Remnant
Religion
Sits
Silently
Trying to
Remember
When
Namelessness
Seemed a
Comfort
When The Name
Hashem (הַשֵּׁם)
Unpronounceable
Merely gazed
At wet road
A rainy memory
Confit-I-or . . .
Misereres
Sharpen the
Miséricordes
Our medieval
Dagger obviating
Wounded
Continuance
Out of
Mercy
This, too,
Shall pass
This breath,
Gone
This country,
Knifed
An idiot
Rules
Christians
Mock God
Dollar is
Christ
No antidote
for ignorance
Buddhists
Walk away
Fools’ folly
Formaldehydes
Our lifeless
Souls
In ditch
A red cap
It was
No accident
There
Will be
No
Calling hours
I suppose it sounds
Gratuitous to say the man
Must be demented
We don’t talk about
A man in an important
Position as being clinically
An as*hole, I apologize, the truth
Isn’t easy to articulate
But he is very very off, sadly
Making everybody suffer
Except his buddies, smacking
around the rest of us, and I’d
Wish for him to be punched
In the face in front of everyone
Give him a bloody nose
The way the neighborhood
Dealt with arrogant bullies
When the time was right
As it is
right
now
If you’re
Self absorbed
You are a wet and
Laden sponge
If you have
Let go all you carry
you sit high & dry
As sage of sink —
Squeezed empty
Ready to cleanse
Soul asks for enough
Water to wipe away
Accumulated fear
useless remnants
To begin again
To remember origin
Trying to decide whether to immolate myself in front of the Federal Post Office, or, to open the second container of Coffee Milk by Oakhurst. It's a hard decision. Someone could take a photo of my burned body next to the sign "This Toast is for Trump" and try to sell it to the Nebraska Sentinel and Morning Post for big bucks.
On the other hand, I could put off the coffee milk for another time and put off the conflagration for never and continue listening to Peter Baker and Susan Glasser's book The Divider (c.2022). It is, nevertheless, hard to imagine a less qualified, more morally and characterologically flawed human being as president than the one from 2016 and 2025.
Even the zippo lighter and red gasoline can understand the futility of trying to make a statement when there are no ears or eyes interested in anything said or done. They hide themselves behind the dumpster and look for a vw beetle gas tank and an open pack of Camels to put their lives back on the path to meaning. Surely, they think, the price of a first class piece of mail will drop, and pizza will no longer think pineapple or anchovies are seemly adornment for what goes into a large "You've tried the rest, now try the best" pie box.
They say spring has come
And the sky is filled with mist,
Yet on the mountains,
No flowers, only snow.
Ryokan (1758-1831)
Dog snores by chair.
Paul G. Tremblay's Cabin at the End of the World (c.2018) paperback sits on passenger seat of truck. It was 75% off at GoodWill, a steal for 26 cents. Stephen King's blurb said he really liked it. We need a more palatable horror than that of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The grey Volkswagen turns into driveway.
The pot's right. Go ahead, deal 'em.
Let's get this game under way.
I'll have a sarsaparilla, barkeep.
Keep the change, honey.
I'm feeling lucky.
Count me some chips please.
Ain't it great to be alive!
Sociopaths
Gathering other
Sociopaths
No conscience
Emulating
No conscience
Uh oh —
All goes to
Willful greed
The deviousness
Of separation
Into othering..,
Can wholeness
Re-emerge can
holiness reincarnate
Can mind, heart and
longing (will)
Intersection one another
Crossing (momentarily
and finally) that which
seemed separate & suspect
This intersecting reality
holding no opposition, no
sameness, as through-ing
(Yes), through-ing,
The movement through
one as other as one
Having to see, having to
feel, having longing-being
turning with what is turning…
No sociopath can abide
What is turning through
The intersection of Itself
We need to name, need
learn to pronounce what-is
Emerging through (yes)
This
(Yes)
Love
“Awareness of being is happiness.” (—Rupert Spira)
Being is happiness in awareness.
Happiness is being-awareness.
