Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska on this day, May 19th, 1925. I consider him one of the signal figures in the spiritual history of the United States. I’ve written here about him before. But, I never feel I’ve quote captured what I hope to share. So, one more time… Malcolm was the fourth of seven children. His father a Baptist preacher and an outspoken advocate of Black self-reliance. The family moved first to Milwaukee and then to Lansing.... Read more
A Zen Meditation Retreat Led by James Ishmael Ford, Roshi and Janine Larsen, Practice Leader When: Friday, July 14 through Sunday, July 16 (see retreat schedule) Where: University Unitarian Church (UUC) in Seattle. Plus: Optional Retreat Preview, Thursday, July 13, Woodinville UU Church (WUUC), 7:00 – 9:00 PM Cost: Pay what you are able. And we have suggestions: The full retreat, $60. Friday or Saturday only (single full day), $40. Friday or Saturday morning or afternoon (half day, each) $25. Thursday night and Sunday... Read more
On Saturday the 13th of May, 2017, I had the great honor and enormous pleasure of publicly acknowledging my old friend the Zen teacher Douglas Phillips through the ancient and constantly renewed ceremony of Inka Shomei, “evidence of the mark.” In addition to his work as a dharma teacher, Doug holds a PhD in psychology and maintains a psychotherapy practice in Newton, Massachusetts. Roshi Phillips has been practicing in the Zen and Vipassana traditions for more than thirty years. He... Read more
In the summer of 1900 some sponge divers came across an ancient wreck offPoint Glyphadia on the Greek island Antikythera. The salvaged a number of artifacts most of which were packed up and sent to the National Museum of Archeology in Athens. Two years later, on this day, the 17th of May, 1902, Valerios Stais, the museum’s director noticed a particularly unusual artifact among the collection. It has come to be called the Antikythera mechanism among the more technical crowd... Read more
This past Sunday I attended an Episcopalian mass celebrated in a tiny chapel in West Cornwall, Connecticut. Eighteen of us gathered there, which I understand to be on the larger side for this little community. The church they usually meet in is under repairs and so we were at a little stone chapel that is the heart place of a retreat center now administered by Trinity Church in Manhattan. The service itself was Prayerbook Rite II with all that means.... Read more
It was on this day in 1928 that Walt Disney Studios showed Plane Crazy, a single reel silent cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse. However the Mouse failed to pick up a distributer. Later that year Disney tried again with Steamboat Willie to wild success. So, while this is actually Mickey’s birthday (In case the math is difficult he turned 89 today.), this particular film wasn’t seen until the next year as the fourth of the now voluminous adventures of Mickey Mouse. Read more
On facebook in the comments to my recent posting on awakening and Zen there was a bit of a thread which included some pretty heavy weight Zen teachers. Jiryu Rutschman-Byler raised the term “kensho-spectrum” to summarize some of what he saw suggested in my writing. He then invited me to speak more fully on the subject. The point as I read it was that often we’re given the sense that awakening as it is described in Zen is this one... Read more
It was on this day one hundred, and thirty nine years ago, in 1878. that the last trial on a charge of witchcraft was initiated in an American court. Somewhat awkwardly for all concerned, the case was heard in Salem, Massachusetts. At the age of fifty the life long invalid Lucretia Brown of Ipswich, Massachusetts, embraced Christian Science. And it seemed she was cured of her spinal injury. However not long after being cured she suffered a relapse. When Mary... Read more
Master Wuzu asked one of his students, “The woman Chien and her spirit had separated. Tell me, which is the true Chien?” Wumenguan, The Gateless Gate, Case 35. The Zen teacher Wuzu loved to formulate spiritual questions out of folklore. This koan is based in a much loved tale from old China. Like the best of ghost stories, no one knows from where it originally comes. I gather there are at least three traditional versions floating around. Here’s a fourth... Read more
In the Western Zen scene today words like enlightenment, kensho, and satori have been pushed to the background. Any emphasis on the experience of awakening has been minimized. There are reasons for this. And I think some of them are legitimate. However, that acknowledged, the great project of Zen is nothing less than awakening. And, sliding over that, shifting the point to something else, is making a terrible mistake. The Eighteenth century Japanese Rinzai master Hakuin Ekaku was blunt about just... Read more
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