When I was a child I was fascinated with a Bible my grandmother owned, which had in addition to the text a commentarial column which included a chronology of the events recorded. At the very beginning was the date 23 October, 4004, before the common era. That’s when God created the world. Today, the 4th of January, is the birthday of James Ussher, Anglican scholar, archbishop of Armagh and primate of the Church in Ireland. It was... Read more

      KEIZAN JOKIN’S ZAZEN YOJINKI What to be aware of in zazen, sitting meditation Translated by Thomas Cleary Timeless Spring : A Soto Zen anthology. Weatherhill, Tokyo-New York, 1980, pp. 112-125. (A couple of years ago I shared the translation of this text by the Venerable Reiho Masunaga. Possibly the most important early text on Zen meditation in the Soto school, here is the version by the American scholar Thomas Cleary.) Zazen just lets people illumine the mind... Read more

      Peggy Teresa Nancy Kennett was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England, on this day, the 1st of January, in 1924. Houn Jiyu Kennett was the first women Soto Zen master to teach in the West. Her teaching career also opens questions of orthodoxy and authority that begin to define the outer limits of what might be described as traditional Zen. She is the lineage source for Shasta Abbey, Throssel Hole Abbey, and the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives.... Read more

    Today is the last day of the year of our Lord 2021. I’m not going to say good riddance. Well. At least not without some qualification. For many of us it’s been hard. No doubt. And there’s not a lot of evidence it’s going to get better any time soon. But. And. In the waning hours of 2021, I find my heart going back to Mary Oliver’s poem The Buddha’s Last Instructions. “Make of yourself a light” said... Read more

      It’s the eve of the eve of a new year. At my age with little time to squander, nonetheless I have to say about 2021, goodbye, and good riddance. Although I am not particularly sanguine about how 2022 will shape up. People like to note it is the year, after all, that the film Soylent Green takes place. And, the 30th of December in 1916, that would be 105 years ago today Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered. Considering... Read more

      “Hello Goodbye” Living in the Kali Yuga with a Little Help from the Beatles Silvio Nardoni (My friend Silvio Nardoni is a Unitarian Universalist minister as well as a practicing attorney. He shared this with me and I thought it a perfect New Year’s reflection. I asked for permission to share it, and he graciously agreed.) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . .” — Charles Dickens I’m fortunate to... Read more

  四相詩 Poems on the Four States Bu Fu-Ta-shih ［傅大士］ (497–569) Fu Ta-shih was a householder, whose teachings and actions led him to be revered as an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya. Birth Relying upon the ovum, consciousness arises, birth arises from love and desire. In a time now past he grew up, today he returns as a child. The stars follow the cycle of human life, red lips open for milk. Because we are deluded to our true Dharma nature,... Read more

      Today, the 27th of December the Roman and Anglican churches mark out as a feast for John the disciple of Jesus, sometimes called the Apostle, sometimes the Evangelist, sometimes the Beloved. The Orthodox celebrate his life in September. I cannot think of him without thinking of John the Revelator… As with all the apostles very little is really known about John. Maybe he was originally with Jesus as another disciple of John the Baptist. Maybe he was... Read more

    THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS A Meditation on What Comes Next James Ishmael Ford Here we are. The day after Christmas. With a cup of coffee in hand I turned to the Associated Press newsfeed. The lead story this morning was that Desmond Tutu, retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, hero of the anti-apartheid movement, leader of the right for women to be ordained in his church, LGBTQ rights activist, ecological justice activist, Nobel laureate, really a life-long and... Read more

    I see how I wrote a report for Christmas 2017. A sort of Christmas letter. It seems a good time to add an update. Overdue even, perhaps. Jan & I continue to live in Long Beach, California. Christmas Eve began with a heavy rain storm. Something good considering we’ve been in drought conditions long enough to begin to think this is more likely climate change. And for us that’s going to be a strong flirtation with desertification. Later... Read more