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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Can we be entrusted to love?
"Do it!" -- we're told.
"Be it!" -- we intuit.
Just as the soft rains fill the streams,
Pour into the rivers,
And join together in the oceans,
So many the power of every moment
Of your goodness flow forth to awaken
And heal all beings;
Those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.
- Traditional Buddhist blessing
If we are love as it is loving, healing is the order of the day."What I command you is to love one another.’Stout fellow! Fine lassie! As you are, so will you be.
(--John 15:17)
Etymology:Into your hands, Origin/Source, we commend our spirits.
Middle English, from Anglo-French comander, from Latin commendare, from com- + mandare to entrust.
An angel is a message taken in and made one's own.
Go ahead!
Be an angel!
Speak -- we'll listen!
• • • • •
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
How elegant is the morning sun
Shining on the rafters and eaves.
How cool are the terrace and pond after the rain.
I burn incense to break the deep silence,
Drink the spring water and relax in joy.
When the mind is at ease and spirit is at peace,
Understanding is gained.
There is nothing left to comprehend.
Who can say that the realm of Tao is far from us?
How tranquil it is
Like the beginning of Heaven and Earth.
- Ni Tsan (1301-1374)
The argument shifts. Are you ready?In their arguments with Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate. The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. It’s going to come from scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism.What's gotten into us?
In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other. That’s bound to lead to new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation. Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day. I’m not qualified to take sides, believe me. I’m just trying to anticipate which way the debate is headed. We’re in the middle of a scientific revolution. It’s going to have big cultural effects.
(--from The New York Times Op-Ed Column, The Neural Buddhists, By DAVID BROOKS, Published: May 13, 2008)
We'll never be the same.
Ever.
Again.
• • • • •
Monday, May 12, 2008
Father is origin. Son is loving attention. Holy Spirit is enlightening consciousness.
Breathing mothers creation.
Let your love flow outward through the universe,When enlightening consciousness fills us, we begin to gather in communion.
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
- Sutta Nipata Buddha
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.You see, if you choose not to forgive, then it doesn't happen -- and you are burdened with carrying with you the weight of unforgiveness of an-other, namely none other than you.
‘As the Father sent me,
so am I sending you.’
After saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.’
(--from John 20: 19-23)
But if you have understanding, and you forgive -- then everyone is unburdoned, and we go on, lightened and freed.
What do you think? Is it time for Pentecost?
Time for Holy Spirit?
Are you conscious?
Any awareness?
Of peace?
Breathe!
• • • • •
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Note: The bookshop/bakery will be closed Friday. (Open Sat & Sun)
There will be no Sunday Evening Practice 11May.
There will be no Sunday Evening Practice 11May.
................................
“Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child.”
(--Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)
So much to learn about mothering!
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
(--John 19: 26-27)
“Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child.”
(--Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)
So much to learn about mothering!
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
(--John 19: 26-27)
One's own home!
• • • • •
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Two weeks later, Mu-ge the cat walks back in the door. Just like that.
Meister Eckhart said: "Leben ohne warum." (Life without why.)
No questioning why. Just life.
At itself. With itself.
Looking as itself.
• • • • •
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Riggers climb masts, painters brush hulls, captains shake out coastal charts. Schooners in Camden Harbor begin to ready the season.
I row small skiff around harbor.
Many paths lead fromSomeone asks about a spiritual teacher's connection to religion. "He's not not Christian," is the response.
The foot of the mountain,
But at the peak
We all gaze at the
Single bright moon.
- Ikkyu (1394-1481)
In John 17:1-11 is the phrase: "And eternal life is this:".
Fill in what "this" is.
It's not not this.
Heaven help us.
• • • • •
Monday, May 05, 2008
On the count of three, jump!
When Iraq was invaded so many cheered. When Iran is attacked, so many will leave.
The truly still mind, with which you were born, is the mind that moves freely. Without ignoring anything, it reacts wholeheartedly to everything it encounters, to everything on which it reflects. And yet, for all that, it is the mind that is never seized by anything, but is always ready to react on the spot to whatever it encounters next. The mind that is still is the mind that never forfeits its freedom and is able to constantly keep rolling and rolling and rolling.Leaving this country because it has disappeared will not be easy. There's a need for a foothold; a place from which to step off. That's the difficulty with a disappeared country; there's no ground remaining to it.
- Soko Marinaga Roshi (1925-1995) Dailyzen.com
Listen; the time will come – in fact it has come already –As if Jesus knew our situation. He lived so long ago. Good God -- this is the 21st century! What use could someone from the first century have? Does he see us disappearing?
when you will be scattered,
each going his own way and leaving me alone.
(--from John 16:29-33)
Part Four: Time and EternityWe'll look back at this time in our country and wonder how it was everyone was so impotent and uncaring.
