Away a few days.
Becoming a buddha is easy
But ending illusions is hard
So many frosted moonlit nights
I’ve sat and felt the cold before dawn.
- Shih-wu (1272-1352)
Harvest moon.
Respite.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Who was it said something like, "He lived a little distance from his life"?
I've gone there.
Withdraw now from
the invisible pounding and weaving
of your ingrained ideas.
If you want to be rid of this
invisible turmoil, you must just sit
through it and let go of everything.
Attain fulfillment and illuminate thoroughly.
Light and shadow altogether forgotten.
Drop off your own skin,
and the sense-dusts will be fully purified.
The eye then readily discerns the brightness.
- Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091 - 1157)
It's as though there is this train station. Empty. No train coming. Leaves blow between rails.
As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go". Jesus answered, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head". (Luke 9:57ff)
No one is speaking, no words are heard. What is heard with these ears drops to ground.
Much sand in this desert.
Leaves fall to earth.
Sweep-broom unsettles them.
Nothing is seen.
I've gone there.
Withdraw now from
the invisible pounding and weaving
of your ingrained ideas.
If you want to be rid of this
invisible turmoil, you must just sit
through it and let go of everything.
Attain fulfillment and illuminate thoroughly.
Light and shadow altogether forgotten.
Drop off your own skin,
and the sense-dusts will be fully purified.
The eye then readily discerns the brightness.
- Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091 - 1157)
It's as though there is this train station. Empty. No train coming. Leaves blow between rails.
As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go". Jesus answered, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head". (Luke 9:57ff)
No one is speaking, no words are heard. What is heard with these ears drops to ground.
Much sand in this desert.
Leaves fall to earth.
Sweep-broom unsettles them.
Nothing is seen.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Transitus of Francis of Assisi. The poor one expires. Who will hear the many poor today?
He who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself also cry out and not be heard.
-Proverbs 21:13
Finishing the Ten Oxherding Pictures in Kennedy's book tonight at conversation. Compassionate service returning to the marketplace. I'm still looking for the ox. In fact, I'm so unripe, I don't even suspect that there is an ox and that he is misplaced.
Beware of gnawing the ideogram of nothingness:
Your teeth will crack.
Swallow it whole, and you've a treasure
Beyond the hope of Buddha and the Mind.
The east breeze fondles the horse's ears:
How sweet the smell of plum.
- Karasumaru-Mitsuhiro (1579-1638)
I walk Sand Point to lighthouse then visit the Franciscan hermit in her yurt. We talk of solar panels, Clare painting, and the molecules of God calling her back. The sun is warm. I go to pier to read student's papers.
Earth and sea are quiet under spreading clouds. The gravity of God's love draws us return with awareness.
As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?" But he turned and rebuked them, and they went off to another village.
Luke 9:51 - 56
Even then, companions of Jesus ask to punish a village that does not welcome their journey. Jesus is beside himself. They want to burn the place with fire. He chews them out with reprimand -- what mind do they have that immediately wants to destroy?
Francis, too, cannot abide the mind of his generation once he becames what Jesus became -- poor and humble in the world.
Swallow nothingness whole.
How tasty tonight's topfenkuchen!
Transition well -- lovers of Francis, of Christ!
He who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself also cry out and not be heard.
-Proverbs 21:13
Finishing the Ten Oxherding Pictures in Kennedy's book tonight at conversation. Compassionate service returning to the marketplace. I'm still looking for the ox. In fact, I'm so unripe, I don't even suspect that there is an ox and that he is misplaced.
Beware of gnawing the ideogram of nothingness:
Your teeth will crack.
Swallow it whole, and you've a treasure
Beyond the hope of Buddha and the Mind.
The east breeze fondles the horse's ears:
How sweet the smell of plum.
- Karasumaru-Mitsuhiro (1579-1638)
I walk Sand Point to lighthouse then visit the Franciscan hermit in her yurt. We talk of solar panels, Clare painting, and the molecules of God calling her back. The sun is warm. I go to pier to read student's papers.
Earth and sea are quiet under spreading clouds. The gravity of God's love draws us return with awareness.
As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?" But he turned and rebuked them, and they went off to another village.
Luke 9:51 - 56
Even then, companions of Jesus ask to punish a village that does not welcome their journey. Jesus is beside himself. They want to burn the place with fire. He chews them out with reprimand -- what mind do they have that immediately wants to destroy?
