It was on this day, the 10th of November, in 1793, that the revolutionary French Convention proclaimed the investiture of a goddess of reason and a new state sponsored cult designed to replace Catholic Christianity. The deity’s image was installed on the high altar of the once (and future) Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The goddess and the cult were the brainchild of among others Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, Antoine-Francois Momoro, & Jacques Hebert. Herbet had... Read more
A dear friend passed this on to me. I now pass it on to you… Read more
As I was perusing Wikipedia’s calendar of things that happened on this day, the 8th of November, I saw that it is the “Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of Heaven” within the Orthodox Christian churches. I was caught up with those bodiless powers. And, so, I had to do a little more research. A Synaxis is literally a “gathering together,” but is understood as a gathering for liturgical purposes. Within Christian Orthodoxy... Read more
In my little corner of the social media universe, particularly on Facebook, pretty much as soon as one of these horrific and now ubiquitous mass shootings happen, many of my friends pretty much immediately begin posting notices mocking those who’ve called for “thoughts and prayers.” That immediate visceral and hostile response is usually in response to some politician whose own immediate response to the horror are those offers of thoughts and prayers, but who has an ugly history of... Read more
Here I am at the Oakland airport waiting on my flight home to Long Beach. Yesterday I completed a three-year term on the board of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. Now, I’m jumbling through my thoughts and feelings about the experience. I’ve devoted the majority of my life to the Zen project. My heart aligns most closely with Soto Zen Buddhism informed by the koan curriculum adapted from the Hakuin line Takujo system by the great Soto master Daiun Sogaku Harada at... Read more
I can’t date it precisely, but something in the neighborhood of fifty years ago I wandered into the recently launched Berkeley Zendo. Today, I am going to its successor organization the Berkeley Zen Center for my last meeting as a member of the board of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association. The Berkeley Zen Center is one of those minor centers of the universe, a place where many people have found their hearts. I can’t think of it, either the old... Read more
William Penn Adair Rogers, better known to posterity as Will, was born on this day, the 4th of November, 1879 at the Dog Iron Ranch in what was called Indian Territory near Oologah, Oklahoma. His father was a rancher and a Cherokee judge, interestingly also a Confederate veteran. After completing the 10th grade, Will dropped out of school, working for a couple of years at the ranch. Then he and a friend sought their fortune in Argentina.... Read more
It was on this day, the 3rd of November, in the year 361 of our common era that the Emperor Constantius II died. In his will he name his cousin Julian his sole “legitimate” heir. A golden child of the Constantinian dynasty, and ultimately that last child of the dynasty, Julian had previously served as Caesar of the western provinces. His own army had proclaimed him Augustus 360, and with the death of Constantius and with that will, Julian... Read more
Okay maybe he would never think of himself as a “Zen Christian.” But, I have trouble not doing so. The poet and Anglican priest George Herbert sings into our hearts: I struck the board, and cry’d, ‘No more; I will abroad.’ What, shall I ever sigh and pine? My lines and life are free; free as the rode, Loose as the wind, as large as store. Shall I be still in suit? Have I no harvest but a thorn To... Read more
In the Christian calendar today is the feast of All Saints. However, within some circles, particularly those called “folk Catholics” this is also the feast of Santa Muerte, Saint Death, or Holy Death, or most formally Our Lady of the Holy Death. Santa Muerte is a female saint of a folk sort. She is certainly in no way official. And possibly, and in my view pretty obviously, actually she is a full on deity. She is the... Read more
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