Welcome to Unanswered Question.
“Thou art the unanswered question;
Couldst see thy proper eye,
Alway it asketh, asketh;
And each answer is a lie.
So take thy quest through nature,
It through thousand natures ply;
Ask on, thou clothed eternity;
Time is the false reply.”
– from “The Sphynx,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Unanswered Question is a newsletter exploring the spiritual life.
My intention here is to offer a reflection every Monday alternating between free and paid subscriber postings.
I intend to add additional free postings one or two times a month.
I’ll likely miss a deadline or two along the way…
The main difference between what’s in front of the paywall and behind it is that the paid subscriber’s section you have access to my working on book projects. Already aspects of my last two books were explored. So, a bit of a preview as well as a peek into the mind of a spiritual writer at work.
That noted, this is important to me: If you cannot afford a subscription and want a specific article that’s behind the paywall, simply send me a note. I will happily provide you with a copy.
As to what is going on here…
I’ve walked the spiritual path pushing on toward sixty years. In those years from my fundamentalist Christian beginnings, I’ve danced with Sufis, studied with Christian mystics, lived in Buddhist monasteries, and somewhere along the line I was ordained a Zen priest. Later I also ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister. (For a more complete C.V. you can visit here.)
Ordained a UU minister for more than thirty-five years, I served twenty-five of them as a parish minister. During these years I’ve also had a hand in supporting and leading a half dozen Zen communities. I’ve taught in Zen centers, lectured at universities and seminaries, and preached from the high pulpits in old New England churches. I have the distinctive honor of being minister emeritus of the First Unitarian Church in Providence and guiding teacher emeritus at the Boundless Way Zen Temple in Worcester, Massachussets.
My path has taken me to a life "between" several traditions, bringing me into a nondual spirituality. Trying to unpack what that actually means in my life, and with a tip of the hat to Erasmus, I claim a physiology of faith, a Buddhist brain, a Christian heart, and a rationalist stomach. I claim no virtue in this, it is simply a confession. It’s also a heads up to what you’ll find attended to mostly at Unanswered Question.
I’m married to Jan Seymour-Ford. Jan is a retired librarian, for many years the research librarian at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts. She has spent a large part of her life active in social justice issues. Jan is also a senior dharma teacher with Empty Moon Zen.
Today we support Jan's mom's aging in her home, living with her in Tujunga, a neighborhood on the slopes of the Big Tujunga Wash at the north eastern edge of Los Angeles, California. I am also part of the teaching circle for Empty Moon Zen. Jan & I attend the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena, where I am an affiliated minister.
This newsletter has a bit of a lineage.
In 2006 I was offered a sabbatical, the only of my working life. I left the Unitarian parish I served in suburban Boston, and was minister-in-residence and visiting lecturer at Meadville Lombard, the UU seminary in Chicago. As I was preparing to leave for my small adventure in academia a mentor wisely suggested I find a way to keep in touch with the people paying the bills. She added, blogs are becoming a thing. With that I launched Monkey Mind, using the name of my church newsletter.
Eighteen years later and change, I feel that blog, while it still has a place, is scattershot and simply reflects my interests in a moment. Hence, monkey mind.
Today, more than a decade into my retirement from parish ministry, I find my interests drawing ever tighter. My years of Zen practice, my teaching, my friendships and study of comparative mysticism, especially Christian, and my interest in how this all squares with the phenomenal world we meet day in and day out, calls me to want to explore these matters in a more focused manner.
And with that, this newsletter, Unanswered Question.
Here I’m writing specifically for the spiritual engaged. I want to share the fruits of my spiritual journey as a Zen practitioner and teacher and a minister in the Western liberal religious traditions. I hope as a spiritual friend, and fellow traveler. Perhaps with a few more years on the way than most.
If this sounds interesting, please consider joining me on this journey.
Why subscribe?
First, to support this project.
Over half my postings are free. Free subscriptions mean you are informed whenever there is a posting.
And there is the paid subscription.
Over the years people have asked how they can support my work. In the past I’ve always said join our Zen sangha, or join the church I serve. This is now a time and place where someone can directly provide that support.
But there are personal benefits in making a paid subscription, as well.
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter. Do this and you’ll never miss updates as they come. For a cost comparable to a latte at your favorite coffeeshop you will receive regular reflections and commentaries on the highs and lows of an engaged spiritual life.
As I said above, behind the pay wall, in addition to more reflections on the inner life, this is where I share my ongoing book projects as they are worked out. Already there are parts of my previous two books. For those interested in how a writer works, this might be intriguing.
But free or paid Unanswered Question marks out a spiritual life in our particular time and place.
Our times are threatening the collapse of cultures and we’re witnessing religions in turmoil. Some are finding the ancient wisdoms of the heart calling, leading you on to the intimate way, the ancient path.
You may find Unanswered Question a touchstone on that path.
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