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Meetingbrook Dogen & Francis Hermitage Update April 2001
Theme: Holy remembrance too, keeping us wakeful at night. (Holderlin)
| 1. |
Round us
the town is at rest; the street, in pale lamplight, grows / quiet
/
And, their torches ablaze, coaches rush through
and away.
People go home to rest, replete with the day and its
pleasures,
There to weigh up in their heads, pensive, the gain
and the loss,
Finding the balance good; stripped bare now of grapes
and of / flowers, /
As of their hand-made goods, quiet the market stalls
lie.
|
(from poem Bread and Wine, by Friedrich Holderlin)
Our upstairs neighbor, William Findley, died early March. His wife Ruth preceded him in death a year ago January. These quiet, elderly and accomplished people are held in prayer and simple presence at the cape on the harbor and in our thoughts.
| 2. |
“It is difficult for me to understand. Why do people
live outside their own nature?” |
(Jesus and Mary from novel According to Mary Magdalene, by Marianne Fredriksson)
Perhaps we do live “outside our nature” -- temporarily, I hope. Perhaps when we breathlessly busy ourselves by facing away from our core reality, we perceive as in a mirror reflecting darkly “evil.” Is that what we’ve come to call ‘sin?’ Perhaps when we do not “live” from our own true inner nature, we are busy dying outside in the world of myriad distractions, scattered diffusive opinions, and disconnected fragmented separation. It’s an interesting interpretation of ‘evil’ – that when we live outside our own nature, our innermost core, we strive and grasp for security and control, carrying on in an unlistening and unlighted isolation.
| 3. | His immense presence is what achieves the miracles,
she thought. He meets them all individually, sees their suffering,
senses their question: “Why does life treat me so badly?” The moment
he gives his hand to the sick, they are in total fellowship. Presence is perhaps the innermost form of love. (Fredriksson) |
Harold, in Maine State Prison, conversing his autobiography and near death experience, asked me whether I knew how miracles take place. I said no, I didn’t. He told me that when the hand of God -- beyond and outside time, true ever-present power itself -- touches anyone within time, it is not so much that what was broken or diseased is mended and healed. Rather, when touched, the person is returned to original wholeness, before affliction…now! No time. Presence within love!
| 4. |
Such is man; when the wealth is there, and
no less than a god in |
I wonder if the words ‘Now’ and ‘God’ are two spellings of the same Reality? We leap alive from Now/God, and this holy remembrance keeps us wakeful. Sitting still, / doing nothing, / spring comes, / and the grass grows by itself. (Zen poem) We keep our vigil and watch with you!
Blessings of Easter!
,
Sando 
, Mini
and all who grace
Meetingbrook
1April01
March 2001 Update
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