Lovely and lyrical and as sharp as a Center of all centers, core of cores, almond self-enclosed and growing sweet – all this universe, to the furthest stars and beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit. Now you feel how nothing clings to you; your vast shell reaches into endless space, and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow. Illuminated in your infinite peace, A billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your... Read more

        In many Eastern Orthodox circles today, the 26th of December, is the feast of James the Just. Me, I usually mark it out as a particularly special day. Although first I should note how his celebration actually is a movable feast. Catholics usually mark his life and ministry on the 3rd of May. The world-wide Anglican communion likes the 1st of May. While American Episcopalians, Lutherans, and some Orthodox prefer the 29th of October. Personally I... Read more

        My friend Sensei Robert Ertman sent me this obituary of the Christian Zen teacher, Sensei Barbara Shoshin Craig. It felt important to share this to a larger readership. The rise of the Zen Christian community is one of the most interesting of the many interesting things that have arisen in the meeting of Zen Buddhism and Christianity starting in the twentieth century.  JIF Barbara Craig, RSM, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas... Read more

      “The autumn breeze of a single night of love is better than a hundred thousand years of sitting meditation.” Ikkyu (translated by John Stevens) Ikkyu Sojun is one of my favorite figures in the history of Zen. Ikkyu died on this day, the 21st of November, in 1481. He was eighty-seven years old. He was born in the suburbs of Kyoto in 1394, possibly an illegitimate child of the emperor and a courtier. At least these were the... Read more

      John Steinbeck, American novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, and one of my signal early spiritual guides died on this day,  the 20th of December in 1968. Since his death Steinbeck’s fortunes have fallen and risen, sometimes lauded, sometimes dismissed, perhaps demonstrating his complexity. Steinbeck is of course the author Grapes of Wrath which was published on the 14th of April, 1939, a bit more than eighty years ago. It was wildly successful. He won the Pulitzer... Read more

    Some Apocryphal Psalms in Syriac William Wright I was rummaging around looking for something else when I stumbled upon the small factoid that the Syriac Orthodox Church has, depending on how you count it, four or five Psalms in addition to the generally understood list of 150 collected in the Jewish tradition as well as in Protestant and Catholic churches. The Orthodox churches add in a 151st. But, the additional five, well, that was some kind of treat.... Read more

    As it happens it was on this day, the 14th of December in 1782 that the Montgolfier brothers made their first test flight of a hot air balloon. The balloon floated a little over a mile before coming to ground. Surprised onlookers destroyed the remains of the balloon. As it happens, it was also this day in 1903 that the Wright brothers made their first attempt at heavier than air flight. It would be three more days before... Read more