MAGIC LANDS: Zen, Makyo, and the Loosening of the Bonds of Perception

      MAGIC LANDSZen, Makyo, and the Loosening of the Bonds of Perception James Ishmael Ford As we embark on the spiritual path what we may have spent a lifetime thinking was real and concrete, rather

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T S Eliot and the Religious Quest

      (Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on this day, the 26th of September, in 1888. He was an important thinker in my life. Should say is. I wrote a version of this appreciation  in 2018. From time to t

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LEAVING HOME, COMING HOME: A Meditation on the Bodhisattva Way

LEAVING HOME, COMING HOME A Meditation on the Bodhisattva Way James Ishmael Ford Shishuang Chuyuan was once asked by Senior Monastic Quanming, “When does a single hair pierce innumerable holes?” Shish

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A Feast for Our Lady of Walsingham

  In the churches of the Anglican communion, including the Episcopal church calendar today, the 24th of September is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. It commemorates an apparition of Mary, Jesus’

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The Zen priest considers Tradition and a Naturalistic Perennialism

    I’ve been thinking a lot about Traditionalism in religion. Traditionalism is a word with many definitions. It usually speaks to some form of conservativism. It sometimes is associated with right w

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