About twice a month I visit an old ministerial colleague. He lives in an assisted living house across the Los Angeles metroplex from where we live, so about an hour’s drive away. More if we push close to LA’s rush hour. He suffers from two things. One is macular degeneration, a disorder I particularly dread. But, worse he suffers from vascular Parkinson’s. It’s a nasty thing, the product of a cluster of strokes. It looks like Parkinson’s,... Read more

    Today is many things. For one thing it’s the anniversary of Mr Trump’s little attempted putsch. Lots about that going on. And attention does need to be paid. But in the Western Christian tradition today, the 6th of January is the feast of the Epiphany. And that is what has most captured my heart for this day. Epiphany means “manifestation” or, perhaps “striking appearance.” It’s also called the Theophany, which means “a vision of God.” Here we get... Read more

    Mukunda Lal Ghosh was born in Forakhpur, in Uttar Pradesh, on this day, the 5th of January, in 1893. The fourth of eight children. His parents were well to do, his father a vice president of the Bengal Nagpur Railway. Because of his father’s work the family relocated several times, giving young Mukunda a more urbane sense of India. A major turning in his life was when he was eleven years old, and his mother died. His heart... Read more

      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