Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Buddhist
The Craziest Thing: The Zen Priest’s Song of Awakening

The Craziest Thing: The Zen Priest’s Song of Awakening

Last updated on: August 2, 2020 at 8:41 am by James Ford

The Craziest Thing: The Zen Priest’s Song of Awakening 2020-08-02T08:41:32-07:00 James Ford

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As it happens, today, the 2nd of August is observed in the Russian Church as a feast for Basil, sometimes called the fool, sometimes called blessed, and on occasion the Wonderworker.

I rather like that. All of it. But especially that fool thing.

Recently I wrote a brief paragraph in which I summarized my understanding of Jesus as a historical person. In it I suggested he was half crazy. Some liked that characterization. Others did not. I didn’t get whether those who liked it or those who didn’t, in fact got what I was trying to point to. Maybe some.

Jesus kept company with the disreputable, preached about some mysterious kingdom that was at hand, that was within the heart, and among the people. Some claimed he could work miracles. Some whispered he raised a man from the dead.

Right now in my Buddhist world our meditation disciplines have become quite an industry. In a large corner of Western Buddhism (and here and there in Asia, as well), Buddhism is all about mindfulness, capturing a bit of calm in the storm. Others among my friends who apply modernist principals of reason and naturalism (a gang I generally consider my people) see the Buddha’s teachings all about this world, and ultimately the way for us as about human flourishing. I don’t disdain those things. But.

The path that calls to me is something different than either relaxation or even clarity in the mess of life and a sense of direction.

And another thing. It isn’t owned by Buddhists. Not alone.

I think of the the path. And I think of Basil. And, I think of Francis, the person who has been called the only Christian.

To me Francis is one of the most compelling figures in world spiritual history. He was probably more than a little crazy. (That crazy thing again) And, he had courage most of us can barely conceive of. And with it all some mysterious grace. Some say what followed him were miracles.

Basil is cut from the same cloth. He was born a peasant, they romance that by having him born in the doorway of a cathedral. As a child Basil was apprenticed to a shoemaker. But, he was destined for other things. He never entered a monastery. He never ordained. Instead he lived among the people. And. When people were suffering but too ashamed to beg, he begged for them. He appears to have shoplifted as well, giving the proceeds to the poor, and letting the rich know. Sometimes he walked around naked, weighed down with chains. He rebuked the Tsar for neglecting the poor and the church.

In the Eastern church he belonged to a class called yuodivy, “holy fools.” They are not unique. The Sufis speak of madzubs, people “crazed with God.”

I think of them.

And with that, what is awakening? If it isn’t lowering blood pressure, or human flourishing, what is awakening? And here’s a thought. What if it has something more in common with yuodivy or madzubs than getting one’s act together?

What if it is a kind of craziness?

What would that be? What would that look like?

In ancient China the poet Hanshan and his companion Shide are claimed by both the Taoists and the Buddhists. Buddhists say their claim is stronger because the crazed poet and his equally crazed friend frequently ate at the Chan monastery at the foot of the mountain they lived on. Or, maybe they ate because Shide was a lay monk who worked in the kitchen and stole the food they shared. Pick your story.

In Japan the monk Ikkyu, acknowledged as a Zen master, spent much of his life wandering around, sometimes living under a bridge. He also had a life long lover, the blind singer Mori. Unlike most yuodivy or madzubs, Ikkyu couldn’t fully avoid entanglements and church hierarchy. In his absence and when old, he was elected abbot of Daitokuji. Although as it had recently been burned to the ground, perhaps it still fits the bill.

Although he did have to do fundraising. Dirtying his hands for a building.

Me, I’ve spent much of my life as a minister and priest. I’ve had the cure of souls and the responsibility for historic buildings. All for the good. And maybe part of the human flourishing project. But, at the same time the call of the pillow and the koan have seeped into my dreams and left me at least a little crazy.

I have dug into the great matter, that question of why and who? I started by looking for God. And, ended up, well…

I think about that crazy.

Not the crazy of justly disgraced gurus. The crazy of Jesus and Basil and Francis and Hanshan and Shide and Ikkyu. The lineage of this crazy is long and it is vast. The crazy of those who’ve opened their hearts and found the great boundless that is also the rising and falling of our lives.

A dance.

In my old age, I live with my spouse who spends her days serving refugees and fighting the government for the poor and dispossessed. We live with our three legged cat who doesn’t care for much except laying in the sun and getting a good scratching once in a while. In our little apartment in a working class city, on an earthquake fault, nestling the Pacific coast, all under a warm sun. Occasionally it rains. But the days do tend to look similar.

I once read a story about a Taoist monk and the universe. Sometimes fiction tells the truth best.

And like in that story I shake my fist at the great empty and call it out for the ills of this world. It laughs and gives me another ten pounds, and a leaky bladder. Me, I laugh back. And it call it nothing special. In response it gives me grey hair and arthritis in my knuckles. I’m pretty sure it smiles at that. It’s all a wild openness.

It’s all wild.

And the song echoes in my heart.

So we find this fleeting world
a star in the morning, bubbles on a stream
flashing lightning in a summer cloud
a flickering lamp, a phantom – a dream.