VIII
LOOK back on time with kindly eyes,
He doubtless did his best;
How softly sinks his trembling sun
In human nature’s west!
(--Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.)
Many will weep.
Most won't.
• • • • •
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Rokpa the border collie licks peanut butter from my fingers. Rain tires us after 5:30am walk on Ragged Mtn. Sunday morning curls onto black chair.
Elsewhere, pastors, priests, rabbis, imams, zen masters, elders, and friends perform their rituals for people who hunger for justice, compassion, and a true experience of integrity. We've been fed illusion. Time to go beyond it.
When I started writing about Guantánamo several years ago, I thought the inmates might be lying and the Pentagon telling the truth. No doubt some inmates lie, and some surely are terrorists. But over time — and it’s painful to write this — I’ve found the inmates to be more credible than American officials.It is a difficult time. Belief comes hard. Trust in our leaders is so low you'd think someone would notice. Only uncaring arrogance can ignore the somber bitter loss of faith and trust. What will replace what is lost? It is hard to imagine how the people of America will survive the defeat of principles long held dear by generations in this country. A difficult, bleak time.
Both Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates have pushed to shut down Guantánamo because it undermines America’s standing and influence. They have been overruled by Dick Cheney and other hard-liners. In reality, it would take an exceptional enemy to damage America’s image and interests as much as President Bush and Mr. Cheney already have with Guantánamo.
(--from A Prison of Shame, and It’s Ours, By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, Published: May 4, 2008, New York Times)
I am not in the world any longer,
but they are in the world,
and I am coming to you.
(from John 17: 1-11)
I've come to a fondness for the universe. So vast. Maybe without end. Of uncertain beginning. A lot like human life. Space might have as many as ten or twelve dimensions. Strings of energy dance emphatically with tonal reverberation at core of the theoretical investigation of matter and (what is called) energy or spirit. Far far beyond our capacity to grasp with our thinking. Yet close, very very close.
What made Nishitani question emptiness on the basis of his own present existence was precisely nihilism. It is through the mediation of nihilism that emptiness was removed from a museum showcase--that is, from its status as a dead 'thing' to be viewed or an object of archaeological study, to make its appearance in the real marketplace as a currency with actual power, restored to its status of living and operative spirit. The real marketplace, of which we speak here, also has the meaning of the town called "The Motley Cow," where Nietzsche's Zarathustra proclaimed his idea of the eternal recurrence. According to Nishitani, this "town called The Motley Cow" means "the multicolored world with its infinite variety of forms"; in other words, the contemporary world. To let emptiness loose into it is to walk that town barefoot, or to stand in the very midst of nihilism. According to Nishitani, it is precisely when standing there that a human being gets in touch with the point of origin or zero point from where religion as religion is born.Time to begin again.
(--from Nihilism, Science, and Emptiness in [Keiji] Nishitani, by Hase Shoto, Univ of Hawaii Press)
Passing through.
Illusion.
• • • • •
Saturday, May 03, 2008
What is looking and what is looked at co-construct what is being created as it is.
No kidding.
The entire day I searched for spring,One thing after another.
But spring I could not find,
In my straw sandals I tramped among the
Mountain peak clouds.
Home again, smiling, I finger a sprig of
Fragrant plum blossom;
Spring was right here on these branches
In all of its glory!
- Plum Blossom Nun (DailyZen.com)
Nothing follows.
This.
• • • • •
Friday, May 02, 2008
Both the gaze that sees and the object that is seen construct themselves simultaneously in the one act of vision.
(--p.18, in Beauty, by John O'Donohue)
And, what-is takes place between us.• • • • •
Thursday, May 01, 2008
He'd not ascended to the Father. He told Mary not to cling to him, not to hold on to who and what he was. He preferred to be who and what he is. And that, whenever he became that which he is where he is as he is.
So, let him.
I saw the Son of Man, and he said to me, ‘Have no fear! I am the First and the Last. I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld.’
(Apocalypse 1:17-18)
There being no time but now, Jesus is ascending as this is written, as this is read, as this is.As are you and am I.
That's the kind of Thursday today is.
Nothing to cling to, so everything appears.
As it is.
With God.
• • • • •
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
A new template could help. A new religious life based on two rules: simplicity and kindness.
• • • • •
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Some worry that America is heading for a big fall.
I let mind and body goRain has stopped.
And gained a life of freedom
My old age is taking place
Among ten thousand peaks
I don’t let white clouds
Leave the valley lightly
I escort the moon as far
As my closed gate.
- Han-shan Te-ch’ing (1546-1623) Dailyzen.com
Stars are out.
Cold wind blows.
After the fall, we'll try to get up.
