March 15, 2024

          Be fearful of exalted rank, o soul. And if you are unable to subdue your aspirations — doubtingly pursue them and with precautions. And the more you rise, the more examining, the warier be. And when you are arrived at the supreme height of your glory — a Caesar, as it were: when you are become a man so widely famed: then specially be wary — at such time as you come out into the... Read more

March 12, 2024

          An Evolutionary Chronology of Chan Compiled and edited by Richard Kollmar and published here with permission Key: purple = eminent monks; red = important dates and periods; blue = putative Chan masters Outside of China and before the 8th century CE, no literary or epigraphic evidence supports the existence of an Indian tradition connected to Chan. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1st and 2nd centuries CE: Buddhist monks and scriptures reach China. The period of translation and commentary begins.... Read more

March 7, 2024

      I am so pleased that one of my favorite publishers, Shambhala Publications, is bringing out my next book. It’s due in July. Feel free to pre-order it. While n the middle of the edits on this project, I was notified my first book had gone out of print. It was an introduction to Zen, originally aimed at Unitarian Universalists. There was a second edition that was meant to be a more general introduction. I re-read it. And... Read more

March 5, 2024

              While strolling with master Nanquan, the official Luxuan observed “The teacher Sengzhao once said,’ Heaven, earth, and I are of the same root. Everything and I are one.’ That’s so beautiful.” Nanquan called to Luxuan pointing a finger at a flowering plant in the garden. “People now see this flower as if in a dream.” Blue Cliff Record, case 40 (Book of Serenity, case 91) Nanquan Puyan is one of the signal masters... Read more

March 4, 2024

    My friend Ken Ireland, one of my smarter friends, observed recently that there is no God. And that Mary is his mother. I said, oh my. That’s the truth of the matter. The deep intimation of the spiritual life in this world of tears. The doors and windows that opens for us. And he said, “James. It’s a quote from George Santayana.” Why has no one told me about George Santayana before? While somewhere along the line I... Read more

March 2, 2024

              The Case The abbot Nanquan came upon the monastics of the eastern and western halls arguing about a cat. He took the cat and held it up with one hand while holding a knife in the other. He glared at the assembly and harshly said, “If you can give me a word, I will spare this cat. Otherwise, I will kill it.”  No one spoke. So, he cut the cat into two.  That... Read more

February 23, 2024

        The 23rd of February has always been an important day in my personal calendar. It’s the day that has been officially designated as when the first pages were pulled for Johannes Gutenberg’s wonderful Bible in 1455. When I was a kid it was called the first printed book. A big deal. And as a bookish kid, I’m super glad. They had to change that when it became apparent the oldest extant printed book was in fact... Read more

February 21, 2024

          I’ve mentioned on this blog before how I consider my first education to have come from Science Fiction. Among the authors who touched me is Richard Matheson. Richard Burton Matheson was born New Jersey in 1926. His parents divorced when he was eight. His mother took him to live in Brooklyn, where he was raised. Matheson graduated High School in time to serve in the Army during the Second World War. The GI bill allowed... Read more

February 16, 2024

              About ten minutes past midnight on the 17th of February, in 1986, Jiddu Krishnamurti died in Ojai, California. He was ninety years old. Or thereabaouts. He had been several things in his life. One of them a world teacher. It’s not precisely sure when Krishnamurti was born, probably in May, but what day precisely, and in either 1895 or 1896. He was born a brahmin in Madanapalle, in Andhra Pradeshi. His father Naarayanaiah,... Read more

February 10, 2024

        In the twelfth century a Chinese Zen master, Kuoan Shiyuan wrote a series of poems describing the arc of the spiritual life. He did these poems as comments on a popular series of images describing that path as a child noticing the footprints of an ox in the dirt and begins a journey. With Kuoan’s poems the whole way of Zen is described. Alone in the wilderness, lost in the jungle, the boy is searching, searching!... Read more

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