I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks — who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering, which word is beautifully derived “from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre, to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, “There goes a Sainte-Terrer,” a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander.... Read more
On Facebook someone posted an image of the giant triple-faced Guanyin of Nanshan. An astonishing figure of beauty and grace, standing 354 feet, it was dedicated in 2005. It set me to thinking a little about Buddhist images and especially our human propensity for making really big statues. So, for instance, pretty much everyone is familiar with the great Buddha statue in Kamakura. But it isn’t the only one. Here’s a top ten of the largest... Read more
A Diamond Sutra A paraphrase by James Myoun Ford I understand within the great cacophony that would eventually become the Christian church was how among some of those who would later be called gnostics, people were considered simply aspirants on the way until they could compose their own version of the gospel, their own sense of the “good news.” Inspired by this I have taken up the practice of reading multiple translations of spiritual texts that particularly touch my heart, sitting... Read more
THE WAY OF ZAZEN Rindo Fujimoto, Roshi translated by Tetsuya Inoue, Jushoku and Yoshihiko Tanigawa Rindo Fujimoto began studying with the great Sogaku Harada at Hosshinji. He continued his studies with Toin Iida, and succeeded him as master of Shorinji temple. This essay was published in a lovely small volume by the Cambridge Buddhist Association in 1961. It was one of the first descriptions of the practice that I was privileged to read. I was enormously fortunate. Introduction... Read more
This past weekend Jan & I spent a birthday holiday exploring the Five Cities area on California’s Central Coast. There we spent a little time visiting Dunite spots. I am just fascinated with them. The Dunites were a loose gathering of eccentrics, political, artistic, and, for me most interestingly, religious, who lived on or near the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes during the first half of the twentieth century. For a brief period they were almost held together by the... Read more
The Tso-chan-i is attributed to the eleventh century Chan monk Ch’ang-lu Tsung-tse. It may be the earliest of the “mature” Zen texts on seated meditation. And would be the bases for Eihei Dogen’s Fukenzazengi, which in part simply translates large segments of this earlier document. In my view this is a document with which every Zen student should become familiar. Here is the Zen practitioner & scholar Carl Bielefeldt’s translation… The Principles of Seated Meditation Translated by Carl... Read more
For some today is a day to mark the life of Patrick, the Romano-British missionary bishop to Ireland. Whose fortunes in various circles has declined to drunken parades featuring gallons of green beer. Others, of a more decorous sort take today to honor the seventh century abbess, Gertrude, patron of cats and cat lovers. Me, I have to go with Marcus Aurelius, emperor and philosopher, who died on this day in 180. A bunch of years ago the... Read more
Zazenkai Join us for a day of Zen meditation Saturday 28 April 9am to 5pm at the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church in Costa Mesa, California Zazen, Practice Interviews, Liturgy, Dharma talk Our retreat will be led by Roshi James Myoun Ford, Sensei Gesshin Greenwood, and Senior Dharma teacher Jan Seymour-Ford Roshi Myoun has been described as one of the senior Zen teachers in North America. His next book, due out in June, is an Introduction to the... Read more
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 thoroughfares, a... Read more
To Touch the Heart, to Touch the Mind A day long Zen meditation retreat in Costa Mesa, California, with the Blue Cliff Zen Network. Join us for an all day Zen retreat on Saturday the 28th of April, 2018, nine a.m. until five p.m. Our leaders will be the Soto Zen priests James Myoun Ford, Gesshin Greenwood, and lay teacher Jan Seymour-Ford. Liturgy, Dharma talk, spiritual practice interviews, and, yes, lots and lots of zazen, formal Zen meditation. So,... Read more
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