looking over to wood stove
where incense stick earlier burned
gone now,
only invisible fragrence
Saturday, June 20, 2026
all the mother sentient beings
A random reading of Buddhist scripture remembering Robert Thurman, from The Flower Adornment Sutra, an excerpt:
Although there are no analogies adequate to illustrate
the gateways of liberation possessed by all those bodhisattvas,
I now nonetheless use these analogies
to briefly explain their powers of sovereign mastery.
Foremost wisdom, vast wisdom,
genuine wisdom, boundless wisdom,
supreme wisdom, and especially supreme wisdom—
Such gateways to Dharma as these have already been set forth.
This Dharma is so rare and so very extraordinary
that, if one who had heard it could recognize and approve of it,
could have faith in it, could accept it, and could praise it,
then being able to act this way would be most especially rare.
For any common worldly person
to believe this Dharma would be extremely rare.
Only one who had diligently cultivated pure merit in the past
could then be able, by the power of past causes, to believe it.
Of all the many types of beings in the world,
there are but few who wish to seek the śrāvaka disciple vehicle.
Those who seek solitary enlightenment are fewer yet.
Those going forth in the Great Vehicle are very rarely met.
But to go forth in the Great Vehicle is still comparatively easy,
for being able to have faith in this Dharma is rarer yet by twice,
even more so if one were to retain it, recite it, teach it to others,
cultivate it in accord with the Dharma, and genuinely understand it.
Even holding a great trichiliocosm atop one’s head
for an entire kalpa without moving one’s body at all
would still not qualify as particularly difficult,
for being able to believe in this Dharma is what is truly difficult.
Even standing in empty space for an entire kalpa,
holding up ten buddha kṣetras with one’s hands
would still not yet qualify as particularly difficult,
for being able to believe in this Dharma is what is truly difficult.
Even the merit gained from making gifts of delightful things
for a kalpa to beings as numerous as the atoms in ten buddha kṣetras
Chapter 12
—
Foremost Worthy 367
would still not qualify as especially supreme,
for the merit of one believing in this Dharma is the most supreme.
If one served as many tathāgatas as the atoms in ten buddha kṣetras
and did so for an entire kalpa, [his merit would surely be vast].
[However], if one could recite and retain this chapter,
his merit would be most supreme, surpassing even the merit of that.
At that time, after Foremost Worthy Bodhisattva had finished speak-
ing these verses, the lands of the ten directions shook and moved
in six ways. The light of the māras’ palaces became obscured, the
wretched destinies came to a standstill, and the buddhas of the ten
directions all appeared directly before him, whereupon they each
rubbed the top of his head with his right hand and, in a single voice,
they praised him, saying, “It is good indeed, good indeed that you
so quickly proclaim this Dharma. We all rejoice in accord with this.”
The End of Chapter Twelve
(--from, The Flower Adornment Sutra
The Great Expansive
Buddha’s Flower Adornment Sutra
An Annotated Translation of the Avataṃsaka Sutra
By Bhikshu Dharmamitra
With a Commentarial Synopsis
Of the Flower Adornment Sutra
Volume One
https://kalavinka.org/ebooks_NEW/Avatamsaka%20Sutra_Vol%201_English_ebk_08-19-23.pdf
Friday, June 19, 2026
不詳 ... (ふしょう) ... fushō
Everything that has a beginning has an end.
Bankei describes the unborn mind in glowing terms,
What I call the “Unborn” is the Buddha-mind. This Buddha-mind is unborn, with a marvelous virtue of illuminative wisdom. In the Unborn, all things fall right into place and remain in perfect harmony.1.
Bankei gives an idea of how the unborn mind functions with this quote,
The Unborn manifests itself in the thought, “I want to see” or “I want to hear” not being born … The reason I say it's in the “Unborn” that you see and hear in this way is because the mind doesn't give “birth” to any thought or inclination to see or hear.2
(--from Unborn Mind, Kuden Paul Boyle, Forest City Zen Group)
Who was Bankei?
Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢; 1622-1693) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master, and the abbot of the Ryōmon-ji and Nyohō-ji. He was a major Zen figure of the Edo period and is best known for his emphasis on a minimalist sudden approach to Zen which simply relies on the unborn Buddha mind. He became well known in Japan for his public talks in colloquial Japanese which were popular among laypersons. [1] wikipedia
If there is no beginning, is there no end?
A passage in the Hsin Hsin Ming which gives another perspective on the experience of unborn mind reads,
When discriminating thoughts do not arise the usual mind ceases to exist. When thought-objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes. When the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Object is object because of the subject. Subject is subject because of the object. (--ibid)
What does it mean to say there is no beginning and no end?
Does the unborn undie?
How does this question apply to the strange christian narrative they call the ressurection?
Is there a fundamental understanding within both buddhism and christianity that “things are, without beginning or end”?
Is my mind too compromised to even come close to comprehending this unborn and undying narrative?
It turns out, that Bankei didn't just make up this term, “unborn”. It appears in the Heart Sutra as the characters fu-sho which gets translated as “not born”, “uncreated”, “not appear”. We can go even back to the Pali Cannon and find the Buddha speaking about the unborn. In the Udana book of the Khuddaka Nikaya (Ud 8.3):3
There is, monks, an unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated. If there were not that unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, there would not be the case that escape from the born — become — made — fabricated would be discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, escape from the born — become — made — fabricated is discerned. (--ibid)
Can we still say “Here I am” throughout this meditation?
Or, in fact, is that all we can say?
clear light, odd sound
low flying sound
turbine engine
flies over house --
as Tibetan chant
for deceased former monk
drones on
ངལ་གསོ་ཡག་པོ་བྱོས། *
* ngal gso yag po byos -- (rest well)Chants and prayers for Robert Thurman.
Robert "Bob" Thurman passed away on June 16, 2026, at the age of 84. He was the first Westerner ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the 14th Dalai Lama.
Chanting and prayer from Tibet House:
https://youtu.be/VDdCk0EphLw?is=JeZw9XbfLFUjP1ST
A talk he once gave:
https://youtu.be/inT2JzRwOaU?is=Uj1F3qmhjvgTZxNq
And this one:
Thursday, June 18, 2026
temet nosce
when the vase breaks
flowers scatter
glass shatters
one cannot understand
what one is doing if
thinking about it
one is not one when
it becomes two -- oh the joy
should one come to know this
why monks and nuns have no flotation devices
when Kierkegaard retold the story
of Abraham and Isaac he was telling
about the commander telling bunker pilots
to shoot the shit out of an Iranian girl’s school
they did, they did not withhold the knife
they slit their daughter’s throats
but it’s ok, the commander got richer
his nestlings got stupider, the people
dimmer, the country more baffled than ants
scurrying to bet on sports and buy red hats
When last I looked, the stymied were legion
the ugly reprobates were having suits cleaned
and the monks and nuns were trying to balance
their teetering boat on river rapids careening wildly
it’s simple, there is no safe passage, the biblical story
was edited to reflect a test, a test (ha!) instead of this world
山道
We watch The Mountain Path - 山道 -
learning with China's Buddhist Hermits
a quiet reflection --
each step, each face, each glance
how difficult the hermit life
how joyful seeing it
this mountain path
these huts and happy hermits
i remember thinking, who writes like this
Documentary on Charles Bukowski
his wanting to do nothing, drink, sleep,
sex, and write
AI Overview
Charles Bukowski is most famous for his gritty, unapologetic "dirty realism" and for popularizing a hard-drinking, anti-establishment literary persona. Through his raw poetry and novels, he chronicled the dark, unglamorous side of urban American life—specifically in Los Angeles—focusing on outcasts, alcoholics, gambling, and poverty
I read him in the seventies and eighties
he was raw and notably monotonous
something of his writing says
just put it down, don’t dress it up
someone collected some Bukowski quotes:
--from 95 Charles Bukowski quotes that blew my f*cking mind.
closed gate, dishes in sink
Hissing tires on wet road
Buddha watches me
There is a hermit
In this vicinity
Hasn't been seen yet
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
o say can you see, can you hear
The loyal courtiers of the naked emperor
Are also naked
What a world
Admiring each other’s tuchus
Their posteriors shiny buffed
With gold leaf and green dollars
This new aesthetic
Gauche, vulgar, perverted
An American symphony
For the deaf and dumb
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
the possibility of sheltering and caring for each other.
