(On Facebook I saw a notice that today was Aitken Roshi’s birthday. The date was a tad more than a month off. But, it sparked a flood of thoughts and gratitude. A couple of years ago I wrote a brief personal appreciation of the old master and appended the “official” obituary from his sangha. I have made some minor edits to my part, and, here it is.) Robert Baker Aitken was born on June the 10th, 1917 in... Read more

  WHO WOULD YOU BE BURIED WITH? James Ishmael Ford A voice from the dark called out, ‘The poets must give us imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar imagination of disaster. Peace, not only the absence of war.’ But peace, like a poem, is not there ahead of itself, can’t be imagined before it is made, can’t be known except in the words of its making, grammar of justice, syntax of mutual aid. A feeling towards it, dimly... Read more

      A poem composed on the occasion of my sixty-ninth birthday. Today on my seventy-third birthday, it continues to hold true… I pity anyone with no regrets Old Zen priest Myoun   Read more

      ZEN RETREAT July 29-August 1st, 20221 Life and death are a grave matter. It’s not too late to turn the light inward, and to find your true nature. You are cordially invited to join Empty Moon Zen combined in person and on zoom three day Zen retreat. Our Bright Cloud Zen practice groups at University Unitarian Church (UUC) and Woodinville UU Church (WUUC) with the generous support of the University Unitarian Church, invite all who are interested... Read more

    There’s an old tale in many versions. The drift is someone is caught up in the midst of a catastrophe, often a flood. People come by and warn him and later to offer to get him to safety. He declines all the offers, saying God will help me. It happens six times. Finally, in the flood version, he drowns. In heaven he confronts the divine in all its majesty. I have been known to say I would be... Read more

      It was today, the 15th of July, in 1838 that Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his famous Divinity School Address. It was immediately denounced as some “new infidelity.” A full generation earlier New England’s Unitarians had rejected the trinity and instead focused salvation on “character,” putting the locus of salvation on the actions of the individual in her or his life rather than through a vicarious atonement achieved by Jesus’ death. Nonetheless this first generation of Unitarians were deeply... Read more

    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