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

    (Being the account of our flight to Pennsylvania and leisurely drive back home to California. Originally posted as entries on Facebook, now gathered together, slightly edited, and with a few photographs, and hotlinks attached for some of the more notable encounters…) June 15, 2021 We’re off on our grand adventure. We are currently winging from Long Beach to Baltimore, where we will get a car and go to Lewisburg for Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer‘s dharma transmission ceremony. And from there to... Read more

  Jan & I are on a drive across the country. We’d not allowed enough time and find ourselves more on the road than gawking at things. But, this has its charms, as well… As we were winding our way from the Oklahoma border into the Texas panhandle, having just eaten an astonishingly good Punjabi dinner at a little hole in the wall tucked into a truck stop, I found myself thinking a bit about the way Zen is finding... Read more

Water and Light Soaking into the Earth  Seeking a Common Ground for all Religions James Ishmael Ford Guiding teacher, Empty Moon Zen Delivered at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles The Text After ages of practice, the nun Chiyono went out on a full-moon night to draw some water from the well. The bottom of her old bucket, held together by bamboo strips, suddenly gave way, and the reflection of the moon vanished with the water. When she saw... Read more

  Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the great figures of world spirituality. He was born in what is now Iran in 1207 and died in what is now Turkey in 1273. He was a mystic, a scholar, a poet, and the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi Order, perhaps best known in the West as the “whirling dervishes.” What captures me in the moment is his poem the Guest House. It is a perennial favorite of Insight and Zen practitioners as... Read more