jessejiryudavis

According to legend, Zen's Sixth Ancestor was chosen in a poetry contest. I discuss the facts behind the legend, and the role of ambition and jealousy in Zen practice. This is a dharma talk I gave at the New Paltz Zen Center on August 30, 2026. Watch the

img src="https://emptysqua.re/blog/polyglots-dilemma/games-of-ball.jpg" alt="Line drawing copied in the style of an ancient Egyptian tomb painting, captioned 'Games of Ball.' Four women in long white dresses, with dark braided hair and beaded collars, str

Originally published on the MongoDB Research Blog . img src="https://emptysqua.re/blog/lets-not-waste-time-on-excessive-benchmarking/brixton-treadmill.jpg" alt="Nineteenth-century broadside illustration of prisoners at Brixton Prison walking a treadmill,

July 17, 2026. An after-dark climbing party at the Mac Wall in the Gunks, two weeks after the first one . img src="https://emptysqua.re/blog/back-to-mac/mac-wall-2-03.jpg" style="display: block; m...

July 3, 2026. An after-dark climbing party at the Mac Wall in the Gunks. img src="https://emptysqua.re/blog/nig...

June 21, 2026. The New Paltz Zen Center 's first shuso hossen ceremony, in which Zen student Monshin gave her first dharma talk and became a senior student. It's a big step in NPZC's growth as a temple, and another way that we keep the dharma wheel rollin

This is a dharma talk I gave at the New Paltz Zen Center on June 19, 2026. It was during a meditation retreat which will end with our student Monshin's first dharma talk. Play the audio below, or read the transcript below that. iframe title="Embed Player"

This is one of the two top database research conferences (the other is VLDB). Our paper LeaseGuard: Raft Leases Done Right was accepted, and I was excited to go present it, especially b...

Scalable Leader Lea...

I spent two days visiting temples in the Kathmandu valley, then four days on the Ghorepani Poon Hill trek in the Annapurna region. I was with my friend Emily and a guide named Bijaya from the Aarya Village travel agency . The trek was surprising in a lot