“Is” happiness awares being.
the lyric went: "Nothing's
gonna change my world"
We missed it. They were
singing "Nothing" is gonna
change my world. As it does,
does nothing, it changes
everything in ways that
somethings never can
Jai Guru Deva, Om all across
the universe, nothing changes
everything, everyone, everyplace
glorifying (divine) teacher
Myanmar suffers earthquake
Gaza suffers hamas and Israel
Ukraine suffers putin and Russia
America suffers trump and maga
I suffer you, you suffer me
What if Being were our conscious joy
World
Is made of
Words
Speak well
A world of
Peace
Speak poorly
A world of
Tears
Become
A poet, save
The world
Cf, A Token, poem by Robert creeley)
No need to know where
you’ve been,
you were never there
Redwing blackbird, a brief
while on bare branch
Flies off eyeing feeder
La vie est drôle
We never been nor seldom are
Where thought thinks we’ve been
or are --
It’s a magic trick, memory, presto
chango, hoc est corpus meum, hocus
pocus —
When we realize this, there is no there
There
Nor, hardly, any here
Here
Smoke and mirrors, in Hebrew
“I will create as I speak,
Aramaic "I create like
the word" (אברא כדברא),
avda kedavra – “what is
said must be done.”
Given time, everything is
Spoken into existence
Everything spoken out of
Existence
Speak now,
Then,
Be silent
The world comes
The world goes
Blessed be
the surrounding
Breath
sounding
Itself
Into appearance,
then
Disappearance
You were only
Waiting for
To arise
When you
think
about it
What
Really
Is
There
Here
odd to think
at center of
stone is word
split the stone
release sound
pronouncing
if you practice
silence you
emerge word
creation isn't
done, it awaits
pronunciation
the truest words
let things be
as they are
What the hell, it's Saturday. Snow fell and will again tomorrow.
Dependent Origination walks into room with brown and white St Bernard/Border Collie mix freshly bathed yesterday still smelling of shampoo.
Why not look at it.
At Savatthī. Then the householder Anathapiṇḍika approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, and sat down to one side. The Blessed One then said to him:
“Householder, when five fearful animosities have subsided in a noble disciple, and he possesses the four factors of stream-entry, and he has clearly seen and thoroughly penetrated with wisdom the noble method, if he wishes he could by himself declare of himself: ‘I am one finished with hell, finished with the animal realm, finished with the domain of ghosts, finished with the plane of misery, the bad destinations, the nether world. I am a stream-enterer, no longer bound to the nether world, fixed in destiny, with enlightenment as my destination.’
“What are the five fearful animosities that have subsided? Householder, one who destroys life engenders, on account of such behaviour, fearful animosity pertaining to the present life and fearful animosity pertaining to the future life, and he experiences mental pain and displeasure. Thus for one who abstains from destroying life, this fearful animosity has subsided.
“One who takes what is not given … … who engages in sexual misconduct … who speaks falsely … who indulges in wine, liquor, and intoxicants that are a basis for negligence engenders, on account of such behaviour, fearful animosity pertaining to the present life and fearful animosity pertaining to the future life, and he experiences mental pain and displeasure. Thus for one who abstains from wine, liquor, and intoxicants that are a basis for negligence, this fearful animosity has subsided.
“These are the five fearful animosities that have subsided.
“What are the four factors of stream-entry that he possesses? Here, householder, the noble disciple possesses confirmed confidence in the Buddha thus: ‘The Blessed One is an arahant, perfectly enlightened, accomplished in true knowledge and conduct, fortunate, knower of the world, unsurpassed leader of persons to be tamed, teacher of devas and humans, the Enlightened One, the Blessed One.’
“He possesses confirmed confidence in the Dhamma thus: ‘The Dhamma is well expounded by the Blessed One, directly visible, immediate, inviting one to come and see, applicable, to be personally experienced by the wise.’
“He possesses confirmed confidence in the Saṅgha thus: ‘The Saṅgha of the Blessed One’s disciples is practising the good way, practising the straight way, practising the true way, practising the proper way; that is, the four pairs of persons, the eight types of individuals—this Saṅgha of the Blessed One’s disciples is worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation, the unsurpassed field of merit for the world.’
