blessed and grateful birthday to thomas merton

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” 

(—from Thoughts in Solitude, by Thomas Merton) 

how can I help

What does it mean to be a nonaffiliated zen buddhist catholic christian idiorhythmic secular monastic practitioner in the world today?

Nothing!

To nobody.

No way.

I’m not taking any further questions this evening.

May you be happy, safe, free, and come to dwell in your true home!

Aspettare.

silentio

 Take your time

Rest a while—

Now tell me

Why am I

Asking you

This question?

toward the holy mind of reconciliation

Bless me, mother, for I have sinned.

A man of old has said: “Do not talk about the conduct of others if you don’t resemble them.” This means that, without knowing or studying a person’s virtues, one should not, upon seeing his weaknesses, conclude that he is a good person but suffers certain defects and does bad things. Look at just his virtues, not his shortcomings. This is the meaning of the saying: “The gentleman sees the virtues but not the shortcomings of others.” (SZ 3.8)

(—from, Dogen’s Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki)

Help me, father, to see that what I see is me seeing, not what is there to be seen.

must be the season of the hate

 1.

Thinking about hate

Congress thinks it’s ok — let

Members carry guns

2,

Republicans love

Former president. Crude hate

Looks for worthy host.

3.

No good will come from

No good. Nothing hopeful comes

When hate loves the false

tibi gloria, fons totius entis ostendero

glory

[ glawr-ee, glohr-ee ]

See synonyms for glory on Thesaurus.com

---

noun, plural glo·ries,

very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent; renown: to win glory on the field of battle.

something that is a source of honor, fame, or admiration; a distinguished ornament or an object of pride: a sonnet that is one of the glories of English poetry.

adoring praise or worshipful thanksgiving: Give glory to God.

verb (used without object), glo·ried, glo·ry·ing,

to exult with triumph; rejoice proudly (usually followed by in): Their father gloried in their success.

Obsolete. to boast.

interjection

Also glory be . Glory be to God (used to express surprise, elation, wonder, etc.).

(Dictionary.com)

truncated understandings

Thomas Aquinas (Born: Tommaso d'Aquino, 1225, Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily. Died: 7 March 1274 (aged 48–49), Fossanova, Papal States). 

It is his feast day today.

Everything imperfect must proceed from something perfect: therefore the First Being must be most perfect. Everything is perfect inasmuch as it is in actuality; imperfect, inasmuch as it is in potentiality, with privation of actuality. That then which is nowise in potentiality, but is pure actuality, must be most perfect; and such is God.” 

 (—St. Thomas Aquinas, “That God is Universal Perfection,” in Of God and His Creatures, 64, www.ccel.org)

 The sheer volume of his writings in theology, his dedication, is impressive. And with medieval philosophy and theology, intellectually demanding. Understanding is a labor both of attentiveness and capacity for it. (I seldom have either,)

Not infrequently, in different texts, Aquinas refers to a principle which he uses as a principle of explanation–a principle which avers that “whatever is received into something is received according to the condition of the receiver.”  Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur.  Cf. Summa Theologiae, 1a, q. 75, a. 5; 3a, q. 5.  In the Summa Theologiae, 1a, q. 12, a. 4, a more specific application of this principle is proposed in terms which say that “a thing known exists in a knower according to the mode of a knower.” Cogitum…est in cognoscente secundum modum cognoscentis.  For further references, see Summa Theologiae, q. 14, a. 1, ad 3; q. 16, a. 1; q. 19, a. 6, ad 2; Summa Contra Gentiles, 2, 79, 7; De Veritate, q. 2, a. 3.  In knowing anything, or in thinking that one knows anything, something is known by a prospective knower according to the mode of a knower’s being where what is understood and known is regulated or determined according to how a thing is known by a knower.  In the context of his systematic theology of the Trinity, Lonergan takes this Thomist principle and uses it to explain why ongoing development sometimes fails to occur in theology.  See Lonergan, The Triune God: Systematics, p. 25.  Seminal insights are not always well understood (as these insights come from major thinkers in the theological tradition as in St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, or Cardinal Newman) and the result can be a tradition of misunderstanding (constituted by truncated understandings) which introduces a distortion into the development of later theology

(—from, Applying a Thomist Principle: Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur, October 16, 2009 by Br. Dunstan Robidoux OSB)

”Truncated” is such a workable word. 

