Saturday, May 23, 2015

why look anywhere else

The search for God is God.

Friday, May 22, 2015

steady as she goes

We stay present

even

when absence

claims 

so much

1. Re(mind)er: No Friday evening practice; 2. No(tice): an important pedagogical clarification

1: Re(mind)er:
Meetingbrook practice this week will be taking place in Maryland environs.
If you are practicing in Camden Maine (or elsewhere) we will be joining you in heart and mind.
Our regular practice in Camden will resume on Tuesday 26may.

...

2: No(tice):
In addition, after repeated misappellate pronunciations sent my direction, I must clarify what some people (viz, prison inmate, then hospital patient) who have been addressing me as 'doctor' need to know when they say 'doctor.'

Here is my positive correction. If you would like to call me doctor, please understand the correct situation of context. Here is my credential: NiDN.

NiDN stands for: Nulla il Dottore Niente (or: 'Nothing the Doctor of Nothing.')

From years of studying Absolute Nihility, Emptiness, Shunysta, and No Way via Wu-Wei, I have arrived at a particular and peculiar learning degree equivalent to a PhD but without the fuss, fancy, and fantasy so associated.

As grateful decipient of this non/neo academic NiDN feather-in-cap honor in the field of Autodidallocism, I will continue to engage in self-learning through others. Which, in itself, is a legerdemainic enterprise in that -- there is no other. Hence, as the 13th century sage master Dogen Zenji put it:

"To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barriers between one's self and others."  (source)

There now -- that's now settled!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

defining

Prayer is

acceptance of

What Is

taking place

with grace

Maryland hospital cafeteria haiku

Sitting with doctors
at lunch
Clean hands

...

Younger man
stands at table
Older man eats greens

...


Nurse in burgundy
reads thick book
Halfway through

...

Applause from kitchen
serving area
Everybody remembers

...

Woman in green
rain jacket
Unscrews thermos cup



Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Do your best when there's nothing better to do

Is there ever a time when mind and heart do not long to find rest in what is true and kind?

And so, we look and continue to listen. 
Despite our impatience. 
Which will pass.
As all things do.
"In the West, there are many who approach Buddhism primarily intellectually. In the East, many approach it primarily as a tradition—part of their cultural heritage. Yes, Buddhism contains immensely profound and complex intellectual information. Yes, it is an important cultural tradition in many Eastern civilizations. However, Buddhism’s true gift is that it teaches us to learn and experience the true characteristics and the nature of our mind and the world, as they are. Through meditations like those on lovingkindness, compassion, devotion, and wisdom, Buddhism trains us to improve our mind in how we think, communicate, and act with others and the external world. If our mind becomes wholesome, then our vocal and physical activities will become sources of peace and benefit for ourselves and others. This life will be happier, as will the next. Ultimately, through proper meditation, we will be liberated from the suffering of samsara."
(--from, Don't Get Stuck in Neutral Meditation is more than a respite—it's a chance to overcome our afflictions. By Tulku Thondup)
Returning back to hotel last night, phone call comes that I've got another task -- to bring food to woman in distress and pain (and hunger) in hospital I'd just left after visiting hours ended for the night.

She requests takeout from lounge downstairs. I do so. Handoff to Saskia outside emergency room. Drive the round trip. Back in room, salad and water. Chocolate cookie.

Sleep.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Rrring! Trying to unring?

When you think you're done, you're not.

Any questions?

Note: concerning this week's practice

Meetingbrook practice this week will be taking place in Maryland environs.
If you are practicing in Camden Maine (or elsewhere) we will be joining you in heart and mind.
Our regular practice in Camden will resume on Tuesday 26may.

Of a long day's ride

Rain ferocity as we approached outskirts of Washington, D.C. 

No idea how tires stayed on road.

You?

Sunday, May 17, 2015

la nuit dernier

This is the last thing
I want
To say

Everything
Everything 
Leads to
This

This 
Is
God's name

You
    don't
Say

"Literature is the original Internet" (MP)

Please: (defined as "cause to feel happy and satisfied.")

Prayer? Or intellectual life as spiritual survival?
MARIA POPOVA: You know, we never see the world exactly as it is. We see it as we hope it will be or we fear it might be. And we spend our lives going through a sort of modified stages of grief about that realization. And we deny it, and then we argue with it, and we despair over it. But eventually — and this is my belief — that we come to see it, not as despairing, but as vitalizing. 
We never see the world exactly as it is because we are how the world is.            
(Maria Popova, from radio show, On Being)
http://onbeing.org/program/maria-popova-cartographer-of-meaning-in-a-digital-age/7580
How delightful her work and our reading of it.

Stewarding culture and seeing soul.