It's official. America will stay in Iraq. No reduction of troops. No strategy to end or disengage.

Instead, 2.5 billion dollars a week, with an acceptable number of US military casualties, and an acceptable number of angry Iraqi casualties. (This former category -- angry Iraqis-- for purposes of shilling the war, are typically called insurgents, terrorists, or, of late, al Qaeda in Iraq.)

Which way
Did you come from,
Following dream paths at night,
While snow is still deep
In this mountain recess?
- Ryokan (1758-1831)

The temperature chills. It's Maine. Time to fret that the wood is not ordered. Snow could come any time. (That's a bit over-reaching.) Still...something to think about other than futility and absurdity.

Mr. Bush gave a well-crafted speech tonight. Also delivered well. It would comfort me -- if I agreed with his premise, his reasoning, and the fact of the devastating problem he's led us into, and will not get us out of.

You do bad deeds and hope to get back good

Though bad deserves bad only in return.

God is merciful and kind, but even so,

If you plant barley, wheat won't grow.

(Poem by Jalal al-Din Rumi, #1798, from Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi)

There's no good place for this war to go.

We'll have to suffer its continuance.

Make do with barley. Look for wheat.

And look, and look, and look.

Let's keep the fast.

Rosh Hashanah -- Happy New Year!

Ramadan -- Good Fasting!

"Friends, I tell you this: there is no Buddha, no spiritual path to follow, no training and no realization. What are you so feverishly running after? Putting a head on top of your own head, you blind idiots? Your head is right where it should be. The trouble lies in your not believing in yourselves enough. Because you don't believe in yourselves you are knocked here and there by all the conditions in which you find yourselves. Being enslaved and turned around by objective situations, you have no freedom whatever, you are not masters of yourselves. Stop turning to the outside and don't be attached to my words either. Just cease clinging to the past and hankering after the future. This will be better than ten years' pilgrimage."
(--Lin Chi)

Nice name, Mary!

No clinging, no hankering!

My kind of guy, that Lin Chi!

Maybe there's a need to bench God for a while. Sit him down. Give her a towel. Hand him/her some water. Put on a warm-up jacket. Lean back. Loosen shoelaces. Become just one of the team. Do we think God would take issue? Would God be upset?

Maybe we'll recommend adjusting the use of the word "God" and continue encouraging the reality of God to work through all creation. We'll have to decide whether the word has been so used and abused that the call to park the name, the concept, or the being on the bench is a useful hiatus.

Space and the Buddha-nature
One of the most common analogies used to describe the Buddha-nature is space itself. This analogy has three aspects. First, just as space is omnipresent and yet is unpolluted by everything it pervades, similarly, Buddha-nature pervades every sentient being without being in any way tainted. Second, just as galaxies and universes arise and pass within space, so do the characteristics of our personalities arise and pass within Buddha-nature. Our sensations arise and pass away; Buddha-nature continues. Third, just as space is never consumed by fire, so this Buddha-nature is never consumed by the "fire" of aging, sickness, or death.
(--B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up From Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith)

Humanly, we look at 9-11 with a mixture of anger, sorrow, and frustration. It is not apparent that wisdom has yet arrived. What individuals have done with the experience is mostly private. What the government has done in response is well known. Of that, there is anger, sorrow, and frustration on every side.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
(Poem: "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver, from House of Light. Beacon Press, 1992.)

Maybe prayer is the willingness to "pay attention," "fall down," "kneel down," "be idle," "blessed," and "stroll through." Mary Oliver asks me what I plan to do with my life. The fact of 9-11 on a summer day six years ago also asks.

There's a need for a new understanding and experience of what we've called "God." The ways we've settled on to call God into the game when a strong arm in needed to enforce some payback, or to act as a fund raiser for private enterprises, as a foot soldier pulling the trigger, or greeter for suicide bombers entering what they call paradise -- all need revision.

"How do we go about this weeding of distorted influences that have shaped us since birth, and throughout formative years as a child, teenager, young adult? The key is the acceptance of the struggle to live an existence on the planet earth as free of as many illusions and delusions as possible. To truly know yourself is to struggle to overcome psychological weaknesses and develop inner strength
through knowledge and understanding, to learn to grapple with what you've been taught to believe about life, God, politics, love, art, and much more—and keep on struggling till you know what is true and what is based on inadequate knowledge and distortions of tradition and custom."
***
"We've got thousands of theologians mired in literalism and bias, spouting their limited interpretations of God and the Bible to crowds just as gullible as those Voltaire called the “credulous rabble” three hundred years ago. Not that the other four of the Big Five religions don’t have their mouthpieces to convince everyone their way is THE way. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, together create an immense hermeneutic absurdity of vast scope, a chaotic mind collage of abstract concepts, delusions, distortions and embellishment mixed with genuine vision and meaningful myth. The only saving grace, and I cannot stress this too often, is the stream of Sophianic wisdom, clear and pure, flowing through the flotsam and jetsam of it all, which, if we are careful, attentive, sincere, meticulously eclectic and persevering, we can partake of."
(- from Pushing Ultimates, by Lew Paz, c.2006, http://plumbell.com/Excerpts.html)

Meanwhile, I contemplate the Sophianic, namely, life as the life of self-giving wisdom.

Lord, I do not puff myself up or stare about,
or walk among the great or seek wonders beyond me.

Truly calm and quiet I have made my spirit:
quiet as a weaned child in its mother’s arms –
like an infant is my soul.
(--from Psalm 131,)

In-God, infant trust, how the soul/spirit longs to learn to pray!

Are we in-God?

Is "God" what is within everything?

The within Itself?

So it is we attend and attempt -- free, open, informal -- as is, prayer itself.

There's a dwelling space called the thin place.

Some live in between -- not this, not that. What luck! The unseen middle.

The great path has no gates,
Thousands of roads enter it.
When passing through this gateless gate
You walk freely between heaven and earth.
-- Mu-mon (1228)

Men discuss war in the halls of power. Citizens are at either end of saying leave or stay.

To Luck

In the cards and at the bend in the road
we never saw you
in the womb and in the crossfire
in the numbers
whatever you had your hand in
which was everything
we were told never to put
our faith in you
to bow to you humbly after all
because in the end there was nothing
else we could do
but not to believe in you
still we might coax you with pebbles
kept warm in the hand
or coins or the relics
of vanished animals
observances rituals
not binding upon you
who make no promises
we might do such things only
not to neglect you
and risk your disfavor
oh you who are never the same
who are secret as the day when it comes
you whom we explain
as often as we can
without understanding
(--Poem: "To Luck" by W. S. Merwin. The Writer's Almanac)

I wish Iraq luck. I wish America luck. If what I do is pray, then I pray for those at either extreme.

Looking from the between, one sees a place from which God looks. It is a lucky place.

Luck refers to that which is beyond control.

This is how I am -- says God -- invisible, completely with each one, and nowhere certain how it will end. Good Luck.

Many think, how odd.

Not me.

Just.

God.

Finally, rain.

The fragrance. The sound. The feel.

The dry ground and empty mountain receive moisture.

Time is to be valued! You just try to learn Zen or Tao on the surface as something outside yourself, learning to recognize terms and slogans, seeking “buddhahood,” seeking “mastery,” seeking “teachers,” considering them conceptually. Make no mistake about it; you have but one mother and father, so what more are you seeking? Turn your attention back upon yourself and observe.
- Lin Chi (d 867?)

I stay within.

Saskia went to hear Bob preach last evening at the local Catholic church. This morning she tells me his words. We are driving to South Thomaston to find out breakfast ended two hours earlier. We wind up in Rockland at table next to Farnsworth visitors. "Yes, the Wyeth, yes."

By last bite of toast with strawberry jam the cool downdraft coming in back door signaled there would be no canoeing.