Take, for example, the definition of a truncated mean:

A truncated mean or trimmed mean is a statistical measure of central tendency, much like the mean and median. It involves the calculation of the mean after discarding given parts of a probability distribution or sample at the high and low end, and typically discarding an equal amount of both. This number of points to be discarded is usually given as a percentage of the total number of points, but may also be given as a fixed number of points.

(Wikipedia)

The phrasing I am familiar with goes, “Whatever is received is received according to the personality of the one receiving it.” 

And if our personal development is stunted or truncated, what is received is partial or distorted.

Such an understanding suggests why we seem to have such difficulty comprehending and thus acting upon justice, compassion, or integrity in the realm of either politics or human discourse.

Beyond that, intentional truncation for personal advantage dealing with the public, complicates further the transmission of necessary truths and implementation of same.

Thomas told us. He let us in on our difficulty. It is a problem of reception.

It is the task of receiving and passing on that often evades or makes onerous our facility or capability.

Add to that a reluctance to faithfully retransmit even what we do receive with clarity or dedication to its truth — and we have what we have today.

And so, we take to practice.

A practice of receiving, of being open to receiving, a practice of taking in and letting go without actively obfuscating what is passing through, a practice of allowing value to be amplified through integrative participation in wholesome transmission of actual fact and facticity.

Receive this,

All

Of you —

For 

This

Is 

My

Body

this is no longer politics

 Fact is, republicans seem to have made a calculated choice that the majority of Americans want the government to implode and be destroyed to be replaced with some kind of authoritarian autocratic regime under republican banner.

Hard to believe they think, ultimately, this is a desirable choice.

There is a sharp turn ahead in the road. 

I’m uncertain the careening car of tr**pism will make the curve without crashing over the edge and smashing the country into steep fall.

Take away their license.

Put them in the drunk tank.

For God’s sake, stop the cruel and deluded lemming run.

what we are to be doing

 Feed people.

Treat and heal people.

Be merciful and forgive people.

Be hospitable and welcome people.

Liston to what people are saying.

Act in such a way that the well-being of each is primary.

When dissension arises pay attention to the  sound of what is being said.

Is the way of Jesus a model for political action in contemporary America?

Forget the religious denominations and the saccharine preaching about heavenly salvation and favorable status in a believing club.

It is a crucial time.

The crux of our moral essence is on trial.

There is a line we cannot cross without losing what is on either side of the line.

It is an excruciating time.

Hate and obfuscation threaten to annihilate any remnant of kind or compassionate life in the world.

What is to be done?

What is

Is to be

What we are

To be doing.

Jesus is dead.

Christ is risen.

Are we willing?

To face?

Who we are?

And what we are?

Doing?

tea and hot chocolate

Cold January morning.

St. Bernard/Border Collie pup consults with frozen stream up Hosmer Brook Trail.

Mountain holds its counsel until lower falls outside meetingbrook path.

Now, inside wohnkuche, as Gregorian chant drifts quietly --

At home, Ensō stretches into fourth week at hermitage as his cat companions also nap upstairs and just above him in cat-tower while human companions sip tea and hot chocolate working on excel numbers and scraps of philosophy. 

an interval

What do you say we are?

"What are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:4 Good News Translation)

Though suppressed, Pico’s speech was printed, again and again. It begins with an interlocking set of statements about human nature, as mysterious as they are sonorous: 

In Arab memorials, Most Reverend Fathers, I have read about Abdala, a Saracen: when asked what was the most astonishing sight to be seen on this stage of the world—so to speak—he answered that there was nothing to see more astonishing than man. Supporting his opinion is that saying of Mercury: Man is a great miracle, Asclepius. 

