It was the 7th of February in 1497, that the Dominican Friar Girolamo Savonarola called the city of Florence into the orgy falò delle vanità, the “Bonfire of the Vanities.” Overcome with the fervors of faith he people gathered together what they and the good friar considered temptations into sin, piled them up, and put the torch to them. These objects included clothing, cosmetics, mirrors, musical instruments, playing cards, and paintings. Lots of art, And... Read more
A colleague of mine has just retired as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister. He had what some would call a storied career, serving our denomination at every level. Me, I personally consider him a good friend, as well as just being a wise and generous human being. What people today mostly wouldn’t know is that he had a rocky start into ministry. Toward the end of seminary, he had a rough... Read more
On the 30th of January in 1948 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was attending an interfaith prayer service, when a radical Hindu nationalist came up to him and shot three bullets into his chest. The Indian spiritual and political leader was born on the 2nd of October, in 1869 in Porbander, a town in present day Gujarat. Later the poet Rabindranath Tagore bestowed the title Mahatma on him. Mahatma means great soul, and today we... Read more
Recently I received a note asking about my meditation on David Loy’s book Nonduality in Buddhism and Beyond. The writer said it was all so abstract. And wondered what it had to do with anything actually important. Fair question, and I responded. Much of the content of that follows. Although I’ve had a chance to reflect for a minute or two and have deleted here and there and expanded a bit here and there from my original response. Still close... Read more
A couple of years ago I offered a small reflection on the medieval Christian mystic Richard Rolle, together with an excerpt from his Fire of Love. Here I expand a bit my reflection about him and his spirituality, and include again the Fire of Love. The Church of England marks out the 20th of January as a feast in his honor. Richard Rolle was born into a farming family sometime around 1300.... Read more
Hakuin Ekaku died on January the 18th, 1769. He was born on the 19th of January, in 1686, in a village at the foot of Mount Fuji. In those years between death and birth, Hakuin became the great reformer of Japanese Rinzai Zen. Curricular koan study traces to two major strains, both named for grand students of his. As a child he attended a lecture given by a Nichiren priest... Read more
I notice for those who continue to follow the Julian calendar the now conventional Gregorian calendar’s January 14th is going to be their New Year. This marking has come to be called Orthodox New Year because the majority of people marking time this way are either Eastern or Oriental Orthodox. Not the only ones, but the majority. Among the consequences is that if for some reason or another you missed New Year’s Eve,... Read more
The Reverend Dr Glenn Taylor Webb died in Palm Desert on January 6th, 2024. He was one of the few Obaku/Rinzai trained Zen priests living in the United States. He was ordained by Miyauchi Kanko Roshi in 1970. Webb trained both at his master’s temple Kankoji, as well as at the Rinzai training monastery Myoshinji. Dr Webb’s Zen successor Dr Kurt Spellmeyer writes how “together with his young American dharma heir, Kangan Glenn Webb, Miyauchi... Read more
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.[1] Within weeks of my arrival at the first church I was to serve in the suburbs of Milwaukee, I received an invitation into a small local clergy support group. The caller, a United Church of Christ minister... Read more
A student of the intimate said to the master Yunmen, “The radiance serenely illumines the whole universe…” Before he finished Yunmen asked, “Aren’t those Zhangzhuo’s words?” The student said, “Yes.” Yunmen said, “You have misspoken.” Gateless Gate, case 39 I never graduated from High School. At 38, when I finished my undergraduate degree at a commuter college, I had a thought of attending the commencement ceremony, but it was inconvenient, my eyes were on... Read more
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