Love Abides: A Brief Reflection on Julian of Norwich
The 13th of May, in 1373, Julian of Norwich starting having a series of visions. It would become the basis of her extended meditation, Revelations of Divine Love. With that I find myself thinking of...
View ArticleDreaming of our Heart’s longing
On the 17th of May in 1900 L. Frank Baum’s the Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published by the George M. Hill Company. It was an instant runaway bestseller. Within six months the first edition of ten...
View ArticleA Zen Meditation on Foolish Wisdom
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...
View ArticleA Bridging Spirit: Dreaming a Taoist Jesus
I’m deeply interested in religious syncretisms. Possibly my favorite is the Luminous Religion, a Nestorian mission to China which flourished between the seventh and tenth centuries. Next to nothing was...
View ArticleUnitarian Universalism’s Not Exactly Creeds
Big things going on in Unitarian Universalist world. And I find it time for some reflection. The UUA I belonged to as a working minister between when received my first call to a parish in 1991 and 2016...
View ArticleGood For Nothing: Meeting a Zen Teacher
Why is it that a person of the intimate way cannot cut off the the vermillion thread, that thread of tears? from Songyuan’s Three Turning Words collected in the Harada Yasutani Miscellaneous Koans A...
View ArticleWherein the Author Tries to Sell His Zen Book
My book the Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey was officially released by Shambhala Publications on the 23rd of July! It’s my sixth book. And the first not...
View ArticleThere’s a (W)Hole in the Soul
(My friend and colleague, the Reverend Silvio Nardoni recently shared an article he’d written with me. I was quite taken with it, and not just because he quotes me. It’s good. And I asked if I could...
View ArticleZen’s Precepts and the Dance of an Authentic Life
Among the problems in transmitting Zen along with other Buddhist meditation schools to the west has been frequently the fact it is part of something larger is too often forgotten. Zen, for instance,...
View ArticleRings of Fire: A Zen Meditation
Burning burning burning burning O Lord Thou Pluckest me out O Lord thou pluckest T. S. Eliot, the Waste Land Jan and I live in the land of smog and dreams, also known as the Los Angles basin. After a...
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