A fascinating Op Ed at the New York Times by Swarthmore religion professor Nathaniel Deutsch. For more on the Mandaens you might look here or for a little about them in their own words here. Read more

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(thank you Danny) And an interesting reflection on the complexities of religion and politics in Burma from, of all things, the Wall Street Journal. Read more

Does a Dog Have Buddha Nature? A Meditation Workshop With Zen Teacherand Unitarian Universalist MinisterJames Ishmael Ford Sunday, November 4th at theBarre Center for Buddhist Studies,in Barre, Massachusetts Koan study is the great gift of the Chan/Zen tradition to Buddhism and to world culture. This daylong includes some lecture exploring both the history of koan as a spiritual discipline, and an exploration with discussion of how to actually engage a koan as a spiritual practice. We will focus on one... Read more

The Ninth Elegy Rainer Maria Rilke Why, if this interval of being can be spent serenelyin the form of a laurel, slightly darker than allother green, with tiny waves on the edgesof every leaf (like the smile of a breeze)–: why thenhave to be human–and, escaping from fate,keep longing for fate? . . . Oh not because happiness exists,that too-hasty profit snatched from approaching loss.Not out of curiosity, not as practice for the heart, whichwould exist in the laurel too.... Read more

Spread the word the 6th of October is International Day of Action for a Free Burma. Read more

In the Western religious calendar today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. A little research shows that devotion to angels seems to appear within Christianity with the rise of the first monastic communities. Two of the most famous Christian monastics St Benedict and St Bernard of Clairvaux were both advocates of the angelic cult and particularly of guardian angels. Actually there’s little scriptural support for this form of devotion. Most who seek scriptural justification pretty much have to rely... Read more

I recall driving through the Midwest a few years ago and picking up a scratchy and somewhat spotty local version of our American public radio where someone on some show observed how the most popular love poet in America was culturally a Persian (read Iranian), born in Afghanistan and died in Turkey, now dead something in the neighborhood of eight hundred years. They were, of course, speaking of Jalaladin Rumi. Today is his birthday. I am endlessly grateful for this... Read more

David Chadwick at Cuke dot com notes today is the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Cambridge Buddhist Association. This, of course, makes the CBA one of the oldest of Western-oriented Buddhist organizations. The Pluralism Project provides a nice overview of the CBA. With enormous gratitude, Happy Birthday, CBA! Read more

NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST Reflecting on Pilgrimage A Sermon byJames Ishmael Ford 30 September 2007First Unitarian SocietyWest Newton, Massachusetts Text I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it. I circle around God, around the primordial tower. I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song? Ranier... Read more