I'd asked her what she would have done with the text. Then she asked me.

Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “‘ Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish”. Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’
(--Luke 14:25 - 33)

I said there was an absurdity in the text recommending hatred of "father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and ... own life."

Whatever benign interpretation about loving 100% those near you with work and struggle, there is another view that must be mentioned, if not contemplated.

First, of course, the question whether these words are gloss. If not, what context inserted in delayed narrative. But if authentic utterance in an historically accurate retrieval -- what of them?

The homilist probably read from SERMONWRITER, Resources for Lectionary Preaching, the following:

"Whoever comes to me and does not hate (Greek: mesei –– hate, disregard, be indifferent to) father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple" (v. 26). This is a difficult verse to hear, because it sounds anti-family. In recent decades, we have seen the decline of the traditional family, a decline brought on in large measure because of our discomfort with commitment. We are beginning to recognize the consequences of that decline, and do not want Jesus to make it worse. Furthermore, Jesus' words sound disrespectful to parents, which also conflicts with our values.

This, however, is Semitic hyperbole or exaggeration for effect. Jesus is not calling us to hate father and mother, but is instead calling us to a commitment above all other commitments, including commitment to family. "Hate" in this context is not a call to develop an intense dislike for family members, but is rather a call to love them less than Christ. This is a common OT idea (see Prov. 13:24; 2 Sam. 19:6; Gen 29:30-33; Mal. 1:2-3; Deut. 21:15-17). "Compare also 16:13, where a love-hate...dichotomy describes preferring one master over another" (Stein, 397).

"Since Jesus said the hallmark of discipleship is loving everyone, including even enemies and persecutors, it can hardly be the case that Jesus would literally call disciples to hate those closest to them. If you're supposed to love the one who whipped you, why not the one who nursed you" (Hoezee, 405). (http://www.lectionary.org/EXEG-English/NT/ENT03-Luke/Luke%2014.25-33.htm)

Tonight I contemplate the strangeness of this world. Someone who is supposed to be the manifestation of love in this world suggests we hate those nearest us in the name of love.
Those who are ordained to remember the sacrificial murder of son for father's will themselves molest boys and have their crimes covered up by higher ups in the organization.
Those who hold highest government executive office in a country dedicated to the ideals of democracy and freedom instead cultivate lies and deception, secrecy, oligarchy, torture, and disregard for law.
Those as CEOs who manufacture tobacco products advertised to bring pleasure but instead bring addiction and cancer continue to earn millions of dollars in salaries while they hobnob with lawmakers influencing and funding them to ease up on restrictions and make lawsuits against them more difficult.
And, of course, those who are sent to war to fight an enemy find themselves shooting their own comrades, shooting innocent civilians, and hating themselves in middle of night for the terrible things they are inexplicably forced to do in the ugliness of war.

So much illusion. So much fiction.

Ideas and Images
Modern culture would have us worship before the altar of the thinking mind, with its endless capacity to produce ideas, fantasies, and formulas. We are taught that the thinking mind is the possessor of all wisdom, and we dedicate much of our lives to the pursuit of knowledge and information. Seeing the world and ourselves through the filter of all the information we have accumulated, we can be imprisoned by the very ideas and images we have so ardently pursued. Often we think that we know ourselves, when what we know is only what we think about ourselves. When we think we know the world around us, our static images bar us from seeing the mystery held within each changing moment. What is an image if not just a description of the world that is bound to the past? - (--Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart)

Where to look?

Just now, last Ginger Snap cookie.

Just now, swig of water.

Just now, with what is.

Ground.

Feel.

And.

Observe.

Note:
We're taking a few days quiet away. The Bookshop Bakery will re-open Wednesday afternoon 12Sept07

..............

Religion is a tricky category. You can claim to be religious and not be. You can claim not to be religious, and be such. Charlatans make facile claims. Holiness remains silent.

There's one, and only one, way to know one from the other.

The United States, we love to say — and Europeans repeat in a kind of incredulous wonder — is the most “religious” country in the world. Meaning, of course, the most church-going country in the world. Whether or not going to church correlates well with religious values is clearly a debatable subject. To wit, the corporal works of mercy — as in, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the imprisoned, visit the sick, and bury the dead. It is on these criteria in Matthew 25: 31-46, however, that Jesus rests his definition of salvation. No small thing for those who considers themselves “religious.”
(Published on Friday, September 7, 2007 by National Catholic Reporter, re-posted on Common Dreams, We Need Candidates Who Are Really Religious, by Joan Chittister)

Only by fruits are the religious known. It's what we are and what we do -- not what we say. Talk, as they say, is cheap. Acts are a more reliable currency.

Mostly, what we need is transformation.

Looking Deeply
Garbage can smell terrible, especially rotting organic matter. But it can also become rich compost for fertilizing the garden. The fragrant rose and the stinking garbage are two sides of the same existence. Without one, the other cannot be. Everything is in transformation. The rose that wilts after six days will become a part of the garbage. After six months the garbage is transformed into a rose. When we speak of impermanence, we understand that everything is in transformation. This becomes that, and that becomes this. Looking deeply, we can contemplate one thing and see everything else in it. We are not disturbed by change when we see the interconnectedness and continuity of all things. It is not that the life of any individual is permanent, but that life itself continues.
(--Thich Nhat Hanh, in Present Moment, Wonderful Moment)

Then there are words that encourage others to act. Even the current Pope, Benedict XVI, has good words, like the following:

Benedict urged the young to "go against the grain" and not be seduced by pressure, including from the mass media, to succeed at all costs in arrogant, egotistical ways.

"Be vigilant! Be critical! Don't get swept up in the wave of this powerful persuasion," he said. "Don't be afraid, dear friends, to take the 'alternate' path indicated by true love: a sober and solid lifestyle, with loving, sincere and pure relations, an honest commitment to studies and work, and the profound interest in the common good."
(--Pope urges young to care for planet, By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Sun Sep 2, 4:14 PM ET)

He was talking about paying attention to the earth's resources. I suppose his words could equally apply to matters of faith, authority, abuses, and healthy direction with regard to church, state, and corporate life. In fact, life itself.

The Dreams of the Old

So they are around our table—my mother,
my father, an uncle—and we begin to talk
about our dreams—with some urgency—
as if our dreams could pinpoint our psychic
dangers—our unrealized goals—our
ordinary fear of death and the future.
My mother talks about her dreams of flying
over the little town where she grew up—
over the old Opera House—down Main Street—
with all the people she knew below her—
then towards the gently flowing river—
that seemed to flow into the sunset—
toward which she soared—she lingered
with us on that image—as if she had said
enough—then—my uncle talked about
his recurring dream—he's going to be
in a play—but no one's bothered
to rehearse the scenes—he's standing
in the wings waiting to go on—he doesn't
know what he will say—all through this
my father is silent—he is closest to death—
we all know this—we forgive him his silence—
his silence—has his presence—as in a dream.
(--Poem: "The Dreams of the Old" by Timothy J. Nolan, on The Writer's Almanac)

In today's culture, everyone is a commentator. Similarly, no act, no person passing by is immune from worded assessment, opinion pinned to their departing presence, or judgment levied with the unconscious mimicry of an omniscient God, indignant Imam, infallible Pope, or other examples where arrogance might subtly appear in association with power, knowledge, or assumed superiority.

The silent among us dwell differently.

Only acts speak.

Nothing.

Else.

Matters.

Tomorrow is Mary's birthday.

Unmon said: "I do not ask you about fifteen days ago. But what about fifteen days hence? Come, say a word about this!" Since none of the monks answered, he answered for them: "Every day is a good day."
--Zen Koan

In prison this morning one of the men said "Compassion brings the one practicing it into intimate connection with the one receiving compassion. Pity puts the pitier at a distance from the one pitied."`

The Lord God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it’. Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate’.
--Genesis 3:9 - 20

It's only an apple.

