Let's look here.

Now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ. For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single New Man in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God; In his own person he killed the hostility. Later he came to bring the good news of peace, peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near at hand. Through him, both of us have in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father.
Ephesians 2:13 - 18

Let's listen now.

Hostilities abound. Something is up. Too much insanity all at once portends danger.

Mary Magdalene is a unique and important character in the story of the Resurrection, chosen by Christ as one of the first witnesses of the event that changed the world. http://www.universalis.com/-400/today.htm

How change the world? By recognizing the insanity of the world and still opting to live in the world deep within oneself eradicating the walls of hostility.

Beginners should let the truth reveal itself at all costs. Before the truth reveals itself, you should not engage in unreasonable practices or excessive zazen. If you try to force your vital energy to reveal itself and you become involved in austere practices, your resolve will break down and your vital energy will diminish. It will be useless, and that will be the end of it. All of you should keep this in mind. When you are feeling bad, your resolution will be weaker than normal.
- Shosan

There's no changing the world. There's only opting to see within oneself.

To see within oneself is enough for today.

Blood is life.

From Bamboo Forest Temple,
I faintly hear the evening bell.
Twilight touches the brim of your hat
As you turn and enter dark blue hills.
- Lui Ch'angt-ch'ing (710-785)

Sometimes we forget what it is to be human. Many decide that certainty and perfection -- things attributed to God -- will be theirs once their lives are given to God. Maybe they're right. So many want to be God.

But -- only God is God.

Now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:13 - 18

The blood of Christ entered humanity.

And remains.

Human.

It is curious that God was not embarrassed to be human. Whereas we wish to be rid of our humanity to become God.

The incarnation is too profound for our likes.

Here's what to do when someone asks you what you believe.

I explored the grounds with monks this evening,
And now the night has passed.
Heavy silence rises all around us
While late moonlight spills through the forest.
The mountain rises almost to heaven.
Sleeping in the clouds is cold.
A single stroke of the early prayer-bell wakes me.
Does it also waken my soul?
- Tu Fu (712-770)

Answer that you believe in what you believe in.

And if they do not understand -- pray the bell of awakening silences the both of you.

Bow, and be gone.

Humans divide by naming and then forget silence. We forget that in silence and root experience we share same parentage, same creation, same creator, and same essential realities of life.

Kabir writes:
I have been thinking ...
I have been thinking of the difference between water
and the waves on it. Rising,
water's still water, falling back,
it is water, will you give me a hint
how to tell them apart?

Because someone has made up the word
"wave," do I have to distinguish it
from water?

There is a Secret One inside us;
the planets in all the galaxies
pass through his hands like beads.

That is a string of beads one should look at with luminous eyes.
- Kabir (http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/kabir/kabir_index/i_have_been_thinking/document_view)

Someone is always making up words. Some practice not to make separate the thing in itself from the word about it. This is difficult. Words are things too. When you have the thing-in-itself and the word-thing, it is difficult for many of us not to take sides, draw lines, defend perimeter, and ultimately attack over erected walls whenever someone thinks their "thing" is threatened by another's "thing."

I prefer no-thing.

"There is nothing but water in the holy pools. I know, I have been swimming there. All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can't say a word. I know, I have been crying out to them. The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words. I looked through their covers one day sideways. What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through. If you have not lived through something, it is not true."
-- Kabir, (Indian Philosopher, 1398-1519)

Susan M. and John C. respond to street handout gotten on way to French and Brawn about getting to heaven from Camden. In it the writer tells how Jesus, who created the universe, became human and asked the Father to punish him for our sins so that we need not receive the punishment we deserve. I tell them I'm not fond of that point of view, that emphasis on punishment.

John, when asked, says that the life of Jesus is an example of non-violence and self-sacrifice for the sake of others. I'm more fond of that view, the emphasis on leading us through the mystery of life.

Sant Kabir (1398 - 1518): conflicting legends abound about his birth. The most commonly held view is that he was born in a Hindu family but adopted and raised in a Muslim household. A weaver by trade, he was one of India greatest mystic-poet, who counted both Hindus and Muslims as his followers. http://www.storytellingmonk.org/ref/holy_sights/people/kabir_hinduism.htm

I think of Diane Eck -- she holds that whoever knows only one religion doesn't know any.

