Mary Baker Eddy and America’s Last Witchcraft Trial Today, the 14th of May, might be counted as a minor religious holiday. At least of some sort. I try to note it when it rolls around. It was, as it happens, on this day, in 1878, that the last trial on a charge of witchcraft was initiated in an American court. It was a somewhat awkward event for all concerned. Not least as the case was heard in Salem, Massachusetts.... Read more
LIKE A SHOT OF HEROIN Jack Kerouac on Buddhist meditation Complex, by turns wonderful and awful, the beat writer Jack Kerouac is one of the handful of people responsible for bringing Zen into the popular English speaking imagination. Any number of people have struggled to contextualize Kerouac’s beatnik Buddhism. Some with more success than others. And sometimes its wise to let the person speak for themselves. And so, a poem first published in book form near I can tell... Read more
God as a Zen Koan or Huatou James Ishmael Ford When I am silent, I fall into the place where everything is music. Rumi I notice that today, May 10th, is one of the days that Job of the Book of Job is celebrated. Job is one of my favorite figures in the Bible. And, thinking about him, I found a stream of mind bubbles playing out… Job and God. And from there about God. When I read... Read more
SEX & ZEN Two Dharma Talks Investigating Zen Buddhism’s Third Grave Precept Zen in the Japanese tradition counts ten grave precepts. They’re the first ten precepts of the Mahayana Bramajala Sutra, and are used by both householders and clergy. The first five are identical, or nearly so, with the householder precepts given by Gautama Siddhartha, and are also found in the Vinaya precepts for monastics. Taken together the Precepts are sometimes called the Bodhisattva Precepts. The third of these... Read more
The King James Bible and the Power of a Dreaming God James Ishmael Ford A bit of history. King James (the sixth of Scotland and first of England) not long crowned, planned a conference for November, 1603, to discuss sundry matters involving the relatively new church of which he was now head. While the ball started rolling when Henry VIII wanted a divorce, it really only took its broad shape under his younger daughter’s reign. James’... Read more
Walpurgisnacht & the Rites of Spring Today, the 30th of April, and therefore the eve of May 1st is Walpurgisnacht. It’s a holiday, sometimes holy day, observed principally in Northern Europe, Germany and across Scandinavia. For Christians its the feast of St Walburga, an eighth century English born German abbess. Originally a Benedictine nun she became the abbess of a double monastery in Heidenheim. It would seem that pretty much from her death, her story was bound up with Waldborg,... Read more
The Dawn of Nichiren Buddhism Namu Myoho Renge Kyo James Ishmael Ford On the 28th day of the fourth lunar month, that would be today, the 28th of April by our reckoning, in the year 1253, the Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk Nichiren Shonin, proclaimed that the Lotus Sutra was the epitome of all Buddhist teachings. And with that, simply calling upon the title of the Sutra can bring about liberation. 南無妙法蓮華経 Namu Myoho Renge Kyo Which can... Read more
George Herriman, Creator of Krazy Kat: A Mind Bubble George Herriman died on this day, the 25th of April, in 1944. I’ve read that his creation Krazy Kat was likely more influential than popular. And that’s probably so. But he certainly had a fan base beyond other cartoonists. Me, for instance. I adored the strip. And in the years since Herriman’s death his... Read more
THE MOTHER OF MY HEART Remarks shared on the occasion of being named a “Distinguished Alumnx” at the Pacific School of Religion James Ishmael Ford Yesterday Jan & I spent the day at the Pacific School of Religion, where I earned an MDiv (1991) as well as an MA (1992). There were many stressors at the time, not the least how we could afford the whole thing. And. I was in hog heaven. While the school was very much center... Read more
Zen, God, and Doubt: Encountering the Mystery James Ishmael Ford There’s a lovely meme that floats around on social media. The words are by Rachel Held Evans. It goes: “This is what God’s kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there’s always room for more.” Evans was a very interesting person. A journalist, columnist,... Read more
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