Well, there is a breakfast, after which the board will meet – but, otherwise the 7th Biennial Gathering of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association is in the history books. Just a few less than ninety clergy from a variety of Soto lineages met at Camp Courage in Maple Lake, Minnesota, about an hour from the Twin Cities. We sat together, celebrated liturgy, had workshops and lectures, and a keynote address from Dr David Loy, scholar, eco justice activist and Zen... Read more

Once Upon a Time There Was a Queen Named Love James Ishmael Ford The world, and everything within it, are all woven out of stories. And, so, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, and very far away, a queen named Love learned she was pregnant. The king called together his astrologers and wise ones, and asked them to chart out what would be the fate of this princeling. They conferred with... Read more

Those of us who love koans, the spiritual discipline unique to Zen are aware of the many collections of the cases that have been compiled over the years. Each offers a particular angle on the great mystery. My favorite of these continues to be the Gateless Gate. What I am so pleased to see is how there are now beginning to be a few collections arising in the West. And I have to say of these my favorite to date... Read more

Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, “These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father’s) domain.” They said to him, “Then shall we enter the (Father’s) domain as babies?” Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the... Read more

Bishop Gengo Akiba, head of the continental North American branch of the Japanese Soto Zen Buddhist sect, has been advocating for the building of a traditional Japanese style Zen monastic complex in North America for well over a decade. He has been working with both Japanese officialdom and the diverse convert community with a vision just slightly tailored to each group’s style. For the Japanese it is an offer of a traditional, read “authentic” Zen training venue in North America.... Read more

When we practice zazen (Zen meditation) our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. the inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say ‘inner world’ or ‘outer world,’ but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone... Read more

When I was young my grandmother would tell me as someone raised in Missouri she knew the James “boys” were good men ground under by the railroads and the banks. Jesse was just standing up to what we today might call “the man.” And that man was pure evil. It’s sort of a theme in our culture, and not without merit. I think of all those ballads that Woody Guthrie and others in the folk tradition have salvaged from generations... Read more

It was forty-seven years ago today that the Beatles released their eleventh album, Abbey Road. It shares the distinction with Let It Be as their “last” effort, in that while Let it Be was released the following year in 1970, pretty much all of that effort was in the can before the studio sessions that would produce Abbey Road, which was the fruit of their last collaboration as a band. The good folk at Wikipedia tell us “Although Abbey Road... Read more

Rick Fields was a poet, a journalist, and author of the first comprehensive history of Buddhism come to America, How the Swans Came to the Lake, first published in 1988, and which went through several editions. Toward the end of the 1960s he studied Zen at both San Francisco and Los Angeles, but found his heart practice in the early 1970s with the Tibetan traditions and particularly with the late Chogyam Trungpa. We who care about Buddhism in the West... Read more

A Story by Chuang-tzu, translated by Thomas Merton & collected in Stephen Mitchell’s The Enlightened Heart. Prince Wen Hui’s cook was cutting up an ox. Out went a hand, down went a shoulder, he planted a foot, he pressed with a knee, the ox fell apart. With a whisper, the bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm! Timing! Like a sacred dance, like ‘the mulberry grove,’ like ancient harmonies! ‘Good work!’ the prince exclaimed, ‘your method is faultless!’ ‘Method?’... Read more