Leaning In Or, How does a Zen Person do conflict? Chris Hoff A Dharma talk delivered at the Blue Cliff Zen Sangha in Long Beach 15 August, 2017 I want to acknowledge Charlottesville, and the state of the nation in some way, but tonight won’t be speaking specifically about Charlottesville. For that I will direct you to Roshi James’ FB page for his recent sermon on the topic, or his recent writing on the subject that can be found online... Read more
I was revisiting a case in the Blue Cliff Record. In Chinese the Biyan Lu, the Twelfth century classic anthology of koans. Koans are those lovely fragments of poetry, stories of encounters, and fairy tales that point us to the heart of the great matter. Case number 42 in the anthology goes: Layman Pang was leaving Yaoshan. Yaoshan ordered ten of his Zen students to see Pang off at the temple gate. Pang pointed to the falling... Read more
Taigen Shodo Harada is a Japanese Rinzai Zen master, dharma successor to the renowned Mumon Yamada Roshi. He has been leading sesshin in the West since 1982 and since 1995 has been centered at the One Drop Zendo on Whidbey Island, in Washington State. He is sometimes considered a teacher of teachers as Western Zen teachers in a variety of schools from Soto to the Harada Yasutani have all sat with him at one time or another. This simple introduction... Read more
Today the lovely Episcopal Church commemorates as a feast in honor of a martyr, the life and death of Virginia Military Academy graduate and Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels. It was 1965. He was twenty-six years old and a second year student at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he joined those who answered the call of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. to come to Selma. While there Jonathan worked to help desegregate the Episcopal congregations of... Read more
A STATE OF EMERGENCY Charlottesville, the Soul Sickness in America, and a Call to a Moral Vision James Ishmael Ford A Sermon delivered at the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church Costa Mesa, California 13 August 2017 Text Dear Friends, stand by this faith. Work for it and sacrifice for it. There is nothing in all the world so important to you as to be loyal to this faith which has placed before you the loftiest ideals, which has comforted you... Read more
SOTO SCHOOL SCRIPTURES FOR DAILY SERVICES IN ENGLISH About The Book (from the forward) This book is based on the Japanese edition of the Soto School Scriptures for Daily Services and Practice (Sōtōshū nikka gongyō selten 曹洞宗日課勤行聖典),also published by the Administrative Headquarters of Soto Zen Buddhism (Sotoshu Shumucho). The text, as its name implies, contains only those scriptures that are chanted on a daily basis in Soto Zen monasteries and temples. Numerous other scriptures that are used in monthly, annual, and... Read more
It’s full on Summer in SoCal. And our Alamitos Beach neighborhood in Long Beach is a perfect place for a Friday evening stroll. It was seven o’clock and we walked down the stairs from our fourth floor condo and onto the street. Still lots of light. We took our normal morning route, going the quarter of a block down Appleton to Falcon and headed toward the beach. We like to count nighborhood cats on our walks, and... Read more
I notice that today is Robert Ingersoll’s birthday. He is a significant if background figure in the general formation of my spiritual life. And I like to reflect on him and his contributions from time to time. What follows is based on something I wrote last year for his birthday, but washed through my own subsequent year… As I said Robert Green Ingersoll was born on this day in 1833. Writer Kimberly Winston wrote of... Read more
I was not; now I am—a few days hence I shall not be; I fain would look before And after, but can neither do; some Power Or lack of power says “no” to all I would. I stand upon a wide and sunless plain, Nor chart nor steel to guide my steps aright. Whene’er, o’ercoming fear, I dare to move, I grope without direction and by chance. Some feign to hear a voice and feel a hand That draws them... Read more
I was rummaging around the web the other day and stumbled upon a review of the recent episodes of Game of Thrones. The truth is I’ve never seen an episode. For one thing its on a premium cable channel that I’m too cheap to pay for. But, also, while it is medieval and has dragons and sounds like a ton of fun, it is also near as I gather from what I’ve read way past too violent for my entertainment... Read more
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