Now we need a little compassion.

Happy birthday!

No voice but Luciano Pavarotti today singing Nessun Dorma.

You have obstacles only because you have not realized the emptiness of the eons. Genuine Wayfarers are never like this; they just dissolve their history according to conditions, dressing according to circumstances, acting when they need to act, and sitting when they need to sit, without any idea of seeking the fruits of buddhahood.
- Lin Chi (d 867?)

At Thursday Evening Conversation the talk was of war.

War is not the answer.

So many think it is.

It's not.

Metaphor carries us beyond.

God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.
(-- Joseph Campbell, quoted from Famous Dead Non-theists)

And that, of course, is that.

Dark early. At sundown I rowed Camden Harbor, out around Curtis Island, wide sweep toward red buoy, and back through channel. One harbor seal kept an eye on me on my return.

If you want to be free,
Get to know your real self.
It has no form, no appearance,
No root, no basis, no abode,
But is lively and buoyant.
It responds with versatile facility,
But its function cannot be located.
Therefore when you look for it,
You become further from it;
When you seek it,
You turn away from it all the more.
- Rinzai (d.867)

In cabin, a solitary candle burns through darkness for friend one year dead today, She knew the cabin well on Sunday evenings -- sitting, walking, and chanting. I miss her.

Musee des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
( --Poem by W. H. Auden, 1938)

At my first class on Ethics tomorrow night I'll lecture on "Suffering." I agree with Albert Camus. He said: ""There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." We each ask the question. The conclusion we reach is consequential.

Depression is not about pain. Depression is about the absence of pain, the absence of feeling.
Depression covers anxiety and fear like a fog. Once depressed, I was no longer anxious about my children. If I drank a cup of coffee, my mood was not enhanced; if I went to a party, I didn't feel better.
If I read poetry, my soul no longer blossomed as it had in the past. No feeling is what depression is about, and the condition created a barrier between me and my children, my husband, my friends.
Depression is not about pain: it's about everything gone away. ...
Women in each generation of my family endured lives of poverty; they passively suffered the births of many children, yet they knew there were other lives they could have lived. They were afraid to look. ....

At an early age I learned that things stand for other things. ...
I have had to look at my life. And I have escaped from madness by understanding transformation, how each thing transcends its own reality. I either go mad or I learn about metaphor.
(--from "Thorazine Shuffle" by filmmaker Allie Light -- ...in the book Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness, ed. by Rebecca Shannonhouse)

What does it mean to transcend one's own reality?

Who is suffering? And, whose suffering is not also ours?

It is good to live a good life. Would it be better to realize the wholeness of life?

You are my metaphor.

Your very reality.

As you...like it.

Candle flame.

Old dog and olding companion to old dog walk Ragged Mountain early. Young dogs with pleasant companions catch up easily, greet, and pass ahead on the trails and runways. It is Labor Day. A holiday.

Mountain waves branches welcoming all visitors.

The perfect way’s like boundless space
Nothing lacking, nothing extra
It is because of choice
That its absolute truth is lost.
Don’t pursue externals;
Don’t dally in the interior void.
When the spirit remains serene
In the unity of things
Dualism vanishes by itself;
When that unity is not clear
There is loss in both directions.
- Sent-ts’an (d. 606)

Cars will head south today. The beautiful weather will cause to linger those wishing one last canoe ride, one last walk on country path, one last long cup of coffee talking about the summer vacation and dreamingly itemizing next year's.

All is flux
The Buddha stressed the dynamic nature of existence. This resonates with the ideas of some early Greek philosophers, such as Heraclitus, who maintained that, "All is flux" and "You can't step into the same river twice." Now, all this sounds like common sense. Yest there is something in our minds and emotions that kicks back at the idea of change. We are forever trying to break the dynamic world-dance, which is a unity, into separate "things," which we then freeze in the ice of thought. But the world-dance doggedly refuses to remain fragmented and frozen. It swirls on, changing from moment to moment laughing at all our pitiful attempts to organize and control it. In order to live skillfully, in harmony with the dynamic Universe, it is essential to accept the reality of change and impermanence. The wise person therefore travels lightly, with a minimum of clutter, maintaining the proverbial "open mind" in all situations, for he or she knows hat tomorrow's reality will not be the same as today's. He or she will also have learned the divine art of letting go -- which means not being attached to people and possessions and situations, but rather, when the time for parting comes, allowing that to happen graciously.
(- John Snelling, Elements of Buddhism From Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith)

Sometimes what we call prayer is all that remains. With prayer we lift mind/heart to what is in itself loving and true, to what is in itself -- love and truth.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)
This is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive – it is the Lord who speaks. Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. (--Jeremiah 31:33)

Then, when people look through their hearts -- then, will what is called God be seen through.

Minute by minute the day is.

And becomes.

Itself.

Three of us faced Belfast Harbor talking about boats, buildings, and beautiful mornings.

Alden is 60 today. He invited us into his backyard.

The pure light of your mind in a single moment of thought is the reality-body Buddha in your own house.
The nondiscriminatory light of your mind in a single moment of thought is the reward-body Buddha in your own house.
The nondifferentiated light of your mind in a single moment of thought is the projection-body Buddha in your own house.
These three kinds of embodiment are none other than the person who is listening to the teaching right here and now, but it is only by not seeking outwardly that one has these effective functions.
- Lin Chi (d 867?)

A gracious host in Belfast, a reminder of the quiet joy of hospitality, and we are welcomed beings.

The walk back across the foot bridge is sweet September sunshine and lovely breeze. Men and boys bait their hooks, tossing lines down into Passagassawakeag river.

Back from where we come from, a man in white Rankins' hat keeps watch over the day.

Tide makes its way up-river.

Maybe we're not mean. Maybe we're unskilled at inclusion. Maybe our curiosity about one another isn't really interrogation. Maybe the woman saying she felt unwelcome in Maine carried her personal unwelcome mat with her. It's hard tellin' what is actually going on in any one of us. Makes ya think though.

We do not see things as they are;
we see things as we are.
-- The Talmud

A fellow familiar with the Course in Miracles told us the quote: "Perception is projection."

Psychologists since Freudian times have spoken of the concept of 'projection' and have stated that "perception is projection." Essentially, what this means is that you can't see anything outside of you that isn't you. So examining an area of your life that you are currently not happy with can yield extraordinary insights about what you believe about life.
(-- in Chapter 5, Turning Passions into Profits, by Christopher Howard)

The difficulty with not exploring within is the consequent temptation to seek outside for some reified example of what is unacceptable to you and proceed to point out to everyone the flawed proof of your dislike. This roundabout confirmation of self-created reality becomes precedent we refer back to, taking on a life of its own -- not only in our own mind, but in the minds of others.

Clear the land, thatch the rush for roof,
All around cherish the empty, the pure.
Mountain blossoms fall by a secluded door,
Within, one who has forgotten the world’s schemings.
Concern with existence needs no possession,
Comprehending the void does not wait upon reason,
All things are of conditions born,
Profound is the silence in the midst of clamor.
A person’s mind is very much the same;
A bird in flight, leaving no tracks behind.
- Liu Zongyuan (773 – 819)

There are many tracks left behind by our unexamined thinking. Sometimes all that can be done when these tracks muddy our floor is to find a mop, fill a bucket with hot water, and swab.

And like Nietzsche before him, Sierksma claimed that those features of the world to which an organism is attuned are those that have proved crucial in its struggle for survival. Perception is the means by which it "goes at the world" spontaneously; that is, seeks to control and assimilate it. In this sense, every species necessarily subjectively modifies or falsifies the world in the very process of perception. In this case, perception is projection.
(--p.254-55 in Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion, by Van Austin Harvey, Cambridge University Press, c.1997)

Here's the difference between contemporary belief and contemporary being. Some hold that we create the world, our reality, and the diseases found therein. It seems to me, rather, we determine (by our unexamined interpretation) the world as projected by our fragmented, subjective point of view. In brief, as the Talmud says: We do not see things as they are;
we see things as we are.

Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.
--John Calvin

We make of what we see a representation of our often flawed and fragmented sight. With this we cause suffering. So seldom, if ever, do we practice whole-sight.

Jack stops in. He says that forgiveness means no judgment. When we judge things we make of what-actually-is an object of our attack. The Course in Miracles says that forgiveness ends all suffering. Judgment, he says, might be seen as attack on God. Judgment asks reality to be different than it is. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is letting go of judgment.

The day has been glorious. Clear sky, clear breeze. People making their way through a holiday weekend, through a generous symbolic end of the summer season. The Taverner Consort sings Palestrina and Josquin Desprez. The air and sound are resplendent.

An older sister and younger sister piece together the red wood lobster puzzle. A woman with gray hair chews her Topfen Kuchen and finishes the email on her Apple Mac. Saskia washes coffee cups. The light begins to lower at 6:20 pm. It's Jim's 45th birthday.

Blessing -- it's all blessing!

September 1st is new year's day in my perception.

Wind blows. The boy was born thirty five years ago. Lamb, cake and ice cream with fireworks for Camden's Windjammer Weekend.

Even profound concepts are ultimately empty: the Ultimate Path is wordless, and if we speak, we go astray from it. Though we may characterize the fundamental basis as “empty by nature,” there is no “fundamental basis” that can be labeled. Emptiness itself is wordless: it is not a mental construct.
- Records of the Lanka

We study the Four Seals in prison Buddhist Group:

So what is the particular view that Buddhists try to get used to? Buddhism is distinguished by four characteristics, or “seals.” Actually, if all these four seals are found in a path or a philosophy, it doesn’t matter whether you call it Buddhist or not. You can call it what you like; the words “Buddhist” or “Buddhism” are not important. The point is that if this path contains these four seals, it can be considered the path of the Buddha.
Therefore, these four characteristics are called “the Four Seals of Dharma.” They are:

All compounded things are impermanent.

All emotions are painful. This is something that only Buddhists would talk about. Many religions worship things like love with celebration and songs. Buddhists think, “This is all suffering.”

All phenomena are empty; they are without inherent existence. This is actually the ultimate view of Buddhism; the other three are grounded on this third seal.

The fourth seal is that nirvana is beyond extremes.
(In Shambhala Sun, March 2000, Buddhism In a Nutshell: The Four Seals of Dharma, by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche)

Elsewhere they are written:

Everything conditioned is impermanent
All tainted states are painful
All phenomena are empty and devoid of self-entity
Nirvana is peace
(--from Tricycle Log, by Erik Pema Kunsang)

I yawn one more time. Long day. I turn out light. Sleep.

There's no need to pretend.

We are not parts. We are manifestations of the whole.

Falling-in.

It could mean following in step, or letting go, or even going within. It's meaning depends on whether the context is military, love, or mystical prayer.

Regarding the third consideration, falling-in is the first step in a tripartite journey, the 2nd and 3rd being falling-through and falling-as-is.

We begin awareness with duality. We then engage what is there. ultimately we arrive at the realization there is nothing other than what is there as-is...we are there in undifferentiated suchness.

The monkey is reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He’ll never give up.
If he’d let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness.
- Hakuin (1685-1768)

Is our true nature "as-is" -- nothing added and nothing taken away?

Is a true living of life one that is lived "in, through, as-is"?

He it was who formed the mountains, created the wind, reveals his mind to man, makes both dawn and dark, and walks on the top of the heights of the world; the Lord, the God of Hosts, is his name.
(--Amos 4:13, reading from Terce, third hour prayer, 9am-noon, Liturgy of the Hours)

A refresher on an aspect of Mahayana Buddhism from a website at a Canadian University:

1. Fundamental Philosophical Tenets Common to All Forms of Mahayana Buddhism

1.1. The Ideal of the Bodhisattva

The religious ideal for human beings changed significantly during this period; in Theravada (or Hinayana) Buddhism the ideal is to become a monk (bhikku) and eventually through self-effort become an arhat, i.e., an enlightened one who would not be reborn, one who already has attained nirvana. This ideal is seen as self-centred by Mahayana Buddhism. To seek personal enlightenment and then to enter nirvana upon death is seen as uncompassionate. The ideal set forth in Mahayana Buddhism is that of the bodhisattva (bodhi = enlightened; sattva = being), who is a human being who has attained enlightenment but deliberately has refrained from passing into nirvana at death, choosing to be reborn, in order to enlighten others. The bodhisattva will not enter nirvana until all sentient beings are able to enter nirvana. Since in Buddhism the divisions between the realms are fluid, many of the boddhisattvas are seen as having been reborn in heaven and therefore become de facto gods to be venerated and petitioned. Bodhisattvas are all-compassionate beings who will help other sentient beings who call upon them in faith.

1.2. Emptiness (Sunyata)

1.2.1. Introduction

Unlike the Buddhism of the Pali canon, which is representative of Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism concerned itself with metaphysical questions, foremost of which was the question of the nature of ultimate reality. In this later form of Buddhism, it is assumed to be impossible to separate metaphysics and the religious goal of release from samsara. The ontological first principle of Mahayana Buddhism is emptiness (sunyata), which is also referred to as suchness (tathata), the body of essence (dharma-kaya) or even nirvana. (In the Mahayana sutras there are other synonymous terms used for the first ontological principle or the Absolute.) Everything in Mahayana Buddhism turns on its teaching about sunyata. The doctrine of emptiness states that ultimately all conceptual distinctions are ultimately non-existent or unreal, for everything is empty or devoid of "marks," or characteristics (lakana). In other words, everything, therefore, is devoid of true individuality and own-being (svabhana) (sometimes translated as "self-nature"). All dharmas (individual things) are empty (sunya) and devoid of own-being because they are conditioned and impermanent. The assumption is that only that which is necessary and unchanging has own-being and for that reason can be said to exist in a real sense. All dharmas are without own-being (asvabhana), because nothing exists in a state of ontological permanence and independence.

1.2.2. Dharmas as Empty

The Buddha's teaching of the Chain of Causation or Dependent Origination is the presupposition of the Mahayana concept of emptiness (sunyata). In the Pali canon, the Chain of Causation or Dependent Origination is applied in particular to the human being; the goal of this sort of anthropological analysis is to provide insight into the ultimate empty nature of any conception of the self. What is applied primarily to the individual in the Pali canon, however, is applied to all dharmas in the Mahayana sutras. Whatever dharmas that exist in the phenomenal world (or samsara) are what they are only by virtue of being conditioned by (or dependent on) other dharmas. (By dharma is meant any entity that is assumed to have individual, separate existence, including immaterial entities as thoughts and abstract concepts.) They have come into being as conditioned (or caused) and will in turn condition other things to come into being. This is the more profound truth of the Buddha's teaching about the Chain of Causation or Dependent Origination. All dharmas are conditioned diachronically in the sense that a dharma depends upon other dharmas in the past for its production. A wooden table, for example, depends for its existence upon a tree, which depends for its existence on the rain, which depends for its existence on clouds, which depends for their existence on the sun. (Of course, the wooden table also depends for its existence on the carpenter and the logger.) But dharmas are also conditioned synchronically in the sense that the parts of a system are co-dependent. A body as a system, for example, is composed a various organs that depend on one another. The heart pumps blood to the kidneys thereby providing them with oxygen and nutrients but the same kidneys purify the blood enabling it to bring oxygen and food to the other organs. What is conditioned is understood as empty (sunya), that is, empty of own-being. The conditioned nature of all dharmas is compared to the Jewel Net of Indra, which consists of jewels that are each reflected in all the other jewels thereby giving the collection of jewels its brilliance. The point is that all the jewels are co-dependent for their quality of brilliance. Only that which is unconditioned can be said to have own-being and to exist truly.

