It was on this day, the 7th of September, in 1911 that Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested under suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa. A classic example of the dangers of being an ironist in literalist times. Apollinaire was a renowned critic, poet, pornographer and the man who coined the term “surrealism” as well as “cubism.” He would come to be considered one of the signal Western literary figures of the early twentieth century. One could see why he would fall under... Read more
I wrote this a couple of years ago. Noting how this is the 29th anniversary of Issan Dorsey’s death on the 6th of September, 1990, I think it worth sharing again. Tommy Dorsey, Jr, was born on the 7th of March, 1933, in Santa Barbara. The youngest of ten, he was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. He dropped out of college and joined the Navy, only to be discharged when discovered in a relationship with... Read more
The “Luminous Religion,” a 7th-century Chinese branch of Christianity, incorporated elements of Buddhism & Daoism. Its “new” Christian texts, the Jesus Sutras, are innocent of original sin. Instead it fully embraced the loveliness of the world. And while celebrating the divine origins of their teacher, consistently emphasized his teachings as the truly important thing. They described the Luminous religion simply as a way of life. Read more
The Poetry of Mysticism: Or, Mrs Underhill’s Foray into Universalist Mysticism Evelyn Underhill (Being the second part of her Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore’s translation, with her assistance, of the poetry of Kabir, very slightly edited.) The poetry of mysticism might be defined on the one hand as a temperamental reaction to the vision of Reality: on the other, as a form of prophecy. As it is the special vocation of the mystical consciousness to mediate between two... Read more
As I write this it was seventy-five years and two days ago that Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation. I noted this anniversary on my Facebook page along with a link to a contemporary newsreel. A friend mentioned as a comment that if we had Amazon Prime, we might want to watch the 1966 movie Is Paris Burning. My answer was, I hope, in only a mildly smug note, that to the degree it relied upon the memoirs... Read more
It was today, the 25th of August, in 1542, or perhaps it was 1543, a Chinese ship heading to Macau was caught up in a terrible storm and swept into Japanese waters. While docked for repairs a handful of the ship’s passengers became the first Europeans documented as having stepped foot on Japanese soil. Portuguese traders and really at this distance they do deserve the title explorers Antonio Mota, Francisco Zeimoto, and Antonio Peixoto were designated “southern barbarians.”... Read more
I recall in my youth being told how in ancient Rome when someone was given a “Triumph,” a parade through the city in honor of some major accomplishment a slave was assigned to stand right behind them in their chariot, whispering over and over, “You are a mortal.” Turns out this practice is not universally attested. But. It should have been their practice. If they were being smart. Change is the universal rule. What is up will... Read more
I am just back from Toledo where I had the honor of presiding at an Inka Shomei ceremony for my senior student, and now colleague, Jay Rinsen Weik. Then today I noticed on one of my Facebook pages the query, what is Inka Shomei for Zen communities in the West? I shared a brief reflection. And then decided I needed to expand it a bit. And well, here we are. The term Inka Shomei is one... Read more
According to good old Wikipedia the oldest known temple devoted to the Roman deity Venus was established on this day, the 19th of August in 293 b.c.e. Venus is the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. And as many know these days her story and that of the Greek Aphrodite are now completely intertwined. Me, I am sympathetic to the syncretistic inclination among religions, and would throw in all goddesses of love, including all those other incarnations, especially... Read more
The Hindu saint Ramakrishna was born on this day, the 18th of February, in 1836. He looms large in my spiritual biography. My father was a ne’re-do-well, who kept our little family moving from one town to the next, frequently just ahead of the law. And, occasionally, not just ahead. The sole anchor of our chaotic lives was my maternal grandmother’s fundamentalist Baptist faith, which I clung to as a life-raft in my childhood. But, as I... Read more
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