A couple of years ago I offered a small reflection on the medieval Christian mystic Richard Rolle, together with an excerpt from his Fire of Love. Here I expand a bit my reflection about him and his spirituality, and include again the Fire of Love. The Church of England marks out the 20th of January as a feast in his honor. Richard Rolle was born into a farming family sometime around 1300.... Read more
Hakuin Ekaku died on January the 18th, 1769. He was born on the 19th of January, in 1686, in a village at the foot of Mount Fuji. In those years between death and birth, Hakuin became the great reformer of Japanese Rinzai Zen. Curricular koan study traces to two major strains, both named for grand students of his. As a child he attended a lecture given by a Nichiren priest... Read more
I notice for those who continue to follow the Julian calendar the now conventional Gregorian calendar’s January 14th is going to be their New Year. This marking has come to be called Orthodox New Year because the majority of people marking time this way are either Eastern or Oriental Orthodox. Not the only ones, but the majority. Among the consequences is that if for some reason or another you missed New Year’s Eve,... Read more
The Reverend Dr Glenn Taylor Webb died in Palm Desert on January 6th, 2024. He was one of the few Obaku/Rinzai trained Zen priests living in the United States. He was ordained by Miyauchi Kanko Roshi in 1970. Webb trained both at his master’s temple Kankoji, as well as at the Rinzai training monastery Myoshinji. Dr Webb’s Zen successor Dr Kurt Spellmeyer writes how “together with his young American dharma heir, Kangan Glenn Webb, Miyauchi... Read more
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.[1] Within weeks of my arrival at the first church I was to serve in the suburbs of Milwaukee, I received an invitation into a small local clergy support group. The caller, a United Church of Christ minister... Read more
A student of the intimate said to the master Yunmen, “The radiance serenely illumines the whole universe…” Before he finished Yunmen asked, “Aren’t those Zhangzhuo’s words?” The student said, “Yes.” Yunmen said, “You have misspoken.” Gateless Gate, case 39 I never graduated from High School. At 38, when I finished my undergraduate degree at a commuter college, I had a thought of attending the commencement ceremony, but it was inconvenient, my eyes were on... Read more
The master Baizhang was charged with naming a founding abbot for Mount Daigu. He called his community together and set a full water bottle in their midst. He said, “Don’t call this a water bottle. What will you call it?” The head monk responded, “It’s not a wooden shoe.” Then Baizhang asked the head cook, Guishan, what was his view on the matte? Guishan kicked over the water bottle and returned... Read more
I have friends who suggest anything they really like doing is a spiritual practice. When they’re not just being cute or ironic, as some of my friends do, the principle they seem to rely upon for this assertion is that such things as knitting, bowling, cooking, all involve concentration and at best, perhaps, an achieving of a sense of “oneness” with the object of their concentration. I have little argument with such observations, and indeed many... Read more
“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night; God said ‘Let Newton be” and all was light.” Alexander Pope Me, I like Christmas. Actually I love it. But here I am in the early hours of Christmas day. And my thoughts drift in several ways.. For one. We’ll be celebrating the day in the conventional American way, gathering with family and friends. Within a couple hours the gathered clan will be trying to avoid revisiting old... Read more
The Christmas Truce was a minor bit of passive resistance on the Western front in the First World War. Which was at the time called the Great War, and to our tastes terribly ironic, War to End all Wars. In 1914 English, French, and German troops paused in the battle. A young German sang Silent night, and was answered by the English and then the French. The troops crossed no man’s land, shared drinks and sweets,... Read more
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