The good folk at Wikipedia say that it was this day in 539 before our common era that Babylon fell to Cyrus, who came to be called the Great. Cyrus is one of those signal figures in history, a warrior king who established something, actually many things that lasted beyond his reign, some reaching into modernity. Most scholars rank his importance as equal to that other “great,” Alexander. But for me the interest is religious. While he was probably a... Read more

WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU NOTICE ALL RELIGIONS ARE FALSE My Story of Sorting Wheat from Chaff & Finding a Life Worth Living A Sermon James Ishmael Ford 11 October 2015 Pacific Unitarian Church Rancho Palos Verdes, California “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj A couple of years ago I wrote an entry for my Monkey Mind blog titled “All Religions are False.” In... Read more

On one of my Facebook groups we were asked about what texts we might consider sacred. For me those do not have to be written or dictated by some divinity, but rather represent the deepest insight of our humanity. This is my list for today. Tomorrow I suspect the list would be a bit different. Some of these I’ve read over and over. One or two I’ve only read once or twice, but they continue to echo in my heart.... Read more

I have been laid low with a nasty bug for just about a full two weeks. The small glimmer of light during that time were the Peter Diamond British police procedural mysteries by Peter Lovesey. And I want to say thank you. According to the Wikipedia article on Lovesey his “novels and stories fall into the category of entertaining puzzlers in the ‘Golden Age’ tradition of mystery writing.” I would say more, they are classic mysteries, intricately plotted, with the... Read more

Bebo Valdes was born on this day in 1918. Read more

Was first recorded by Judy Garland on this day in 1938. While not that version, this is the one that captured so many hearts. There have been many covers since, some astonishingly beautiful. But, this is how I see it when I hear it… Read more

Funkadelic guitarist Lucas “Tawl” Ross was born on this day in 1948. Read more

In 2007 the United Nations designated today, the 2nd of October, as an International Day of Non-Violence. They chose Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday, observed in India as Gandhi Jayanti. Of course it comes a day after the most recent mass shooting here in America, this time at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon. We human beings are in some ways quite resilient. We bounce back, and we go forward. Evolution favors large numbers not individuals. And that resilience has put us... Read more

It was on this day in 1910 that Bonnie Elizabeth Parker came into the world. It would be a brief and violent run… Read more

(The SZBA board, except for Koun Franz, pictured in inset, who met via Zoom. From left to right, James Ford, Mary Mocine, Daishin McCabe, Taihau Priest, Ryushin Hart, Alan Senauke, Domyo Burke, and Tenku Ruff) Throughout the year the Board for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association gathers by video conference. Once a year there is a face to face meeting. On alternative years it takes place in conjunction with the bi-annual meeting of the Association at one of the large... Read more