REVELATIONS OF A PLAGUE YEAR Or, Dreaming the Apocalypse James Ishmael Ford One might suspect we’re in the end times when the panic rush to the market is for toilet paper. And, well, here we are. Toilet paper. Who would have thought? Beyond that many public services have been canceled and we’re being asked to avoid unnecessary contact with others. There is a certain sadness to this. And, me, I can’t help but think of... Read more
BODHIDHARMA SIGHED Zen Comments on the Gateless Gate, Case 41 James Ishmael Ford Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time long ago and far away there was a virtuous woman and her husband. Life was good in nearly all ways. They had a lovely home, a farm that produced plenty of food, and even enough extra to sell, giving them opportunities to purchase small luxuries. All was fine. Except they had no children. They... Read more
The Bodhisattva Way and a Robe of Many Colors Commenting on a Zen Koan James Ishmael Ford The Case Yunmen said, “See how vast and wide the world is! Why do you put on your seven-piece robe at the sound of the bell?” Gateless Gate, Case 16 I love this koan. In some ways it reminds me of that anecdote that floats around our Zen communities. It regards an encounter between the respected Korean Zen missionary master Seung... Read more
On Wednesday last, Jan & I climbed aboard a Virgin Australia plane at LAX and spent the next fourteen hours winging our way to Brisbane, Australia. Perhaps because of health concerns, maybe just the luck of the draw, the flight was light and we were able to find two rows of seats where we could (very uncomfortably) lay ourselves down for a fitful night’s sleep. When we arrived we were picked up by Marie and Barry... Read more
THE BIRTH OF GOD And What It Can Mean for Us James Ishmael Ford As you may know I am now teaching a class in the Buddhist chaplaincy program at the University of the West. It has been an amazing experience. It has also pushed me in a lot of areas. Not least, the fact that of the thirteen people in the class, five are Buddhist monastics. Three are nuns from China. Another is a nun from Korea.... Read more
Xizhong and his Magical Cart James Ishmael Ford The master of the intimate way Yuean Shanguo said to a student of the way, “Xizhong, who invented the wheel, made a hundred carts.” Then the master asked, “If you take off the wheels, the axel, and the rest of it, what would be vividly apparent?” Gateless Gate, Case 8 Yuean was a teacher in the Linji linage, a dharma ancestor of Wumen who compiled the Gateless Gate. As with... Read more
Zen and the establishment of cultures of awakening A few preliminary thoughts James Ishmael Ford A Zen priest, a dear friend, and in my opinion one of the signal teachers of our time and place, recently cited Keizan Jokin’s Denkoruku (in William Bodiford’s translation): “This is not a matter of acting as a good friend, vainly gathering a congregation, and nurturing people. Simply make people penetrate the root source directly, and try to make them quickly accede to their... Read more
ZEN & THE WEST Nearly Random Thoughts on Clerical Marriage in Buddhism, Women teaching, and the Rise of Householder Zen James Ishmael Ford Recently I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion on Buddhist clerical marriage in Japan, Korea, and the West. The panelists included the Reverend Dr Hwansoo Kim, Taego order priest and professor at Yale University, Dr Richard Jaffe, long-time dharma practitioner in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki and professor at Duke University, and Dr Ann Gleig,... Read more
VOTING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE IN MIND A Citizen’s Guide Tom Bowman (My old friend Tom Bowman, a Zen person as well as a climate activist posted his research into the views about engaging climate change among the current candidates for the presidency of the United States. He did it as a series of posts to Facebook. I asked if I could reprint it all together here at my blog. He kindly agreed.) Those of us in the climate chance communications... Read more
On this day, the 17th of February, in 1600 Giordano Bruno, former friar, amazing thinker, difficult personality, and arguably the “first” martyr to science was burned alive at the stake. Apparently on his way to the stake they drove a spike through his tongue to stop him from talking. I am fascinated by the range of people who admire him, from as Puala Findlen notes in her essay A Hungry Mind, main stream scientists ranging from “Ernst Haeckel... Read more
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