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Meetingbrook Dogen & Francis Hermitage Update
May 2002

Theme:
Meetingbrook Hermitage: As and In A Laura Common

Writing this on 5May2002 I remember my mother who died this date 1981. It is also four days until the Christian feast of the Ascension. On that day we will have chosen the way Meetingbrook will go on. It might have been an arbitrary choice of date for decision - but it's ours.

Ascension, however else it has been conceived and celebrated, is the feast of Christ returning home to dwell as and in Father/Mother, Spirit & Truth. That Jesus opened himself completely to this Christ Reality is the joy of his followers.

Ascension is the return to one's true reality. Some have called it one's true self, others the absolute, divine self, ultimate, nirvana, liberation, or the ground of our being.
It might entail disappearing into undifferentiated suchness, as Buddhists speak of it. It might entail giving up our attachment to separateness and embracing unity. Or perhaps it entails a final tiring of fear and a corresponding surrendering to love

Ascension is coming home.

In Jesus' Ascension it appeared he was leaving those who loved him. They were wary of his assurance he'd be with them always. Always! They might have been consoling words, but their eyes saw him no more. He was gone. No longer out there to see.

Here - that's the promise Jesus tried to assure them - I am here. Here with you. See me, he said, and you see the Father, and the Paraclete (a supportive comforter - like sangha, community) will come. And all will be well with each and all.

(As I write this I break to dash to kitchen stove every five minutes to spray and bake bread.)

Still uncertain but open to what Ascension means for Meetingbrook, we listen and watch, both in silence and conversation. We don't know. What we trust is our "yes" to the call to contemplate, converse, and correspond with all that is taking place.

If you want to be no
Different from the buddhas
And Zen masters,
Just don't seek externally.
The pure light of a
Moment of awareness
Is the Buddha's essence within you.

- Linji (d.867) (dailyzen)

At the end of his Gospel account, Matthew has Jesus saying as he ascended,
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age. (Mt.28:19-20)

"To observe all," - what a lovely teaching and learning to dwell with one another in common!

Here is what we propose: To engage the lovely teaching and learning - the sacred reality that observes all dwelling with one another in common.

In trusting appreciation,
, Sando , Cisco , Mini and all who grace Meetingbrook,
5May02

www.meetingbrook.org

Email (mono@meetingbrook.org) or mail to Meetingbrook, 50 Bayview St. Camden, Maine 04843.

April 2002 Update
March 2002 Update
February 2002 Update
January 2002 Update
December 2001 Update
November 2001 Update
Mid-October Update
October 2001 Update
September 2001 Update
August 2001 Uptate
July 2001 Update
June 2001 Update
May 2001 Update
April 2001 Update
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February 2001 Update
January 2001 Update
December 2000 Update
November 2000 Update
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September 2000 Update
August 2000 Update
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December 99 Update 
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Meetingbrook Hermitage
64 Barnstown Rd.,
Camden, Maine USA 04843
Meetingbrook Bookshop & Bakery
50 Bayview St. (Cape on the harbor)
Camden, Maine USA 04843
207-236-6808
e-mail: mono@meetingbrook.org

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