all souls

 We honor the dead

Those who lived

This life

itadakimasu (いただきます)

 She died today

Those years ago

Husband by her side

His Cambridge chemistry

Their Yale romance

The nun freed and out

I didn’t know

She’d been ill

I didn’t know

Ten years ago

Fifty years later

The flower ungrasped

Children’s hands

Offering sweet petals

A frozen picture

Devoted friendship

Fallen frieze

Crumbled into words

Where, gratefully received,

A slow honoring bow

To each thanks and yes

few, whereof one cannot speak

 God

God is

God is not

God is not only

God is not only good

God is not only good but

God is not only good but impossible

God is not only good but impossible too 

God is not only good but impossible to fathom.

But holiness knows this.

Which is why there are so few saints.

Cheers to the unfathoming few

Silently among us

wu wei involves letting go of ideals that we may otherwise try to force too violently onto things

Watts and Taoism, delightful All Saints imbroglio of his life and mine, sun streaming into wohnkūche on the morning of ambivalent hour and the last roll of cloud paper in WC.

Sitting still, doing nothing, and falling leaf shadow passes through peripheral vision.

WU WEI – DOING NOTHING 無爲

Wu wei means – in Chinese – non-doing or ‘doing nothing’. It sounds like a pleasant invitation to relax or worse, fall into laziness or apathy. Yet this concept is key to the noblest kind of action according to the philosophy of Daoism – and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way. According to the central text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing: ‘The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone’. This is the paradox of wu wei. It doesn’t mean not acting, it means ‘effortless action’ or ‘actionless action’. It means being at peace while engaged in the most frenetic tasks so that one can carry these out with maximum skill and efficiency. Something of the meaning of wu wei is captured when we talk of being ‘in the zone’ – at one with what we are doing, in a state of profound concentration and flow.

  

wu wei

Wu wei is closely connected to the Daoist reverence for the natural world, for it means striving to make our behaviour as spontaneous and inevitable as certain natural processes, and to ensure that we are swimming with rather than against currents. We are to be like the bamboo that bends in the wind or the plant that adjusts itself to the shape of a tree. Wu wei involves letting go of ideals that we may otherwise try to force too violently onto things; it invites us instead to respond to the true demands of situations, which tend only to be noticed when we put our own ego-driven plans aside. What can follow is a loss of self-consciousness, a new unity between the self and its environment, which releases an energy that is normally held back by an overly aggressive, wilful style of thinking. 

https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/wu-wei-doing-nothing/

 All the times I’ve run into a wall (who put that there?) this body and psyche have been bruised and cut. Time takes care of rescinding each impasse leaving a log of the body’s insults and mind’s trauma.

This morning, cat on lap, I delight that elsewhere buddhist, christian, jewish, muslim, hindu, and atheistic compañeros are practicing (or non-practicing) their take on the world and existence with an equanimous mind and beneficent spirit equal to the radiant sunlight crawling up this chair.

What do we have to do?

How live through this ephemera? 

Whither prayer? Why and why not?

Reverence.

I bow to each and all, worthy or unworthy, selvedged or unselvedged.

And remain sitting in the stillness of this passing moment.

Unreservedly grateful.

1 nov

 What is holiness?

Yes, it is!

No other questions

does anybody really know

 We've lost or gained 

an hour, they say.

Sleep it off —

Time —

What an idea

everything degenerates, he said

Listening to Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy, Susan Neiman (Interview Adaptation), I am pointed to Rousseau.

G E N E R A L  R E M A R K S .

T h e  O b j e c t  o f  E d u c a t i o n .

C O M I N G from the h a n d of the A u t h o r of all things,

everything is g o o d ; in the h a n d s of m a n , everything

degenerates. M a n obliges one soil to nourish the productions

of another, one tree t o ' b e a r the fruits of another ; he mingles

and confounds climates, elements, seasons ; he mutilates his

dog, his horse, his slave. H e overturns everything, disfigures

e v e r y t h i n g ; he loves deformity, m o n s t e r s ; he desires

t h a t nothing should be as nature m a d e it, not even m a n himself.

