Getting Away & Coming Home: Zen Retreats and a Note on What to Do When You Can’t James Ishmael Ford “Above all things, love silence.” Isaac of Nineveh As an old Zen hand, I’m reluctant to tell non-Zen friends I’m off to a retreat. When I do, too often the response is something along the line of, “Boy, I could use some downtime myself.” Me, too. But that “down time” is far from a description of a Zen retreat.... Read more
Love and Death: A Small Zen Meditation on Valentine’s Day James Ishmael Ford I notice the semi-sort-of Christian holiday St Valentine’s Day will be followed in a week and a day by the Christian holy day Ash Wednesday. Basically. I love you. And you’re going to die. Works for me. Me. I think a lot about love. What it is and what it is not. Heck, recently I wrote a whole sermon on love. I’m particularly taken with the two... Read more
Recalling the Consecration of Barbara Harris as the first woman to serve as a bishop within the Anglican Communion Barbara Harris was consecrated as suffragan bishop for the diocese of Massachusetts within the Episcopal Church on this day, the 11th of February, in 1989. From her election on September 24th, 1988, there was opposition. Vile messages and death threats were sent to her. She was asked to wear a bullet proof vest for the consecration, but... Read more
Zen, a New Universalism, and Politics James Ishmael Ford Since the nineteenth century, more or less the word “Religion” has come to describe that part of a culture concerned with meaning and purpose. It has two principal expressions. One is about defining and reinforcing the boundaries of a culture. This has always been the principal purpose of religion as an artifact of society. A great deal of energy is put to the issue of who is... Read more
“The priest Xiangyan (Kyogen) said, ‘It is as though you were up in a tree, hanging from a branch with your teeth. Your hands and feet can’t touch any branch. Someone appears beneath the tree and asks, ‘What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?’ If you do not answer, you evade your responsibility. If you do answer, you lose your life. What do you do?’” Gateless Gate, Case 5 James Ishmael Ford For me, my spiritual... Read more
Today, the 7th of February, in 1497, caught up in a madness of regret and purification stirred by preaching of the Dominican Friar Girolamo Savonarola, the people of Florence gathered together what they and the good friar considered temptations into sin, piled them up, and lit them as bonfires. These objects included clothing, cosmetics, mirrors, musical instruments, playing cards, and paintings. Lots of art. And lots and lots of books… It was called the falò... Read more
A Critique of Centering Prayer: Text and Commentary Francis Tiso (I shared online a reflection by the lay Catholic spiritual director Carl McColman regarding Centering Prayer and some of its critics. In a response Fr Tiso noted he’d also written a reflection on Centering Prayer in response to an extensive critique. I read it. And then asked if I could share it at this blog. He graciously agreed. There were some problems with the document as I... Read more
Joseph Priestley died on this day, the 6th of February, in 1804. Me I think of it as a holy day, a feast for a radical saint. Priestley was a scientist, political radical, and one of the more influential founders of the modern English speaking Unitarian movement. He was born into a comfortable dissenting family in Birstall, Yorkshire, on the 24th of March, 1733. His brilliance was noted very early. At four he could recite the... Read more
The master of the cut and paste novel, gay, drug addict, wife killer, essayist, short story writer, painter, spoken word artist, general all around self-obsessed jerk, and brilliant brilliant writer William S. Burroughs was born on this day, the 5th of February, in 1914. Were he still alive he’d be one hundred and nine years old… Not quite that long ago, but bunches and bunches of years ago, I was working in Moe’s bookstore in Berkeley. Moe... Read more
THE UNITARIAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT A Meditation on the Politics of Unitarian Universalism A sermon delivered at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles 5 February 2023 James Ishmael Ford Back in the day, most people with an axe they were looking to grind regarding candidate and then President Barack Obama, wanted people to know he really was a Muslim. You know. Some kind of other. But there were a few people who wanted to... Read more
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