• • • • •
Monday, April 28, 2008
When we bow we bow. Passing front room meditation space we bow. My eyes might look at crucifix. Or small seated Buddha. Or prayer flags hanging in window. Or icon of mother/child. Or the open emptiness of room itself. I have no object for the bow. Just bowing. With gratitude.
Do not sweep the fallen leaves,Dog is bathed. White replaces gray. Mud drains into ground again.
For they are pleasant to hear on clear nights
In the wind, they rustle, as if sighing;
In the moonlight, their shadows flutter.
They knock on the window to wake a traveler;
Covering stairs, they hide moss.
Sad, the sight of them getting wet in the rain;
Let them wither away deep in the mountains.
- Kim Shi Sup (1435-1493)
You have been given more than human beauty,I'm glad the minister from Illinois spoke to the National Press Club. It's good to hear unapologetic wit, controversy, and spirit.
and grace is poured out upon your lips,
(--from Psalm 44)
The mumbling incoherence of political swiping and sniping employed by contenders and commentators in this years horse race to the white house has become offensive and embarrassing. I'd like to hear something other than jejune backhand slaps.
I, Too, Sing AmericaIn prison last Friday, the realization that words are alive, as are things alive, so too animals, humans, and all of nature, supernature, and that which we call divinity -- all life is alive, all being is, in itself -- holy.
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
(--From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Knopf and Vintage Books. Copyright 1994)
Because we are mis-educated, Rev Jeremiah Wright says, we do not want to hear truth.
That's the truth.
Holy life!
• • • • •
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Consider the words: "because he is with you, he is in you".
Except for dripping faucet into scraped yogurt plastic, silence.
GospelLook no further than to Raisin Bran box, Cuisinart machine, and Nupro container on washing machine under cabinets beside window where gray morning sits with unmoving branches in dooryard. Daybreak walk with Border Collie beyond brook to winding trail, back to cabin -- zafu, candle, incense, sitting. In kitchen, dripping faucet, water from high mountain melt finds way through ground to well, pumped up to metronomic beat.
Jesus said:
‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you for ever,
that Spirit of truth
whom the world can never receive
since it neither sees nor knows him;
but you know him,
because he is with you, he is in you.
I will not leave you orphans;
I will come back to you.
In a short time the world will no longer see me;
but you will see me,
because I live and you will live.
On that day you will understand that I am in my Father
and you in me and I in you.
Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them
will be one who loves me;
and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I shall love him and show myself to him.’
(--John 14:15 - 21)
Prayer ChainI mention my mother's name, her mother's name, their daughter and granddaughter, the men surrounding them, and the rippling remembrance of many names -- all gone beyond, (some say dead), as I crossed bridge over brook on morning prayerful steps and walking meditation.
My mother called to tell me
about an old classmate of mine who
was dying on the parish prayer chain—
or was very sick—or destitute—
or it had not worked out—the marriage—
or the kids were all on drugs—and
all the old mothers were praying intensely
for all the pain of their children
and for life—they were praying for life—
in their quiet rooms—sipping decaf coffee—
I bet they've been praying for me at times—
so I'll find my way—so I won't rob a bank—
I'll take them—the mystical prayers of old mothers—
it matters—all this patient and purposeful love.
(Poem: "Prayer Chain" by Tim Nolan. The Writer's Almanac)
Within us. We are within the within. No outside, no inside. Only God in God. Just us in us. We in God. God within all. The solitude of stillness, a silence of mind, an unknowing so profound there seems no need ever to speak or hear words again.The mind says: "Show yourself!"
Earth responds with itself.
Itself knowing no other.
King falls; game over.
With or without words...
Love itself, nothing else.
• • • • •
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Mu-ge the cat has gone on walkabout. Traceless.
Lake water enters the bamboo fence,Six of us at Saturday Morning Practice consider hope as an obstacle.
Mountains surround the cottage.
A recluse’s life avoids this world.
The unused door hides behind
A green moss hue;
When a stranger passes,
The white birds fly in alarm.
Selling herbs, I taste and compare
But charge no price.
I do some gardening,
But love to do it unplanned.
Why is the wooded path leading
To T’ien-chu monastery
Still in autumn
Deeply dreaming in blue?
- Lin Pu
There being no future, hope must have to do with what is in one's heart right now.
May each be where they need to be.Happy, safe, truly at home.
Who knows where?
• • • • •
Friday, April 25, 2008
Vivian, in the drama W;T --(or Wit)-- says it is time for simplicity; time for kindness. She is dying.
All my life I have yearned for true reclusion,At end her former professor reads to her about a bunny whose mother --like God -- will find it no matter where it hides; an allegory for soul being sought for by God.
Days on end sought wonders beyond this world:
Here old peasants enter their fields at dawn,
And mountain monks return to their temples at night.
