God. A word that calls forth pain and joy. Hope and fear. And loss, so much loss. People die for that word. People die because of that word. God. And, what is God? What is divine? And how does it relate to this world? As it happens today marks the day in 381, that the Council of Constantinople promulgated... Read more
Fifty-four years ago today, the 5th of July in 1969, I was ordained an unsui, a novice Soto Zen Buddhist priest. The English word “ordain” comes from Latin by way of French and means “put in order, arrange, dispose, appoint.” Ordination is the formal rite dedicating someone to sacred work. It is common across cultures, although the definition of sacred work shifts with various cultures. In Zen in the Japanese tradition in which I was first ordained, this... Read more
Sometime in March of 1845, Henry David Thoreau’s friend the poet Ellery Channing famously advised him, “Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you.” Few have given anyone better advice. And, in the rarest of confluences, Thoreau saw the wisdom... Read more
Today, the 3rd of July, the Roman church marks out as the feast of St Thomas, called the Doubter. The Orthodox tend to prefer October 6th. The Episcopal church marks his feast on the 21st of December, and generally I like their calendar best. But here’s an opportunity to share why I love Thomas so much. So… While I love Jesus and am... Read more
When the Heart of Compassion walked through the gate of Wisdom, she looked into the body of the world and each of us, seeing that each of us and the world itself is boundless. And with this all suffering vanished. Dear ones, all things are boundless; and the boundless is nothing other than all things. Everything in itself is boundlessness;... Read more
Last night we arrived at mom’s in Tujunga in Los Angeles, which for all practical purposes means we are home. This morning after our Empty Moon Zen sitting we’ll return the rental car. It was a lovely ride down from Seattle following a five day Zen sesshin (intensive Zen meditation retreat). We started the drive on Sunday afternoon, and so all in all, five... Read more
Thomas Henry Huxley died this day, the 29th of June, in 1895. I kind of think of it as a feast for a new universalist kind of saint. Huxley was a biologist and anthropologist, today best remembered as “Darwin’s Bulldog.” Where Darwin was reticent, Huxley was aggressive, and more than happy to engage in debate regarding evolution. His famous debate with... Read more
John Wesley, the Anglican priest and founder of the Methodist movement, was born today, the 28th of June, in 1703. His father Samuel was a priest, as well. He was also a poet, and probably unconnected to that fact, poorly managed the family’s finances, and was twice imprisoned for debt. John’s mother, Susanna, was the anchor of the family.... Read more
“‘One day Ajahn Chah held up a beautiful Chinese tea cup, “To me this cup is already broken. Because I know its fate, I can enjoy it fully here and now. And when it’s gone, it’s gone.’” When we understand the truth of uncertainty and relax, we become free.” Jack Kornfield in The Wise Heart Chah Chotchuang was born into a family of subsistence farmers near Ubon Ratchathani in northeastern Thailand today, the 17th of June, in 1918.... Read more
Michael Coren, a writer and late vocation priest in the Anglican Church of Canada whom I quite admire, recently offered an anecdote on social media. “I took a funeral recently where a woman told me at the reception that she was actually at the wrong ceremony. She didn’t know the deceased. I’d seen her crying, however, and gently asked why. ‘I was already here’, she said, ‘so thought I’d just join in.’” It immediately reminded me of... Read more
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