Pico goes on to describe man as “an interval between fixed eternity and flowing time and (as the Persians say) the bond—no, the wedding-knot—of the world, a little lower than the angels, according to David,” and to evoke man’s power—unique among the creatures of the universe—to admire and love the orderly splendor of God’s creation and to rise above that to union with God. 

(--from, Thinking Outside the ‘Pico Box’ by Anthony Grafton, NYRB, 5nov2020 issue)

There are times I think human beings are natural antagonists. Or maybe self-serving opportunists. Then I put down the politics section of the New York Times or Washington Post, pour a cup of coffee, and wonder how it is we haven't yet destroyed ourselves. 

An interval.  

A brief instant.

A passing thought.

And we think so highly of ourselves. Who makes more money? Who looks better? Who has a nicer home?

Such false metrics.

If God is What Is True, I long for God.

And for you to be there too.

lowering eyes

I notice people my age are dying.

First, I say a prayer for them

Then, I look to see if my reflection looks back from mirror.

portrait of seed fallen on winter ground

 Beware of ambition

Success isn’t everything —

There are bad cards

Dealing lousy hand

Some gamble. Some cheat. Some fold.

Some walk away, down stairs, out door —

If you look up, a sky

the formless becomes unapparent presence

Conversio, the transformation.

Conversatio, the manner of life.

Conjunctio, the union.

Paul, they say, is celebrated today. The memory of his conversion. 

When the formless becomes unapparent presence.

When we don’t know what is happening with us.

When the way of life becomes our life.

When nothing else is, only God is.

Go ahead — put some sticks into the firebox —listen to organ pipes from France.

This is life.

This is only life — this is the only life — needing to be — lived.

the practice of disappearing into...ça va

 It is rare to comprehend God. Or God’s attributes. I am not among the rare.

“Where you are, I am.”

God is beside, within, and beyond each thing each being in existence.

“Still, I don’t exist.”

Presence is the name of God. God is nothing if not present.

“We are, in this, together.”

Don’t bother looking for God. Give up searching.

“Here I am.”

There is no seeing God. God is what is seen through.

“Close your eyes, there I am. Open your eyes, there I am.”

Man’s stupidity is God’s laughter. Man’s arrogance is God’s theater of the absurd.

“If you trip, I am the falling. If you delight, I am the smile.”

There’s nothing else to say about God. There’s nothing else.

“Can we make coffee now? Is it time to pray yet?”

Prayer is the practice of disappearing into God.

“There you are, my little cauliflower, mon petit chou-fleur!”

About face! Forward march! Sound off! One, two, three, four!

“Quel tel! Comme c'est ca! Tout alors! Mais certainement! Ça va!”

The sleeping cat has never asked, not once, about God. What a saint!

analogy of being left or right

 In last night’s conversation a contrast between two ways of being in the world.

The one: receiving and passing on.

The other: initiating and dominating.

only prayer will, break, your mind

Monastery bells 

From France, office of prime, first

Day delivery

body-mind; no-mind nobody

My small pinky practices mu-shin. 

 Dogen emphasises that we cannot separate our minds, even in their highest functioning, from our bodies. In Shobogenzo Shinjin Inga (A07/89 Deep Faith in Cause and Effect), Dogen writes: The self is identified with the mind. The mind is explained as something remaining apart from the body. This is the way in which non-Buddhists think about the body. 

In contrast with this, Buddhists should not regard the mind as remaining apart from the body: the two are inseparable.

(—Glasgow Zen Group) 

My nose wu-xin. 

What am I?

Nobody!

you want a reward for virtue

 I go back to sleep

Reading Nietzsche, übermensch

Politics grinds on 

welcome to new day, land of hope and dreams

  יְהוָה--אָהַבְתִּי, מְעוֹן בֵּיתֶךָ;    וּמְקוֹם, מִשְׁכַּן כְּבוֹדֶךָ.

LORD, I love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.

