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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 13, 2017

Bearing Witness: The Horror & the Glory of I Am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro is filmmaker Raoul Peck's imaginative recreation of James Baldwin's last...

February 12, 2017

Ah… And, a Blessed Darwin Day to You!

One of my favorite koans, those Zen presentations of reality and invitations into the fullness...

February 11, 2017

A Song of Endarkenment: Zen Teacher Josh Bartok on Zen Meditation

Hakuin’s Song of Zazen All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is...

February 08, 2017

Time to Celebrate! Proclus, Last of the Great Neoplatonic Philosophers is Born

Thanks to an astrological chart we can know when the philosopher Proclus was born. It...

February 07, 2017

Mary as Quanyin. Quanyin as Mary. Liberation Theology and Engaged Buddhism.

Helder Pessoa Camara was born in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, on this day in 1909. Today...

February 05, 2017

BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE Theodore Parker’s Religion, and Ours

BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE Theodore Parker's Religion, and Ours James Ishmael Ford A Sermon 5 February...

February 03, 2017

Recalling the Immortal Chaplains

It was seventy-four years ago, today. Methodist minister George Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Reformed minister...

February 02, 2017

Who is Our Neighbor: A Zen Buddhist Reflection on a Christian America

I was distressed to see a new Pew survey written up at FiveThirtyEight that shows...

January 2017

January 31, 2017

The World is a Burning Hut: A Zen Meditation

There was an old woman who supported a hermit. For twenty years she always had...

January 29, 2017

A SONG OF JONAH: Or, What Happens When the Prophet is a Jerk

A SONG OF JONAH Or, What Happens When the Prophet is a Jerk James Ishmael...

January 28, 2017

Zen & the Bodhisattva Way: A Meditation on the Three Pure Precepts

Zen & the Bodhisattva Way A Meditation on the Three Pure Precepts James Ishmael Ford...

January 27, 2017

Waking Up With the World: A Brief Zen Reflection on the Four Noble Truths

I gather there is some confusion about how what we call the Four Noble Truths...

January 26, 2017

Jesus as Zen Master, Love as the Koan

Text Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him,...

January 17, 2017

The Master Rujing Explains Mu

The current conceit would have it that in Zen koan introspection is something that Rinzai...

January 14, 2017

Recalling John Biddle, Unitarian Saint and Martyr

One of those memories I treasure for the years I served at the First Unitarian...

January 13, 2017

Kensho, Samadhi, & the Practices of Zen

As Zen first came west, kensho, or satori, was the great prize. The Zen priest...

January 12, 2017

When the Need is Great, the Swami Appears: Recalling Swami Vivekananda

Narendranath Datta was born in Calcutta on this day in 1863...

January 11, 2017

Zen Communities Confronting Mr Trump’s Assumption of the American Presidency

I understand some scholars suggest that it was yesterday in the year 49 before our...

January 09, 2017

Want to Feel a Little Hope for Humanity? Go See Hidden Figures

Jan and I, when possible, like to take in a movie on Sunday late afternoons...

January 08, 2017

The Golden Door: Some Brief Remarks on Immigration & Deportation

The Golden Door Some Brief Remarks Delivered at a Forum on Immigration & Deportation at...

January 07, 2017

The Method of Zen: A Small Meditation on Galileo’s Wonderful Telescope & Bodhidharma’s Marvelous Not Knowing

Toward the end of the year 1609 Galileo Galilei, who had been tinkering with lenses...

January 06, 2017

The Wisdom Way: A Zen Buddhist Reflects on the Feast of the Epiphany

Today is the feast of the Epiphany. A wonderful celebration within the Christian tradition. And...

January 02, 2017

Noor Inayat Khan: Sufi & War Hero

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan was born in Moscow on this day in 1914. She was the...

January 02, 2017

Nyogen Senzaki’s Sufism & Zen

(The essay “Sufism & Zen” is taken from a collection of Nyogen Senzaki Sensei’s lectures...

December 2016

December 31, 2016

Finally, Finally 2016 Ends!

Me, I’m quite glad to be done with 2016. And, I’m not massively positive about...

December 29, 2016

Zen in the Natural World: A Meditation on Awakening After Modernity

I’ve just read Seth Zuiho Segall’s contribution to the current issue of Tricycle, “A More...

December 27, 2016

Knowing Good and Evil: Or, Finding Zen Koans in the Bible

I stumbled on this in my archives. I have no memory of having written it,...

December 26, 2016

Looking at Alternative Christianities: Recalling Jesus’ brother, James

In Eastern Orthodox circles today is the feast of James the Just. I usually mark...

December 25, 2016

The Eternal Dance Begins: Or, Wishing You all a Very Charles Dickens’ Christmas

The other evening Jan and I watched the 1951 film "Scrooge," the one featuring Alastair...