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September 2025

September 05, 2025

Zen, Unitarian Universalism, and a Writer’s Life

Nineteen years ago on the 5th of September, 2006, at 12:53pm (Eastern time), I posted...

March 2025

March 29, 2025

Evelyn Underhill’s Practical Guide to Prayer

A Meditation on Prayer Evelyn Underhill (I’m enormously fond of Evelyn Underhill. Her magisterial study,...

December 2024

December 17, 2024

Recalling Thomas Starr King, the Apostle of Liberty

Thomas Starr King was born on the 17th of December, in 1824. I like to...

June 2024

June 23, 2024

Unitarian Universalism’s Not Exactly Creeds

Big things going on in Unitarian Universalist world. And I find it time for some...

February 2024

February 05, 2024

What About When You Run Out Of Sermons On Love?

A colleague of mine has just...

November 2023

November 21, 2023

A Faithful Skeptic: Margaret Fuller’s Transcendentalist “Credo”

In 1842 Margaret Fuller sent...

September 2023

September 05, 2023

Reflecting on Blogging for Seventeen Years as Monkey Mind

It was today, the 5th of September, at...

June 2023

June 11, 2023

A ZEN UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST MEDITATION RETREAT (in Person & Online)

You are cordially invited to join us for a Zen retreat Wednesday Jun 21 -...

February 2023

February 19, 2023

A Zen Meditation on Suicide

Here in the Los Angeles area there was a breaking news story. A...

February 10, 2023

Zen, a New Universalism, and Politics

Zen, a New Universalism, and Politics James Ishmael Ford Since the...

February 09, 2023

Zen and the Wisdom of No Escape

"The priest Xiangyan (Kyogen) said, 'It is as though you were up in a...

February 03, 2020

CHANGE & NOT KNOWING: Darwin, Huxley, & the Shape of Naturalistic Religion

CHANGE & NOT KNOWING Darwin, Huxley, & the Shape of Naturalistic Religion James Ishmael...

May 2019

May 19, 2019

Covenant As Unitarian Universalism’s Great Spiritual Discipline

IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD, AND ONE OF ANOTHER A Meditation on Covenant as...

May 02, 2018

A Zen Priest Ponders the Mysteries of “Liberal Religion”

Some time ago I was corresponding with a Catholic priest...

January 2018

January 30, 2018

Fraters of the Wayside Inn At One Hundred & Sixteen Years: A Meditation on Universal Salvation

This past Sunday I went to Boston, picked up my old colleague and dear friend Walt Wieder,...

December 2017

December 24, 2017

How Christmas Became Christmas: A Meditation on The Evolution of a Holy Day

How Christmas Became Christmas: A Meditation on The Evolution of a...

October 2017

October 11, 2017

The Divine Samuel Clarke Is Born

Samuel Clarke was born in Norwich, in Great Britain on this...

July 2017

July 17, 2017

A Meditation While Sitting at the Airport Waiting to Fly Home After a Zen Retreat

As I write this I am sitting at the SeaTac airport awaiting my flight home...

July 12, 2017

Thinking of Henry Thoreau

David Henry Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on this day, the 12th of July,...

July 09, 2017

FINDING THE MOON: Margaret Fuller, Liberal Religion, and the Path of Ordinary Wisdom

FINDING THE MOON Margaret Fuller, Liberal Religion, and the Path of Ordinary Wisdom A Sermon...

June 2017

June 22, 2017

Love Beyond Beliefs: Or, My Unitarian Universalism

The other day I posted a letter I wrote to a Unitarian Universalist ministerial search...

June 20, 2017

A Letter to a Unitarian Universalist Ministerial Search Committee

(This is a real letter to a real...

June 19, 2017

My Uncertainty Principle: A Modernist, Or, Perhaps Its a Post Post Modernist Zen Buddhist Priest Reflects on What’s What

Early morning thoughts... I find my heart and mind wandering to the thought of axioms....

June 18, 2017

DREAMING OUR FATHERS Norbert Capek & the Unitarian Universalist Flower Communion

DREAMING OUR FATHERS Norbert Capek and the Unitarian Universalist Flower Communion James Ishmael Ford 18...

June 16, 2017

(Zen) Buddhism and the Unitarian Universalists

Buddhism, while continuing to interest religious liberals, continued to be misunderstood throughout the 19th century.

June 04, 2017

COME, HOLY SPIRIT, COME! A Universalist Meditation for Pentecost

COME, HOLY SPIRIT, COME! A Universalist Meditation for Pentecost James Ishmael Ford 4 June 2017...

April 2017

April 07, 2017

William Ellery Channing: The Reluctant Radical

William Ellery Channing was born on this day in 1780 in Newport, Rhode Island. I...

March 2017

March 29, 2017

Dreams. Memories. And, a Spiritual Path.

Spirituality is difficult for us to touch because it flows to and from the invisible,...

February 2017

February 15, 2017

Learning the Language of Dragons: Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship Convocation 2017

The Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship Convocation 2017 Learning the Language of Dragons with Roshi James...

February 14, 2017

James Ishmael Ford’s Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Sermons

As it happens it was on this day in 2005 that a group of college...