Alfred Matthew Yankovic was born on this day in 1959. Read more

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The story goes, and there’s even a fair chance it is true, that in 1943 two Americans, wives of soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan, in Texas, had crossed the border into Piedras Negras for some shopping. At the end of the day they wandered into the Victory Club looking for a bite. However the kitchen had closed. Not to miss a customer, or in this case, two, the manager, Ignacio Anaya, known to his friends as Nacho, put together a... Read more

FILTHY LUCRE A Meditation on the Divided Heart and Its Healing 20 October 2013 James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth:... Read more

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born on this day in 1926, so a happy 87th, Chuck, and fond wishes for many more to come… Read more

Following the death of her owner, on this day in 1775, Phillis Wheatley was freed from slavery. Noting her poem, An Hymn to the Morning seems right on this occasion. Attend my lays, ye ever honour’d nine, Assist my labours, and my strains refine; In smoothest numbers pour the notes along, For bright Aurora now demands my song. Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies, Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies: The morn awakes, and wide extends her... Read more

If you’re unfamiliar with Gavin Aung’s Zen Pencils, you’re in for a treat. He illustrates quotations he finds throughout the world’s spiritual traditions. Here Gavin takes the heart of something C. S. Lewis wrote in his study the Four Loves. The full quotation follows the cartoon. “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give... Read more

A Facebook friend announced he will be going to Japan for Zuise next month. This is a major rite of passage in Japanese Soto Zen. Although largely replaced within the North American Soto community by the Dharma Heritage ceremony, nonetheless it is a momentous occasion, and I wish him all the best on this important marker in his spiritual life. In his announcement he included a lovely clip about Daihonzan Sojiji, one of the two principal training monasteries in Japanese... Read more

KISSING THE LOVER IN THE MOUTH OF BREAD A Meditation on Service and Spirituality James Ishmael Ford 13 October 2013 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold Service was joy. Radindranath Tagore It was ten o’clock in the evening on March the 2nd, 1962. A Friday. We had a moderate sized black and white television. In retrospect and given our... Read more

Today an old friend cited that line often attributed to Karl Barth, that we need to preach holding the Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. It reminded me of a recent flurry of thoughts and comments on various contemporary Buddhisms in the West, increasingly called Buddhist modernism. Among the critiques, as I read them, is that contemporary Western Buddhism too often is both dismissive and ignorant of the richness and complexity of the Buddhisms practiced in... Read more