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
MANY LOVES A Small Reflection on the Spiritual Life James Ishmael Ford Today I want to talk of love as the many splendored thing that it is. Frankly, love is a subject one should return to regularly in a church, don’t you think? And we’re still quite close to Valentine’s Day. I’d bet some of us still have Valentine’s chocolates uneaten at home. Well, maybe. So, while still in the general area of that peculiar holiday, let’s... Read more
Travers Christmas Humphreys was born In Ealing, Middlesex, England, on this day, the 15th of February, in 1901. The son of a judge. In his teen years his elder brother died and this opened the doors to that great quest through which many before and since have walked. While at school he was introduced to Theosophy and about the same time Buddhism. It would become a life-long interest. He also followed in the family profession, and after attending... Read more
I notice that it was on this day, the 11th of February, in 1972, that half the great Zen missionary to the West, Shunryu Suzuki‘s ashes were interred at Tassajara, the mountain training center he had founded. Six days later the other half would be interred in Japan. He is one of the most important of our shared ancestors, we who practice within the Zen ways here in North America. Here’s a very small sample of his teachings,... Read more
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