          

                 (from Psalms Chapter 26 תְּהִלִּים)

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

                 (from,  Psalm 27, Authorized (King James) Version)

a healthy dusk

              (for some in America, after Eph.4:26)

In your anger do 

not sin.  Don’t let sun go down 

while you’re still angry

for the joy of ear and eye

                  (after matins hymn)

Beauty of each hour —

  This our hymn of grateful praise —

Gentle thoughts and mild

into my rest

               (after psalm 95)

Four years I endured

That aberration. I said,

“They shall not enter . . .”

happy no-birth, dear dōgen zenji

This:

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), also called Dogen Kigen or Dogen Zenji, was a Japanese Buddhist monk who established Soto Zen in Japan. He is also known for the collection of his writing called Shobogenzo, a masterpiece of the world's religious literature.    https://www.learnreligions.com/eihei-dogen-450198

 And this:

Dōgen Zenji was a Japanese Buddhist priest, poet, philosopher, writer, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

He is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work – Shōbōgenzō, but also Eihei Shingi, the first Zen monastic code written in Japan  https://www.insightstate.com/quotes/dogen-zenji-quotes/

 Leads to this:

#1 ”In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.” 

#2 ”Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.” 

#3 ”Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.” 

#4 ”But do not ask me where I am going, As I travel in this limitless world, Where every step I take is my home.” 

#5 “Forgetting oneself is opening oneself” 

#6 ”Cause is not before and effect is not after”

https://www.insightstate.com/quotes/dogen-zenji-quotes/

Dōgen Kigen, along with Francis of Assisi, these two, are the guiding inspiration of meetingbrook dōgen & francis hermitage.

We are grateful novices sitting and walking in the long shadow of their vision, poetry, wisdom, and direct connective simplicity. 

The ten thousand things sing through our mere attending presence moving through this moment, as it is.

as credits begin to roll

Final day sunrise

Hate travels south —  remnant trolls

Following in tow

beyond abilities

 Just because my soul

Is saturated with scorn . . .

I still see slim moon

meaningless mimicry of mindless minions

 I listen to hate.

The sound of lies recruiting lies.

Men and women who’ve lost their souls.

One more day of empty bodies.

Then they fly off.

To mausoleums.

a good man

 Martin Luther King Jr.

A good man.

Even today.

Someone who cared, helped meaningfully, then had his life taken by racists for whom ugly acts are a menu laid out before their eyes as they sit with smug certainty at family dinner gatherings. Their sacrificial snacks eaten with purity on white table covering.

We remember you today.

We honor you, Martin.

We break bread, and, in desolation, pray for your continuing spirit, on this day, in this time, a birthday repast.

Αγάπη, an αγάπη of inclusive imagination.

a martyr for mendacity

 And still, amid fears of a reprise of January 6, the outgoing president of the United States, who led chants of twelve more years, does not say to his followers “I have lost. America goes on. Biden defeated me. Honor our traditions and constitution. He is your president. Be good citizens.”

But this is 2021.

Schoolyard politics are all the rage.

I am not sure. I suspect one of the MAGA crowd, disillusioned with sorrow, will attempt to put the failed king of the mountain out of his inglorious indignity by making him a martyr for mendacity and once glorious untouchability, a Mar-a-Lago sacrifice for the wealthy class of privileged superiority, a mounted head for adulation and worshipful obeisance, stuffed, a taxidermy of righteous mis-memory, a recumbent pseudo-savior come to fest and rest without a tear being shed.

I’d prefer an old fashioned prison cell. 

Where yarns could be spun. Appeals filed. Commissary chits exchanged. And weekly bible study reading about the failed Jesus who was not as great as this fellow with no one to pardon him, no one who really cares, complaining about the grub, waiting for his odd and photogenic family to one day visit him when their busy schedules allow.

Last night, at practice, we read about metta, loving kindness, good will.

I wish him well.

Would that we all might be, with him safely tucked away, well!

I am . . . this place

 One of four wonderful photos from friend in Vankleek Hill Canada.