Kabir's tone is direct. He is scathing about all the externals of religion -- idol-worship, pilgrimage, caste, ascetic practices, scriptures and the like are all targets for his scorn -- and Hindu and Muslim divines fare equally badly. He calls for man to awake, to be aware of the inevitability of his own death, to transform inwardly and to die to self, and to live in the awareness of God. His is the path of Love, which he depicts as being extremely difficult. His monotheistic religious stance, "nirgun bhakti," or devotion to the Unqualified Absolute, is shared by all the other Sants of whom Kabir was the first in North India.
(p.204, in Who's Who of World Religions, edited by John R. Hinnells, c.1992)

A terrific storm rages through the area knocking trees and power down. The harbor is torn by wind and rain. There was concern for three schooners out in the bay. (They return safely.)

Without electricity following storm I sit with Andre V. and family from Bangor and Jim O'C. from West Virginia. Jim is an artist and priest who makes cds, sings and plays and performs his lovely music. The Mystery of Christ, we agree, transcends any formulation of it. God will not be measured or limited by our language.

Water, wave, Christ, incarnation, wind, rain, friendship, concern for others, family, homegoing, homecoming, home itself!

How great thou art!

Song, as praise, itself.

A man walks up to me and asks if I've accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I say, "Yes; what's the next question?" He doesn't want to know about me and Jesus. He wants me to be someone else. He wants me to be what he isn't. I can't be that.

Meaning to get away from intellectualization
And avoid word traps,
I sailed across the sea to search for the
Transmission beyond the teachings;
Went on pilgrimages till my sandals broke
And found water in the clear stream,
The moon in the sky.
- Kakua (1143 - ?)

I don't know why Jesus doesn't just take away all those people who want desperately to be taken away and not left behind.

Take pity on us, Lord, take pity:
we have had our fill of contempt.
Our souls have had their fill
of the laughter of the rich,
of the contempt of the proud.
(from Psalm 123)

War is not the answer. Unfortunately, our leaders have never asked the question. Most men and women have never asked the question.

What is the question?

Why aren't you Christ?

The fear is President Bush really wants a devastating war in Middle East. It's only fear, right?

The white clouds
On the mountain tops
Poke halfway into this thatched hut
I had thought too cramped
Even for myself
- Koho Kennichi (1241-1316)

But no one really wants a devastating war in Middle East.

Right?

The Middle East erupts. Again. There are those in our world that want war and chaos. Those not knowing why are killed. They are called "innocent."

What we call Buddhahood is the fact that all things are originally empty. Fundamentally, there is no me, no you, no dharma, no Buddha. Buddhahood is complete separation from everything, letting go and being free. Whether it is satori or anything else, if something is there, it is not.
- Shosan

The words, "complete separation from everything," are not immediately appealing. I might have thought it would be called, "completely what everything is."

Christ is both the way and the door. Christ is the staircase and the vehicle, like the throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant, and the mystery hidden from the ages. A man should turn his full attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the cross, full of faith, hope and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then such a man will make with Christ a pasch, that is, a passing-over. Through the branches of the cross he will pass over the Red Sea, leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulchre, as if he were dead to things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside Christ: Today you will be with me in paradise.
(From the Journey of the Mind to God by St. Bonaventure)

Today might just be paradise.

The Lord God asked prophet Amos what he saw. "A plumb-line," Amos answered. Vertical reference. True, and integral. In right relation with earthen gravity.

In the Pagan gathering the other day some men did a severance and blessing ritual for someone leaving prison that day. Not to have him back, releasing and separating his spirit from everything to do with the prison. I thought it a kind thing to do.

In Christian service this afternoon talking about going home, singing Dvorak melody for song "Going Home" -- recognizing we are called back, to turn around, to change our thinking -- to return to Source, Christ, and Spirit.

God is no discrimination.

Holiness is dwelling in the presence of God.

Finishing a day of begging,
I return home through the green mountains.
The setting sun is hidden behind the western cliffs
And the moon shines weakly on the stream below.
I stop by a rock and wash my feet.
Lighting some incense, I sit peacefully in zazen.
Again a one-man brotherhood of monks;
Ah...how quickly the stream of time sweeps by.
- Ryokan (1758-1831)

To be present is to have a change of mind.

