It is maddening that Sudan and Darfur continue to insult human decency. It is obscene that the former administration of the United States felt comfortable torturing other human beings to cover what appears certain to be their lies about starting an elective war. It is discouraging that our banks and credit card companies think that to trick and trap people in a scheme to punish and steal money from them is what America and capitalism do best.

Mountain home walking,
You don't step on dust,
Seldom meet anyone;
Who's ashamed to be poor?
Tired? Then rest.
What do you need a mat for?
Forget about the form
And the shadow will disappear.
- Gensei (1623-1668)

I call for a complete investigation of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their cohorts' conduct in creating cruel and unnecessary suffering and death. I call for a worldwide outcry and desisting of the carnage and genocide in African countries. I call for a dismantling of an unkind and devious financial system that chokes people for their money.

If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
because my choice withdrew you from the world,
therefore the world hates you.
(--from John 15: 18-21)

The mountain calls -- come away. The solitude of sorrow for the ways we are with one another is too deep for tears. Cruelty and cynicism towards the people of this existence is far beyond comprehension.

I stop.

Say.

No.

More.

Yes?

Until we update our primary website, here's the update placed on Google: 

http://sites.google.com/site/meetingbrookhermitage/hermitage-upate

In the film the lead character in voiceover says that each time you look at the future it changes. The same can be said of the past. It's a mystery why we don't look more often.

The lone tip of Wonder Peak is
Beyond any climber's reach.
One can only see white clouds
Drifting this way and that.
Thick pine and cypress forests
How old could they be?
Still, in rare moments birds
Along the steep cliffs sing.
- Daito (1282-1334)

What happens, happens. Just like that. Fact.

But what we tell about what happens, the story we create, narrate, and hold as gospel truth -- that is the myth mind fashions.

Can we live without story? That's not the question. The question is whether we see that the story we tell is just the story we tell.

To see story as story is not to confuse reality with what is said about it.

There's joy in story. There's sadness too. So -- we laugh, and we cry. It's the human way of being.

Also human is to be what is taking place without adding or subtracting anything.

Rare the moment!

I've been thinking about former Vice President Richard Cheney.

Not much.

Green mountains have turned yellow
So many times the troubles
And worries of the world of things
No longer bother me.
One grain of dust in the eye
Will render the Three Worlds
Too small to see
When the mind is still
The floor where I sit
Is endless space.
- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

He readies the country for another attack.

Knows exactly where to put the blame.

Suffering will be apportioned fairly.

He will be the one shining light in the darkness.

There's much to sorrow. He's one.

I see what he says.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.
(Poem by William Carlos Williams, sometimes entitled The Red Wheelbarrow)

Why 'sometimes?'

It depends.

No need to worry.

Whatever happens, all is and will be alright.

Simmering Tea on Mount Hui

In an earthen jar at break of day
I dip clean cold water,
Shift it to the stone kettle,
Boil it on a broken slab.
Pine winds from ten thousand peaks
I offer in one sip,
Then gather my sleeves together,
Walk by the waterside.
- Chieh-shih Chih-p’eng (13th c)

Silence is the only teacher.

Not not speaking.

But silence.

Off to visit and pick up Saskia's mom for return trip to Maine. Cody, her new sweet German Shepherd, will visit hermitage for first time. Back Tuesday.

It has been lovely being home and working the place this past week. Aside from an exhaustion that will not quit, all is well.

To love is to mother

To love is

Being

True nature
(--Saskia, in Cabin Words, Welcome book in chapel zendo 10May09)

It is time for the revelation of earth. Rebirth. Resurrection. New beginnings. Anyone interested in using the meditation cabin for quiet presencing -- it is ready!

We have no choice but to start where we are...

We each have no choice but to start where we are with what we have.
This is our challenge, our life, our practice. Each obstacle, problem,
handicap is part of the practice. Every advantage, every success helps
to clarify our practice.
–Marc Lesser, from Z.B.A.: Zen of Business Administration (New World Library)

Wind blows. Sun slants. Storm clouds drift beyond Hosmer Pond.

To my mother.

To all my mothers.

I greet you with this new earth!

This place for the learning and practice of presence.

May itself!