The Subtle Art of Bowing: A Dharma Discourse

Last updated on: May 6, 2026 at 8:36 am By James Ford

(This presentation was first offered by my dear friend Dharma Holder Tom Wardle. He has generously aloud me to reprint it here.) Tom Wardle is an Executive Coach, Spiritual Director, and Zen Teacher. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Hult International Business School. He is also a graduate of the Zen Peacemaker’s Seminary for Socially Engaged Buddhism. Tom is passionate about koan, lay practice, and the integration of the dharma into daily... Read more

STOP THE WAR: Commenting on a Zen koan

Last updated on: April 17, 2026 at 7:17 pm By James Ford

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(At the recent Empty Moon Zen Saturday Zazenkai, Dharma Holder Mo Myokan Weinhardt gave the dharma talk on the koan “Stop the war.” I asked her if I could reprint it at my Monkey Mind column, hoping to see it get the wider readership it deserves. She graciously consented. ) Once, many years ago when Tom and I were living in the Bay Area, we went to sit one evening with David Weinstein Roshi’s Rockridge Meditation Community. After getting reasonably... Read more

Only Beauty Can Save the World: James Hillman at 100

Last updated on: April 12, 2026 at 7:03 pm By James Ford

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The Archetypal psychologist James Hillman was born on the 12th of April, in 1926. Which means he’d be a hundred today. He looms in my inner life. In an unfinished memoir I touched up him and his acolytes and all that. I began taking classes at Sonoma State University, studying psychology while Jan finished up some general education requirements at several local community colleges. I was working close to full time and I considered the BA nothing more than a... Read more

Easter: A Zen Buddhist Appreciation

Last updated on: April 5, 2026 at 8:11 am By James Ford

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Easter. That most holy of Christian holy days. The Gospel of Mark is generally considered the oldest of the canonical gospels, the time-hallowed stories of Jesus and his ministry. The sixteenth chapter of Mark tells the story of Easter in its most unelaborated version. And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, went to the tomb, bringing sweet spices to anoint his body. It was Sunday at dawn. They were worried about... Read more

A Lazy Person’s Guide to Idleness & Liberation

Last updated on: March 29, 2026 at 7:26 am By James Ford

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Hui Tzu said to Chuang, “I have a big tree, the kind they call a “stinktree.” The trunk is so distorted, so full of knots, no one can get a straight plank out of it. The branches are so crooked you cannot cut them up in any way that makes sense.” “There it stands beside the road. No carpenter will even look at it. Such is your teaching – big and useless.” Chuang Tzu replied, “Have you ever watched the... Read more

Fear, Hatred, and Zen

Last updated on: March 19, 2026 at 9:32 am By James Ford

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Eugen Herrigel was born on the 20th of March, in 1884. In 1953, his book Zen in der Kunst des Bogenschießens was published as Zen in the Art of Archery. It was one of the first English language books in general distribution that touched on Zen. And it was wildly successful. “Zen and the art of” would become the title of numerous serious and facetious studies of one thing or another including motorcycle maintenance, poker, knitting, and writing. Another... Read more

Zen Master Soen Nakagawa

Last updated on: March 16, 2026 at 9:35 am By James Ford

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The Rinzai Zen master Soen Nakagawa was born on the 19th of March, in 1907. It’s been a while since I’ve noted the day and this remarkable figure at the foundation of Zen come West. Felt appropriate to offer it again. In my study of Zen come West, Zen Master Who? I wrote about him. Through his regular visits, his Dharma heirs, and others he taught, Soen Nakagawa would become one of the most important figures shaping a Western understanding of... Read more

Recalling Zen historian David Chadwick

Last updated on: February 24, 2026 at 8:29 am By James Ford

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I was saddened to learn that David Chadwick died at his home in Bali yesterday. He’s devoted much of his life to archiving the early history of the San Francisco Zen Center, itself the epicenter in the founding of convert Zen in North America. The term “Zen Center” was coined as the group separated from Sokoji Soto Zen Mission of San Francisco. Along the way he wrote one of the most charming Zen memoirs of the genre I’ve read, Thank... Read more

Zen and the Broken Places

Last updated on: February 21, 2026 at 4:48 pm By James Ford

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(Roshi Edward Oberholtzer gave this dharma talk at our Empty Moon Zen Saturday Zoom sit on Feburary 21st, 2026. With his gracious permission I reprint it here…) *** Stephan Daedalus, that stand-in for his creator, James Joyce, once said in Joyce’s Ulysses , that “A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Xuedou has a word for him and for that genius to be, Magu in: Case 31 of the Blue... Read more

A Zen Buddhist Response to this Moment

Last updated on: February 8, 2026 at 8:22 am By James Ford

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(The following is a Dharma talk delivered by Dharma Holder Thomas Wardle of the Empty Moon Zen community. Reprinted here with his generous consent.) If you don’t know the kind of person I am and I don’t know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star. For there is many a small betrayal in the mind, a shrug that lets the... Read more

Which disciple was exiled to the island of Patmos?