Once upon a time there were sixteen bodhisattvas. It was bath day and they entered the waters together. Simultaneously they all realized the cause of water. They called out as one voice, “This marvelous touch has illuminated all things. We have reached that place where the daughters and sons of the Buddha all dwell!” Blue Cliff Record, Case 78 (my paraphrase) I’ve long loved this case, as we call individual examples of the... Read more
One of the small pleasures of our fourteen years in old New England was finding how my life rubbed elbows with various public figures of present and past. When we were in Providence, especially, it was not possible to avoid crossing paths with the mayor and the governor, the two senators, and the two House representatives. Several even came to recognize me and two probably could recall my name without an aide’s prompt. But its the dead ones... Read more
As it turns out Rick McDaniel has a new book coming out, The Story of Zen. And he invited the Zen teacher Dosho Port to write an afterword for it. Always looking for the easier way Port Roshi posted a query to Facebook asking what any of his Zen friends might consider the single greatest challenge together with the single greatest opportunity for Zen in the West today? A compelling question. And, I believe, timely. We are... Read more
Once upon a time the world honored one was at Vulture Peak. Before a vast crowd of lay practitioners, nuns, and monks, angelic creatures, and even gods, he held up a single flower and twirled it. Of the assembled crowd only the disciple Mahakashyapa, responded, breaking into a wide grin. The Buddha, lord of wisdom, physician of the heart, announced “I have the eye treasury of the true Dharma, the marvelous mind of nirvana, the true form of no-form, the... Read more
A Western Zen priest’s Random Collection of Twenty Favorite Songs of Longing, Loss, Hope, and Finding… I am a Boomer, so, of course the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius But of songs from that era, it’s probably George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord that most captures the moment and my heart I recall going to my first settlement as a Unitarian Universalist minister, attending a lay led service at a largely humanist congregation. They were enthralled with Amazing Grace and... Read more
On the Utter, Complete, Total Ordinariness of Mu James Myoun Ford Empty Moon Zen (a version of this talk is published in The Book of Mu) The Case A monk asked Chao-chou, “Has the dog Buddha nature or not?” Chao-chou said, “Mu.” Wu-Men’s Comment For the practice of Zen it is imperative that you pass through the barrier set up by the Ancestral Teachers. For subtle realization it is of the utmost importance that you... Read more
Alexander Hamilton was born on this day, the 11th of January, in 1755, or, maybe it was 1757 in the British West Indies… He would go on to be chief of staff to General George Washington, founder of America’s financial system, a principal author of the Federalist Papers, founder of the US Coast Guard, founder of the New York Post, and first Secretary of the Treasury. Small wonder his story could become the subject of a Broadway musical.... Read more
Traditionally we mark today, then 10th of January, in the 49th year before our common era as the day that Julius Caesar crossed the river Rubicon. Suetonius says that as his army began to cross Caesar declared, “Alea iacta est!” The die has been cast… It has come to be a common enough expression in our culture. And… Not a bad moment for us, you and me, to consider is there a river for us to cross? To... Read more
I find myself thinking of folk religions today. And especially I’m reminded in the moment of Santa Muerte, Saint Death, or Holy Death, or most formally Our Lady of the Holy Death. I’ve written of her before, and I’m drawing on some earlier thoughts here gathered together with some thoughts about our human condition and how we engage it. I admit while I am fascinated with religions, until relatively recently I’ve pretty much ignored this... Read more
In the Christian calendar, at least some forms of it, today is the Feast of the Epiphany, or Three King’s Day. Some years ago my spouse Jan and I were talking about that hymn associated with the feast of the epiphany, “We Three Kings,” when she shivered and shared her recollection of that year when she was about eleven and the costumes her mother dressed her, her sister and her brother in and the rickety church stage where... Read more
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