Lighten me; 'with' words, as in, "God be-with you"

"Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß
man schweigen." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Abandoned Asylum, Northampton, Massachusetts

I stroll the grounds, as a grander era
Would have phrased it, and listen for lost screams.
In the town below, other cries are blasting
The grace of this shy, spring afternoon.
I’m here to recall what I never knew.

Broken glass trills softly, wood weeps rot.
I stand on tiptoe and stare through begrimed windows.
The flannel nightshirts are gone, the leather straps
And the tubs in which to take cold baths.
A whole hymn-singing century is mouse shit.

I listen for the ghosts of regimens. I listen
For bright eyes throbbing with dizzy faith.
I listen for the taciturn, the bleary, the mopey.
I sit in a shadow and wait for the manna of grief.
Here, the engines of betterment roared

With iron understanding. Here, moral fear
Played its riffs on the bent hearts of living bodies.
Here, the most awful beauty bloomed like lilies.
Behind the main building sumac is growing like crazy.
Lord, I pray to the bricks and splintered casements, lighten me.

(Poem by Baron Wormser)

Unless...one is a poet.

Here and gone

Sword, tempered, discriminates between what is staying and what, unnecessary, falls away.

Mix.

And moderate.

Hardness and plasticity -- a simultaneity both discreet and distinct.

Not discrete.

Not same.

It is important that we know what awakening is not, so that we no longer chase the by-products of awakening. We must give up the pursuit of positive emotional states through spiritual practice. The path of awakening is not about positive emotions. On the contrary, enlightenment may not be easy or positive at all. It is not easy to have our illusions crushed. It is not easy to let go of long-held perceptions. We may experience great resistance to seeing through even those illusions that cause us a great amount of pain.

This is something many people don’t know they’re signing up for when they start on a quest for spiritual awakening. As a teacher, one of the things that I find out about students relatively early on is whether they are interested in the real thing—do they really want the truth, or do they actually just want to feel better? Because the process of finding the truth may not be a process by which we feel increasingly better and better. It may be a process by which we look at things honestly, sincerely, truthfully, and that may or may not be an easy thing to do.
(--From, The End of Your World, by Adyashanti, 2009).

Rather, urgrund.

Start there. Find here.

Sword wordS. (So spoke Cheryl at Friday Evening Conversation.)

Confucius said: "Never give a sword to a man who can't dance."

Let us say this: Never speak words but in a learning loving circle.

Origination.

Sempiternal.

For the seeing: a spirituality of radical free interdependence

Illusion says, "I own this, you don't."

Truth says, "Those who own what is not theirs usually murder to get and keep power, property, and profit."

I say, "Choose truth."

What truth wants to tell you will overthrow the false and fatuous deceptive and deleterious -- that which erroneously thinks it is now in control of the world, it's goods, and the future. Those who, with this belief, accumulate and appropriate to themselves what is the home-ground of everything belonging only to itself.

Overthrow your self.

Yeah -- go with truth.

It's free.

For the seeing.

what is questioning this

God is speaking here.

Listen carefully.

I am as God is creating me.

The Wise Ones of Old

The wise ones of old had subtle wisdom
And depth of understanding,
So profound that they could not be understood.
Because they could not be understood,
I can only describe how they appeared in the world:

Cautious, like crossing a wintry stream,
Irresolute, like one fearing danger all around,
Ceremonious, as one who pays a visit;
Yielding, like ice beginning to melt,
Genuine, like a piece of uncarved wood,
Open-minded, like a valley,
And mixing freely, like murky water.
--Lao Tzu

Give or take -- it's the same thing.

Thursday Evening Conversation ends with final circle reflection.

What is this?

God is what is questioning this.

Trust questioning. Don't listen to those who say doubt is wrong.

Doubt is God's way of clarifying what is here.

Don't know! See what is here.

morning traffic through open door

We return to zendo with return of spring.

The dharma, like an oyster
Washed atop a high cliff:
Even waves crashing against
The reefy coast, like words,
May reach, but cannot wash it away
(--Dogen)

Yesterday, with guest hermit from down-east, resident meetingbrook hermit sweeps and cleans the wintered space.

To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane’s bill
(--Dogen, 13c)

This morning, sun through windows, one bell sounds beginning, three bells sound ending, our sitting.

Four-thirty am

No movement. Nothing stirs. White dog on white couch.

Zazen practice

Train comes in. Train doors open. Train leaves station. Like smooth scoop of ground ball by graceful shortstop, shuffle of feet, the throw.

Take away nothing; what is there

Most of the time there are too many words.

When one contemplates
Sickness, old age, and death,
One sees that no one and nothing
Can escape them.
When compassion is born
In the heart,
One sees that there is no reason
To add to the evil and pain.
- Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom

Tonight, there are just enough.

Nothing needs adding.

mi casa es su casa

We travel long distances in hours that would have taken weeks.

We never leave home -- our true home -- but we go a long way to do the things asked of us.

Look around.

We've never moved.

Welcome home!