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Joko Beck an American original, wise Zen teacher and teacher of some of the people I most admire in the Zen world has been enrolled in hospice. Read more

THE WAY OF THE LARGER HEART A Report from the Front Lines of the Struggle for Marriage Equality in Rhode Island 5 June 2011 Eugene Dyszlewski & James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text Wheras, a just society guarantees to all of its citizens certain civil rights, and Wheras, every adult deserves the opportunity to attain the legal protections and safeguards gained through civil marriage, and Whereas, the First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island affirms and... Read more

This Strategic Plan for the Boundless Way Sangha passed at the annual meeting of the sangha at Mugendoji temple on 4 June 2011. Forty-nine voting in the affirmative, with one no, and three abstentions. Boundless Way Zen Strategic Direction I.            Why a Strategic Direction? In June, 2010, the Boundless Way Zen (BoWZ) Leadership Council appointed a Strategic Direction Committee to begin work on forging a strategic direction that would express a unifying vision for BoWZ’s collective activities during the next... Read more

James Arness dead at eighty-eight… Childhood memories beginning to dim and fade away… Read more

There have been three blog postings recently about Zen practice that particularly caught my attention. Jiryu Rutschman-Byler wrote a compelling reflection on the transmission of the Dharma from one culture to another, Dosho Port offered a reflection on the place of ordination within Zen practice, while Brad Warner opined in passing how perhaps the time for Zen clergy had passed. Taken together I thought this demonstrated some of the creative energy going into our contemporary Western Zen practice, and together... Read more

On this day in 1888 the San Francisco Examiner published Ernest Thayer’s Casey at the Bat. Read more

Dear one, Thanks for your letter. Our community is putting together a priest training program. And I think it will be worthy. If you wish to study with us, I’d suggest coming to sit sesshin with us a few times. If it feels a fit then find a job in the eastern Massachusetts area, and start attending practice at one of our sitting groups or at the temple in Worcester. The process takes a number of years. There are, of... Read more

Mary Dyer was hung today in 1660. Read more

Brian Howlett, an old Dharma buddy posted an anecdote about Paul Reps on his Facebook page. Reps was one of the more interesting characters on the American spiritual scene, particularly active in the middle of the twentieth century. He was born in 1895 and died in 1990. After that the facts get a bit sketchy. While quite young he traveled to Asia. He clearly knew a fair amount about Zen Buddhism and would later partner with the Zen missionary Nyogen... Read more