Rainer Maria Rilke is without a doubt one of the great gifts of the twentieth century to the world. This particular poem, the Ninth Elegy is chanted in some Zen centers together with more “traditional” Zen texts. Personally, I’d like to see some more of that. Here’s how it begins in Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows translation. Why, if it’s possible to come into existence as laurel, say, a little darker green than other trees, with ripples edging each leaf... Read more

The word “koan” has entered our English lexicon as either a “thorny question,” or, sometimes interchangeably with the word “Zen” as a a kind of non sequitur. And, while I don’t personally like these usages, language is like that, mutable, and ever changing. But, it can also be worthwhile looking to what a koan is in the sense of a spiritual discipline, as part of the Zen project. Not the non sequitur thing, but the great quest for meaning and... Read more

Today in Western Christendom is the feast of St Teresa of Avila. She is one of only four women to be named a “Doctor” of the Roman Catholic Church, and to my mind one of the greatest of Catholic theologians. She is one of my favorite believers in the Christian religion. Teresa and her special friend and sometime confessor St John of the Cross are the great masters of the Christian version of the Via Negativa, the “Negative Way.” the... Read more

It was on this day in 1066 that William the Bastard, looking for a throne to call his own, took Harold’s. Changed English history. And, along the way a knight in his party continued one more step on the genetic voyage from Scandinavia to what would become my Irish ancestry. As it turns out life is seriously weird… Read more

Leonard Cohen narrates the Tibetan Book of the Dead. You’re welcome… Read more

Herbert Lawrence Block was born on this day in 1909. He would become Herblock, one of the greatest editorial cartoonists in the history of the Republic. He would go on to win three Pulitzer Prizes for his editorial cartoons, and shared another for his work on the Watergate scandal. Among his numerous awards was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as many other acknowledgements including several honorary doctorates. As the Wikipedia article on him notes, “He never married, and,... Read more

Aleister Crowley was born on this day in 1875. I believe the first time I became aware of him was when I was living in a Zen monastery in Oakland, California. The writer Alan Watts handed on a copy of Crowley’s autobiography to Jiyu Kennett Roshi, the head of the monastery. It had been given him by his publisher who, thanks to some timely introductions facilitated by the good Dr Watts, was soon to be the roshi’s publisher, as well.... Read more

Every time there has been a calendar reform someone gets annoyed. Particularly, it seems, around matters of religious observance. There are whole churches in Eastern Christianity separated from the rest over the shift from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian. Well, among the English speaking folk that same reform didn’t result in new churches, or, perhaps that would be old continuing churches, but it did have some interesting consequences. But there were disruptions after the loss of eleven days when... Read more

Jan & I were in Bart’s Books in Ojai (one of the best bookstores we’ve found since we’ve come home to Southern California. It has become a bit of a destination place for us, or, more a major willing to go way out of the way detour on a drive to Santa Barbara. The only problem I have with them is they don’t have a public bathroom. You might think about that, guys…) where I picked up a copy of... Read more

I have an old friend who likes to go by the nom de plume, or perhaps a nom de guerre, Weasel Tracks. A very long time ago a native American shaman bestowed it on him, and it sort of stuck. He is what I like to call a dharma bum. Or, perhaps that’s the title I have bestowed upon him. For sure in my book he is a true person of the way. While he never sought the paths to... Read more