I first heard of John the Dwarf when reading Thomas Merton’s Wisdom of the Desert Fathers. This book was enormously important to me, and remains so. Merton’s selection and his translation of the texts emphasize the echoes of a spirituality akin to the early Chan masters of China. Later I would read texts that show the similarities were perhaps not quite as similar as Merton suggested. But, maybe that’s even better. If we do drink from a... Read more

        I was a High School dropout. When I worked at Wahrenbrock’s Bookstore in San Diego, I spent several years taking classes at San Diego’s Evening College. While I was really only following my nose and taking what seemed interesting, somehow it mapped pretty nicely the lower division courses for an English major. That bit of information just sets a stage. Later when I began to earn my undergraduate degree, shifted now to Psychology, with a plan... Read more

      As I understand it within the Japanese tradition today, the 15th of October, is marked as the day in the year 606, when Jianzhi Sengcan returned to that mystery from which all of us come and, as with that ancient venerable, to which all of us return. In our Zen traditions Sengcan (Seng-ts’an in the older Pinyin transliteration and Sosan in Japanese) is the third Chinese ancestor, inheriting the dharma from Huike who inherited it from Bodhidharma.... Read more

        Today, on the 14th of October, in 1956, Dr B. R. Ambedkar shook India when he converted to Buddhism. I try to note this occasion as it rolls by in the calendar. Partially because he deserves to be celebrated. But, also to let people who might not otherwise be aware of him, to know a bit about this remarkable figure of Twentieth century Buddhism. I believe Dr Ambedkar well may provide a signifiant part of the... Read more

        Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse. When the First World War began she already had an illustrious career and a nurse and educator, principally working in Belgium. At the time the war started she was matron of a hospital in Saint-Gilles. She served all without regard to their nationality or status. But Cavell also helped wounded British and French soldiers, as well as young men of military age to flee occupied Belgium. She may also... Read more

        A COFFEE WITH DEATH James Ishmael Ford Death and I are old friends. Okay, maybe not friends. Or, only in our contemporary sense that has become so attenuated that it has little practical meaning. We’re more acquaintances, a sturdy term, for that much larger circle of people we know, but aren’t friends in the increasingly intimate sense that word should be reserved for. I don’t recall when we first met. As I think of it I... Read more

    A Meditation on Prayer Evelyn Underhill (I’m enormously fond of Evelyn Underhill. So, I was pleased as punch to stumble upon this excerpt floating around the interwebs. It’s originally from Underhill’s The Essentials of Mysticism. And here I’m happy as can be to continue the sharing of a wise counselor on the intimate way.) Stretching Out the Tentacles In the first place, what do we mean by prayer? Surely just this: that part of our conscious life which is deliberately... Read more

          In Japanese Zen today, the 5th of October is reserved as a holiday in remembrance of Bodhidharma, the mostly mythical founder of Chinese Zen. As Issho Fujita writes, “The accounts of his life are largely legendary (see Comics “Bodhidharma” 1-12 at Sotozen-net International website) but according to Denkoroku (The Record of Transmitting the Light) written by Keizan Zenji, he was born as the third son of the king of Koshi in southern India. He became a monk and practiced under... Read more

          Today, the 4th of October, is the feast of St Francis. The Sufis speak of Madzubs. The Western Sufi teacher Wali Ali Meyer once described a madzub as “a human being who has an immediate and intimate relationship with the God reality, and who often is absorbed in that realm and at the same time appears strange, incoherent, eccentric, but somehow deeply invested with power. In some cultures madzubs would be treated as sacred treasures,... Read more