Tell all the truth but tell it slant – Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind – Emily Dickinson People sometimes say they are spiritual but not religious. I find that phrase can open us into a great mystery. Not that it must. Often people use the phrase to mean they are only... Read more
The deep matter of the heart is not bound by any religion. It is not owned by any culture. It is our common heritage as human beings. I suspect it will someday be possible to diagram the matters of the heart in scientific terms. And we are not there. Each time people think they’ve come to the end of science and have the world all figured out, it turns out they’re just stepping over the rise of a... Read more
Hanukkah is an interesting holiday. One the rabbis quite correctly have always felt more than ambivalent about, but also one people just love. I reflect on this celebration of light every couple of years. So parts that follow are repeats, parts are new discoveries I find I make each time I consider the mystery of the transformed story. Without a doubt the rabbis had to work it. The original is messy. But, the new version is... Read more
As it happens the Episcopal diocese of Hawaii celebrates today, the 28th of November as the “Feast of the Holy Sovereigns.” The rest of the Episcopal church marks today as a feast for “Kamehameha and Emma, King & Queen of Hawaii.” While I have mixed feelings about how royals end up saints, formal or informal, this particular one tickles me. Hawaii was for a hundred years a kingdom, united in 1795 under Kamehameha the Great. In 1893... Read more
All summer I made friends With the creatures nearby – They flowed through the fields And under the tent walls, Or padded through the door, Grinning through their many teeth, Looking for seeds, Suet, sugar; muttering and humming, Opening the breadbox, happiest when There was milk and music. But once In the night I heard a sound Outside the door, the canvas Bulged slightly – something Was pressing inward at eye level. I watched, trembling, sure I had... Read more
It’s November 27th! And with that, once again, the blessings of the saints Barlaam & Josaphat are upon us! This is flat out my favorite of all Christian holidays. And I like to remind people of the details of this original Christian Buddhist mashup. So, please forgive the repetition parts of this small sharing. I do add bits pretty much every time I note this festival of the heart. In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic church as... Read more
For years and years people have talked about the Zen awakening experiences collected in Philip Kapleau’s Three Pillars of Zen. These accounts have inspired many people, including me, toward the practice, especially toward koan introspection. And these accounts have enjoyed a fair amount of reaction. At first in at least some quarters they were seen as discouraging people who didn’t have these grand moments. And later some disparaged them, one non-koan teacher referring to them as “Zen porn.” It turns... Read more
In preparation for Thanksgiving, along with getting ready for the family gathering, where my spouse Jan & I are the cooks (we appear to be the only people in the family who aspire to taking care of the vegans and the folk who need blood at every meal), I reviewed some of my meditations about this complicated holiday over the years. I saw a small anecdote that I recorded a couple of years ago, and it caught... Read more
Keiji Nishitani died on this day, the 24th of November, in 1990. If you’re unfamiliar with him, and you are interested in Zen, I suggest you may want to learn more. He was one of the principal figures in the establishment of the Kyoto School, which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, tells us was “a group of 20th century Japanese thinkers who developed original philosophies by creatively drawing on the intellectual and spiritual traditions of East... Read more
Fifty-eight years ago today, on the 22nd of November, 1963, in Dallas, the president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. It was a lifetime ago. Actually two lifetimes. The parents of adults today were not yet born. Fifty-eight years is a long time. It made me wonder and I googled to see if there was anything on the actual number of people who have a first hand memory of the event. As it... Read more
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