Toward a Circumscribed Relativism: Another Mind Bubble from an Aging Western Zen Priest

Last updated on: October 25, 2019 at 10:25 am By James Ford

“The disparity between common Japanese religious practices and belief-centric views of religion was again brought into relief when a prominent psychology professor from the US, who was temporarily visiting my lab in Japan, encountered the domestic co-existence of Buddhist and Shinto altars. Most traditional family homes in Japan house both a Buddhist altar to honour deceased relatives (butsudan) and a Shinto altar, called a god-shelf (kami-dana), to bring blessings. This pluralistic practice goes largely unremarked upon by... Read more

What’s In a Word: A Small Meditation on Who is and Who is Not a Buddhist

Last updated on: October 18, 2021 at 7:12 am By James Ford

Buddhism. Buddhism is a subject dear to my heart. And. Words matter. Although… “’When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master—that’s all.’” For me, right here, the word in question is Buddhism. And to what degree there... Read more

How Zen Came to Become Zen: Barbara O’Brien’s “The Circle of the Way”

Last updated on: October 18, 2019 at 6:53 am By James Ford

Just got my copy. Barbara O’Brien’s The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to this Modern World. (Shambhala Press, Boulder, 2020) I was fortunate enough to be able to read it in galleys. And have been recommending it to anyone who would listen. Finally it’s here. This wonderful book fills a serious gap in our current library of Zen literature. At 316 pages, including bibliography and index, it’s not too brief, not... Read more

My Bhutan Pilgrimage-ish, Part Tourism, Part Leaning into the Spirituality of a Himalayan Buddhist Country

Last updated on: October 15, 2019 at 8:02 pm By James Ford

When Marla and Charles from Two Truths invited me to come aboard as teaching staff for their trip to Bhutan I said no. I begged off being old and fat and not up for something seriously physically demanding. They persisted. I am glad they did. That I was able to add in a few days centered in Bangkok to make pilgrimages to the site where Thomas Merton died and then to where John Blofeld‘s ashes were interred, was... Read more

Happy Birthday to Thich Nhat Hanh & the Smallest of Meditations on InterBeing and It’s Near Enemies

Last updated on: October 14, 2019 at 10:16 pm By James Ford

I was rummaging around thinking it might be good to write something to post ahead of my disappearing into extended air travel beginning tomorrow and, as it happens with the international dateline, ending tomorrow. That double tomorrow will be the 16th of October. As it happens its the anniversary of that day in 1946 when ten Nazis were executed following the main Nurenberg trial. I was looking at the list of the executed when I came on to... Read more

A Song of Trusting in Mind

Last updated on: October 14, 2019 at 5:34 pm By James Ford

I write this on the 15th in Bhutan. I realize where this is going mostly to be read, it is a day earlier. I’ve been mostly enjoying the confusions of the international date line and the reminders of the mess that is time and space… That noted, according to one source in Japanese tradition the 15th of October, is marked as the day in the year 606, when Jianzhi Sengcan returned to that mystery from which all of... Read more

Bhutan: Where the Yeti Run Free. Okay, It’s Migoli. But, You Get the Point.

Last updated on: October 14, 2019 at 4:30 am By James Ford

Here’s a little Bhutanese trivia. Okay. If you have an interest in cryptozoology, you may well already know this. But it was news to me. In the year 2001 the Royal Bhutanese government created the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, some two hundred and fifty square mile protected habitat for the Migoli. It also protects snow leopards, tigers, and pandas, but it was created for the Migoli. According to Wikipedia, the sanctuary is designed to protect “the migoi, a yeti-like... Read more

Keepers of the Secrets of Our Hearts: On the Bhutanese Nuns Foundation, Dr Tashi Zangmo, & the Nun Namgyel Lhamo

Last updated on: October 13, 2019 at 8:38 pm By James Ford

This was the last day of the retreat part of our journey to Bhutan, and the second last of our days in this wondrous tiny Buddhist kingdom nestled into the Himalayas. One of the three of us who are Zen practitioners have talked about the word “retreat” for our experience. Frankly, there is little connection to our understanding of that term and what we’ve been going through together. But one of us noted, well, if retreat is... Read more

A caravan. A pilgrimage. And at the very same time just a group of tourists. The Zen Priest Continues His Bhutan Adventure

Last updated on: October 12, 2019 at 5:13 pm By James Ford

“The essence of retreat is setting up a boundary – we are talking about a boundary of time, setting up a boundary between past and future, which ideally means we remain in the present.” Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche The days begin to fold, one into another. While I’ve been resistant to calling our gathering here in a small monastery outside of Paro a retreat because by the standards of my normative practices within the Zen way, this simply does... Read more

Through a Bhutanese Window: The Zen Priest Reflects

Last updated on: October 11, 2019 at 4:42 pm By James Ford

Today was a midpoint in the seminar/retreat part of our pilgrimage. I have decided that while we are a tour group, pilgrimage is the better term. At least for some of us. And that’s always the case, isn’t it? Any group is a mixed bag. We are each of us on our own journey here. And, me, and, I genuinely believe, a number of us are on a pilgrimage. More on this after a brief description of the day.... Read more