"The burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness." So says Sosan, The Third Zen Patriarch.

If God is what is taking place right now, how can we be separated from the presence of God?

Christians have a difficult job. To be present -- and not dictate to God how God could be a better Christian.

What is seen?

The foolish reject what they see,
Not what they think;
The wise reject what they think,
Not what they see.
Observe things as they are
And don't pay attention to other people.
- Huang-po (9th cent)

Things as they are.

Just like that.

What is, seen

I wonder why so many men want other men dead.

The practice of Zen
Has no secret,
Except standing on the
Verge of life and death.
- Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)

Breath by breath let us invite men and women to live.

Basic trust. Unclutching faith. Love that surrenders to what is.

Maybe they don't want each other dead.

In that case, we'll come to see.

(Rain, rain, and mosquitos.)

We chant Vespers in chapel/zendo in honor of St. Benedict. We purchase blue VW used Beetle. A Benedict's Day transport!

St Benedict (480 - 547)
Benedict was born at Nursia, in Umbria, and studied in Rome; but he was unable to stomach the dissolute life of the city, and he became a solitary hermit at Subiaco. His reputation spread, and some monks asked him to be their abbot, but they did not like the discipline he imposed and tried to poison him.
Benedict organised various small communities of monks and nuns in various places, including the great monastery of Monte Cassino. He drew up a set of rules to guide the communal life of monasteries, and, though not the first monastic rule ever, the Rule of St Benedict has proved so wise and balanced that it has served as the foundation of practically every attempt at communal living ever since. It recognises that people aim at perfection but often fall well short of it, and aims to be a "rule for beginners" in which even the least perfect and least able can grow in spiritual stature. To visit a Benedictine monastery of almost any kind is to find oneself spending time among a group of people who, by their strivings to live and grow together, have become more and more themselves, as God intended them, instead of being crushed into false uniformity by some idealistic and authoritarian regime.
For those of us in the world, too, the Rule of St Benedict has much to say: it drags our eyes up to the stars but keeps our feet firmly on the ground; it calls us to perfection but keeps us sane.
(http://www.universalis.com/-400/today.htm)

To become more and more ourselves, as God intended us -- this is monastic practice.

Oblivious, I pass Hsiang-chi Temple,
Walking on through mountain clouds,
An empty trail through ancient trees.
Deep in the mountains, a bell resounds.

The singing river flows among stones.
Sunlight streams though frozen pines.
In this still pool, in falling light,
Zen overcomes the serpents of delusion.
- Wang Wei (710-761)

The delusion is "false uniformity by some idealistic and authoritarian regime." So many compel so many into delusion.

When Jesus realized God's power flowed through him in the presence of faith, he became humble. He became human. He became what the Father longed for him to be. One of us.

We can no longer be afraid of those afraid of God. Their fear is that they will not have the mettle to allow God to flow through them -- and will be stuck quoting scripture and condemning people the remainder of their bitter lives.

Our body is on the cross. Benedict knew this. As God is made flesh, and dwells among us, it is the time of Christ even as there is no more time.

Richard was in rare form tonight at shop. Even with bruised ribs.

With gratitude, the monastic rule of Benedict is complete.

Speaking of her father, Mary Karr writes, "His love of language made words his sacraments, too. Poetry was the family's religion. Beauty bonded us." (From Afterword, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer," in her book of poems, Sinners Welcome, by Mary Karr, c.2006)

Mark, visiting from Ontario, was reading Karr. We were talking about poetry -- how it is for me a universal scripture for spirituality. Heather and he sat with Saskia and I over breakfast wondering whether anyone was willing to face with faith the falling through the trapdoor of certitude and belief. So assured that belief meant that you "know" -- there is a powerful reluctance to enter the darkness of faith falling through the never-ending and ungrasping love of God.

Faith is falling through the loving trust of God itself.

It's a delight to meet, set out, and together
Visit Master Dharma-Guile's Ch'an stillness
Where people never go.
At his stone hut
We find only a tiger dozing in a hammock,
Shadowy wind harboring perennial snows, and
Springwater welling up into pine cascades.
We came from lives so different, but here,
Dharma mats offer a joy we share utterly.
- Meng hao-jan (689-740 C.E.)