Reading preface on porch to Responding to Loss: Heideggerian Reflections on Literature, Architecture, and Film, by Robert Mugerauer.
Straw hat shading eyes.
Thinking about how worlds open.
How there are innumerable worlds within what we call one world.
How every hour is a different world.
Abstract
The Crossing opens the enigma of whether we live in a chaos or in an ordered realm. In McCarthy's novel of death and destruction almost all that one cares for is taken away, seemingly without human or divine pity, though a few things, such as a church, are stubborn, refusing to pass. Heidegger's explication of Heraclitus and Anaximander considers how things are out of joint in regard to time: the insistence necessary to things generates injustice because by persisting they do not let other things come forth. Contrary, another rereading of Anaximander tells us that things also have the possibility of sheltering and caring for each other. In the end, we have only the conflicting testimony on both sides of the case. Clearly our usual understanding of nature, mortals, and the gods is woefully inadequate; nonetheless, we are called to respond, to make a judgment ourselves.
I understand why some do not like Kierkegaard or Heidegger, McCarthy or Jean-Luc Marion. There is a cost to reading them. Our frugality reveals our interests.
And so, the day slips away.
Address and responsiveness. So too Toynbee's challenge and response. How we go on.
I suspect it’s silly to continue to read philosophy after all these years.
Might be.
And yet, and yet, and yet...
everywhere I hear the tweet of birds.
At practice Sunday someone said that Confucianism was too rigid for them. That’s understandable. The tight lines of duty up and down the scale can easily feel constraining.
Meng hao-jan might have been listening.
Confucian and Taoist: though different ways,
They merge here in all this forest and cloud,
Our two minds joined together in such joy
As we talk and laugh in the day’s last light.
Ready for sleep, we return
To high twilight windows,
Gaze across distant peaks aflame:
It carries thought back to red-cliff beacons,
Brings memories of towering coastal peaks.
With a creek’s windswept sound so crystalline,
Who needs the tune of a silent mountain sage?
--Meng hao-jan (689-740)
Wikipedia says "He had the desire to pursue a career in politics in his youth, but never succeeded in securing an official position.[1]”
He stayed as a hermit in his locale and practiced landscape poetry.
春眠不覺曉，
處處聞啼鳥。
夜來風雨聲，
花落知多少。
In spring slumber, I am unaware of daybreak,
Though everywhere I hear the tweet of birds.
Last night came the sound of wind and rain;
Who knows how many flowers must have fallen?
--Mêng Hao-jan; 689/691–740)
Perhaps his duty was to wind and rain, sound and flowers.
We are lucky to have each one of us telling what we see and feel in one another’s presence.
seeks/finds//finds/troubled//troubled/astonished// -- / reign
We look at
The whole
Through fragments
We see
Fragments through
The whole
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Gospel of Thomas Saying 2 |
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This Gospel of Thomas Commentary is part of the Gospel of Thomas page at Early Christian Writings. |
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Nag Hammadi Coptic Text [tap for clearer view]  |
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BLATZ (2) Jesus said: He who seeks, let him not cease seeking until he finds; and when he finds he will be troubled, and when he is troubled he will be amazed, and he will reign over the All. |
LAYTON (2) Jesus said, "Let one who seeks not stop seeking until that person finds; and upon finding, the person will be disturbed; and being disturbed, will be astounded; and will reign over the entirety." |
DORESSE 1 [2]. Jesus says: "Let him who seeks cease not to seek until he finds: when he finds he will be astonished; and when he is astonished he will wonder, and will reign over the universe!" |
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Oxyrhynchus Greek Fragment 2. [Néya 'In(ooũ)5] uh TaUoáo0w ó Tn[tấ Tốũ Tntấy đoc ẩv] súọn, Koi ötav aóon, [Oaußn0noetot kai Oap] Bn0as Baoraon kali Baoltaoas avana] nostaI. |
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DORESSE - Oxyrhynchus [Jesus says:] "Let him who see[ks] cease not [to seek until he] finds: when he finds, [he will wonder; and when he wond]ers, he will reign, and [reigning, he will have r]est!" |
ATTRIDGE - Oxyrhynchus (2) [Jesus said], "Let him who seeks continue [seeking until] he finds. When he finds, [he will be amazed. And] when he becomes [amazed], he will rule. And [once he has ruled], he will [ |
Scholarly Quotes
Marvin Meyer quotes two parallel passages in the Book of Thomas the Contender (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, pp. 68-69).
