Shunryu Suzuki was born on the 18th of May, 1904, in a village about fifty miles from Tokyo. In those days that was as if it were a million miles. Maybe a tad less. It is not possible for me to adequately address just how important Suzuki Roshi was to me in my personal life and to a host of others here in the West who have come to find Zen our heart’s path. He was a child of the... Read more
On the 17th of May in 1900 L. Frank Baum’s the Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published by the George M. Hill Company. It was an instant runaway bestseller. Within six months the first edition of ten thousand copies sold out. By the time it hit the public domain in 1956 it had sold a total of some three million copies. It would also launch a series of thirteen sequels. There were numerous adaptations both for stage and three silent... Read more
The 13th of May, in 1373, Julian of Norwich starting having a series of visions. It would become the basis of her extended meditation, Revelations of Divine Love. With that I find myself thinking of Love. There is a still small voice in all of us, it really seems to me, that when we give up the noise we usually give ourselves over to, can be heard. It is the universal message of transforming love. This love is the key... Read more
Happy birthday, Gary! He once sang to us: Ah to be alive on a mid-September morn fording a stream barefoot, pants rolled up, holding boots, pack on, sunshine, ice in the shallows, northern rockies. Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes cold nose dripping singing inside creek music, heart music, smell of sun on gravel. I pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the soil of Turtle Island, and to the beings who... Read more
Nyogen Senzaki died on the 7th of May, 1958, in Los Angeles, California. He was a central figure introducing Zen to North America. Not much is known about Senzaki’s early years. He was born sometime in the late nineteenth century in Siberia. His mother was Japanese, his father either Chinese or Russian. Orphaned early on, he was taken in by a Japanese priest and adopted by a shipwright named Senzaki. He was later taken under wing by a Soto... Read more
Henry David Thoreau died on the 6th of May, 1862, in Concord, Massachusetts. He was 44 years old. Thoreau was a complicated figure. Not always attractive. But at his best, he was very, very good. I think of him as a spiritual original, sort of our homegrown American Taoist sage. He was an important part of that literary and spiritual collective we call Transcendentalism. I think of him as a spiritual ancestor for all of us trying to find... Read more
The issue in our household is finding recipes that work both for my spouse and I who like it hot with my mother in law who is pretty sure black pepper is the outer range of what humans can tolerate. As we live together we need to find dishes that are flavorful but have no significant bite. I compared a couple of recipes then added my own twist. This is really to capture a very positive experience for our own... Read more
King James (the sixth of Scotland and first of England) not long crowned, planned a conference he set for November, 1603. They were to discuss sundry matters involving the relatively new church of which he was now head. While the ball started rolling when Henry VIII wanted a divorce, it really only took its broad shape under his younger daughter’s reign. James’ elder cousin and predecessor. However, due to an outbreak of plague the Hampton Court Conference in fact met... Read more
I find myself thinking of Origen The German Lutheran church celebrates his life on the 27th of April. Sometimes called the greatest mind of early Christian antiquity, Origen lived between the late second and the middle of the third centuries of our common era. He lived principally in Alexandria. Ordained a priest, he was always a controversial figure. Some of his teachings were condemned even in his lifetime. Origen’s theological speculations were complex. The two I find interesting are his... Read more
“Thou art the unanswered question; Couldst see thy proper eye, Alway it asketh, asketh; And each answer is a lie. So take thy quest through nature, It through thousand natures ply; Ask on, thou clothed eternity; Time is the false reply.” – from “The Sphynx,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson It’s not been a full forty-eight hours ago I set up my Unanswered Question spiritual newsletter at Substack. It’s meant to be different than my blog, which is scattershot and filled... Read more
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