Whoever has ears, let them hear. Who is hearing? Meditation on Wednesday, May 27, 6:30 to 8 pm Jesus quite famously once said, "Whoever has ears, let them hear." On the outside this seems pretty obvious. If you have ears, and haven't been struck with some physical condition, you will hear. But what if the emphasis were to shift from the ears to the whoever? Perhaps his statement then reads a bit like this, "Who has ears? and then, "Who is hearing?" Now we are in the realm

Meditation on Wednesday, April 20, 6:30 to 8 pm Some koans are stories -- a teacher sends his students to visit with a woman in a tea house on the side of a mountain and confusion ensues. Other koans present a predicatment -- you are hanging by your teeth, you are in a seamless tomb, a woman raised a goose inside a bottle -- and ask for a response. Some koans turn things on their heads, like Jesus when he said, "Blessed are the poor." Koans of all types do two things it seems

This week's koan is taken from the Diamond Sutra. The Diamond Sutra gets is name because it is as hard and sharp as a diamond, cutting through delusion, opening the heart/mind. The koan is a short one: "Abiding nowhere, let the mind come forth." Before the Coen Brothers'The Big Lebowski, "abide" was a word seldom heard outside of church, faithful parishioners giving voice to the old chestnut, "Abide with me," a plea for God's presence in hard times. Then along comes Jef