At least for a time, the Western church recalled the Archangel Raphael on this day, the 24th of October. In more recent years he’s been mushed together with Michael and Gabriel and together are celebrated on the 29th of September. I went back into my blog archives and see while I am interested in angels and occasionally reference them, I’ve devoted most of these reflections, a small handful to Michael. Makes some sense. He gets the most... Read more

          I believe we need a “calendar” to mark the cycles of a Zen Buddhist life in the West, something that notes the major holidays adapted to a solar calendar, as well as celebrating notable figures from antiquity and in the establishment of our way. There have been a couple of attempts. For instance, I like this one. But it feels more a start to the project than the calendar at least I’m looking for. There are... Read more

      And I saw heaven opened, and behold a pale horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Dreams. John’s Apocalypse, the Book of Revelations, that hallucinatory revisioning of Nero’s Rome is a lot of things. Among them a fevered dream of vengeance against oppressors. But also, something more. It’s that “more” which particularly haunts me. Today, the 22nd of October, 1844 was when the... Read more

      Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on this day, October 21st, in 1772. He was a member of the Lake Poets, and considered a co-founder with William Wordsworth of the English Romantic Movement. Coleridge is often credited for introducing German Idealism to the English speaking world. Obviously an overstatement. But he is very important. The child of an Anglican vicar and school master, he was a bookish child. He suffered from rheumatic fever and was sickly throughout his life.... Read more

  One year ago today, the 20th of October, 2020, the Amazing Randi died. A loss for us all. I wrote about him some years ago. And I use that reflection as the basis for this remembrance. Randall James Hamilton Zwinge was born in Toronto, Ontario, on the 7th of August, 1928. In later years as a performer his name was shortened to the more marquee friendly James Randi. Me, I like his magicians’ name best, the Amazing Randi. And... Read more

      My google calendar announced to me that today, the 19th of October is the birthday of the prophet Mohammed. I’m pretty sure no one actually knows the date of his birth. And some muslim sects disapprove a few strongly any such observation. But most do, and the celebration is called Mawlid. There are a couple of possible dates, but one is broadly accepted across sect, the 12th day of the third month in the Islamic calendar. As... Read more

      Teitaro Suzuki was born today, the 18th of October, 1870. (The Wikipedia bio mistakenly lists his birthday as a month later) He died in 1966 at 95 widely celebrated for his critical part in the migration of Japanese style Zen Buddhism to the West. One could fairly say we in the West use the Japanese term “Zen” rather than  “Chan” its name where the school birthed in China because of D. T. Suzuki His prolific and in many... Read more

      BLOOD-STAINED EDEN A Meditation on Despair and Hope and Our Human Condition James Ishmael Ford A Sermon 17 October 2021 First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles We’re running up to a terrible anniversary. Next week will mark one hundred and fifty years since the horrific massacre of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles in 1871. At the time LA counted fewer than seven thousand people, total. And the Chinese immigrant population was equally tiny, only about one hundred... Read more

    On Sunday evening on the 16th of October, 1859, John Brown, American visionary and terrorist, led a small band of men in an assault on Harper’s Ferry. “John Brown was John the Baptist for the Christ we are to see” sang those who saw his Quixotic raid on Harper’s Ferry as the beginning of the end for slavery. This event is generally considered the beginning of the count down to the Civil War. I think of those who... Read more

      Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada died in a moment when time ceased to be. It was in 1582 exactly as the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian. And with it ten days vanished, the 5th through the 15th. In this negative time, so did Teresa. We know her as Teresa of Avila. The Churches of the West celebrate today, the 15th of October, as a feast in her honor. She is one of only four... Read more