The empty. A wink. The boundless. A nod. And dreams. An endless procession. All of it a little crazy.

I try to capture my dreams and put them to paper. They slip away and the empty laughs. Again.

I don’t feel particularly rested. I don’t know what human flourishing should be. But when I listen to Jan talking on the phone raising money to bond an undocumented immigrant, I suspect, I’m near it. A kind of craziness. Maybe something more important than mere contentment.

And here I find miracles. They trail the crazy like a bear follows honey bees.

I’ve seen miracles. And I’ve followed them. I’ve raided their sweetness. In the morning I make coffee. Jan says let’s take a walk, and I do.

The teachers sing into our hearts, just this.

Is it outside me? Inside? Or, is it me? The bees sting, but it’s okay. The wild openness of God coalesces for just a moment as the floor and the walls, the music on the radio, and a secret joy.

It really is crazy.

And the craziest thing of all, I get to be part of it. If only for a moment. Or, well, a moment that is eternity…

Just this.

Crazy.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 1, 2020

LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND: Zen & the Work of Justice

Next Post

August 3, 2020 A Brief Pause to Recall Nestorius, Late Patriarch of Constantinople, the Church of the East, and the Luminous Religion

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Christmas Carol Abolitionist African-American Ahmadiyya Alan Watts Aldous Huxley Allen Ginsberg Amedkar Jayanti American politics American Zen Anaheim Zen Sangha Anglican Annie Besant April Fool Armageddon Art and Religion artificial intellegence Atheist Awakening B R Ambedkar Barlaam & Josaphat Beatnik Between Bhagavad Gita Bible biography birthday bodhisattva Bodhisattva Precepts Book burning Book of Common Prayer Book of Mormon Brahmo Samaj Buddha Buddhism Buddhist Buddhist Lord's Prayer Butterflies Calendars cartoons cat ChatGPT Chicken Tortilla Soup choices Christian atheism Christian mysticism Christian origins Christian Science Christian Zen Christianity Christianity and Buddhism christmas Christmas Truce Christopher Isherwood Church of Later Day Saints Cinco de Mayo circus covenant critical thinking culture D. T. Suzuki Dalit Buddhism Daniel Defoe Desert Fathers and Mothers dharma talk Dogen Donald Trump Dongshan's Five Ranks Dorothy Day dream Duty Easter ecology Edwin Arnold emptiness Empty Moon Zen Network Episcopal Church Eternal Now Ethics evolution existentialism Faith fantasy Fathers Day film film review fire Five Ranks Folk music food Form and emptiness Four Seals Francis of Assisi Francis Xavier Free thinker friendship George MacDonald Gerald Heard Glenn Taylor Webb God Good Friday Gospel of Gospel of Mark Gospel of Thomas grace Graduate Theological Unioin Graduate Theological Union Guanyin H R Blyth Hakuin Ekaku Hanamatsuri Hanukkah Harada Yasutani Zen Heart Sutra Henry David Thoreau Hermann Hesse Hinduism History and Religion history of religion Holy Spirit home Hospitality Icon Ides of March Isaac Newton Islam Islamic mysticism Jack Kerouac James Luther Adams Jiddu Krishnamurti Joan of Arc Johannes Gutenberg John Donne joke Judaism justice karma kensho King James Bible koan Koun Yamada Kyoto School Lewis Carrol Liberal Christianity Liberal Religion Life Plan Community Liminal literature Literature and Religion Liturgy Lord's Prayer Love Mahatma Gandhi Mahayana Martin Luther King Jr Mary Baker Eddy Mary Magdelene Mary Oliver Mayflower Compact Meditation memories memory metaphor money money and religioin Mormons Mother's Day movie review mysticism mythic Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church New Thought Nichiren Buddhism Nonduality not knowing Omar Khayyam Pacific School of Religion pagan Palm Sunday Passover peace Pentecost perennialism Phantastes Philip Kapleau philosophy Pilgrimage poetry Poetry and Religion politics Prayer Precepts Printing Press prophecy prophetic spirituality psychology Pure Land Queer religion queering religion Quietism Ram Mohan Roy rebirth recipe Relationships and religion religion religion and history Religious syncretism Resistance Retirement Retreat review Rissho Kosei Kai Ritual Robert Aitken Roshi Robert Ingersoll Rohatsu Romani religion Rosie the Riveter saints samadhi SanboZen Sangha Satyagraha science science and reigion science and religion science fiction seminary sermon Sesshin Sex and Religion Shinran Sikh Sikh tradition silence Social Justice Socially Engaged Buddhism Society and religion Soto Zen soul spiritual community spiritual practice Spirituality Sufism Suicide superstition Taoism Television Teresa of Avila Thanksgiving theological schools Theosophy Thomas Merton Time Transcendentalism Transcendentalist Trinitarian Trinity Uncategorized unitarian Unitarian Christianity Unitarian Universalist Universalism Vajrayana Vedanta Walking war Willa Cather William Ellery Channing wisdom women and religion women in religion World Teacher Writing zazen Zen Zen Center Zen inspired retriement zen meditation Zen Precepts Zen women

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which of Job’s friends said, "Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Bildad Zophar Eliphaz Elihu