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2021-08-04T08:18:30-07:00

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.

The Empty and the Open: Pointers on the Zen Way in a Real World

Last updated on: August 4, 2021 at 8:18 am By James Ford

THE EMPTY & THE OPEN Jan Seymour-Ford Senior Dharma Teacher, Empty Moon Zen I’ve been in a very quiet, dark, empty-handed place for a while in my practice, and in my life. So here’s what I’ve been thinking this past week: Oh, crap! I’m supposed to give this dharma talk, and I’ve got nothing. How am I going to keep talking for at least five minutes when I don’t have anything to say? The good advice is to give... Read more

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2021-08-02T07:12:46-07:00

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.

What Is Zen?

Last updated on: August 2, 2021 at 7:12 am By James Ford

What is Zen? A meditation James Ishmael Ford A few days ago on social media, I wrote what I wanted to be a summation of the Zen way as I understand it. Zen is not about calm nor focus. It does not focus on nothing. Although it does not ignore it, either. Part of the interesting thing is how Zen or more correctly Chan emerged in early medieval China. There the hard logic of Indian scholastic Buddhism gave way to... Read more

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2021-07-26T09:31:23-07:00

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.

Think of me as a Pseudo-Jungian: An Appreciation of Carl Jung on his 146th Birthday

Last updated on: July 26, 2021 at 9:31 am By James Ford

Carl Gustav Jung was born on this day, the 26th of July, in 1875, in Kesswil, Switzerland. His father was a rural pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church, his mother the child of a prominent clerical and academic family. He would later write how his mother’s mental illness marked him. He would say he grew up with two personalities, one the boy of his time and place, but the other, a being from some other place, he imagined the... Read more

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2021-07-24T11:59:55-07:00

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.

A Small Zen Reflection on John Newton’s Enlightenment Experience

Last updated on: July 24, 2021 at 11:59 am By James Ford

These days I find myself reflecting on the nature of awakening, enlightenment, or, if you will, conversion. For me the great turning is a human thing, some lovely mystery that we are all of us invited to. And many of us in our different cultures and religions seek. And find. But, what in fact is it? Certainly a turning. But, is it sudden or gradual? Is it out of the blue, or is cultivation a significant, maybe... Read more

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2021-07-19T07:24:35-07:00

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.

Zen Master Robert Aitken

Last updated on: July 19, 2021 at 7:24 am By James Ford

(On Facebook I saw a notice that today was Aitken Roshi’s birthday. The date was a tad more than a month off. But, it sparked a flood of thoughts and gratitude. A couple of years ago I wrote a brief personal appreciation of the old master and appended the “official” obituary from his sangha. I have made some minor edits to my part, and, here it is.) Robert Baker Aitken was born on June the 10th, 1917 in... Read more

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2021-07-18T20:09:16-07:00

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.

WHO WOULD YOU BE BURIED WITH?

Last updated on: July 18, 2021 at 8:09 pm By James Ford

WHO WOULD YOU BE BURIED WITH? James Ishmael Ford A voice from the dark called out, ‘The poets must give us imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar imagination of disaster. Peace, not only the absence of war.’ But peace, like a poem, is not there ahead of itself, can’t be imagined before it is made, can’t be known except in the words of its making, grammar of justice, syntax of mutual aid. A feeling towards it, dimly... Read more

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2021-07-17T14:37:21-07:00

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.

The Zen priest recalls a poem written for his sixty-ninth birthday.

Last updated on: July 17, 2021 at 2:37 pm By James Ford

A poem composed on the occasion of my sixty-ninth birthday. Today on my seventy-third birthday, it continues to hold true… I pity anyone with no regrets Old Zen priest Myoun Read more

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2021-07-17T12:32:55-07:00

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.

ANNOUNCING A COMBINED ON LINE AND IN PERSON ZEN RETREAT (July 29-August 1st)

Last updated on: July 17, 2021 at 12:32 pm By James Ford

ZEN RETREAT July 29-August 1st, 20221 Life and death are a grave matter. It’s not too late to turn the light inward, and to find your true nature. You are cordially invited to join Empty Moon Zen combined in person and on zoom three day Zen retreat. Our Bright Cloud Zen practice groups at University Unitarian Church (UUC) and Woodinville UU Church (WUUC) with the generous support of the University Unitarian Church, invite all who are interested... Read more

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2021-07-16T16:36:24-07:00

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.

Be A Student: Some Aspects of Beginning a Zen Practice

Last updated on: July 16, 2021 at 4:36 pm By James Ford

There’s an old tale in many versions. The drift is someone is caught up in the midst of a catastrophe, often a flood. People come by and warn him and later to offer to get him to safety. He declines all the offers, saying God will help me. It happens six times. Finally, in the flood version, he drowns. In heaven he confronts the divine in all its majesty. I have been known to say I would be... Read more

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2021-07-15T09:15:30-07:00

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.

Mr Emerson Proclaims a New Infidelity

Last updated on: July 15, 2021 at 9:15 am By James Ford

It was today, the 15th of July, in 1838 that Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his famous Divinity School Address. It was immediately denounced as some “new infidelity.” A full generation earlier New England’s Unitarians had rejected the trinity and instead focused salvation on “character,” putting the locus of salvation on the actions of the individual in her or his life rather than through a vicarious atonement achieved by Jesus’ death. Nonetheless this first generation of Unitarians were deeply... Read more

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