically, embody freedom. Wrens are small, have sharp eyes, and look at the world from every angle. They’re courageous lone explorers and tenacious hunters. Nothing escapes their sharp little beaks. Many sing beautifully.

The eye is a much taken-for-granted organ, with phenomenal powers. Assuming it’s strong, sharp, and in good working order, the eye can see the close and the faraway, the vast and the minute, the multitudinous and the singular, the complex and the simple. The eye captures images that then become fodder for remembering, understanding, self-expression, and dreams.

From the eye we derive “mind’s eye,” that within us that sees even when the eyes are closed or go blind. What the mind’s eye sees includes not only what the physical eyes see but also what it can imagine—other worlds, other possibilities, other ways of feeling and being. In other words, the mind’s eye can add two ideas or images together to create a third.

As for nature, if there is no supernatural, nothing above, beyond, outside of, higher than, underlying, or within nature, then there remains only nature. According to this view, we humans are of nature and only in our minds do we see ourselves as separate from nature. We’re responsible for creating the world in our own best image—to create, or at least strive to create, paradise on Earth (my personal, overarching thesis). This is a truly heroic approach, since we can depend only on ourselves. It is our responsibility to see—and to own up to—how and why we’re causing problems on Earth in order to solve them.

Insight implies that beneath the surface can be seen what the physical eyes cannot, that through observation, intuition, analysis, and study we can see, make sense of, and adjust our ways of thinking and behaving.

Journal has as its root the root for journey, meaning “daily. A journal is a daily writing journey, and, as they say, the journey is home. I hope you feel at home journeying along with this blog.

Wrenzai Insight Journal will start out with my own thoughts, stories, poems, and photographs, either produced in the past or as they occur from day to day. Although I’m not interested in arguing about the foundational tenets of the naturist point of view and approach to life, I welcome all other comments as they contribute positively and constructively to our experience of birds, flying, and singing; seeing, point of view, and insight; and nature, mind, and freedom. Once I establish the tenor of the blog, I may accept articles for inclusion in an online Wrenzai magazine.

To seeing!
Rick Clark
Writer, editor, guide

About the Author

Rick Clark has been a student, sailor, bartender, musician, house painter, ESL teacher in Japan, college English instructor, house builder, yoga practitioner, freelance writer, filmmaker, editor, and writing coach (more or less in that order) but prefers to think of himself as a poet. Rick and his wife Fran split their time between Seattle and travels near and far.

Photo by Fran