(Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on this day, the 26th of September, in 1888. He was an important thinker in my life. Should say is. I wrote a version of this appreciation  in 2018. From time to time I rework it a bit and share anew. I guess I’m hoping eventually to get it right. Here you go with my latest.) We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to... Read more

      LEAVING HOME, COMING HOME A Meditation on the Bodhisattva Way James Ishmael Ford Shishuang Chuyuan was once asked by Senior Monastic Quanming, “When does a single hair pierce innumerable holes?” Shishuang said, “Ten thousand years later.” Quanming said, “What will happen ten thousand years later?”Shishuang said, “It is you who will pass the examination and excel among people.” Later Quanming asked the same question of Zen master Hongyin of Jingshan [Faji]. Jingshan said, “You personally will have... Read more

  In the churches of the Anglican communion, including the Episcopal church calendar today, the 24th of September is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. It commemorates an apparition of Mary, Jesus’ mother, to an English noblewoman at the dawn of the eleventh century. Today they even have a YouTube channel. Me, I’ve always liked appearances of Mary, who I’ve noted elsewhere is flat out my favorite goddess. This particular feast represents a significant revival of pilgrimage within the... Read more

    I’ve been thinking a lot about Traditionalism in religion. Traditionalism is a word with many definitions. It usually speaks to some form of conservativism. It sometimes is associated with right wing political perspectives, and probably always is marked with a privileging of revelation over reason. There is also a spiritual Traditionalist school which is a subset of Perennialism. My first brush with Traditionalism arose when I read Huston Smith’s magnum opus, the Religions of Man, still in print... Read more

      The Three Pillars of Zen is one of those books that mark the establishment of Zen in the West. It was first published in 1965 and has never gone out of print. Three Pillars has now been translated into a dozen languages. And it remains an important part of the canon of Zen taking Western root. It was edited by Philip Kapleau, later Roshi Kapleau, with major assists from Koun Yamada, and Jiun Kubota (both eventually succeeding... Read more

    My father was born on the 21st of September in 1919. His was a rough life. Orphaned, passed around, institutionalized, run away, lived on the streets, petty crime, maybe larger crimes, prison, released into the Army toward the end of the the 2nd world war, medic, badly, badly wounded, lost his right arm, shrapnel coming up through his skin for the rest of his life, alcoholic, in and out of jail and hospital, dreamer, wisher, wanter of better... Read more

    In Holmes Welch’s Parting of the Way: Lao Tzu and the Taoist Movement (pages 5-6) he offers some parallel sayings from the Tao Te Ching & the Christian Gospels.  The translations are from Lin Yutang and Arthur Waley. For the Bible he preferred the King James version. It is easy to note there are some stretches here. Still. There is something compelling in his project, even if it is simply reveals the longing heart; that reach for a commonality of... Read more

          SURPRISED BY JOY     A Meditation on Kensho in Zen, Buddhism, and Literature Delivered at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles September 19, 2021 James Ishmael Ford   “Each branch of coral holds up the moon.” Blue Cliff Record, Case 100 Let’s reflect on the spiritual path, just a little. Let’s consider the moment our heart’s turn. That grace when we are gifted with noticing the world with new eyes, where we discover the world... Read more

      While Edward Bouverie Pusey died on the 16th of September in 1882, and that day is observed as a feast throughout much of the Anglican communion, the feast itself in observed here in America on this day, the 18th of September. I noted this about six years ago. And what follows was largely written then. Although, while I continue to be charmed by the title and retain it, I have washed through the meditation lightly, to reflect... Read more

          I’m deeply moved by the Serenity Prayer which most of us know through the work of Alcoholics Anonymous. Its deep origins are probably the collective insight of the human condition. The sentiment appears first in English, best we can tell, as a seventeenth century Mother Goose Nursery rhyme. For every ailment under the sun There is a remedy, or there is none; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never... Read more