On Facebook today Zen teacher Renshin Bunce cited a version of a classic Zen text from another teacher on the great way Koshin Paley Ellison. Let me respectfully remind you: Life and Death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. On this night, the days of our life are decreased by one. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed! Do not squander your life. Zen teacher Rachel Mansfield-Howlett added another... Read more
Here in Long Beach we are currently under a “safer at home” directive, which is similar to “shelter in place,” but a tad less draconian. For us the most important point is that it means in addition to the purely necessary such as shopping, it is okay to take walks, assuming the precautions we’re almost all familiar with are taken. Our beach and parks are closed. But there is still the neighborhood. Jan & I try to... Read more
TOWARD A SOULFUL ZEN A Review of Pamela Weiss, “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism” James Ishmael Ford I recently received a review copy of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism” by Pamela Weiss. It’s due out at the beginning of June this year. I was happy to get it. Sensei Weiss is interesting for a number of reasons. But certainly not the least of them is that she is the... Read more
On Facebook a friend just posted a meme. The game was to post four images of people who have profoundly shaped the writer’s spiritual life. One was supposed to simply post images. And I guess see if people could guess who they were. I noticed my friend did that, but instantly added some text qualifying and adding in a person that was so close in importance for him that it probably required five pictures. I’ve been on a... Read more
I just learned from my old dharma friend Ken Ireland that Father Willigis Jager died this past Friday. Willigis Jäger was born on the 7th of March, 1925. He entered the Benedictine Order in 1946. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1952. In 1960 his work took him, among other destinations, to Japan. There he met the remarkable Jesuit priest and Zen teacher Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle. He first began a deep investigation of Zen and the koan... Read more
WALKING THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW Reflecting on the 23rd Psalm, Buddhism, Nondual Christianity, Broken Hearts, and a way of Intimacy James Ishmael Ford I think it was two years ago. Jan & I went to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana to see the special exhibition of Frank Hurley’s amazing photographs of Ernest Shackleton’s catastrophic 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Hurley was an amazing photographer, later famous for his work accompanying Australian forces during the Great War.... Read more
AS EASY AS FALLING OFF A LOG Investigating the Zen Koan of a Non-Attained Buddha James Ishmael Ford (The video is our beginning attempt to offer a Saturday program during the coronavirus. We have not mastered the medium, as you can readily tell by the fact we’re sideways through the sitting part (twenty minutes) and the chanting. It is corrected for the talk, however. At least visually. We probably will improve as we go forward…) The Case... Read more
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
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In