In addition to being conditioned, dharmas are also impermanent; in fact, this is a necessary correlative of their nature as conditioned. Dharmas both come into being as conditioned or in dependence on other dharmas also also cease to exist as conditioned by other dharmas. In fact, in some cases, new dharmas cannot come into existence unless other dharmas cease to exist. (A flower, for example, ceases to exist in the process of becoming a fruit.) Only that which is permanent can be considered to have own-being and so truly exist.

In conclusion, all dharmas are characterized as both conditioned and impermanent. This is what it means to be empty of own-being. If something were not empty it would be unconditioned and permanent but there is nothing in this phenomenal world that meets the criteria of being non-empty. It should be noted that the assertion of the emptiness of all things is not to deny the limited reality of the phenomenal world, i.e., the world of plurality and change, but only to deny that it has own-being, by which is meant true existence which means that everything is contingent and transitory as opposed to necessary and permanent. The things in the phenomenal world arise through causes and conditions and in turn cause and condition other things to arise. (This is the middle way of the Buddha between the absolutes of existence and non-existence.)

The teaching about the three marks of existence likewise suggests the Mahayana concept of sunyata. impermanence, suffering (dukkha) and not-self (anatman or anatta) Not-self is the functional equivalent of not having own-being. If everything that can be identified as something is impermanent, then it follows that the only permanence is that which is devoid of all marks or distinctiveness, which is no thing or sunyata. In other words, what is real is that which is not identified as anything or sunyata; only that which is devoid of all marks or characteristics is permanent and ontologically independent (but even these terms do not apply to it, and one cannot even call it an it).
(--from THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF MAHAYANA BUDDHISM, Lectures in Eastern Philosophy, Prof. Barry D. Smith, Atlanta Baptist University, NB.CA., http://www.abu.nb.ca/Courses/GrPhil/EPhil/MahaBud.htm)

In the middle of the writings on Mahayana Buddhism there is injected a question: "Is it possible to interpret emptiness (sunyata) (or suchness) as God understood non-anthropically?" I like the question.

At Wednesday Evening Conversation we read from the book Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Societyby Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers. In it the thought about part and whole -- that the part is not a part of the whole, but rather the part is a manifestation of the whole.

Any one of us changes the whole of us.

Innumerable beings.

One of which we are.

Re-presenting what is whole.

As-is.

Now-here, no-where.

I've never liked tests. Nor am I fond of trials. I do, however, enjoy prepositions, articles, pronouns, and conjunctions..

Someone asked,
What do you mean by the true Buddha, the true Dharma and the true Way? Would you be good enough to explain to us?
The Master said,
The Buddha- this is the cleanness and purity of the mind.
The Dharma- this is the shining brightness of the mind.
The Way- this is the pure light that is never obstructed anywhere. The three are in fact one. All are empty names and have no true reality.
- Lin-chi (d.867)

I'm also taken by the notion of emptiness, as in, 'empty names.'

I woke up this morning with the traditional rendering of the words of the Lord's Prayer, or, Our Father. In the vague transition from sleep to wakefulness I was taken by the small words.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

"In... as it.. in...this
-- who --
into... from... for."

Like some SETI transmission (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), I find surprising comfort in the nine extracted words, as if now waiting for some scriptural linguist scholar to confirm the breakthrough in this Rosetta Stone with hieroglyphic and demotic scripts finally revealing underlying template of translation.

Is the Source of All Being possibly: "In as it in this, who, into from for"?

Two scriptural citings below. First Luke:

1
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
2
He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
3
Give us each day our daily bread
4
and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test."
(--from Luke, Chapter 11)

Then Matthew:

9
"This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
11
Give us today our daily bread;
12
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
13
and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.
14
If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
15
But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
(-- from Matthew, Chapter 6, New American Bible)

Some say life is a classroom for particular learning. (Mark did, last evening.) He might be right. Still, I don't have the same confidence in tests as some educators do.

What is beyond test or trial?

Consider the following: "In as it in this, who, into from for."
I think we're in this reality, as it. By our being in this, we are who is: into, from, and for this Source Reality.

Some say "Father." Some, "Source." And some, "Lord" or "Ultimate One."

Heather's dad died on 15 August. At table in restaurant, he lowered his head and appeared asleep, and was not disturbed for a spell. Two days later the respirator breathing for him was let go, and he returned to the Source from whence he came.

And there he is. In the telling of the story to us. At the gathered table with noodles, rice, fish, poultry, and vegetables -- sitting late of an evening speaking with friends by the harbor -- all our fathers there in the telling.

Our trial, if there is one, is allowing presence to dwell in our midst, between us, quietly and graciously.

Our test, if there is one, is to say what we see with our souls unburdened by too much analysis but easily laden with love.

This morning, in meditation cabin, a candle and stick of incense is left burning for Richard Lewis Meyer.

We'll have bagels, cream cheese, and lox on the balcony and celebrate one another along with our ancestors and the volunteer sunflowers by birch tree at water's edge.

Ok?

Ok!

All our ancestors sit with us at meal together. We honor them with our eating. Hmmm, hmmm -- good rice, good noodles. More water? Please!

I found my way up
Yoshino’s precipice-hung
Path and into its
Past, seeing there the blossoms
I sought that spring ages ago.
- Saigyo (1118 – 1190)

Always the meditation that when we transform mind now, everything is transformed -- past and future as well as present.

Full moon on quiet water in harbour. Friends leave, friends arrive. We mourn a father's death -- yet there is no being born nor, then, any opposite.

While all of you here are turned toward me, intent only on hearing my sermon and wondering "What's Bankai going to say?" you aren't trying either to hear or not hear the cawing of the crows and the chirping of the sparrows out in back. But even so, once they start to chirp and caw, you recognize and distinguish the crow's "CAW CAW" and the sparrow's "CHIOU CHIOU," and it's not only for crows and sparrows.

Everything here, when you perceive it with the unborn will be simultaneously distinguished, and you won't overlook even one thing in one hundred or one thousand. Your distinguishing everything you see and hear like this, without producing a single thought, is the marvelously illuminating dynamic function of the Buddha mind that is unborn.
(--Bankai, 17th century Zen Master)

New sail flag on balcony weather vane.

Given -- wholeness as source.

What is it we think we withdraw?

There's a creature living in wall behind my pillow.

I saw it come over Hosmer Pond. Fruit Moon or Green Corn Moon tonight. Cat rushed kibbles to get out for full moon hunting. Me, I return to solitude after visit and meeting at new university center in Rockland.

I grow more and more reclusive.

If your mind is fixed on a certain spot,
It will be seized by that spot and
No activities can be performed efficiently.
Not to fix your mind anywhere is essential.
Not fixed anywhere,
The mind is everywhere.
The Original Mind is like water which flows freely
Whereas the deluded mind is like ice
There is a passage in the Diamond Sutra that says:
“The mind should operate without abiding anywhere.”
- Takuan (1573-1645)

I like Takuan's words. I've met icy mind. It is hard and cold.

Mid-morning reading (Terce) Romans 13:8 - 10
Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.
Noon reading (Sext) James 1:19 - 26
Be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to rouse your temper; God’s righteousness is never served by man’s anger. Nobody must imagine that he is religious while he still goes on deceiving himself and not keeping control over his tongue; anyone who does this has the wrong idea of religion.
Afternoon reading (None) 1 Peter 1:17 - 19
You must be scrupulously careful as long as you are living away from your home. Remember, the ransom that was paid to free you was not paid in anything corruptible, neither in silver nor gold, but in the precious blood of a lamb without spot or stain, namely Christ.
(--on feast of St. Monica, readings for the small hours) http://www.universalis.com/-400/today.htm)

I'm not fond of those wanting ransom. Whether human beings held for ransom, or necessities of life held ransom by those who can afford to hoard and charge high freight.