Clear sounds come from pine-shaded springs,
Mossy walls filled with ancient truths.
I will lodge on this mountain forever,
I and the world are done with each other.
- Meng Hao-jan
There are choices to be made.
One is for kindness.
Take it.
• • • • •
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Maria is eighty today. She and Tom stay for dinner after conversation.
What if Spirit is not other than matter?
What if Word became flesh?
Never leaving?
• • • • •
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Is death when self meets no-other?
According to Buddha’s words, once one has fully entered the world, there is no breach or need to leave the world. These words contain the principle of attaining Buddhahood by means of the world dharma. In the Kegon Sutra it is said: “the Buddha Dharma is not different from the world dharma, and the world dharma is not different from the Buddha Dharma.” Anyone who does not put to use this principle of attaining Buddhahood in the world dharma itself knows nothing of the real intentions of the Buddha.Or is it when no-self meets other?
Any and every occupation is Buddhist practice. It is on the basis of our atcual work that enlightenment is to be attained. Therefore, no work can be anything other than Buddhist practice.
- Shosan (1579-1655)
• • • • •
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A crowd of stars lines up
Bright in the deep night.
Lone lamp on the cliff,
The moon is not yet sunk,
Full and bright without being
Ground or polished.
Hanging in the black sky is my mind.
I believe in earth!
• • • • •
Monday, April 21, 2008
Some of the irregulars on Sunday talked about the country. The disappointment was about the failure of the three branches of government, the failure of the press, and the failure of the populace to hold accountable any of the above. The question on the minds of the three men and a woman had to do with cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is, in fact, not true. Similar to ambivalence, the term cognitive dissonance describes conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions) that occur at the same time, or when engaged in behaviors that conflict with one's beliefs. In academic literature, the term refers to attempts to reduce the discomfort of conflicting thoughts by performing actions that are opposite to one's beliefs.We're the good guys. Those without health care are people not particularly smart. Elected officials do indeed have the good of ordinary citizens as their primary responsibility. The war in Iraq was to protect the United States. Everything to know about September 11, 2001 has been told. This president is not an arrogant idiotes (it's a Greek word) serving the whims of corporations and promulgating shadow interests of ideologues. Osama Bin Laden started it. Saddam Hussein was the most dangerous leader in the world. The economy of the United States is in only a temporary slowdown. The Supreme Court is the most honorable judicial body and did not commit a hellish mistaken criminal act eight years ago. America clearly supports the down-trodden and helpless, but, really, the Chinese need our silence (as we need their imports) in their struggle against Tibet. There is equal justice for all, rich or poor, in this great nation.
(--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance)
If we meditate carefully on the above postulates, we might see into and through them. Carefully, we might begin to care for our peril.
There is a destination that must be reached within a day. One person endures great suffering and continues to walk with the aid of a stick. The other person decides to rest on a rock because it is too much for him. When he lies down and looks up, he sees clouds drifting in the wind and hallucinates that the rock he is on is also flying in the air. Cheerfully fantasizing that he has already reached his destination, he wakes up to find that he is just where he was before. The first person who continued to walk has already completed his trek. Although the second one finds himself far from his goal, he thinks it is useless to regret his error.
- Parable of Shakyamuni
The fire that destroys illusion longs to rage in our hearts and minds.Do not be mistaken -- really -- we, at heart, long to be compassionate; we, in the deepest foundation of mind, long for wisdom and understanding.
The deception cultivated by the unwise and those devoid of compassion is not -- I repeat, is not -- how the true human being wishes to live in this existence.
Free Tibet.
Free the United States.
Free yourself.
Now -- let's get on with spring!
• • • • •
Sunday, April 20, 2008
I go to visit a prominent monkEach hermit returns to solitude.
In mountain mist and a thousand peaks.
The master himself points out the road
And the moon hangs its lantern out for me.
- Han Shan (early 9th century)
Happily.
• • • • •
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Nothing lasts forever.
Everything else dissolves.
Be nothing else.
• • • • •
Friday, April 18, 2008
There’s a tree that existed before the woods,Pray yours be open.
In age twice as old.
Its roots suffered as the valley changed,
Its leaves deformed by wind and frost.
People all laugh at its withered aspect,
Caring nothing about the core’s beauty.
When the bark is stripped off,
Only essence remains.
- Han Shan (early 9th century)
• • • • •
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Doesn't know other.The capacity of Mind is vast and great: It is like the emptiness of
space; It has neither breadth nor bounds; It is neither square nor round;
neither large nor small; It is neither blue nor yellow nor red nor white; It
has neither upper nor lower, long nor short; It knows of neither anger nor
pleasure; Neither right nor wrong; Neither good nor evil; It is without
beginning and without end.
- Sixth Patriarch
• • • • •