Recalling the Zen philosopher Kitaro Nishida

Last updated on: June 6, 2024 at 9:18 am By James Ford

Kitaro Nishida died on the 7th of June 1945. He brought a deep commitment to Zen Buddhism and western philosophical disciplines together. The founder of what has come to be called the Kyoto School, Nishida has been described as the most influential Japanese philosopher of the twentieth century. His ashes were divided into three parts. The first interred at the family plot. The second at the Rinzai monastery Myoshinji. And the third at Tokeiji temple, where the funeral was performed.... Read more

Allen Ginsberg as Bard of the Holy Spirit

Last updated on: June 2, 2024 at 12:47 pm By James Ford

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Allen Ginsberg was born on the 3rd of June, in 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. His father was a poet and school teacher, while his mother was an activist and Marxist. He had a brother Eugene. His mother’s schizophrenia was a constant issue within the family. Her illness would be a recurrent theme in his writing. As a teen Ginsberg began publishing poems in the local newspaper, the Paterson Morning Call. He attended Columbia University, graduating in 1948. While at... Read more

A Zen Meditation on Foolish Wisdom

Last updated on: June 1, 2024 at 11:43 am By James Ford

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I’ve been thinking about foolish wisdom. While this is another season, it made me recall April 1st. That day marked out as many things. For one it’s the Assyrian New Year. For another it’s the feast for Mary of Egypt, a rather interesting desert mother. I also like to note it’s Edible Book day. And, of course, it’s April Fool’s Day. The only day in the year most everyone fact checks. (And, yes. I got confused with what first day of... Read more

Who Saves Us? A Meditation about Joan of Arc

Last updated on: May 31, 2024 at 6:29 am By James Ford

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The novelist Lidia Yuknavitch tells how once in her youth, “Joan of Arc visited me in a dream—in the dream, I was standing in our front yard and our house was on fire. She stepped out of the burning house and said ‘No one is coming to save you.’” Joan comes to us in dreams. She can do that. And those words. Well, if anyone knows those words, it would be Joan. The 30th of May is observed as a... Read more

I asked ChatGPT about a possible second Trump presidency

Last updated on: May 28, 2024 at 10:30 am By James Ford

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As I sense the falling sands in my hourglass slipping away, over the past couple of years my focus on politics has begun to wane in favor of the burning questions of life and death itself. These questions and our social lives, our political lives are, of course, not unrelated. But for me my heart is more and more focused on what are perhaps best called spiritual concerns. I am drawn ever more to the intimate path, to contemplation and... Read more

A Zen Meditation for Trinity Sunday

Last updated on: May 26, 2024 at 9:18 am By James Ford

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Trinity Sunday. The old joke has it that on Trinity Sunday the congregations in the vast majority of Christian churches around the globe will be hearing some heresy or another. The Trinity is a passing strange thing. A wonderful attempt at at least approaching the mystery. And, so, perhaps its not a bad thing for a Unitarian minister and Zen teacher to offer a reflection. One more attempt… God. A word that calls forth pain and joy. Hope and fear. And... Read more

Ralph Waldo Emerson the Original Transcendentalist

Last updated on: May 26, 2024 at 2:56 pm By James Ford

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Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on the 25th of May, in 1803. I try to note it every year as it arrives. Emerson was a central founder of Unitarian Transcendentalism. For most of America, Transcendentalism was a literary movement. However, in fact it was a theological and spiritual revolution within American Unitarianism and only incidentally a literary phenomenon. I often think of how Zen’s rise touched art and literature in China, Japan, and Korea while actually being about something else.... Read more

Recalling the Romani Saint Sarah e Kali

Last updated on: May 24, 2024 at 6:54 pm By James Ford

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On the 24th of May, the Romani, or at least some Romani, celebrate Saint Sarah, sometimes called Black Sarah, or Sarah the Black, or Sara e Kali in Romani, as their patron. Like many popular saints in the Roman Catholic calendar, her historicity is shrouded. Some like the idea that her cult in fact came with the Romani from India, on their ancient journey to Europe. In this telling she is a distant remembering of the goddess Kali.... Read more

Saving Ghosts: A Zen Meditation

Last updated on: May 21, 2024 at 12:27 pm By James Ford

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What follows is a Dharma talk by Dr Chris Hoff delivered at our 18th of May, 2024, Empty Moon Zen Saturday morning gathering. He is one of our Zen dharma teachers at Empty Moon Zen. Dr Hoff leads our Zen recovery sangha. He is also Executive Director of the nonprofit California Family Institute, which provides access to counseling services to underserved communities. He also has a podcast, the Radical Therapist, which is well worth a visit. *** Last Saturday,... Read more

Recalling the American Zen Founder Shunryu Suzuki

Last updated on: May 18, 2024 at 8:59 am By James Ford

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Shunryu Suzuki was born on the 18th of May, 1904, in a village about fifty miles from Tokyo. In those days that was as if it were a million miles. Maybe a tad less. It is not possible for me to adequately address just how important Suzuki Roshi was to me in my personal life and to a host of others here in the West who have come to find Zen our heart’s path. He was a child of the... Read more