Song of Zazen by Hakuin Ekaku Translated by Norman Waddell All beings by nature are Buddha,As ice by nature is water.Apart from water there is no ice;Apart from beings, no Buddha.How sad that people ignore the nearAnd search for truth afar:Like someone in the midst of waterCrying out in thirst,Like a child of a wealthy homeWandering among the poor.Lost on dark paths of ignorance,We wander through the Six Worlds,From dark path to dark path–When shall we be freed from birth... Read more

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AN AMERICAN AUTUMN? A Yom Kippur Meditation JamesIshmaelFord 9 October 2011 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text The Al Cheit Prayer at Occupy Wall Street on October 7th, 2011 By Stew Albert & Judy Gumbo Albert We have sinned By yielding to confusion and falling into passivity By indulging in fear By giving in to anger By not standing up for ourselves By thinking about (sacred) values only on holy days By tolerating global warming, global disease and global... Read more

“In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short and won... Read more

A wonderful call… Read more

Please be advised, Mr Stewart’s rant is PG… The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Read more

The following, now slightly reworked, was part of my background thinking for this Sunday’s sermon, which will be a meditation on Occupy Wall Street. I wrote it for the sermon, but I’ve decided not to include it. But, I thought it worth saving, and, thank goodness for a blog… My belief is that we human beings have two, often contending urges, visceral needs that inform our choices. One is how we are, quite frankly, herd animals. We organize as families,... Read more

Perhaps you’ve seen the clip. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Drew Grant of the New York Observer wrote about it. “When Fox News turned their cameras on the 31-year-old Daily Kos writer Jesse LaGreca last Wednesday, they didn’t know what they were in for. Not only did Fox producer Griff Jenkins get schooled all over the Internet —  forcing Greta Van Susteren to respond on why they didn’t air the footage of Mr. LaGreca’s statements  – but suddenly the somewhat... Read more

God Says Yes to Me by Kaylin Haught I asked God if it was okay to be melodramaticand she said yesI asked her if it was okay to be shortand she said it sure isI asked her if I could wear nail polishor not wear nail polishand she said honeyshe calls me that sometimesshe said you can do just exactlywhat you want toThanks God I saidAnd is it even okay if I don’t paragraphmy lettersSweetcakes God saidwho knows where she... Read more

And that other thought. I find it ironic and strangely compelling that one of the few consistent voices speaking out on life in our contemporary American military and for them, and in particular on behalf of the wounded among them is the anti-war cartoonist Garry Trudeau. Read more