There'll be a lunar eclipse early in the morning.

Awareness is a treasure available to us.

Awareness cannot be practiced. There has been some confusion between awareness and mindfulness. They are related, but distinct. Sati, or mindfulness, implies there is action of the mind. We purposely set ourselves to pay attention to our minds. We exert effort. Awareness is different. Awareness is devoid of any action. The mind simply "awares." There is no action here, only a collected and spontaneous awareness that just "sees." Here, mindfulness is the cause, and awareness is the effect. You cannot practice or train the effect. You can only practice something that will cause it. We have to start with mindfulness so that awareness may arise in us.
(-- Thynn Thynn, in Living Meditation, Living Insight, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book)

Crickets and cicadas this august solitude.

It doesn't matter what I think.

Love is the answer.

I've stopped.

Asking.

Arise.

Maybe it is illusion and delusion makes up human society. Paco thinks, for America, it is competitiveness and 'can't lose' attitudes.

Maybe we could forget competitiveness. Learn from loss. Redefine what being human actually is.

A difficult and dark time overshadows us. To pretend otherwise is a particular derangement.

Everybody acts surprised that Mother Teresa knew darkness, emptiness, and unbelief.

Why?

When did lightness, fullness, and certitude become they only recognizable and acceptable expression of human experience, and the only commodity for sale in this world?

Mind set free in the Dharma-realm,
I sit at the moon-filled window
Watching the mountains with my ears,
Hearing the stream with open eyes.
Each molecule preaches perfect law,
Each moment chants true sutra:
The most fleeting thought is timeless,
A single hair’s enough to stir the sea.
- Shutaku (14th century)

It becomes impossible to figure out who is fighting whom in the theater of war -- war on drugs, war on poverty, war on terror, war on immigrants, war on democracy.

It is time to regroup. Time to sink deeper into a different narrative. The yarn being spun is unrecognizable. The terrorists have won -- they co-own the narrative with the "war-on" folks.

The rest of us are irrelevant. Critics become security risks. Those who try to rectify faulty acts and spurious tales about what goes on in the narrow mind of power and profit are the enemy. They were once good neighbors. Now they are dangerous and must be made outcasts.

I am coming to gather the nations of every language.
(--Isaiah 66:18)

Isaiah seems like faint hope these days.

‘Yes, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.’
(--Luke 13:30)

Luke sounds like wishful thinking.

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
--Mother Teresa

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
--Mother Teresa

The Albanian religious sister who knew desolation gives us something to contemplate.

Think timelessly.

Stir the sea.

A brief time in silence.

Nothing more.

Although the marvelous
Lines are difficult to trace,
Still I can make out
Several layers of mountains,
A jumble of peaks,
Like shell-spiraled locks of hair.
Faraway streams and mountains,
Peaks swathed in clouds,
Just like a painting,
Have captured the essence.
Gazing into emptiness,
I long to ask the monk about it.
If I don’t learn the meaning
Of the reclusive life,
I can but sigh with regret until the day I die!
- - Su Shih 1073

Merely without words.

Nothing less.

Enough of damnation and judgment.

Open the prison gates of self and free everyone.

It is inconceivable that the God who gives Himself in His Son to save us, should have created some people ordained to evil and damnation. There can only be one predestination to salvation. In and through Jesus Christ all people are predestined to be saved.
Our free choice is ruled out in this regard. God wants free people, except in relation to this last and definitive decision. We are not free to decide and choose to be damned." "Being saved or lost does not depend on our own free decision. An explicit confession of Jesus Christ is not the condition for salvation. Salvation is always for everyone, by grace. All people are included in the grace of God. A theology of grace implies universal salvation."
(-- on Universal Salvation, by JACQUES ELLUL, 1912-1994)

Whatever time remains, let's see it through.

Once seen through, greet one another -- for God's sake.

Or don't. But, no more lies.

Michael quoted the Sword of Zorro. Anything outside the circle is not our business. I argued. What could possibly be outside our circle? It's all our business.

If one has realized
Oneness which alone is
And which alone has always been,
It cannot be described in words.
One can be That.
We loosely call it
Self-realization
For want of a better term.
- Ramana Maharshi (d. 1950)

What is not my "self"?

Perhaps illusion is fragmentary perception. We make a mistake when we think illusions aren't real. They are. But they are only partial sight. Like the illusionist's trick of drawing our attention to a particular spot of attention while outside our focus he is readying the manifestation of that of which we've been unaware.

The character in the novel remembers her father telling her: "Paint the picture you want him to see." (in Outsourced, novel by R.J. Hillhouse)

In the Course in Miracles tonight there was the following:

Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to support the world of dreams and malice. Thus it lets illusions go. By not supporting them, it merely lets them go quietly go down to dust.
(--from Part II, 2. What is Salvation?, p.407)

In Peru four hundred years ago a young woman tried to let fall everything that was not God to her.

Her days were filled with acts of charity and industry, her exquisite lace and embroidery helping to support her home, while her nights were devoted to prayer and penance. When her work permitted, she retired to a little grotto which she had built, with her brother's aid, in their small garden, and there passed her nights in solitude and prayer. Overcoming the opposition of her parents, and with the consent of her confessor, she was allowed later to become practically a recluse in this cell, save for her visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
( --about St. Rose of Lima, Virgin, patroness of America, born at Lima, Peru 20 April, 1586; died there 30 August, 1617. Feast celebrated today) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13192c.htm)

The earth turns. The earth trembles. Damage and grief accompany.

The 8.0 magnitude quake that struck the coast of Peru on August 15 killed at least 500 people and left tens of thousands homeless. In a vast disaster area surrounding the cities of Pisco and Ica, the survivors, many of them living on the streets, are now desperately waiting for help. Over 34,000 houses were destroyed by the quake and several powerful aftershocks. The damage to the infrastructure is so severe that many relief efforts are hampered and remote mountain communities are cut off from assistance.
(--from International Medical Corps, Help the Survivors of Peru’s Earthquake! August 20, 2007)

There is no outside to the circle of life.

Here we are.

Calling on.

One.

Another.

Let's call every American soldier, killed or still alive, 'Jack.' We'll call every Iraqi 'Karim.' We won't give names to mercenaries killed -- they're on their own, aren't they?

Earl

In Sitka, because they are fond of them,
People have named the seals. Every seal
is named Earl because they are killed one
after another by the orca, the killer
whale; seal bodies tossed left and right
into the air. "At least he didn't get
Earl," someone says. And sure enough,
after a time, that same friendly,
bewhiskered face bobs to the surface.
It's Earl again. Well, how else are you
to live except by denial, by some
palatable fiction, some little song to
sing while the inevitable, the black and
white blindsiding fact, comes hurtling
toward you out of the deep?
(Poem:"Earl" by Louis Jenkins, from North of the Cities. Will o' the Wisp Books, 2007.)

Jack, be nimble.

Karim, be quick.

At least they didn't get Jack. And Karim can still smile.

We'll ignore, a while, those blindsiding facts.

Where is an immaculate heart when one is needed?

A friend and I sat in the sun side of the shop late this afternoon. He said something about Iraq. I mentioned I thought the point of view praising US accomplishment there was nonsense.

One week after a series of truck bombs hit two poor villages near the Syrian border, the known casualty toll has soared to more than 500 dead and 1,500 wounded, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, making them by far the worst coordinated attacks since the American-led invasion.

