Think of the Via Crucis as entering and departing separation

I listen to lectures on Martin Heidegger while inputting numbers in bookshed all afternoon. In 1969 I studied with John Macquarrie on Being and Time at Union Theological in NYC. I was hooked then. Still being pulled aboard four decades later.

Dr. Macquarrie wrote about two dozen books. Reviewing one, “Paths in Spirituality,” for The New York Times Book Review in 1972, Nash K. Burger wrote that “unlike some modern theologians, John Macquarrie writes about God as though he believes in him.”
The God in which Dr. Macquarrie believed was Being itself, a definition that to him made it meaningless to suggest that God was dead or did not exist. In this, he adopted aspects of Heidegger’s search for the meaning of being, although he eschewed Heidegger’s pro-Nazi views.
Dr. Macquarrie wrote that all language about God was symbolic and not to be taken literally. But it must be taken seriously. To him, what separated believers from nonbelievers was that believers had experienced the revelation that the creation and its existence are good.

“Faith’s name for reality is God,” Dr. Macquarrie wrote in “Paths in Spirituality.”
(from obituary, "Rev. John Macquarrie, 87, Scottish Theologian, Dies,"), by Douglas Martin, published June 3, 2007, New York Times)

 God as Being itself. That must have been ground zero for theological preference and philosophical intuition.

I order another hardcover of Zein Und Zeit. Mine is boxed away somewhere. Besides, some kindred mind might wish to break on it someday.

It's not everyday the core of thought collapses at your feet.

Or the Open reveals itself as empty and promising project.

Would you like another? No thanks. Not even the one.

No one can help him. He's alone. There's no place for him to go.

I crossed seas and rivers, climbed mountains, and
Forded streams in order to interview the masters,
To inquire after Truth,
To delve into the secrets of Zen;
And ever since I was enabled to recognize the path.
I knew that birth and death are not
The things I have to be concerned with.
For walking is Zen,
Sitting is Zen,
Whether talking or remaining silent,
Whether moving or standing quiet,
The Essence itself is ever at ease;
Even when greeted with swords and spears,
It never loses its quiet way,
And all that befalls cannot perturb its serenity.
- Yoko Daishi

I knew a drunk who never stopped being a drunk. He's a sober drunk. He just got tired of lying.

Seeing myself doing what my self cannot see

Another you? In a parallel life, another you?

When the thinking mind takes a break for even a few seconds, a kind of relaxed awareness replaces the usual stream of thoughts. We need to encourage this and not fill this space with anything else; just let it be.
- Tsultrim Allione, "Feeding Your Demons"

It's not esoteric.

Only recognition there is awareness behind action, seemingly separate from it.

The act goes by.

You remain.

Without doing anything.

Just aware you are doing and not doing anything.

Tricky, eh?

When distance does not appear as measurement

Maggie dies.

Margaret Ray Eddy

December 17, 1920 - February 18, 2013 

Good journey Maggie! We have been so fond of your and Walt's many year participation in Poetry, Tea, and Thee at Quarry Hill. Your kindly spirit and keen listening gave the gatherings a deeper feel for the words everyone read. To Walt and the family: our gratitude for Maggie! Continue well in her memory!

Soon, a few feel, there will be no death.

I wonder.

Camden to Fort Kent to Presque Isle to Camden. Three days, 600 miles.

How far do you travel, dear Maggie?

Free the worms!

Glorious day in Fort Kent. We have to depart early for Presque Isle. Ten to twelve inches of snow will begin this evening.

I'm concerned for the worms.



Walking with Rokie earlier this morning at UMFK, this sign. I don't feel it is fair to worms that they cannot dig in the earth. The sign excludes no one else. They must have had difficulty with overachieving worms in the neighborhood. Another man-made rule.

I can see the worms carrying signs quoting Psalm 22:6, King James Version (KJV):

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

No doubt, Obama had something to do with this. Get me the Republicans on the line. Just one more thing!

Where are you; going

Route 11 to Fort Kent. White out blowing snow across roadway. We walk campus for evening stroll.

In room we watch the debacle a decade ago leading up to Iraq war. Such a sad and distorting group of  bellicose prevaricators! It is astounding no one answers to war crimes.

Is awareness disappearing? Is opening presence the horizon? Will our ignorance be penetrated?

Father, Son, Spirit.

Mother, Daughter, Spirit.

Metaphors all.

Take us beyond ourselves!

A human being is the universe seeing itself.

Dark matter, the space scientist said, is like love.

At table someone quoted an astronomer saying that God is the boundary of the unknown.

Someday we'll learn about both.

Love; the unknown.

It is a very very huge canvas.

Step back; look carefully.