T o please him, m a n must be broken in like a h o r s e ;

man m u s t be ad ap te d to m a n ' s own fashion, like a tree in

his g a r d e n .

W e r e it not for all this, m a t t e r s would be still worse. N o

one wishes* to be a half-developed being ; and in the present

condition of things, a m a n left to himself among others from

his birth would be the most deformed among them all.

Prejudices, authority, necessities, example, all the social

institutions in which we are submerged, would stifle nature

in him, a n d would p u t nothing in its place. I n such a m a n

n a t u r e would b e like a shrub sprung u p by chance in the

midst of a highway, and jostled from all sides, b e n t in every

direction, b y the passers-by.

P l a n t s are improved b y cultivation, and m e n b y education.

If m a n were born large and strong, his size and strength

would be useless to him until he had learned to use t h e m .

T h e y would be prejudicial to him, by preventing others from

thinking of assisting him ; a n d left to himself he would die of

wretchedness before he h a d known his own necessities. W e

pity the state of infancy ; we clo n o t perceive t h a t the h u m a n

race would have perished if m a n h a d not begun b y being a

child.

W e are born weak, we need s t r e n g t h ; we are born destit

u t e of all things, we need a s s i s t a n c e ; we are born stupid,

we need judgment. All t h a t we have not at our birth, a n d

t h a t we need when grown u p , is given us b y education.

This education comes to us from n a t u r e itself, or from

other men, or from circumstances. T h e internal developm

e n t of our faculties a n d of our organs is the education^

n a t u r e gives us ; the use we are t a u g h t to m a k e of this development

is the education we get from other m e n ; and what

we learn, b y our own experience, about things t h a t interest

u s , is the education of circumstances.

Each of lis is therefore formed by three kinds of teachers.

T h e pupil in whom their different lessons contradict one

another is badly educated, and will never be in h a r m o n y with

himself; the one in whom they all touch upon the samo

points and t e n d toward the same object advances toward

t h a t goal only, and lives accordingly. H e alone is well educated.

N o w of these three different educations, t h a t of nature does

not depend upon us ; t h a t of circumstances d e p e n d s upon us

only in certain respects ; t h a t of men is the only one of

which we are really masters, a n d that solely because we

think we are. F o r who can hope to direct entirely the speech

a n d conduct of all who surround a child ?

(Beginning of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile; or Concerning Education, 1762)

Reading too many accounts of paedophilia, rape, sexual abuse, infidelity, and promiscuity I have, of a  sudden, begun to think that the matter with humans is the obsession of man (men) to insert themselves into everything, especially other human beings.

There seems to be an acceptance of men sticking himself in everything, from other bodies, to everyone’s business.

I don’t know what to do with such an observation.

I’m also not sure what to think about evil.

Or God.

It is All-Hallow’s Eve. The Thin Place. That supposed time when the veil between ‘worlds’ is thinnest and accessibility of communication is at hand.

We hurt one another. Earthquakes crush people. Tsunamis wash people away. We’ve been taught that man has sinned and screwed up the world. We’ve been told that God-Itself became man to save and redeem humankind and wash away sin. So many stories. So many explanations. So unconvincing.

We heard when younger to ‘mind your own business.’

All around us we also heard ‘stick it to them.’

I still don’t know what to think.

I, still; don’t know: what? to think?

AI Overview [1, 2].  Evil     

 

Definitions by Part of Speech

• Adjective: Describes someone or something morally bad, cruel, wicked, or harmful (e.g., an evil dictator, evil deeds). It can also describe things that are intensely unpleasant or repulsive, such as an evil smell.
• 
  
• Noun: Refers to the abstract concept of wickedness, or to a specific calamity, sorrow, disease, or wrongdoing (e.g., the evils of war, suffering from an evil).
• 
  
• Adverb (evilly): Describes an action done in a wicked, malicious, or injurious manner. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key Perspectives

• Philosophical & Psychological: Philosophers often divide evil into moral evil (suffering caused by human choice and cruelty) and natural evil (suffering caused by natural events like earthquakes or illness). Thinkers and psychologists also study how social pressure, obedience, or dark personality traits drive human harm.