Dr. Said Hakki, director of the society, said Tuesday that local Red Crescent workers registering families for aid after the explosions in Qahtaniya and Jazeera had compiled the new numbers, which dwarf the earlier estimates that at least 250 people were killed.
(--from, Toll in Iraq Bombings Is Raised to More Than 500, By DAMIEN CAVE and JAMES GLANZ, New York Times, Published: August 22, 2007)

At Buddhist conversation we read Shantideva with commentary by Pema Chodron.

We talked about anger. Teresa quoted Nin:

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
(--by Anais Nin )

To eliminate any one feeling jeopardizes them all. We're meant to feel all of it -- even if the world doesn't notice.

Musee des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
(--Poem by W.H. Auden, 1940 )

Anyone else's suffering isn't spectacular to anyone else. Not for long, if it is.

Unless, of course, you care.

And if you care, it's yours.

Shared.

And.

Transformed.

I'm not interested in the idea of God.

Either God is or God is not. No amount of explanation or defense, rhetoric or apologetic satisfies. If God is; fine. If God is not; also fine.

Determining the shape of human society -- who's worthy and who's not, or what form of government is best reflective of the will of God -- has been an iffy, if not miserable, effort.

Another thing -- whether using God talk or in political analysis, puppet-metaphors and explanations based on puppetry, strings, or manipulation -- these modes fail to satisfy. I cannot comprehend the religious tension promulgated through history based on the question whether proper human action is dictated by God, or, human action is best determined by acuity of reason.

It seems God, church, believers, or state -- in their attempt to determine and control how human behavior should be in the face of the notion of God's revelation as to how human behavior should be -- have caused mischief and suffering, war and hatred in their haste to posit the source of salvation outside the person, place, or thing we know as the 'individual', or, the undivided.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes tried to find a way out of this labyrinth. Traditionally, political theology had interpreted a set of revealed divine commands and applied them to social life. In his great treatise “Leviathan” (1651), Hobbes simply ignored the substance of those commands and talked instead about how and why human beings believed God revealed them. He did the most revolutionary thing a thinker can ever do — he changed the subject, from God and his commands to man and his beliefs. If we do that, Hobbes reasoned, we can begin to understand why religious convictions so often lead to political conflicts and then perhaps find a way to contain the potential for violence.

...

Rousseau spoke of religion in terms of human needs, not divine truths, and had his Savoyard vicar declare, “I believe all particular religions are good when one serves God usefully in them.” For that, he was hounded by pious Christians.

...

...Hobbes’s iron law: Messianic theology eventually breeds messianic politics. The idea of redemption is among the most powerful forces shaping human existence in all those societies touched by the biblical tradition.
(--from The Politics of God, New York Times Magazine, Published: August 19, 2007. Mark Lilla is professor of the humanities at Columbia University. This essay is adapted from his book “The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics and the Modern West.”)

Here's what I hold as true:

• silence is lovely.
• breakfast is gift.
• water is life.
• companionship is best when free of cant. (main entry 6, noun, in Merriam-Webster online)
• walks and naps are de rigueur.
  

We need to spare one another from religious or spiritual encumbrance. Also political claptrap invoking deity and specialized moral imperative.

I opt for clear thinking and inclusive consideration of each being's well being.

Devote yourself to Absolute Emptiness;
Contemplate earnestly in Quiescence.
All things are together in Action,
But I look into their Non-action,
For things are continuously moving, restless,
Yet each is proceeding back to its origin.
Proceeding back to the origin means Quiescence.
To be in Quiescence is to see Being-for-itself.
- Lao tzu

If I shut up now...

Will you?

If I open up now...

Will we?

William Carlos Williams summarized his poetic method in the phrase "No ideas but in things" (from his 1944 poem "A Sort of a Song").

A Sort of a Song

Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait,
sleepless.
-- through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones.
Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!
Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.
(--Poem by William Carlos Williams)

Particulars, he said. A poetry of particulars.

His familiar, repeated tag phrase 'no ideas but in things' means that statements grow from, and report back to, local particulars. 'The Poet and His Poems' (1939) strings together several slogans until it arrives at this:

It should
be a song - made of
particulars, wasps,
a gentian - something
immediate, open
scissors, a lady's
eyes - the particulars
of a song waking
upon a bed of sound.

Surprise, specificity, ordinariness, new aural shapes, a bit of household detritus: such a verse-manifesto portrays much of what Williams tried to do. It attempts, too, to show order emerging from a neglected realm - the emergence, not the final synthesis.
(--from London Review of Books, Vol. 24 No. 5,dated 7 March 2002 , "Chicory and Daisies," by Stephen Burt)

Let's be particular about one another.

Let's be particular about God.

Compose this way.

Each day.

A way.

Of life.

I'm thinking about death.

Girder

The simplest of bridges, a promise
that you will go forward,

that you can come back.
So you cross over.

It says you can come back.
So you go forward.

But even if you come back
then you must go forward.

I am always either going back
or coming forward. There is always

something I have to carry,
something I leave behind.

I am a figure in a logic problem,
standing on one shore

with the things I cannot leave,
looking across at what I cannot have.
(--Poem: "Girder" by Nan Cohen, from Rope Bridge. Cherry Grove Collection. http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/)

There's not much else to say about death.

Except, like the comic, I hope not to be there when it happens.

Not being there -- that's another way of saying self diminishes.

I don't quite feel anywhere.

Am I dead yet?

Saturday afternoon trips to the dump. Renamed 'transfer station' -- nothing gets dumped, it just gets transferred. Getting there just at two minutes to four. It closes at four. The perennial dread that stinky bags will have to be returned for three days longer.The joy of arriving before too late. Not early, not on time -- but before too late.

Rivers in the east flow eastward,
Rivers in the west flow westward,
And they all enter the sea.
From sea to sea they pass,
The clouds lift them to the sky
As vapor and send them down as rain.
And as these rivers,
When they are united with the sea,
Do not know whether they
Are this river or that,
Likewise all creatures do not know
From whence they came.
- Chandogya Upanishad

Before too late we might arrive at not knowing from whence we came, whither we go, and how this unmistakeably present moment is isomorphically intimate with all time and its mother eternity.

From a sermon on Baptism by St. Pacian, bishop:
Who, O God, is like you? you take away guilt
As we have borne the image of the earthly man, so we shall bear the image of him who is from heaven; since the first man who came from the earth, is earthly, but the second man who came from heaven, is heavenly’. And so, dearly beloved, we shall not die anymore. Even if we fall asleep in this body, we shall live in Christ, as he said: Whoever believes in me, even if he die, shall live.
(--From Office of Readings, Saturday of week 19 of the year)

Talking to an enthusiastic and intelligent young man about theology last evening. We wonder what the future of the Roman church holds. So few priests. Religious men and women grow old. Their communities threaten to fold in around them -- so few recruits following behind them. The institution weakened by sex abuse scandals. Authority, at least moral authority, weakened.

What would happen if the rift between East and West were healed? Would Peter's Chair become a long bench? Would it become a folding chair? Would everyone have to take off their heavy vestments and paraphernalia and sit on the grass where fingers could easily pick at the brown clay and earth?

There's no need to dump the church. There could be a transfer of sensibility so as to welcome women into the realization of Christ's priesthood. (The young man rolled his eyes at this thought.) No more hocus pocus. Rather, priestly speaking into the inner reality of matter itself, inviting core truth to fill the edges of what is. "This" is the body of Christ. It is given up for us. Not held on to. Not withheld. Not the possession of a few.

Silentium tibi laus. 'Let silence be your praise!'

As blood flows silently through living beings, living being itself is loving silent gaze. Words are accoutrement. They are not essential garb.

The young man will go to study for priesthood in the Roman tradition.