As chaplain in prison there is a wide circle that is walked. Men in segregation. Men in worship or study groups. Men in wary trust. Along that circle there are welcomes and there are abandonments. Both welcome and abandonment feel an uncertain footing stepping over trapdoor. What could be gallows, could also be ungrasping falling touch of God. All bets are off as foot feels creaky contour of floor.

In my terror, I said
"I am cut off from your sight";
but you heard the voice of my prayer
when I called to you.

Love the Lord, all his chosen ones.
The Lord keeps his faithful ones safe,
heaps rich revenge on the arrogant.
Be brave, let your hearts be strong,
all who trust in the Lord.
(from Psalm 31)

Certitude is a sure bet. Most money is laid on it. Knowing is short odds. A tight yield that is familiar. Faith, on the other hand, is a very long shot, with rare odds coupled with unforseeable payoff.

In this vision, faith is God looking through us as we look into the face of God invisibly positioned between gaze and mirror, self's regard and neighbor's response.

Last week Betty's daughter's boy stopped by the shop. He was reading Robert Service. Susan and Sam were there and Susan traded lines with Peter from Service's poems. Here's one they might not know:

Faith

Since all that is was ever bound to be;
Since grim, eternal laws our Being bind;
And both the riddle and the answer find,
And both the carnage and the calm decree;
Since plain within the Book of Destiny
Is written all the journey of mankind
Inexorably to the end; since blind
And mortal puppets playing parts are we:

Then let's have faith; good cometh out of ill;
The power that shaped the strife shall end the strife;
Then let's bow down before the Unknown Will;
Fight on, believing all is well with life;
Seeing within the worst of War's red rage
The gleam, the glory of the Golden Age.
("Faith" a poem by Robert William Service)

Dusk slides green down Bald Mountain.

In the night of faith, our night prayer: "You, Lord, are in our midst, and we are called by your name; therefore do not abandon us, Lord, our God." (Jeremiah 14: 9)

God's wisdom excludes nothing.

Or, if from a Buddhist perspective, Nothing includes God's wisdom.

Perhaps a middle view: Nothing God loves more that inseparate inclusion.

If you can stop your heart from its ceaseless running after whisps of the will, you will not be different from the Buddha and patriarchs. Do you want to know the Buddha? None other than the one who here and now is listening to the Dharma.
- Rinzai (d.866)

I admit befuddlement. The detritus of dualism that says, "My religion is the only truth -- all others be damned."

The mind has honed the razor sharp edge that divides one thing from itself.

There is so much suffering caused by religious intolerance.

I'd have thought Christian virtue included hospitality, engagement, forgiveness, and love. As would Muslim virtue. Buddhist virtue. Hinduism virtue. Jewish virtue. Pagan virtue. Human virtue.

Be vigorous, but do not sin:
speak in the silence of your heart,
in your bed, be at rest.
Offer righteousness as a sacrifice,
and put your trust in the Lord.
From Psalm 4)

It is a rare joy to sit with those who understand our task to be that of fostering peace and understanding -- no matter what form their prayer and worship takes.

Midnight.

Mother's birthday.

No candles these twenty five years .

It astonishes me that God longs to dwell with us.

It's also no mystery that we don't really want that shared dwelling place to come about. Why not?

For that answer we'd have to search our hearts. Something dies in us when we shut out another or others. We fail to grieve our own death. "Screw it" we say. We wander away not even realizing we've got nowhere to go.

I belong to the Christian wing of the Christian faith. We prefer hospitality, forgiveness, and acceptance. We'd rather celebrate true life than condemn someone we think ought to be punished because how they think is different than how we think.

Where respect and open invitation into dialogue comes first. Where authentic conversation between differing points of view continues and expands our compassion and charity for one another.

I am astonished that God longs to dwell with us!

A young man from Georgia who washes dishes on a cruising yacht bought a Charlie Parker set of cd's. He had a half hour. It passed. He left for launch. He thinks its time religions and races found common ground

The years of a lifetime are a flash of lightning;
Why clings to objects?
They are empty through and through.
Even if you care for the nose
Hung in front of your face,
Still be careful and value every moment
To work on enlightenment.
This is a statement for people
In meditation; what about a
Statement for the seasoned adept on the mountain?
- Dogen (1200-1253)

It is time.

