Thinking of Mother Moshan, one of the Early Zen Masters James Ishmael Ford March 8th is International Women’s Day. And, I find my thoughts turning again to women in Zen. While the records are scant, nonetheless there are clear traces of women who were masters of the Zen way from the beginning of its emergence as a distinctive school in early Medieval China. The first named woman Zen master is Zhongchi, one of the four principal heirs of the semi-mythical... Read more
George Orwell on Clear Thinking, Good Writing, and, as I find it, a Spiritual Practice James Ishmael Ford There are many spiritual practices. Some are more useful than others. For me the heart of that matter is revealed in Zen meditation and koan introspection. But even so there are other disciplines that touch the heart and inform the mind. One I think about is writing as a spiritual practice. I have lots of friends who use journaling and other forms... Read more
The Love of Money: A Practical Spirituality in Zen Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity James Ishmael Ford “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:25 As someone raised a poor people’s Baptist through my childhood and earliest adolescence I heard any number of sermons that repeated that passage about the camel and the eye of the needle. It’s cited in all... Read more
CENTERING OUR HEARTS 112 Pointers for the Practices of Presence Wandering around the spiritual bazaar that was the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s, and reading what was available, through a combination of good luck and mysterious karma I stumbled on a book, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps. The book, or more precisely the section called “Centering” offered me the first practical instruction on what meditation might look like. At least... Read more
On Seeing “Living,” a Small Spiritual Classic I don’t do a lot of film reviews at this blog. Mostly because the majority of the movies we go to don’t quite earn a pause to reflect on what I’d seen. Fluff, by and large. And, honestly, what I like. But this time around even I was uninterested in the new Marvel film. On Rotten Tomatoes, while some 83% of the viewers liked it, a scant 47% of the critics could stomach... Read more
Ensō Verde: Considering a Zen Inspired Retirement Community Yesterday, Jan & I attended one of the inaugural orientation sessions for Ensō Verde in Simi Valley. And we are excited. Beyond excited. We think we may have seen our future… We have been exploring the possibilities for Continuing Care Residential Communities, increasingly called Life Plan communities for the past several years. Over the past thirty or so years Jan & I have been of assistance to my... Read more
The prophet Mani died on this day, the 2nd of March in the year 274. That is unless he died on the 26th of February, in 277. His birth name is unknown, Mani is a title, probably meaning Enlightened Lord. He was likely born in 216 in what is now Iraq in the Babylonian district of the town Mardinu. His mother was a Parthian, possibly named Maryam. His father Patek was a member of the Elcesaites, a gnostic Jewish Christian... Read more
Reflecting on Nonduality and Zen and the Shape of a Spiritual Life Today James Ishmael Ford A couple of years ago David Loy’s monumental study Nonduality was released in a second edition. That book was very important to me in the first edition, and new edition invited me to a second look. As I noted that was a couple of years ago. I reflected on it then. And, by accident yesterday I stumbled on those comments and thought with a... Read more
A Zen Meditation on Christian Communion James Ishmael Ford As anyone interested in Christian origins no doubt knows, the informed assumption of the academic community is that between Jesus’ death and the writing of the gospels there appear to have been two traditions passed on, orally for sure, possibly in writing as well. One was a collection of Jesus’ sayings. The fabulous and never found “Q” document. This is one of the reasons people got so excited when the Nag... Read more
Recalling Johnny Cash & A Consideration of Love as a Zen Koan Or, How to Become a Buddha of Fire James Ishmael Ford Burning burning burning burning O Lord Thou Pluckest me out O Lord thou pluckest T. S. Eliot, the Waste Land Johnny Cash was born on this day, the 26th of February, in 1932. He was the middle of seven children. Like many Americans the family claimed some Native American inheritance, although a later DNA test... Read more
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