How Christmas Became Christmas: A Meditation on The Evolution of a Holy Day James Ishmael Ford 24 December 2017 Unitarian Universalist Church Long Beach, California Text “There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred... Read more
If you’re interested in Zen here are eight brief texts that sit at the heart of our way. Heart Sutra Affirming Faith in Mind by Sengcan Song of Awakening by Yongjia Xuanjue Ten Oxherding Pictures by Kuoan Shiyuan Identity of Relative and Absolute & the Song of the Grass Hut both by Shitou Xiqian Song of the Jeweled Mirror Samadhi by Dongshan Liangjia Fukanzazengi by Eihei Dogen Read more
Lew Welch just turned up one day, live as you and me. “Damn, Lew” I said, “you didn’t shoot yourself after all.” “Yes I did” he said, and even then I felt the tingling down my back. “Yes you did, too” I said – “I can feel it now.” “Yeah” he said, “There’s a basic fear between your world and mine. I don’t know why. What I came to say was, teach the children about the cycles.... Read more
One of my favorite spiritual books is Thomas Merton’s translation The Wisdom of the Desert: Some Sayings of the Desert Fathers. It’s a selection of stories from the Verba Senorum, telling of hermits who lived in the fourth century Egyptian desert on that fertile cusp between antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. I read the book first early in my Zen training, and have a copy filled with marginal notes that I made at... Read more
The note following at the end of this reflection was sent out on the Boundless Way Zen list today. Upon receiving this one of my so-called friends wrote and asked “Is this just a difference in emerging emphasis, or do they feel you’re going off the deep end, or, conversely, becoming “soft” and “sugary” (words used to depict any Roshi who is still teaching beyond their 60’s, according to Philip Kapleau’s excellent article “Sensei and... Read more
SESSHIN To Touch the HeartMind An Intensive Zen Meditation Retreat From Thursday Evening the 1st of February, 2018 Through Eleven a.m. Sunday, the 4th At Harwood Lodge Mt Baldy Road, Mt Baldy, CA 91759 Led by Gesshin Greenwood, Sensei & James Myoun Ford, Roshi Assisted by Jan Seiryu Seymour-Ford Gesshin Greenwood is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest. She trained at Toshoji and the Aichi Senmon Nisodo, in Japan and at Green Gulch, and the San Francisco Zen Center. She... Read more
Stumbled upon this in my files. Not sure what it was written for. But seemed something worth sharing today… In 1993, on the one-hundredth anniversary of the World Columbian Exposition’s Parliament of the World’s Religions, a second parliament gathered in Chicago. The highlight for many was an address by the Dalai Lama. For me, the most important thing to come out of that gathering was a document, “Declaration Toward a Global Ethic.” The principal author... Read more
I’m having computer problems making it difficult for me to post to the blog. Hopefully this all will resolve soon. In the meantime here’s something from the wondrous Gesshin Greenwood. At her blog That’s So Zen, she’s posted her translation of Maruyama Kogai Sensei’s essay on Ryonen, Dogen’s First Female Disciple. Super well worth reading… Read more
Boundless Way Zen has just published the fourth edition of its liturgy. I’m incredibly impressed with this book. In many ways it is a contemporary American equivalent to the 17th century Chan Whip Anthology compiled by Master Zhuhong. The master behind the Boundless Way Zen Sutra Book, Josh Bartok, has collected and edited ninety pages of brief texts that are equally of interest to the beginner and the adept. Like that earlier volume this new book is a... Read more
I wrote this for Bodhi day in 2015. Reprinted, okay with a few minor tweaks, for today. Gautama Siddhartha lived somewhere between the sixth and fourth centuries before the common era near what today is the border between India and Nepal. He had some experiences, and he taught, he preached sermons that were memorized and no doubt polished by those who transmitted them, and then polished some more. Finally, some four hundred or so years after these... Read more
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