Common ground is formless consciousness.

Then goes time.

Raymond's mother takes a turn for the worse. He'll visit her tomorrow. A last visit. He won't go to the funeral. He can't.

The iris pond has flowered
Before the old temple;
I sell tea this evening
By the water's edge.
It is steeped in the cups
With the moon and stars;
Drink and wake forever
From your worldly sleep.
- Baisao (1675-1763)

In final prayer at hospice memorial service I invoke "The All Holy Creating Spirit Itself."

What person, however careless, who had to address someone of importance, would not spend time in thinking how to approach him so as to please him and not be considered tedious? He would also think what he was going to ask for and what use he would make of it, especially if his petition were for some particular thing, as our good Jesus tells us our petitions must be. This point seems to me very important. Could you not, my Lord, have ended this prayer in a single sentence, by saying: "Give us, Father, whatever is good for us"? For, in addressing One Who knows everything, there would seem to be no need to say any more.
(from "The Way of Perfection" of St Teresa of Avila)

Back home Jon says it might have been a Cardinal the cat got earlier.

Grief is that way. Not one of us is separate from each one of us.

Maybe that's a place to start.

With impermanence.

Again.

It is an odd birthday celebration.

In my pot nothing but the wind's deep moan,
For company only a staff of wisteria vine;
Last night we chatted and laughed till all hours
The empty sky listened with a cold heart.
- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

We're trying to discern what independence means these days. It is a bit confusing.

No more does the Lord do anything
without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets.
The lion roars: who can help feeling afraid?
The Lord speaks: who can refuse to prophesy?
(Amos 3)

Whose lion? Which Lord? What prophecy?

On Hosmer Pond today, climbing from canoe to island, watching two loons bobbing in wind swelled waves. Suddenly, from land across pond, sound of huge tree falling and crashing. No sawing, no "timber," nothing but falling tree sound. Loons didn't even glance toward direction of the sound. Something needs reversal in this country.

According to Fujitani, reversed words are the
"spirit of things" (kotodama) hiding the presence of
Being (kami); they are "true words" (makoto, written
with the same characters as shingon) incorporating a
spiritual presence (tama). Poetic language explodes
conventional vocabularies beyond the constrictive
field of denotation, informing the word with the
formlessness of the noumenal/experiential. Kotodama
is a language without words (fugen) that only a
poet, a child, or a sage possesses. Poetry contains
the hidden voice of Being (kakurimi) whose secrecy
only the hermeneutical act can disclose.
(from p.382, JAPANESE AESTHETICS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING, By Michele Marra, Philosophy East and West, Volume 45, Number 3, July 1995, P.367-386
(C) by University of Hawaii Press)

The loons prophesy life without the question 'why?'

The hidden voice of Being is in dripping paddles, swimming dog, and splashing woman. The burden of unseen falling is shared among all those who cannot hear the sound and those that can.

I hear the sound.

Does that make the tree reverse its fall?

Happy Birthday USA!

Are we any closer to a recognizable wisdom?

No tellin' what could happen next.

Meaning to get away from intellectualization
And avoid word traps,
I sailed across the sea to search for the
Transmission beyond the teachings;
Went on pilgrimages till my sandals broke
And found water in the clear stream,
The moon in the sky.
- Kakua (1143 - ?)

No matter what you call God, or Jesus, -- or don't call anyone, other than some action they perform -- we are at odds.

Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, while you are the learned men in Christ; we have no power, but you are influential; you are celebrities, we are nobodies.
(from 1Corinthians 4)

It's nice to be nothing and no one.

Half of life is form. Half, emptiness. Both are necessary. We live in the middle tension between them.

"God, the scripture is saying, is formless consciousness and the essence of who you are." (Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth, p.219, commenting on a scripture from the Upanishads)

It gives new meaning to someone saying they do not believe in God, or, there is no God. Is there no consciousness? Is there no essence?

The white clouds
On the mountain tops
Poke halfway into this thatched hut
I had thought too cramped
Even for myself
- Koho Kennichi (1241-1316)

Formless consciousness will fit. It belongs wherever anything is what it is.

Sing praise, yes. Observe silence, yes.

Be still, yes.

And know.

Yes.