A response:

Haiku
      (for pic 289)


No need to climb, sits

Each snow flake on ladder rung, 

Sees . . . I am  . . . this place


(wfh, 17jan21)

one truth time and again

 This morning, before rain, walking Ragged with ensō, the three of us on meditation walk, I worked on mantra for the overcast step by step, at hosmer brook trail arriving at these words:

Blessed be you, source of all being, creating word, holy spirit 

As it is in the beginning, as it is now, as it is becoming

World without end, amen.

Walking through one truth time and again.

λόγος, ου, ὁ

At Friday evening conversation, this came up: 

Strong's Concordance

logos: a word (as embodying an idea), a statement, a speech

Original Word: λόγος, ου, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: logos
Phonetic Spelling: (log'-os)
Definition: a word (as embodying an idea), a statement, a speech
Usage: a word, speech, divine utterance, analogy.

HELPS Word-studies

3056 lógos (from 3004 /légō, "speaking to a conclusion") – a word, being the expression of a thought; a saying.  3056 /lógos("word") is preeminently used of Christ (Jn 1:1), expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit. 

[3056 (lógos) is a common term (used 330 times in the NT) with regards to a person sharing a message (discourse, "communication-speech").  3056 (lógos) is a broad term meaning "reasoning expressed by words."]

https://biblehub.com/greek/3056.htm

Every word of 3056 is vital.

speaking to a conclusion

a word

being

the expression of

a thought

A saying

A Hegelian dialectic describes how we live, grow, and have our being, a never ending circle/spiral of thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Or, expressed differently:

Source

Creation

Reconciliation

The constant returning to source.

The constant experience of creation, diversity, difference, and diversion.

The constant practice of conversation, dialogue, wording/action arriving at new beginning, inchoate source.

Father, Son, Spirit.

Source, Expression, Aggiornamento. 

History and Etymology for aggiornamento

borrowed from Italian, from aggiornare "to bring up to date" (from a-, verbal prefix — going back to Latin ad- AD- — + giorno "day," going back to Late Latin diurnum, from neuter of Latin diurnus "daily") + -mento -MENT — more at DIURNAL entry 1

NOTE: Italian aggiornare in the sense "postpone, defer" is attested earlier than in the sense "bring up to date" and is probably a loan from French ajourner, itself in this sense dependent on English ADJOURN; likewise aggiornamento was probably a loan from French ajournement.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aggiornamento

And if we really pay attention, perhaps the word will become flesh, and we will save the world from linear desolation, returning it to recurring and reconciling re-creation.

My word!

Or as Richard Hugo ended his poem “The Right Madness On Skye” —

“Take my word. It’s been fun.” 

It has been. It is. It continues to be.

how fortunate

 It was Martin’s birthday yesterday.

How fortunate he’d been with us.

May such births happen often!

they do not intend to mislead

Student:

 My point of view is that no one is telling the truth, but believers of religion fall under truthfulness.  They mean well and they just happen to believe the bullshit fed to them.  They do not intend to mislead. But when you fall in a large class (Religion) of people and you all believe in the same thing it adds strength to what you believe in. Stories are told about Jesus Christ and people just happen to believe the stories.    (per.mo)

Tutor:

Here I want to emphasize that we are ready to contemplate the very nature of “stories” as they come forward in our mythologies and histories.

A story is what we tell when trying to convey either experience or intuition. Stories have to be heard and processed according to the mind that originated them and the mind that receives them. 

They are a version of a felt reality that must be contemplated with a wisdom and a skepticism available to the reader or listener.

you’re in you’re out

Student:

Hatred develops in the mind because people of one religion view others as going against their beliefs and values. People not understanding that when man was free there was no religion and there was peace.    (per. mo)

Tutor: 

Yes, religion divides. But I would focus on this phrase you’ve made. There’s a particular structure of the mind, or consciousness, that operates on the dualistic principle that “you’re in or you’re out”. In its deficient mode, it decides to eliminate those who are ‘out.’ Hate, I suspect, is the deficient mode of the dualistic structure of consciousness. 

