So, my old friend in the dharma, the Zen teacher Dosho Port send me a note saying how he enjoyed my retelling the koan like parable of the laborers in the Vineyard, noting how it reminded him of the traditional koan “Sushan’s Memorial Tower.” And. Well. One thing leads to another. And. Here’s a retelling of that one… The Unicorn in the Garden A Traditional koan retold James Myoun Ford Once upon a time long ago and... Read more
A Letter Asking Buddhist Leaders to Support Tsuru for Solidarity Tsuru for Solidarity, a nonviolent and direct action project, was initially created by Japanese American community leaders Satsuki Ina, Nancy Ukai, and Mike Ishii in conjunction with the March 2019 Pilgrimage to Crystal City, a former WWII internment camp in Texas that housed over 2,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, and Protest at the South Texas Family Residential Center (located 40 miles away in Dilley, Texas). The Dilley facility holds over a... Read more
Zen, Lists, and Finding the Heart of the World James Myoun Ford So, what is Zen? I was just reading the manuscript for a book coming out from Shambhala Publications. Naked in the Zendo by Grace Schireson. It’s really good. When it comes out, I recommend buying it. And, reading it. There’s something in it for the beginning Zen student and for the old hand. She speaks in it of two kinds of Zen, “uptight” and “wild-ass.” And,... Read more
According to a story we like to tell, two hundred and forty-three years ago our republic was born. Of course, like all stories, at least the good ones, dig in a bit and it’s actually, always more complicated. We were founded by people who didn’t like they way things were, nor who was in charge. There was an astonishing amount of high idealism, and along with it some serious sharp dealing. They dreamed a republic that proclaimed our common humanity... Read more
Not Knowing (retold from the Blue Cliff Record, Case 1, by James Ishmael Ford) Once upon a time long ago and far away the Emperor was visited by the Sage Awakened Way. The Emperor had converted to the intimate way, well as converted as one can and still remain an emperor. And he had done many good things, established monasteries, built hospitals, and endowed schools. He told the sage about these things. Then, because he really cared, and hoped... Read more
The Sage Wonderful & the Vineyard A Zen Priest Retells an Ancient Koan James Ishmael Ford Once upon a time long ago and far away there was a carpenter named Wonderful. He was also a sage who had a following among the poorer members of his community. One day just as he was finishing plaining a plank for a table a large splinter flew up and lodged in the middle of his left palm. He stopped, shocked by... Read more
Soto Zen in Long Beach & Orange County The other day I received a note from the Reverend Gyokei Yokoyama together with a link to his blog “Soto Zen Mission in North America.” It is mostly concerned with the activities he leads as minister at the Long Beach Buddhist Church, priest at Sozenji Temple, and as secretary to the Sotoshu in North America. Things that interest me. At the end of the note, with his signature he added in... Read more
Trying to Save the World, If not Quite Succeeding James Myoun Ford Empty Moon Zen Network “Everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.” Jane Hirshfield Getting to the root problem seems the only effective way of addressing the issues of our lives. Many agree with this proposition. Does sort of makes sense, even if we have to work on the airplane even as we’re flying it. But then things diverge. People describe differing root causes. We can in... Read more
Today, the 26th of June, 2019, Jan Seymour-Ford and I have been married thirty-seven years. Thirty-seven is a prime number, one of several special kinds of prime numbers. That’s nice. It’s the atomic number for rubidium, an element with which I was not previously familiar. Although it turns out to be the twenty-third most common element found here on Earth. It is sometimes added to fireworks to produce a purple color. And, I gather, it has one or... Read more
It was on this day, the 25th of June in 1900 that the Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu, while trying to salvage ancient religious artwork in one of the ruined Caves of the Thousand Buddhas near Dunhuang, stumbled upon a long hidden door. He opened it, and that door opened into another cave now known as the renowned “Library Cave.” In that Library Cave he found a gigantic archive of documents. The archeologist Aurel Stein who was the first... Read more
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