• Religious: In Abrahamic traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam), evil is often viewed as disobedience to God, moral corruption, or the absence of good. Eastern traditions frequently view it as an imbalance or attachment that clouds spiritual growth.

• Community Views: On Reddit, users generally reach a consensus that evil is not an independent magical force, but rather the choice made by individuals with free will to cause destruction and limit the growth of others. [1, 2, 3] 

 It is befuddling, this delving into the nature of the universe, the nature of man, the nature of existence.

And yet, I ask. We ask. We’re more than curious. Our lives, perhaps our fates, are in the balance.

AI Overview

Albert Einstein did not actually ask or write whether the universe was benevolent or friendly; the famous quote is a widespread misattribution. 

Quora +1

The Misattribution

• The Quote: Variations include "The most important question we can ask is whether the universe is benevolent" or "The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe". 
• Goodreads +1

• The Reality: There is no documented historical record of Albert Einstein making this statement. Instead, the idea is a modern self-help and motivational paraphrase that has been repeatedly attached to his name online. 
• Facebook ·SpeakWell.Rocks +1

What Einstein Actually Believed

• Comprehensibility and Order: Einstein viewed the universe as deeply rational, lawful, and understandable, famously summarizing his view of nature with, "Subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not". 
• Quora

• Spinoza's God: He did not believe in a personal God who cares about human fate, morality, or benevolence. Instead, he subscribed to Baruch Spinoza's view of God—an impersonal divinity expressed through the harmonious, mathematical order of the natural world. 
• Reform Judaism.org

No matter what our understanding, I’d prefer to rid the world of paedophiles, abusers, cruel people, and those who protect them.

Where does that leave me?

Who will relieve me of these meddlesome bastards? These meddlesome thoughts?

Meddlesomeness itself?

And what of Kant? 

    “Act as though the principle of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature.”

         (-- Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785)

late

At two thirty AM 

bed

It got late

As it does

When not

Paying attention

hanging chads

 I sit and do not stare at anything

I glance

everything is where it is

right there

do you believe me --

don’t

I am not to be trusted

that’s that

today’s leafy carpet, next year’s soil

 When I lose my way

I look in every direction

For hint where to travel

When able to stand and waddle

I mostly watch ground

Which seems nearer than ever

Inches of fallen leaves on path

Shushing under boots as dog and I

Near gate to house through barn

for now

 I don’t know nor care 

about life after death.

That’s it

Nothing more

anicca

 Meetingbrook.org website has disappeared.

Today at meetingbrook still hangs around.

Impermanence.

Soon, everything gone.

How do I feel about this twenty five years writing a blog?

Thirty years website?

365,698 visits so far this month.

3,414,430 since sept 2001

So ist das Leben!

Oh well!

seeing through

I wandered into zen around 1963. I read John C.H. Wu while in novitiate with the Franciscans in Lafayette NJ. I sat next to the bookshelf during conferences and his book kept saying ‘pssst’ ‘pssst’.

I looked through Wu and continued looking through these 63 years. While never seeing clearly, the practice of looking through has been a subtle melodic accompaniment to what seeing might be. 

Enlightenment means seeing into

your own essential nature,

and this at the same time means

seeing through to the essential

nature of the cosmos and of all things.

—Yasutani, 1885-1973) 

Hakuun Yasutani (安谷 白雲, Yasutani Haku'un; 1885–1973) was a Sōtō Zen priest and the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan, a lay Japanese Zen group. Through his students Philip Kapleau and Taizan Maezumi, Yasutani has been one of the principal forces in founding western (lay) Zen-practice.

 --wikipedia

Some have said it’s not so much the looking at as it is the looking as. 

Curiously, these days I’ve noticed a distinction arising. There is glancing and there is gazing. When i’m feeling blah and off to some sit down/lie down passing altar in front room, I glance, I merely note, and pass. No feeling, no lingering. 

