Posted by Rev. David on August 31, 2011
There are many amazing aspects about the process of meeting a new church. Of course there are the challenges of moving into a system that is already well established, of becoming subject to traditions and power-lines that are long established, and to engage congregational dynamics as they flow and shift. It is to see the [...]
Categories: Ministry, Pastoral Care, Spiritual Practice, UUCV
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Tags: Buddhism, depth, dogen, emotion, identity, Ministry, relationship, self, soul, spirit, Spiritual Practice, theology, Zen, zenji
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Posted by Rev. David on December 27, 2008
For Christmas this year, my wife and I took a trip back to the closest thing I have to a hometown, Knoxville Tennessee. It was good to see my mother, and to visit some places that have deep meaning for me. We then went on to spend Christmas Eve and morning in Atlanta GA and [...]
Categories: Care of the Soul, Spiritual Practice, Zen
| Tags: childhood, Christmas, forgiveness, guilt, Knoxville, memories, past, self-forgiveness, Spiritual Practice, Zen
| 2 comments
Posted by Rev. David on December 19, 2008
Now that I have been home from my first Zen Sesshin for about a week, I feel I am able to write about the experience. I have tried to stay out of my discursive mind as much as possible this week, although that is challenging when you have final academic papers to finish. The Sesshin [...]
Categories: Interfaith, Ministry, Spiritual Practice, Zen
| Tags: Buddhism, meditation, practice, Rohatsu, Sesshin, Spiritual Practice, Unitarian Universalism, Zazen, Zen
| 9 comments
Posted by Rev. David on December 14, 2008
During the Zen Rohatsu Sesshin (7 ½ Day Zen Meditation Retreat in honor of the Buddha’s enlightenment day) that I attended this past week, I began to notice some eerie similarities to my multiple experiences of Military Basic Training. Though this was my first Sesshin at the Zen temple where I study, I have been [...]
Categories: Military, Spiritual Practice, Zen
| Tags: basic training, boot camp, meditation, retreat, Sesshin, Spiritual Practice, Zen
| 6 comments
Posted by Rev. David on May 3, 2008
Some words have so many meanings that they become near incomprehensible, and almost unusable. When I use the generic word “meditation”, I usually mean Zazen meditation, or sitting on a cushion and following my breath. But “meditation” means about a thousand different things, from concentration on a passage of scripture to leaving the body behind [...]
Categories: Defining Religious Langauge, God, Principles and Purposes, Spiritual Practice
| Tags: Defining God, faith, God, practice, Zazen, Zen
| No comments
Posted by Rev. David on January 2, 2008
One of the quotes that is in my journal, (and now rotating through the Wayside Pulpit) is a quote from Eihei Dogen Zenji, the founding teacher of Zen. He said to “Honor the man who is through with learning and free from action”. Now, I know what he meant at the time he said it. [...]
Categories: Reflection on Quotes
| Tags: awareness, change the world, Christianity, Zen
| No comments
Posted by Rev. David on January 1, 2008
I awoke this morning, the first day of a new year, to a fresh blanket of snow surrounding my Chicago apartment… not an unusual occurrence. But this morning, being a holiday, the city has been sleepier than usual. Often before I wake the streets are cleared, the sidewalks are scraped, and the vehicles have begun [...]
Categories: Turnings
| Tags: awareness, meditation, New Year, Zen
| 1 comment
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