A Rohatsu Meditation James Ishmael Ford Zen priest Tom Hawkins once wrote about his pilgrimage to Buddhist India. It’s been a while now. But one passage particularly caught me. And even though it’s been some years, it comes to mind every now and again. Especially today, Rohatsu, the date we mark out to recall the Buddha’s awakening. Tom wrote: We have arrived in Bodghaya. Thousands of other pilgrims, us, and then two thousand Tibetan monastics for a special gathering.... Read more

    The Zen Priest Offers an Advent Meditation James Ishmael Ford For no good reason beyond the fact this is Advent and I’m thinking about Jesus and the religion of and about him, I’ve recently found myself thinking about the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. It’s added in at the end of a collection of parables compiled by the author of the Gospel of Matthew. It isn’t repeated in either of the other two synoptics. And the John... Read more

  Dionysius’ Three Steps on the Intimate Way James Ishmael Ford I’m currently working on a book outlining the spiritual path, sort of a guidebook of practical mysticism. What follows is a chapter that didn’t really fit the arc of the book, but felt worth sharing. Among the maps of the spirit that have touched me comes from the early Christian mystic, Dionysius the Areopagite. In the Acts of the Apostles, the second half of the text that we know as... Read more

    Recently I stumbled upon, or really, re-read an interesting offering from the late independent philosopher and spiritual commentator, Alan Watts. In one longish sentence, he summarized his personal spiritual perspective. “If I am asked to define my personal tastes in religion, I must say that they lie between Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism, with a certain leaning toward Vedanta and Catholicism, or rather the Orthodox Church of Eastern Europe.” As I read this, I felt profound resonances with his... Read more

  ALAN WATTS’ MYSTICAL CHRISTIANITY A Reflection on Nondual Religion James Ishmael Ford A few weeks ago, I received an invitation to review a new edition of a book by Alan Watts. Pretty good for an author who’s been dead for just shy of fifty years. As I poked through the manuscript, I found myself, not for the first time considering what an interesting thinker. And something more. Alan Watts almost perfectly captured the spiritual moment that was the 1960s.... Read more

    It’s November 27th! And with that, once again, the blessings of the saints Barlaam & Josaphat are upon us! This is flat out my favorite of all Christian holidays. And I like to remind people of the details of this original Christian Buddhist mashup. So, please forgive the repetition parts of this small sharing. It’s just that its all so cool… In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic church as well as for those of the Eastern Churches... Read more

      This year, 2020, our national American Thanksgiving holiday falls on the 26th of November. In some ways a propitious date. It is actually the anniversary for our first national day of Thanksgiving, proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789. It might be worth noting it was not connected to the Pilgrim story. When Thomas Jefferson became president, he chose not to continue the proclamation and as a national holiday Thanksgiving was only sporadically observed in subsequent years.... Read more

    Many years ago when I began to take night classes at the local community college in what would turn out to be the beginning of my “academic” life, one of my favorites was a survey of art history. The professor stated that his real goal for us was that we could go to a cocktail party and appear to know something about the broad swath of art. I can’t say whether he succeeded in my case. I’m still... Read more

      Sixty years ago today, in Dallas, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. It was a lifetime ago. Actually two lifetimes. The parents of adults today were not yet born. Sixty years is a long time. It is so long ago that it is less and less a matter of memory, and more and more a matter of history. For me its memory. Memory seared into my consciousness. And, most years I continue to share the memory here... Read more

    A BLESSING WAY James Ishmael Ford IN A BEGINNING In a beginning was light. And dark. In a beginning the cosmos began to unfold within a great explosion. Time and space, galaxies of stars and planets, and a hundred million million other things began to spin into existence. Living. And Dying. At some point awareness happened. Beings appeared at least once who could notice and reflect. We happened. And we wondered. AFTER THE BEGINNING We loved. And we... Read more