This evening my dear friend and co-worker in the Dharma fields, David Rynick will receive the final approval from his teacher, acknowledgment at least in a ritual sense as a “Zen master.” Of course whether he is or not will be proved by his life over the next, I hope, many years. The evidence of the last few years suggests his teacher has made the right call. As far as formal training and acknowledgements within the lineages of the Zen... Read more

I’m an American. As for most who can claim that name, this means my ancestors came from many places. But the largest, by a long way, part of who I am, well over half, is as a child of the Irish diaspora. Four of my great grandparents were born in the old Sod… And so I can’t completely ignore today. Even if it is a silly holiday we Americans observe. Memories of a Catholic missionary drowned in green beer. But... Read more

Arguably one of the great Youtube videos… Read more

Be fearful of exalted rank, o soul.And if you are unable to subdueyour aspirations — doubtingly pursue themand with precautions. And the more you rise,the more examining, the warier be. And when you are arrived at the supremeheight of your glory — a Caesar, as it were:when you are become a man so widely famed:then specially be wary — at such timeas you come out into the thoroughfares,a noted ruler with great following:if peradventure, from the multitude,some friendly person, an... Read more

Today is the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the birth of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, one of the great figures of modern Indian history and a significant figure in a reformed and politically conscious Buddhism. B. R. Ambedkar is someone we could all profit from knowing more about. Here’s a taste… Read more

Back from sesshin… Hard. Beautiful. Exhausted in a very good way. And now leaning of the terrible details from the catastrophe in Japan… This sad, lovely life… Read more

Three days for watching the heart mind… Haunted by news of the 8.9 earthquake in Japan and tsunamis heading toward America’s West Coast… Read more

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April 8-10, 2011 The UU Buddhist Fellowship will have its fourth convocation, returning this year to the Garrison Institute.  Our Convocation teachers will be James Ford and David Rynick, Leaders of the Boundless Way Zen Community.  They represent the first Zen community in North America to bring teachers of different Zen lineages together to create a distinctively Western and American vision of Zen. Boundless Way teachers have been influenced by their experiences as leaders and participants in Unitarian Universalism. There... Read more

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