Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Lewis Carrol to the world, died on the 14th of January, in 1898. It was at his sister’s home in Guildford, a small town in Surrey, England. He was two weeks shy of sixty-six. I wrote of this last year. I think it worth revisiting again with a few updates here and there. Dodgson was born at the All Saints’ vicarage in Cheshire, England, today, the 27th of January, in 1832. His family produced military men and... Read more
(At the close of the year our Zen sangha held a Rohatsu retreat. There were several talks I thought should be shared a bit more widely. I’ve gathered permission and here is the first among them. It was given by the Reverend Tetsugen Tom Baker. Tom is a Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a long time teacher at the juncture of recovery and Buddhist meditation.) “Be still and know that I am God.” This... Read more
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, unremembered gate When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two... Read more
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
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