Hello

I think I've begun a process of moving this blog. Like being in a wormhole, I have no idea where it will emerge. Or whether it will.

Salat

poetry is prayer
light dancing inside words
five times a day
I try to write

step by step
I move towards the mihrab
I prepare to recite
what is in my heart

I recite your name

(Poem by E. Ethelbert Miller)

If we know the direction for prayer, perhaps we know the direction of the one praying.

It is the poem.

Look there.

Word yourself.

Plato worried we would not have the courage for democracy. It's a reasonable worry even these 2500 years later. Lies and other demos-denying behaviors run rampant.

Song of T'aego Hermitage

I've lived in this hermitage
How long I don't know
Deep and secret and
Without obstructions
Heaven and earth meet
Like box and cover:
There's no turning toward
Or turning away.
I do not stay in the east, west,
South or north
The jewel tower and the jade palace
Do not stand opposite me.
I do not take guidelines from
Bodhidharma as a model
As the light shines freely through
Eighty four thousand gates.
- T'aego (1301-1382)

I think that education is invitation and prelude to presence and compassion.

John O'Donohue spoke it well:

Transformation: Let’s move to the presence of compassion. How do we recognize it?

O’Donohue: We recognize compassion in the willingness of someone to imagine himself into the life of another person. We recognize its presence in the withholding of huge negative moralistic judgment. We see compassion in the expression of mercy, in the refusal to label someone with a short-circuiting terminology that condemns her, even though her actions may be awkward. We see compassion in an openness to the greater mystery of the other person. The present situation, deed or misdeed is not the full story of the individual, there is a greater presence behind the deed or the person than society usually acknowledges. Above all, we see the presence of compassion as the vulnerability to be disturbed about awful things that are going on.

Transformation: What is the relationship between absence and compassion?

O’Donohue: Absence and presence are sisters. The opposite of presence is not absence, the opposite of presence is vacancy. Vacancy is a void, a space which is hungrily empty, whereas absence is a space of spatial emptiness, but there is a trail of connection toward the departed one, the lost one, the absent one. To feel absence is to feel connection with the one who has gone. There is still a huge affective involvement with the person. In exploring compassion and vacancy, vacancy is a sinister pain, because of its hunger, its emptiness. A form of vacancy that is prevalent in post-modern culture is indifference, the inability to imagine or show compassion to others who are in trouble. Absence is different. The feeling of absence can create an incredible feeling of compassion.

(--from, The Presence of Compassion, An Interview with John O’Donohue,
By Mary NurrieStearns, http://www.personaltransformation.com/ODonohue.html)

We have to care. To be responsible for the world and the new ones entering it. For the creating materials of truth and dialoguing difficult reasoning discourse together.

THE ORANGE

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all my jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.
(Poem, The Orange, by Wendy Cope)

So do I...

Love you...

Glad you, and I, exist.

Two is where three is but for one alone.

Ask anyone.

Meetingbrook Hermitage is a place of contemplation, conversation, and correspondance at Ragged Mountain just across from Bald Mountain on Barnestown Road in Camden Maine.

We will soon begin again.

See?

Yes, you see!

All religions are founded on a deep spiritual experience of unity consciousness where there was complete union between the personal and universal. Unfortunately, many times the followers of religion, instead of understanding the religious experience and seeking it for themselves ended up merely worshiping the founder of the religion. It is more important to fully grasp the teaching of the religion and its basic tenets, that have come from a deeper experience of transcendence. Self-righteous morality is not a means for experiencing higher consciousness. Higher consciousness, spontaneously leads to moral and ethical behavior. However, because spiritual knowledge is powerful, the custodians of organized religion have frequently ended up with destructive behaviors -- power mongering, cronyism, control, corruption, and influence peddling. As a result organized religion has frequently become quarrelsome, divisive, and led to conflict. No organized religion has been immune to this unfortunate tendency. So, we have had the crusades and witch-hunts of Christianity, the Jihads of Islam, the violent communal riots instigated by fundamentalist Hindus and the persecution of minorities and ethnic cleansing all in the name of God.

Our present times are particularly dangerous because ancient habits combined with modern capacities and technologies of destruction are a devastating combination that can destroy life on our planet.
(--Deepak Chopra, Only Spirituality Can Solve The Problems Of The World: February 24, 2010 10:22 AM, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/only-spirituality-can-sol_b_474221.html)

Generator worked. Well pump installed. Rain again. Sump pump working. Bell at end of silent sitting always surprises when on timer.

Is there really anything to look for? To see?

George Harrison's My Sweet Lord Lyrics

My sweet lord
Hm, my lord
Hm, my lord

I really want to see you
Really want to be with you
Really want to see you lord
But it takes so long, my lord

My sweet lord
Hm, my lord
Hm, my lord

I really want to know you
Really want to go with you
Really want to show you lord
That it wont take long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)

I really want to see you
Really want to see you
Really want to see you, lord
Really want to see you, lord
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hallelujah)

I really want to know you (hallelujah)
Really want to go with you (hallelujah)
Really want to show you lord (aaah)
That it wont take long, my lord (hallelujah)

Hmm (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)
My, my, lord (hallelujah)

Hm, my lord (hare krishna)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
Oh hm, my sweet lord (krishna, krishna)
Oh-uuh-uh (hare hare)

Now, I really want to see you (hare rama)
Really want to be with you (hare rama)
Really want to see you lord (aaah)
But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)

Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)
Hm, hm (gurur brahma)
Hm, hm (gurur vishnu)
Hm, hm (gurur devo)
Hm, hm (maheshwara)
My sweet lord (gurur sakshaat)
My sweet lord (parabrahma)
My, my, my lord (tasmayi shree)
My, my, my, my lord (guruve namah)
My sweet lord (hare rama)

[fade:]

(hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)

If we can speak, we can sing. If we can sing, we can find a way to smile and laugh.

And with that posture of joy, we can cry freely.

Oh happy day
Oh happy day
When Jesus washed
Oh when He washed
Mmm, when He washed
All my sins away
Oh happy day

Oh happy day (Oh happy day)
Oh happy day (Oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (When Jesus washed)
Oh when He washed (When Jesus washed)
Mmm, when He washed (Mmm, when He washed)
All my sins away (Oh happy day)

He taught me how to watch
Watch and pray
Watch and pray (Watch and pray)
And live rejoicing every day
Every day (Every day)

Oh happy day (Oh happy day)
Oh happy day (Oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (When Jesus washed)
Oh when He washed (When Jesus washed)
Mmm, when He washed (Mmm, when He washed)
All my sins away (Oh happy day)

It was a happy day (Oh happy day)
(--Music and lyrics by Edwin Hawkins, 1967, based on 18th century hymn)

Music is the excuse we can use to step away from all forms lacking compassion, contemplation, and consideration.

You know the tunes.

Go ahead.

Sing.