Saturday, August 22, 2015

he calls it "Introception"

The things you wrestle with in prison meetingbrook conversations!

The new word created by Franklin Merrill-Wolff is "Introception." Or, "The power whereby the Light of Consciousness turns upon Itself toward Its Source." 

Last night, in a riot storm of pounding rain, I sat and slept zazen in our chapel/zendo. 

The solitude!

Thursday, August 20, 2015

the landscape, the mindscape, the inscape

 Shovelful by pickaxe fall the dirt and rocks move from long settle to edge of coming hole.

The elderly German Shepherd panting by sliding door slowly inches closer up toward pet graveyard.
These three disciplines of life are truly the key to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. It is in fact around each of them that the different dogmas . . . are organized, are crystallized. To the discipline of judgment are linked the dogmas that affirm the freedom of judgment, the possibility that man has to criticize and modify his own thought; around the discipline that directs our attitude with regard to external events are gathered all the theorems on the causality of universal nature; lastly, the discipline of action is nourished by all the theoretical propositions relative to the mutual attraction that unites reasonable beings.
   Finally, one discovers that behind an apparent disorder, one can uncover, in the Meditations, an extremely rigorous conceptual system. 56
( footnote 56, La Citadelle interieure, Hadot, p.62, 
Each maxim, aphorism, sentence of the meditations is an exercise of actualization and assilimation of one or more of the three disciplines of life. 
(--in Introduction, by Arnold I. Davidson,  p.12; from Philosophy As A Way Of Life,g by Pierre Hadot 
As we learn to think, to listen, and to see -- that which lay hidden comes to surface to be seen.

The house is full.

Minute by minute time moves through. 

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

it’s way beyond time

When nothing seems to work, try nothing.

When absurdity arises in peoples’ behaviors, see absurdity as what it is, absurd.

When people are chained by their religious beliefs, give a wide berth.

There’s no accounting for the ways we enslave ourselves and call it the freedom of obedience.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

a candle burns near the chair that held her

Carolyn Louise Perkins,  2/2/1935--8/14/2015

http://ripostafh.com/obituary.aspx?MemberId=1520685

On Thursday evenings, recent years ago, Kali, from chair with green throw, 
would listen deeply and speak thoughtfully during conversations about
the “required course” that is life.

She was a delight, a gentle presence, a joy to sit beside.

We trust, for her, that is a continuous and moveable feast.

Lucky those who have been and will be recipients of her grace!

Monday, August 17, 2015

tent-dwelling; therapy

The joy of conversation is in continuance.

First the tears.

Then laughter.

Love is acceptance of other as other.

True love understands nothing, and still, does nothing anyway.