The first: "[Fortunate is] the wise person who has [sought truth, and] when it has been found, has rested upon it for ever, and has not been afraid of those who wish to trouble the wise person." (Book of Thomas 140,41 - 141,2) The second: "Watch and pray. . . . And when you pray, you will find rest. . . . For when you leave the pains and the passions of the body, you will receive rest from the Good One, and you will rule with the king, you united with him and he united with you, from now on, for ever and ever." (Book of Thomas 145,8-16)
A somewhat similar statement is found from Clement of Alexandria: "Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal." (Instructor, 1.6.26.1)
Funk and Hoover write: "Thom 2:2-4 is a gnostic expansion: the gnostic quest leads to being disturbed, which causes one to marvel, and that ends in reigning. The Greek fragment of this same verse adds a fifth stage: the reign of the gnostic results in 'rest,' which is the gnostic catchword for salvation.
Gnostic insight into the 'real world,' as opposed to the world of appearances, is what brings all this about. The term 'rest' is employed in the book of Revelation, on the other hand, for future salvation: those who die in the Lord 'may rest from their labors' (Rev 14:13)." (The Five Gospels, p. 471)
Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: "'Rest' is mentioned not in the Coptic text but in the Greek fragment; but 'rest' or 'repose' occurs in Sayings 51, 52, 60, 61, 86, and 90. It is found in the Gospel of the Hebrews (Clement of Alexandria, Strom., 2, 45, 5; 5, 96, 3), from which this saying is taken; presumably the author of Thomas changed the saying in order to lay emphasis on the idea of becoming a king. Compare 2 Timothy 2:11-12: 'Trustworthy is the saying, "If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we have endured, we shall reign with him.' The difference, once more, is between the action of the Christian and the knowing of the Gnostic." (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 120)
J. D. Crossan writes: "The restoration of the Greek text in Oxy P 654, of which only the first half of each line is extant, is relatively secure due to its citation by Clement of Alexandria (Fitzmyer, 1974:372-373; Hofius: 27; Marcovich: 56). In form it is a quadruple-stich saying climactically word-linked from one stich to the next: seeks/finds//finds/astounded//astounded/reign//reigned/rest (see Hennecke and Schneemelcher: 1.164)." (In Fragments, pp. 99-100)
J. D. Crossan writes: "On the other hand, the version in Gos. Thom. 2 breaks both the form and content of that Greek version: seeks/finds//finds/troubled//troubled/astonished// -- / reign. The result is that the Coptic version climaxes with "rule" while the Greek text climaxes with "rest" (see Bammel, 1969). It is fairly certain that the Greek version is more original, but it is difficult to explain the Coptic deviation since 'rest' is one of Thomas's major themes (Vielhauer, 1964:297). The best explanation is probably some form of misreading of his Greek original by the Coptic translator (see Marcovich: 57; or Menard, 1975:79)." (In Fragments, p. 100)
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Visitor Comments
When you speak (pray) to God~Ultimate Reality, never cease to listen for the answer coming back. You are all capable of hearing (or otherwise realizing) this answer upon truly listening. You will be amazed at what you are told. Eventually when you learn your true place in the scheme of things you will have a degree of control over your reality by virtue of understanding its true nature. This will enable you to follow your planned path of life in a more peaceful and accepting manner. You will have learned that life is verily a dream and God is the dreamer, dreaming you.
