I’ve been re-reading Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy. Once upon a time it was a bit of a Bible for me. Although that was a very long time ago. That noted, I’m a bit surprised at while there is so much I no longer resonate with, how much certain currents continue to flow in my heart. Clearly, I realize, Huxley was a strong part of my formation as a pilgrim on the intimate way. Not always for the best,... Read more

    There’s a popular self-help guru who said he’s lived with a number of Zen masters over the course of his life. And they were all cats. The quote has become a popular meme on social media. I smiled when I first read it. And it has some truth to it. If we’re truly on the way, we will find the rocks and the sky become our teachers. There’s a great story in the Zen literature of a student... Read more

    There’s an old Facebook meme. It goes when I became a Buddhist my family and friends were all worried. But once I became a Buddha everything became okay. Let’s look at that first part. I recall the story of a young woman who joined the San Francisco Zen Center in the very early 1970s. Her parents were terrified she’d joined a cult. Cults were very much a thing. Both something of reality, with a surrender of will and... Read more

      ON OPENING THE WAY Foundations of a Spiritual Life Chris Hoff Empty Moon Zen   This was going to be a Dharma talk about the ordinary. But, because of something that happened this past Wednesday. It is now a Dharma talk about the 10,000 things, and gratitude. Let’s start with the 10,000 things. Early this week I was doing, what I often do when it’s my turn to do the Dharma talk. I spent a lot of... Read more

Today, the 3rd of July, is one of the days people in the Christian communion mark to celebrate Thomas the Doubter, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. It isn’t the only date, some churches prefer the 21st of December, the Sunday after Easter, and the 6th of October. But as this is the date in the Roman church, and they have vastly the larger numbers of Christians, this is the best known time to pause and consider the saint.... Read more

    Entering the Intimate Way James Ishmael Ford By what are you saved?And how? Saved like a bit of string, tucked away in a drawer? Saved like a child rushed from a burning building, already singed and coughing smoke? Or are you salvaged like a car part—the one good door when the rest is wrecked? Do you believe me when I say you are neither salvaged nor saved, but salved, anointed by gentle hands where you are most tender?... Read more

  One of the people I consistently follow on Facebook is Mushim Patricia Ikeda. She’s a teacher with East Bay Meditation Center and just an all around interesting and wonderful human. One of the things she does on her Facebook page is list “a Buddhist word of the day.” Today she posted “mudita.” Which, interestingly, my spell check wants to make “nudity.” But, it is mudita from both the Pali and Sanskrit and literally means, if I understand correctly, “joy.”... Read more

    Monday mornings we are usually at mom’s house on the slopes of Big Tujunga wash in Tujunga/Sunland. Jan & I have been exploring where best to take walks. The past two times we’ve driven down to the flats, have crossed Foothill Blvd, parked and strolled around on the west side of the boulevard, walking up the slope toward the Verdugo hills. I particularly enjoy this walk. While the streets lack sidewalks, traffic when we’re wanting to walk is... Read more

    (I’ve been thinking a lot about whether there is in fact a universal current within religions. I think the best of scholarship says no. And, yet. As Kobayashi Issa sang at the death of his daughter: This world of dew A world of dew indeed And yet, and yet In my life I’ve met with Christians and Buddhists and Sufis and Hindus and atheistic scientists, and in those conversations every once in a while I notice something. It feels very much... Read more

Some time in the mists of the past, before Covid was a thing, I was invited to be a presenter on a panel sponsored by the Society for Christian Buddhist Studies. It was about being spiritually “in between.” For the most part the panelists were Christian academics specializing in Buddhist studies. All professed to stand somewhere within that in between. While I protest that I am not a Zen Christian as is sometimes believed, I had to agree that I... Read more