A MEDITATION ON SPIRITUALITY AFTER RELIGIONS Or, Mark Twain’s Large Dream 19 March 2017 James Ishmael Ford Unitarian Universalist Church Long Beach, California I love Mark Twain. I just love Mark Twain. In fact Jan and I have made Mark Twain pilgrimages twice in our lives. The first time was a tad more than twenty years ago when we lived in Wisconsin, and I served a suburban Milwaukee congregation. During the summer hiatus in our regular services, we took US... Read more
Despite having been here from before the beginning of the Republic, with the great waves of immigration in the nineteenth century the story of the Irish in America is also very much an immigrant’s story, with all the beauty and sadness that comes with being immigrants. I believe there are few who would be reading this who are unaware of the broad outlines. Prejudice against the Irish as immigrants raged in the middle of the nineteenth century, and actually continued... Read more
Jurgis Bielinis was born on this day, the 16th of March, 1846, in Purviskiai, Lithuania. During the long Russian occupation of Lithuania, books written in Latin-Alphabet Lithuanian were banned. It was a part of Russia’s assimilation program, which necessitated the destruction of historic Lithuanian culture, or at least the extreme attenuation of it. And, of course, at the heart of such things books must be banned. And so they were. These were heady and lethal dangerous years. In the face... Read more
A lot of people sure seem to think so. Jeong Kwan is a Zen Buddhist nun who lives at the Chunjinam hermitage attached to the Baekyangsa temple, some hundred and seventy miles south of Seoul. Celebrity chef Eric Ripert is generally credited with bringing the world’s attention to the modest nun with an extraordinary talent. But, in fact, she has been whispered about for quite a while. There’s a lovely article at the New York Times, although there is that... Read more
I understand that when he would give talks the early Zen missionary to the Barbarians of the United States, Nyogen Senzaki would address his audience as “bodhisattvas.” A friend who knows his way around, suggested the sensei was throwing out a net, hoping to snare a wise heart, maybe even two. Years later I sometimes say to someone who has done a small mitzvah, “you’re a bodhisattva.” Maybe in the same spirit. Okay, maybe with a bit more snark. But,... Read more
There’s an excerpt from a letter written by Alexander Hamilton in 1792 going around the social media world that disturbingly looks like it was addressed to Mr Trump. Allow me to do my small bit to make sure as many people who can, will see it… The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw... Read more
I find myself think about the Buddhist teaching of emptiness. A lot, actually. For me it is one of the central pointers on my journey of spirit. And, I know this has been true for many others, as well. And, there are an astonishing, at least astonishing to me number of ways people turn it into something other than what it is. The most popular of these misunderstandings over the years is that it is an assertion of meaninglessness. Another perennial... Read more
As the hour approached midnight on the evening of the 11th of March, 2017, in a private ceremony, I gave Denkai transmission to Desmond Gilna, Keido Gando, Osho. (Here I originally said that with this Desmond became the first Irish koan Zen teacher. But, of course that isn’t true. Maura O’Halloran was the first. And, today, there’s also Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Sensei, heir to Josho Pat O’Hara Roshi. Thanks to all for the corrections.) In the Japanese inheritance Denkai, or... Read more
Jan and I were walking into the parking lot after a quick run to one of our local grocery stores, when we noticed a bumper sticker. At first glance it seemed one of those “co-exist” stickers with the letters twisted out of symbols from the world religions. However, as we looked more closely we could see it was a parody of that sticker and instead, while using world religions letters it read “contradict.” I’m certainly okay with that. I mean,... Read more
I opened my email today to find the poem of the day from Panhala was by the Medieval Japanese Zen monk and poet Ikkyu. In Sonya Arutzen’s translation. Every day, priests minutely examine the Law And endlessly chant complicated sutras. Before doing that, though, they should learn How to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon. Sojun Ikkyu is one of my favorite Zen teachers. He was born sometime in 1394 in a... Read more
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