Other times, passing through or sitting in white chair, I gaze. I take in what is there. I let pass through what is permeating on its way through. I linger.

The glance says ‘I note.’ The gaze says, ‘I am not’.

It might seem a facile distinction, but, these days, presence and non-presence seems to depend on how I feel and whether I want to continue...anything.

“[T]he essential nature of the cosmos and of all things” -- I suspect, must contain the birth and death of stars, galaxies, and the smallest forms of life -- all arising and departing according to some impulse/logic we have not yet been able to figure out. 

I watch my body packing its valise with things it will not need. I note my energy has been sent by UPS to an undisclosed location. My thoughts wander Penn Station looking up at arrivals and departures afraid to approach ticket counter with empty wallet. My breath is a child holding on to the sleeve of a worn coat covering a body chilled with season change.

I glance at things.

Periodically I gaze.

I don’t know what I am seeing; I don’t know what I am seeing through.

another nice mess

I give up.

Where?  

If all things are returned to the One,

To where does that One return?

--(Saying appears in classic Zen records, such as Case 45 of the Blue Cliff Record, attributed to the Tang dynasty master Zhaozhou Congshen (Jōshū). [1])

Often at the scene of an accident there will be a cop waving people to keep on going saying, ‘Move along; nothing to see here!”

These zen masters of sidewalks and roadways are unnamed bodhisattvas in the lineage of Jōshū urging us to enter the prospect that where we are is where we are going and that where we have been is where we’ve never left.

One is, after all, One.

I walk out into chilly October Tuesday morning, pass water, kinhin (經行) to wooden gate by road, watch sun begin descent from atop bald mountain like some rusty rustic blanket ballet falling from bed when sleep grows old and body asks for movement.

An aside: 

(--Radical environmentalist and author Edward Abbey, famously said that if you cannot urinate outside on your own property without being seen or bothered, your neighbors are too close and you have moved too near to civilization. [1, 2])

I often lose track of what day it is these days. I listen to nuns in France chanting Laudes. Simple morning prayer whose Latin benignly obscures facile delve for meaning leaving only aesthetic attention to their cadence melody.

The silence in wohnkūche suffices as naved monastic enclosure chapel in imagination good enough for me. The thin thread of geographic location stretches wraith-like these days as worn-through consciousness billows with slightest breeze into chimerical phantasmagoria. 

Who needs to go anywhere when I am (we are) already there?

Where does the one return?

Yes!

Or as my Jewish neighbor in childhood Bensonhurst used to say again and again, “Don’t ask!”

On my doorjamb, this:

     שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד

• Transliteration: Sh'ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad
• 
  
• Translation: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One” (Or, “The Lord Alone.”)
• 
  

The monastics sing:

 Omnes Angeli ejus,        All his Angels, 

 laudáte Dóminum de cælis               Praise the Lord from the heavens!

Perhaps the universe is One.

And there is no reaching or transcending this One.

And here we are!

Hmmm, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!” (Oliver Hardy)

knock, knock, knock

 green Adirondack chair

facing bald mountain --

yellow burnt orange

slow revelation of color

turning clouds drift west

to east as mountain sits still

this wide zendo facing one

another cushioning silent love

overlooking the obvious

 I’m no psychologist or psychiatrist, but this: https://youtu.be/dJtbSg0MaMQ?si=OZomq1IXzEYt9zh4

A day will come when we will ask how in God’s name this state of affairs came about and was allowed to continue.

There will be sorrow and deep regret in the asking.

christ graciously hear us

 what if there were no ‘mistakes’

if everything that has happened 

has happened of necessity

all of it, no accident, no mistake

what logic applies, what reasoning

the necessity of everything?

if you ask me have I sinned

I’d say October leaves

on ground belong to earth

I would say both hurt and joy

are yesterday’s notes on a page

torn out beside an ink-dry pen

cruelty

 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/opinion/midterm-ads-ramaswamy-acton-ohio.html

OPINION, 

DAVID FRENCH, There Is Nothing MAGA Won’t Sink To, Oct. 25, 2026, 6:00 a.m. ET