A COFFEE WITH DEATH James Ishmael Ford Death and I are old friends. Okay, maybe not friends. Or, only in our contemporary sense that has become so attenuated that it has little practical meaning. We’re more acquaintances, a sturdy term, for that much larger circle of people we know, but aren’t friends in the increasingly intimate sense that word should be reserved for. I don’t recall when we first met. As I think of it I... Read more

    A Meditation on Prayer Evelyn Underhill (I’m enormously fond of Evelyn Underhill. So, I was pleased as punch to stumble upon this excerpt floating around the interwebs. It’s originally from Underhill’s The Essentials of Mysticism. And here I’m happy as can be to continue the sharing of a wise counselor on the intimate way.) Stretching Out the Tentacles In the first place, what do we mean by prayer? Surely just this: that part of our conscious life which is deliberately... Read more

          In Japanese Zen today, the 5th of October is reserved as a holiday in remembrance of Bodhidharma, the mostly mythical founder of Chinese Zen. As Issho Fujita writes, “The accounts of his life are largely legendary (see Comics “Bodhidharma” 1-12 at Sotozen-net International website) but according to Denkoroku (The Record of Transmitting the Light) written by Keizan Zenji, he was born as the third son of the king of Koshi in southern India. He became a monk and practiced under... Read more

          Today, the 4th of October, is the feast of St Francis. The Sufis speak of Madzubs. The Western Sufi teacher Wali Ali Meyer once described a madzub as “a human being who has an immediate and intimate relationship with the God reality, and who often is absorbed in that realm and at the same time appears strange, incoherent, eccentric, but somehow deeply invested with power. In some cultures madzubs would be treated as sacred treasures,... Read more

          Today, the 2nd of October is Gandhi Jayanti in India. It is one of three national holidays in the country. The United Nations has also marked out today as International Day of Non-Violence. All this turning on the Indian spiritual and political leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was born on this day in 1869. Eventually he would universally come to be called Mahatma, or Great Soul. Interestingly, the title originally bestowed by the poet Rabindranath... Read more

      Today within the Christian liturgical calendar is Michaelmas. Or, and actually my preferred name, for the holy day, today, is the Feast of the Saints Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael. Or, maybe you would prefer the shorter while still more accurate version, today is the Feast of the Archangels. It’s an important holy day in my personal calendar. And I try to recall it here, as well. What follows is another of those small reflections that I... Read more

          By some forms of reckoning it was on this day, the 28th of September in the year 551 before our common era, that the sage Kǒng Fūzǐ, “Master Kǒng,” or commonly 孔子; Kǒngzǐ, or to most of us, Confucius was born. I am not regular in noting this day as it rolls around, but I think it important, and I try to do so. Each time I do I add a little information in the noticing. It’s... Read more

        “Never did I hear such language from a human being. Without one moment’s intermission, she would talk from an hour to an hour and a half, holding her audience spellbound.” A reporter’s description cited in Christianity Today Aimee Semple McPherson died on this day, the 27th of September, in 1944. The cause of death was a heart attack triggered by what is generally believed to have been an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. Her funeral was... Read more

        The Lord is good to me And so I thank the Lord For giving me the things I need The sun and rain and the apple seed Yes, He’s been good to me. John Chapman was born on this day, the 26th of September, 1774. Several different dates are given for his death. I’m going with the 18th of March, 1845. In between those events he became Johnny Appleseed. He was a couple of things in... Read more

    Tonight, the 25th of September, 2022, starts Rosh Hashanah this evening with sunset. Celebrations and observances will continue on for ten days, culminating in Yom Kippur. In the Jewish calendar these are High Holy Days, the “Days of Awe.” This Rosh Hashanah is a New Year and marks the year 5783 in the Jewish calendar… Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red and orange. The birds are beginning to... Read more