Yesterday Buddhist blogger extraordinaire, Danny Fisher posted a notice from the Vatican to the world Buddhist community on the occasion of this year’s Vesak. If you don’t know, Vesak or Hanamatsuri is nominally the celebration of Gautama Siddhartha’s birth, although it actually becomes something bigger rolling the whole story into what might be Buddhism’s biggest holiday. It is calculated differently by different Buddhist communities. The Catholic church chose a traditional Buddhist calendar calculation to extend their greetings, which this time... Read more

The City of the Angels incorporated on this day in 1850. Read more

The Welsh poet John Ormond famously sang of building cathedrals. Within that poem I believe he put his finger on something about community, authentic community and about the secret heart of spiritual community… They climbed on sketchy ladders towards God, with winch and pulley hoisted hewn rock into heaven, inhabited the sky with hammers, defied gravity, deified stone, took up God’s house to meet him, and came down to their suppersand small beer,every night slept, lay with their smelly wives,quarreled... Read more

This morning I was reading a note by Barry Magid posted at a listserv for Zen teachers on Zen practice. He was saying that in his school, the Ordinary Mind, the emphasis is on shikantaza and the genjo koan. I can’t say why this particularly struck me at the moment. But there is enormous wisdom here, it describes pretty much a complete practice within the Zen way. Now, there are other ancient and worthy Zen disciplines and Barry’s comments were... Read more

On this day in 1895 Oscar Wilde initiated the catastrophic libel case against the John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry, and father of Lord Alred Douglas, Wilde’s constant companion. The Marquess had accused the couple of having a homosexual relationship and had been involved in several public confrontations. I think one of the reasons I find Wilde interesting is how I can’t tell if his life is farce or tragedy. Certainly both elements abound… Read more

Almost missed this… I’ve now officially posted one thousand and one times! (or is it one thousand and two?) I guess before only my friends knew what a gasbag I can be. But now I’m revealed before the world… And within the month I’m looking forward to one hundred thousand hits from eager readers. Well, actually, more likely mainly people googling for Shel Silverstein’s “snowball.” Read more

On this day in 1652, the British House of Commons ordered John Biddle’s translation of Faustus Socinus‘ Racovian Catechism burned as blasphemous and seditious.Want to read it? (not Mr Biddle’s translation, but the complete text..) Read more

While we generally count Thomas Jefferson’s birthday on April 13th, following the Gregorian calendar, at the time of his birth England and therefore the Americas followed the Julian calendar, marking his birth and as it reads on his tombstone, as today. Jefferson of course looms large in our American imagination, a man of enormous flaws and astonishing genius. Between Jefferson and John Adams (of equally large pluses and minuses) the American dream is dreamt… Read more

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to save all beings… Read more