“He possesses the virtues dear to the noble ones—unbroken, untorn, unblemished, unmottled, freeing, praised by the wise, ungrasped, leading to concentration.
“These are the four factors of stream-entry that he possesses.
“And what is the noble method that he has clearly seen and thoroughly penetrated with wisdom? Here, householder, the noble disciple attends closely and carefully to dependent origination itself thus: ‘When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases. That is, with ignorance as condition, volitional formations come to be; with volitional formations as condition, consciousness…. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. But with the remainderless fading away and cessation of ignorance comes cessation of volitional formations; with the cessation of volitional formations, cessation of consciousness…. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.’
“This is the noble method that he has clearly seen and thoroughly penetrated with wisdom.
“When, householder, these five fearful animosities have subsided in a noble disciple, and he possesses these four factors of stream-entry, and he has clearly seen and thoroughly penetrated with wisdom this noble method, if he wishes he could by himself declare of himself: ‘I am one finished with hell, finished with the animal realm, finished with the domain of ghosts, finished with the plane of misery, the bad destinations, the nether world. I am a stream-enterer, no longer bound to the nether world, fixed in destiny, with enlightenment as my destination.’”
https://suttacentral.net/sn12.41/en/bodhi?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false
Something has wanted arising.
So, suffering arises.
If something unarises, will suffering unarise?
If we are finished with hell, is hell finished?
walking dog
in woods
he stops,
contemplative stare,
snow falling
everywhere
trees bedecked
ground squeaking
it occurs: this is
all there is,
(not in Peggy
Lee sense) but
this is all
there is
the silence, the snow
the watchfulness,
each step a completion
of no journey, just steps
closing yurt door
closing fence gate
returning to barn
noticing footprints
from bookshed,
plants watered
ski poles leaning near
five sticks of firewood
An eclipse, they say
Is taking place
Alarm sounds
Somewhere
Thank god
I’m oblivious
Besides,
It’s snowing
And birds
Are singing
Whatever
It is
I’m not
Supposed
To look
Upon
I don’t
I can’t
This is
What mercy
Looks like
As plow passes
I sorrow
For Gaza
I sorrow
For Ukraine
I sorrow
For America
For people
Suffering
For terrible
Behavior
Devastating
Humankind
baseball season
began yesterday
I missed it
I was preaching
the gospel, using
no words
(Doris sends Norman
quoting Francis on this)
I really wasn't
preaching, I was
simply unconscious
pretending not to be
morning birdsong
comes up through
window
seed feeder in first
light sets table
readies sunflower
nut special
for early
arrivals
Listening to Nones from France, and reading about Wolfhart Pannenberg.
One about not losing confidence. The other about all will be made clear at the end.
This meander, through prayer and scholarship, an attempt to reside well in the day.
Of course, Pannenberg added, the history in which God is made known is not any isolated little bit of history, but the totality of history. The truth about anything comes out in the end, not along the way, and the truth about God will come out when God’s work is completed at the eschaton—the climax of history.
This insight is the key to all of Pannenberg’s theology. He defined God as “the all-determining power” and declared that as long as all things were not manifestly determined by God, God’s reality and identity were dubious. As he notoriously phrased it in his early book Theology and the Kingdom of God, “It is necessary to say that, in a restricted but important sense, God does not yet exist.” This rather drastic way of making his point was attractive to process thinkers, panentheists, and Hegelians of various kinds, with whom he disagreed but welcomed dialogue. In some ways, he spent the rest of his career either buttressing, nuancing, or—as in at least two cases in the 1990s when I heard him give public lectures and respond to questions—seeming to almost retract his claim that “in a restricted but important sense, God does not yet exist.”