I look out window. Blue sky. Blue water. Flags blowing in breeze. Children's voices rise.

From whence?

Does this?

Come.

Not.

Too.

Late.

Belief knows; faith toes forward.

I tell a young man who will enter Catholic seminary that I expect heaven to be a surprise to everyone.

The clouds emerge from the Mountain of Chung
And then return to the Mountain of Chung.
I would like to ask the dweller in this mountain,
Where are the clouds now?

Clouds emerge from No mind
And then return to No mind.
No mind is nowhere to be found.
We need not seek the home of No mind.
- Wang An-shih (1068-1076)

In prison today reading Anthony De Mello and Nicolai Machiavelli.

That, and we talked about subtleties between faith and belief, Jeffersonian bloody revolution and the need for a spiritual revolution of consciousness as antidote to irresponsibility and cynicism.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
(--Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to William Stephens, November 13, 1787)

In the Buddhist group we chanted the Heart Sutra -- gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond; awake!

(And then.)

Rejoice!

(All in a day's word.)

Where are we?

Loon approached where I stood on small wooden dock at Hosmer Pond. It swam directly and stopped ten yards from the float. From behind me the sounds of a visiting dog. The loon turned, flapped, began water-sprint, and flew long and low down toward island on small pond.

A Democracy of Being
Shakyamuni Buddha's revolution was without warfare; without provoking violent opposition, he defied prevalent Brahmanic conventions to teach not only rulers and wealthy merchants but outcasts, the disinherited, street punks, even--eventually--women. He then went on to guide his diverse followers on the path of liberation. In the Buddha's teachings, the source of absolute liberation is internal, a state of mind that is not dependent on external circumstances--not on race, class, or gender. In dharma, democracy is the birthright of our own Buddha-nature, the democracy of being that goes beyond all culture, all concepts.
(--Helen Tworkov, Tricyle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 1994)

Life on a pond or life in a city is fraught with difficulties looming just behind every appearance. As impossible as it seems to make things appear or make them go away in the external world, there is a chance that we can enliven the inner life in such a way that, no matter what happens out there, there resides within us an ability to be present, caring, and attentive.

We have an inner freedom that allows us to face the outer restrictions with equanimity and authenticity.

What is Meditation?
Meditation is a way to make the mind more stable and clear. From this point of view, meditation is not purely a Buddhist practice; it's a practice that anyone can do. It doesn't tie in with a particular spiritual tradition. If we want to undo confusion, we're going to have to be responsible for learning what our own mind is and how it works, no matter what beliefs we hold.

The word for meditation in Sanskrit is "shamatha" in Sanskrit (Tibetan: shi-ne), which means "peacefully abiding." Peacefully abiding describes the mind as it naturally is. The word "peace" tells the whole story. The human mind is by nature joyous, calm and very clear. In shamatha meditation we aren't creating a peaceful state——we're letting our mind be as it is to begin with. This doesn't mean that we're peacefully ignoring things. It means that the mind is able to be present, without constantly leaving.

In meditation, what we're doing is looking at our experience and at the world intelligently. The Buddha said that this is how we learn to look at any situation and understand its truth. This is what a Buddha does—and we are all capable of being Buddhas, whether or not we are Buddhists. We all have the ability to realize our naturally peaceful minds where there is no confusion. We can use the natural clarity of our mind to focus on anything we want. But first we have to tame our minds through shamatha meditation.
(--from a talk by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, http://www.shambhala.org/meditation/faqs.php#whatismeditation)

To look at things intelligently means taking the time to look. It means looking and thinking are of a piece. Thinking is different from the bombardment of thoughts that barrage our minds all day. Thinking is careful looking at what is there outside as well as inside. To look, to think, is careful attention. It is the invitation to what is seen to reveal itself -- with its demands or needs -- right here, right now.

Careful attention easily becomes caring intention.

When we tend to something, we are doing what the word 'belief' conveys.

We must be clear about the function of concepts in theology and about dogmatic formulae. Thomas, like Albert the Great or Bonaventure, used this definition of the article of faith: Perceptio diviniae veritatis tendens in ipsam, 'a glimpse of the divine Truth tending towards that truth'. We possess no adequate concept of God and apply created concepts to him which allow us to tend towards his truth, without being able to grasp it conceptually. The most important word in Thomas' text is in, a word that is also found in the creed: Credo in Deum...et in Jesum Christum, 'I believe in God...and in Jesus Christ'. We do not, it should be noted, say: 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son', but make use of a statement which says exactly what or who is in question, to express a movement or thrust of faith by which we are taken up. Augustine wrote his famous commentaries on credere in Deum, 'believing in God'.
(--from p.5, in The Word and the Spirit, by Yves Congar, c.1984)

To believe, then, is to tend toward. We acknowledge what is within, the interiority of being, that which we are within.

Thus, belief might be considered the recognition or realization of that within which we are.

If we believe in anything, we tend toward what we are. If we are in everything, that is, not other than, then the recognition and realization of who and what we are, where and how we are -- is a tending toward the truth of being and Truth of Being.

My Inner Peace

My inner peace
Does not select anybody,
Does not reject anybody.
My inner peace
Always self-givingly projects itself.
(--Poem by Sri Chinmoy)

There we are!

The Dormition, or Falling Asleep of the Theotokos, is what the Feast of the Assumption of Mary is called in the East.

This great Feast of the Church and the icon celebrates a fundamental teaching of our faith—the Resurrection of the body. In the case of the Theotokos, this has been accomplished by the divine will of God. Thus, this Feast is a feast of hope, hope in Resurrection and life eternal. Like those who gathered around the body of the Virgin Mary, we gather around our departed loved ones and commend their souls into the hands of Christ. As we remember those who have reposed in the faith before us and have passed on into the communion of the Saints, we prepare ourselves to one day be received into the new life of the age to come.

We also affirm through this Feast as we journey toward our heavenly abode that the Mother of God intercedes for us. Through Christ she has become the mother of all of the children of God, embracing us with divine love.
(--from Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, http://www.goarch.org/en/special/listen_learn_share/dormition/learn/)

The body of a friend, 40 years ago, stepped into her own Assumption in a small town in French Canada. There's a picture somewhere of the day. History has tucked it away.
She has been transformed these later years into wife of a good heart. Each vocation is, of itself, a true vocation. She is the gift. Her call is continuing resonance. I think of her, yearly, on this day.

My nature has no liking
For life in the cities.
To be free from the noise,
I built a little thatched cottage
Far away in the depth of the mountains.
Wandering here and there,
I carry no thought.
When spring comes
I watch the birds;
In summer I bathe
In the running stream.
In autumn I climb
The highest peaks;
During the winter I am
Warming up in the sun.
Thus I enjoy the real flavor of the seasons.
Let the sun and the moon
Revolve by themselves!
When I have time, I read the sutras,
When I am tired, I sleep on my straw bed.
- Shih t’ao (1641–1717)

A hermitage is retreat and respite. No longer a matter of running away or running to -- hermitage is enclosure in the unknown. Hermits are often never seen. More likely, they wander in our midst, a corpus of unknowing.

What good is meditating on patience
If you will not tolerate insult?
What use are sacrifices
If you do not overcome attachment and revulsion?
What good is giving alms
If you do not root out selfishness?
What good is governing a great monastery
If you do not regard all beings as your beloved parents?
(--from The Life of Milarepa, trans. by Lobsang P. Lhalunga)

It is a simple yet profound step from not knowing one's parents to unknowing acceptance of all beings as one's parents.

I light incense to my parents, every one of them -- all of them -- and bow to their ever-presence everywhere.

Mary, Theotokos, is so honored.

Where is not, with awareness, Theotokos, God-bearer, the one who gives birth to God?

May we awaken in this Falling Asleep!

May this grace be so offered!

And so received!

This.

Day.