Here we are well into Hanukkah. A most interesting holiday. One I understand that the rabbis, and quite correctly, have always felt more than ambivalent about. But also it’s one of those holidays people just love. So the rabbis worked it. And the story of a fundamentalist uprising and their pyrrhic victory is turned into a meditation on light and faith. For me that pyrrhic victory means a lot. It’s haunted by so many terrible things. Failures. I think of... Read more
I preached this reflection on the nature of Christmas two years ago at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. Some friends have taken to reposting this reflection on social media. At first I was a little surprised. Then I watched it for the first time in those two years. And I thought I might join in… The image is from Sartain’s Magazine, circa 1860. A creative imagining of Martin Luther and family at Christmas… Read more
(A Dharma talk first delivered by Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer, Roshi a couple of days ago and now reprinted here with a tiny bit of editing making it for today rather than those few days ago. Edward is the guiding teacher for Empty Moon Zen. Shared with permission.) *** Within nothingness the road is free of dust If you can simply avoid mentioning the emperor’s name, you will surpass the eloquence of the Sui dynasty poet. Third of the Three Ranks,... Read more
(A Dharma talk republished here with permission by Roshi Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer, resident priest and guiding teacher at both the Joseph Priestley Zen Zangha and at Empty Moon Zen. First shared at our Empty Moon Zen zoom gathering at the end of November.) The air here in central Pennsylvania is clear and crisp this afternoon. The corn has finally been harvested and replaced with a freshly plowed field ready to be planted with winter wheat. There had been a scattering... Read more
Sundays Jan & I try to schedule a date night. We don’t pull it off quite as frequently as we wish But this Sunday we did. It featured a drive to Glendale and the Laemmle to see Flow and then dinner. I’ll cut to the chase. Rotten Tomato’s professional reviewers give Flow a 97% score, while their amateur reviewers give it 94%. No argument here. Jan & I both loved it. The film is animated. A Latvian production, written and... Read more
Thomas Starr King was born on the 17th of December, in 1824. I like to note Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists on the days of their birth. Many years ago Jan, auntie & I were in Washington DC, doing some serious national tourism. Among the many interesting, sometimes moving, sometimes, well not, are the collection of one hundred statues from the states, two each. We wandered around until we found the one we most wanted to see, which was Thomas... Read more
There are many who help to carry us to the farther shore. Juan de Yepes y Alverez was born into a Converso family near the town of Avila on the 24th of June, 1542. He died in the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Ubeda on the 14th of December in 1591. We generally know him as John of the Cross, or more properly St John of the Cross. From my Zen perspective a true teacher of the intimate way. And one... Read more
No. No.. Not that movie franchise… The day. You know, today. And a bit of what comes with it. According to my go to first check, good old Wikipedia, most scholars say this is a superstition of relatively recent origin. While some like to find origins in the Middle Ages, apparently there’s little to support this assertion. Probably it isn’t a thing any earlier earlier than the nineteenth century. And it doesn’t get big ’till the twentieth century… On the... Read more
According to the story a Mexican indigenous peasant, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin had a series of encounters with a wondrous woman between the 9th and 12th of December, in 1531. He reported this to the bishop Juan de Zumárraga, who was at first suspicious. Naturally enough. But eventually was convinced of the reality of the vision when the woman ordered Juan Diego to carry a poncho filled with roses to the bishop, really an archbishop. When the peasant opened the poncho... Read more
The 3rd of December has been declared a feast or saint’s day for Francis Xavier. He was one of the first Jesuits, a co-founder of the order. Eventually, he becamea Catholic missionary to Japan. Which is where I find him interesting. Now, he was fervently hostile to nonChristian religions, and with that, if indirectly, there’s some blood on his hands. But also, I believe he is the first Westerner to write a moderately accurate report of Zen in a European... Read more
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