Old Zen hand, Pulitzer prize winning poet, essayist, and the poet laureate of Deep Ecology Gary Snyder shares a panel with religious studies academics Christopher Patrick Parr, Bron Taylor, Christopher Ives, with Mary Evelyn Tucker pressing. He takes questions. But no prisoners… Read more
Words from Valarie Kaur. One of the more beautiful reflections I’ve heard in a long time. I can only hope it is true. Read more
There’s a lot of confusion about Zen meditation, breath counting, just sitting, and koan introspection. Zen teacher Dosho Port’s talk, the Three Ways of Zen Meditation lays it out as well as I’ve seen. Out of my years of practice and study, I feel much of what is presented about Zen meditation is not very helpful. This talk, however, is about as clear an exposition of what I understand to be the discipline, presented clearly, and compassionately. The talk itself... Read more
Alan Watts’ book Psychotherapy East & West was first published by Pantheon in 1961. It has just been reissued by New World Library, which is becoming one of my favorite spiritually oriented publishers. I was invited to re-read it and if I wished to write a review. I read it. And, absolutely, I would like to share some thoughts. New World’s publicity folk wrote a pretty good summary of what the book offers. “Before he became a counterculture hero, Alan... Read more
Over the years Jan & I have said we’d love to go the movies more. But, the reality was we never did much. A big part of this was my work life as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister and with the erratic hours that parish ministry meant doing something regularly was difficult. And, we chose to guard the time for our Zen community rather than anything else. And time flows, and things change. Now, in the first year of retirement... Read more
Mary Gates is a past interesting person. She’s a psychologist. She’s an Episcopal priest. She’s a Zen teacher in my lineage. And, oh my, finally we seem to have gotten it right. You want a taste of authentic Zen in a Western flavor? Here you go, Dharma Holder Mary Gates pointing to the great way. Read more
Thanks to Adam Cohen for this… Read more
I am fully expecting a moving testimonial sometime today from Mr Trump singing praises of the heroes of the Battle of Los Angeles. It was late night on the 24th of February, in 1942. Air raid sirens began blaring over Los Angeles. As the night turned to the earliest morning of the 25th, some people saw a formation of planes, some reports said twenty, others two hundred, others said, no, it was a blimp, advancing over the Palos Verdes peninsula, or... Read more
Karl Theodor Jaspers was born on this day, the 23rd of February, 1883, Oldenburg, in Lower Saxony, in Germany. He began studying law but changed to medicine, taking his doctorate in 1908. Two years later he married Gertrud Mayer. Three years after his marriage Jaspers began teaching at the University of Heidelberg. By 1921 he had completely shifted his focus to philosophy. When the Nazis came to power and because his wife was Jewish, he was forced to retire from... Read more
THE BIRDS OF HEAVEN: A WAY OF FAITH IN ZEN James Myoun Ford Blue Cliff Zen Sangha A Community of the Boundless Way Zen Network Long Beach, California Among my memories of studying with the late British born Soto Zen priest Houn Jiyu Kennett, was early on asking her a question. Now, I’d been practicing for a couple of years at a branch of the San Francisco Zen Center. But, this was my turning point from something I felt pretty... Read more
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