Christians, even academic theologians, can hardly be expected to wait until the end of the world to find out if their God-talk has any warrant. But Pannenberg insisted that “only with the consummation of the world in the kingdom of God does God's love reach its goal and the doctrine of God reach its conclusion.” Picturing all of reality, including its temporal succession, as a unified whole, Pannenberg pointed to its final totality (“the eschatological consummation of history”) as the location of God’s demonstrated reality. Crucially, once that reality and totality are achieved, it will turn out that history not only was always moving toward it but was in fact determined by it all along, though retroactively. And the final “retroactive permanence” of God’s all-determining rule is present to us here in the course of history through Jesus Christ. In Christ, God is truly present and he makes available in advance what will be experienced in the future. This concept, known as prolepsis, is thus the juncture point of Pannenberg’s theology: We have in Christ’s resurrection the reality of God himself acting in history. The theological destiny of the world lives among us now as we make our way to the final resurrection. Pannenberg argued that his account of prolepsis “combines the concept of the kingdom of God with the Platonic idea of the good to the effect that the temporal structure of the latter is emphasized.”
(--from, The Strange Legacy of Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, by Fred Sanders, Christianity Today
Good in time. God in eternity. Jesus in time. Christ in infinity.
A challenge to prayer. Are we praying that what-is-true be true now? Or are we praying that we might have the strength to live with what-is-false now so as to be recipient of what-is-true when time is fully complete and we are risen from and through its limitations and illusions?
Or, are we meant to become the truth that is beyond time here in time so as to encourage our fellow travelers as we make our way through this veil of shadows and sorrows toward and through the torn open veil revealing light and joy?
Prolepsis, here:
prolepsis (n.)
1570s, "anticipation, the taking of something anticipated as already done or existing," also "the assignment of something to a too early date," from Latin prolepsis, from Greek prolēpsis "an anticipating," etymologically "a taking beforehand," from prolambanein "to take before, receive in advance," from pro "before" (see pro-) + lambanein "to take" (see lemma). A word used variously in philosophy and rhetoric. Related: Proleptic; proleptical; proleptically.
also from 1570s
Perhaps it is necessary to become a proleptic christian, or a proleptic buddhist in order to be a true christian or true buddhist.
It's a matter of time.
The time within which we live. Oftentimes a difficult time full of worry and doubt. A time when others claim time belongs to them and you are meant to serve it and them simultaneously.
Is this why some practice a "spiritual" or "meditative" life? To breakthrough the restrictions and demands of time while nurturing and nourishing the proleptic fullness and completion of time with its promise of final totality, '(“the eschatological consummation of history”) as the location of God’s demonstrated reality.'
Is that the promise?
Is that the invitation of the religious, spiritual, meditative, contemplative life?
As I consider this, I attend the prayerful reminder:
Lectio (Nones)
Nolíte abjícere confidéntiam vestram quæ magnam habet remuneratiónem;
Do not lose your confidence, which has a great reward.
patiéntia enim vobis necessária est,
For it is necessary for you to be patient,
ut voluntátem Dei faciéntes reportétis promissiónem.
so that, by doing the will of God, you may receive the promise.
At least, for today, I'll look a little more carefully at time, now and then.
A friend in prison calls it "Uncle Al". Here's what AI says about it:
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" is a biblical saying from Matthew 6:34, meaning each day has enough trouble of its own, so don't worry about the future.
How foolish to be reduced to words about experience/reality instead of becoming the reality one is with.
How foolish to rail against perceived injustice and illegal arrests instead of throwing one's body into the fray.
How impotent to see what is going on and not know what to do about it.
What does Dogen have to say about the tension concerning writing and directly engaging that is there??
Jiŭ shè rénjiān wú aìxī
Living in the world for so long without attachments,
Wénzhāng bĭyàn jì pāo lái
Since giving up using paper and pen.
Jiàn huā wén niao fēnqíng shăo
I see flowers and hear birds without feeling much,
Zhà zài shān yóu kuì bù cái
Living on mountains,
I am embarrassed by this meager effort.
(An example of Dōgen’s Chinese poetry, Association for Asian Studies)
Surely I am missing something.
Mountain behind me, mountain across road, they know I have not listened well to them.