We are not condemned to remain in that structure, but that structure has condemnation as its primary function.   

existential ontology, zen stretch

 Nothing holds the one and the many together.

Emptiness connects what is of itself and what is triune

one week gone

Better late

than 

never.

(But 

the long

pain

and 

devastating

demoralization —

crippling.)

images from away

Morning photos arrive. Her friend’s mother, they, there, doing home hospice. 

The quiet grace of it.

 ...

Haiku

      (for the vigiling)

 

It is that still time

when only love moves within 

each gesture gazing

(wfh, 12jan2021) 

1-11-2021

First things first: 

 "Let us approach the Lord with praise and thasnksgiving."

(Invitatory for Monday of the 1st Week of Ordinary Time)

What if the 'Lord' were everyone and everything in existence? 

Now, then, to come?

Am I to approach each and all with appreciation?

With gratitude?

Is this what is to appear first?

If reality is the elocution of numbers, then 1.11.2021 is a good beginning articulation.

to redeem the honor

 Student:

It’s relatively easy to talk about how my code is prison code and because of that I would never talk to this person or group of people, but then again, that would be limiting myself. I want more out of life than this place, whereas I was once restricted to this place, my mind and spirit are now free to think as I please. My mind is on a leash, I am not strangled by the hyperbole noose that my mind used to have on me. Because of that I chose to adhere to these five virtues, amongst many others, because I know that they have pulled me away from my previous  way of thinking, and that’s from being restricted in thinking and how I view the world.

Frankly, any man can call me what they please, what they don’t realize that it only goes towards furthering strengthening my stoic outlook, my love, my patience, my discipline, and my faith. Having all said and done, this class has definitely helped me in a way that I didn’t think of at the beginning of the course, and I will be taking my virtues along with me for the long haul. So, to answer estriction.my question: Is it possible to redeem the honor that I lost? Maybe not in a worldly sense…

(per.js)

Tutor:

I enjoyed your extended essay on virtues chosen and their relevance to your current thinking and life situation. 

I find myself thinking at end (with your ellipsis) how the virtues you chose stand on their own, if you will, at the origin or our awareness. By that I mean that it is the cultivation and practice of virtue and particular virtues that prepare us for further choices down the road. 

What if, I wonder, all the particular religions and various practices of spirituality, are, in their essence, simply the ways we enwrap virtues with containers to preserve and study according to the preferences of the container and the keeper of the container. Each religion a container. Each virtue giving itself to each and any container. 

I further suspect that the person who practices and embodies these profound virtues will find themselves comfortable in any manifestation of the virtues, any spiritual practice that honors them, any faith that abides by them. 

This thought gives me comfort. It also suggests how we might bridge the current divides between sects, denominations, religions, and philosophies. It recommends a wide-minded contemplation and practice. 

I’ll take a virtuous person any day over a narrow-minded person jealously guarding their container at all costs. 

Thanks for the prompt. I liked your meditation. 

in times of trials and tribulation, toward soul

 Student:

To me, hope lies in a future with my God, and the many promises thereof that I have read and have come to believe from experience. For example, I believe that I have the faith to hope in a brighter future than ever before after this brief time of incarceration (I’ll do about 7 on 10 years). My God gives me the hope to stand strong in times of trials and tribulation knowing that those who accept punishment and are trained by it, can persevere.   (per.jn)

Tutor:

Some current thinking is that God is in the future, is not-yet, and that we and God are forward-moving potentialities-sive-actualities seeking one-an-other in integrity and wholeness.

Student:

From what I am gathering, the virtue of Charity becomes innate in us and we want to spread it, along with the joy that comes from knowing and loving our God when we realize or come to know and to feel the love that He has for us. When we come to grips with the truth (which I am not quite there yet), then all we will want to do is to love others. And when we do, then we shall find rest for our souls.

 Tutor: 

Good ending

I found myself reinterpreting your final sentence to read: “…we will find the rest of our soul.”

An intriguing thought – that our souls are partial until, with the virtues leading us to truth, we discover that our soul is everything and everyone in existence -- then, now, and forever.