- active-mystic
One who strives for the best above all else will one day learn that all he has strived for has in the end rotted away. When he realizes this he is disgusted that he hasn't spend more time with his family or had more fun. Then he is astounded that he can still do all these things. So he does. The moral of the story is, love and be loved in return, lay your heart out on the line for a gamble. When you can learn to do this then life will be happy.
- puzzled, but clearer
When you seek and find the child within, you will be most profoundly disturbed by the horror of your upbringing. You will marvel at the beauty of your innate self and, in time you will become lord and servant of yourself.
- Rodney
I have noticed that quite a few of the interpretations of these sayings which seem to make sense include a reference to the Gospel of Thomas itself. Applying this idea to this saying, I get: Let one who seeks the meaning of the Gospel of Thomas not stop seeking until one finds. When one finds, one will be disturbed. When one is disturbed, one will marvel, and will reign over all.
- Ruthie
The minds of men have been temporarily lost from God (the "fall"), but when we seek to rejoin from that which we think we separated from (the Mind of God)Jesus tells us to persevere, and that by doing so we will come to see that the world that we thought was real isn't (an initially disturbing, troubling event for us), but as we reunite with God we will be truely amazed, and being One once again with All That Is we will "rule" All That Is.
- A Brother
Continue in your quest until you find. When you find [succeed] you will be changed [reborn] and see everything differently. A technical injunction
- Thief37
There is an old saying in science that "The more I know, the more I learn I don't know." The Gospel writer is telling us that Jesus understood eternity in this way. Seek an answer, don't give up; you will find one. However, when you do, you will be astonished to learn that the answer you seek is not an end in and of itself; it only leads you to ten more questions; seek those answers; for each answer there is ten more questions and on and on and on. Eventually, you will get it--there is no end to questions, to life, to God. To know this truly inspires wonder.
- Crimson731
Rhizoid is correct. Also as you seek to destroy the ego, realizations of how the world is and how many people are blind to truth will be "disturbed" then as you further seek you understand the nature of duality then you reign.
- bravenewmind
Never stop seeking because you will find the answers, but the answers will trouble you because they will show you the illusions under which you have conducted your life in the past. Once the veil lifts off your eyes you will begin to see the wonder of the universe and be angry that so many things had been hidden from us by individuals in the past who destroyed the keys. But the messages still resound loudly to anyone who wishes to listen. And then you will reign over the world because the world is an illusion.
- daisy
When the seeker has at last attained unto a better understanding of God, he will be troubled. What he finds in God will not be what he had been expecting, what he had been taught to look for. By seeking for God on his own he found the truth, and from that truth comes power, and, at least according to the Greek texts, to spiritual peace.
- Kevin
Answer: Jesus meant that you must be persistent in your meditation, fasting, and prayer. You then stumble into experiences that are beyond explanation with words. Jesus does not speak to the higher states of consciousness that present themselves with such diligent persistent work. Jesus speaks to the astounded surprises, etched with question and disbelief. How continued persistence study and practice brings eventual communion with your spiritual essence. Continued work leads to your discovering spiritual essence is inside you, outside you, and all around you. That you are spiritually connected with everything. The end portion of this statement of "Reign over everything, universe" was a misunderstanding that Jesus had of achieving the Unity consciousness with his inner spiritual essence. Without a teacher to point out that unity consciousness was not being god and that he was still a physical being experiencing this astounding state. He misunderstood this state. Everyone back then was expecting the messiah and this unity consciousness under these Jewish expectations would certainly bewilder and confuse Jesus as to who he really was.
- AG
When you understand the truth about why you experience your own existence, you become astonished because you realize that death is not absolute. At the same time you become disturbed because the truth also threatens the preconceptions of your ego. When you transcend these preconceptions, liberation of the spirit occurs.
- Rhizoid
https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas/gospelthomas2.html
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