Meetingbrook Dogen & Francis Hermitage Update
August 2002

Theme: Home at Play with God

When we do what we are doing, all is well.

When we think about what we are doing, both delight and disturbance arise.
When we wonder whether or not we can afford continuing to do what we are doing, a darkness bordering on downright doom descends us. The experience versus thought of Meetingbrook offers Zen instruction to us.

The transitory nature of all existence can suddenly and unexpectedly shatter all your speculations. That’s why I advise you: It’s best not to cultivate any intentions. Anything you’ve ever begun is an activity with some objective, yet in the face of death it has no value whatsoever.
                                (-from Zen Beyond All Words, A Western Zen Master’s Instructions, by Wolfgang Kopp)

I told two folks we visited at their lovely sanctuary property in Nova Scotia my favorite two phrases have become – “shut up,” and “go home.” Perhaps these words of instruction are aspiration and mantra for me – an invocation of silence and invitation to look under my feet.

Zen is beyond all words.
Away with all thinking and explaining.
There is only mysterious silent understanding
and no more.               (- Zen Master Huang-po)

Home, often said, is where the heart is.
At the shop I get to ask people where home is.

Where is home for any of us? Where is home for Meetingbrook?
My heart loves Silence, Here, and Now.

There is a reality even prior to heaven and earth;
Indeed, it has no form, much less a name;
Eyes fail to see it;
It has no voice for ears to detect;
For it then becomes like a visionary flower in the air;
It is not Mind, nor Buddha;
Absolutely quiet, and yet
Illuminating in a mysterious way,
It allows itself to be perceived only by the clear-eyed.
It is Dharma truly beyond form and sound;
It is Tao having nothing to do with words.               ( - Dai-o Kokushi)

To have nothing to do -- with or without words -- is the play of God with existence.

Humankind's desire throughout history seems to have been to name, locate, and control God. Is that because the play of God is not one we wish to engage? Because if we were to play with God we would cease to be other than God's playfulness? We do not understand, nor do we, play very well. Play loses oneself in the activity. We disappear into the act. This is difficult for us. Hence, our culture has been willing to abuse and ignore God -- wishing to play God -- but not willing to enter and disappear into the play of God.

Still.
Engaging experience, watching thought,
we enter the play of this world --
grateful instruction --
each passing face presents us.
Still –
here, with silence, now.                  (- poem by wfh)

There is no place to go. How understand where or what is home?

Are you here? Thank God!                                                           

Gratefully,
, Sando , Cisco , and all who grace Meetingbrook, 7Aug2002, Following the Feast of the Transfiguration   

(In loving appreciation and sweet memory of Mini  who passed on 2Aug2002)

 

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