We cannot kill that which we love.

"Meletato pan" -- Cultivate the whole. Thats how Raimon Panikkar quoting Periander of Corinth began the Introduction to his The Rhythm of Being, The Gifford Lectures (1988, c.2009). "Take into care beings as a whole."

For half a year just having rice
And sitting on Wan Peak.
This sitting cuts off misty clouds,
Thousands of layers.
Suddenly the sound of roaring thunder.
Sacred village's spring activity
Apricot blossoms are red.
- Rujing

What do you love?

Raimon Panikkar died at home in Tavertet, Spain on 26Aug2010. He was a true philosopher of religions. He was ready.

Tavertet 28/01/2010

Dearest Friends,

I would like to communicate to you that I believe the moment has come, (put off time and again), to withdraw from all public activity, both the direct and the intellectual participation, to which I have dedicated all my life as a way of sharing my reflections.
I will continue to be close to you in a deeper way, through silence and prayer, and in the same way I would ask you to be close to me in this last period of my existence.
You have often heard me say that a person is a knot in a network of relationships: in taking my leave from you I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for having enriched me with the relationship I have had with each of you.
I am also grateful to all of those who, either in person or through association, continue working to spread my message and the sharing of my ideals, even without me.
Thankful for the gift of life which is only such if lived in communion with others: it is with this spirit that I have lived out my ministry.

Raimon Panikkar

http://www.raimon-panikkar.org/english/saluto.html

I have read him and will continue to read him.

“The whole history of Christianity is one of enrichment and renewal brought about by elements that came from outside itself,” Mr. Panikkar told The Christian Century in 2000, adding, “If the church wishes to live, it should not be afraid of assimilating elements that come from other religious traditions, whose existence it can today no longer ignore.”

(--from Obituary, in New York Times, 5Sept2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/us/05panikkar.html?hpw

Va bene! All right!

Thank you, Raimon!

Maybe they're right.

Maybe the world is wrong perception.

Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.
--Sheng-yen

If so, I leave the world.

And enter here.

Where only love sees what is real.

Itself.

Love.

Hurricane approaches slowly.

Now, all ancestors and all buddhas who unfold buddha-dharma have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling samadhi. Those who attained enlightenment in India and China followed this way. It was done so because teachers and disciples personally transmitted this excellent method as the essence of the teaching.

In the authentic tradition of our teaching, it is said that this directly transmitted, straightforward buddha-dharma is the unsurpassable of the unsurpassable. From the first time you meet a master, without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha's name, repentance, or reading scriptures, you should just sit wholeheartedly, and thus drop away body and mind.
- Dogen

Everything else is as it is as well.

August 31 has long been New Year's Eve to me. Tomorrow is the first day of a new year. September begins anew a new season.

Obama Says Iraq Combat Mission Is Over

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared an end on Tuesday to the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq, saying that the United States has met its responsibility to that country and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home.

(By HELENE COOPER and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, Published: August 31, 2010, New York Times)

For seven years insanity ruled as war in Iraq.

I watch it go.

No joy.

Only . . . the feeling that comes when insanity recognizes itself in mirror.

They're thinking of building windmills for the top of Ragged Mountain. Someone put my name in for opposing the idea.

I won't let even the Buddha and Patriarchs
Through my gate,
So I never thought
To welcome some guests
And roll my eyes at others
I open the gate a little
To thank you for your visit
And at once the mountains
And the rivers stand up
And start the famous dance.
- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

There's a hurricane moving in the direction of Maine. But not for 4-5 days.

I wonder: What is life really about?

And why do we even ask?

Watch the weather. Watch the stars.

Watch the way you watch and pray.

Thanks for the visit!

Two fragments written in chapel/zendo during silent sitting:

1.
Being ever Becoming
Itself
Here
And so, we are now
invited to
Repose Here Awhile

2.
Sacred Presence Reposition
where
We find ourselves
and lose our self
as one

becomes Itself