Francis, too, cannot abide the mind of his generation once he becames what Jesus became -- poor and humble in the world.
Swallow nothingness whole.
How tasty tonight's topfenkuchen!
Transition well -- lovers of Francis, of Christ!
Monday, October 02, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Yom Kippur urges atonement and return. It is good to call to mind how we step away from God and how we might return.
Without consciousness,
Time and space do not exist;
They appear within Consciousness
But have no reality of their own.
It is like a screen on which
All this is cast as pictures and move
As in a cinema show.
The Absolute Consciousness
Alone is our real nature.
- Ramana Maharshi
Sure its hard to see who we are while wandering away from our true self.
The concept of teshuvah as "return" emphasizes the fundamental spiritual potential of every person. Chassidic thought teaches that within each of us resides a Divine soul, a spark of G-d.[4] This infinite G-dly potential represents the core of our souls, our genuine "I".
From this perspective, sin and evil are superficial elements that can never affect our fundamental nature. Teshuvah means rediscovering our true selves, establishing contact with this G-dly inner potential and making it the dominant influence in our lives. Seen in this light, our motivation to do teshuvah is not an awareness of our inadequacies, but rather a sensitivity to this infinite potential within our souls.
(In "Teshuvah - Return, Not Repentance" by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger)
Tonight I think we are in orbit elliptically around G-d. As we swing far from center we curve and begin to return. We think, perhaps, we have chosen to return. It is a nice thought. My suspicion is that we return as part and parcel of the gravitational connection any created body has with its creator -- a rotation and orbit that happens of itself.
Our task is to remain aware of the return -- of the going out and the coming back. Failure to be aware of the natural invitation and call to return is a shunning ignorance and lack that creates the illusion of separation and distance.
Coming home again is a radical awareness of the attraction we have to and with our profound center -- the divine reality beyond compare.
Defining teshuvah as "return", however, broadens the scope of its application. For if teshuvah involves gaining access to one's true spiritual potential, it applies to all Jews without exception. The same G-dly spark exists within the soul of every Jew from the most alienated to the most righteous. This Divine potential is infinite; no force or power can prevent its emergence and expression. Every Jew, regardless of his level, can therefore do teshuvah. No matter how low he has descended, there is nothing that can prevent him from reversing his conduct and establishing a bond with G-d.
(Rabbi Eliyahu Touger)
G'wan home.
It's getting late.
C'mon home.
Return well.
Without consciousness,
Time and space do not exist;
They appear within Consciousness
But have no reality of their own.
It is like a screen on which
All this is cast as pictures and move
As in a cinema show.
The Absolute Consciousness
Alone is our real nature.
- Ramana Maharshi
Sure its hard to see who we are while wandering away from our true self.
The concept of teshuvah as "return" emphasizes the fundamental spiritual potential of every person. Chassidic thought teaches that within each of us resides a Divine soul, a spark of G-d.[4] This infinite G-dly potential represents the core of our souls, our genuine "I".
From this perspective, sin and evil are superficial elements that can never affect our fundamental nature. Teshuvah means rediscovering our true selves, establishing contact with this G-dly inner potential and making it the dominant influence in our lives. Seen in this light, our motivation to do teshuvah is not an awareness of our inadequacies, but rather a sensitivity to this infinite potential within our souls.
(In "Teshuvah - Return, Not Repentance" by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger)
Tonight I think we are in orbit elliptically around G-d. As we swing far from center we curve and begin to return. We think, perhaps, we have chosen to return. It is a nice thought. My suspicion is that we return as part and parcel of the gravitational connection any created body has with its creator -- a rotation and orbit that happens of itself.
Our task is to remain aware of the return -- of the going out and the coming back. Failure to be aware of the natural invitation and call to return is a shunning ignorance and lack that creates the illusion of separation and distance.
Coming home again is a radical awareness of the attraction we have to and with our profound center -- the divine reality beyond compare.
Defining teshuvah as "return", however, broadens the scope of its application. For if teshuvah involves gaining access to one's true spiritual potential, it applies to all Jews without exception. The same G-dly spark exists within the soul of every Jew from the most alienated to the most righteous. This Divine potential is infinite; no force or power can prevent its emergence and expression. Every Jew, regardless of his level, can therefore do teshuvah. No matter how low he has descended, there is nothing that can prevent him from reversing his conduct and establishing a bond with G-d.
(Rabbi Eliyahu Touger)
G'wan home.
It's getting late.
C'mon home.
Return well.
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