Roshi James Ishmael Ford

Roshi James Ishmael Ford trained in the Soto tradition and was ordained osho by Houn Jiyu Kennett in 1971. Later he spent twenty years investigating Zen's koan way within a householder lineage. He received Inka in the Harada Yasutani lineage from Dr John Tarrant in 2005. James also ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister and spent twenty years in parish ministry. A prolific writer on the range of the spiritual life, he blogs as Monkey Mind on Patheos, and offers a spiritual newsletter, Unanswered Question at Substack. James is the author of five books on the Zen way. His sixth, The Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey has just been released by Shambhala Publications.