feign and feint

Let’s declare politics anathema.

There might not be a thing of value to the people remaining in politics.

Cynicism, sarcasm, and tedium overwhelm us.

Then listen to right wing radio.

No end to it.

dominus tecum

Be still...

The greatest revelation is stillness. (Lao Tzu)

and know. 

louie, louie

Painting of empty bench by water.

Impressionist sweep of colors.

Blank card.

We write:

I don't have to look for you.
I know where you are.
You're right here, within me.

For Karin.

At Louie's death. 

לְהַשְׂכִּ֔יל

to make [one] wise,  לְהַשְׂכִּ֔יל  (le·has·kil,)

As though a tree or its fruit could make us wise.

As if the wood of a cross could kill us forever.

As if it were possible a hangman’s noose hanging from a limb could eliminate someone feared or hated.

As foolish as it sounds — as if speaking words at a wooden table -- of inauthentic protection of an unpleasant and unethical man — could diminish or explain away the dangerous deception of an untrustworthy precedent.

We are only made wise by recognizing, embodying, transforming, and transcending with humility the rancid reality exposed before us

behind barr's

The book will be "When the US was Trumped."

James Comey's essay will be the lead chapter.

a way that we can live connected

Reading Richard Rohr:

Heaven Now
The Eternal Now
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Jesus’ primary metaphors for the Eternal Now are “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven.” He is not talking about a far-off celestial heaven. “Look around you, look at the fields; already they are ready for harvest! Already the reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, and thus sower and reaper rejoice together” (John 4:35-36, Jerusalem Bible). Notice that Jesus says already three times. He is trying to tell us that there is a way that we can live connected to the Real and to the Eternal in this world. That path is surrendering to the here-and-now, whatever it offers us. We might just call this “the will of God,” yet it feels like nothing, like nowhere (now-here), and still it is where everything always happens to us. So be sure to be here now—and not somewhere else! If our minds or hearts are elsewhere, nothing really happens to us that matters or lasts. 

Nondual knowing is learning how to live satisfied in the naked now, which some called “the sacrament of the present moment.” This consciousness will teach us how to actually experience our experiences, whether good, bad, or ugly, and how to let them transform us. Words by themselves divide and judge the moment; pure presence lets it be what it is, as it is.

(--Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation) 

As thinks are reinterpreted and evolve!

neither birth nor death

Only mind.

Only awareness. 

The fundamental teaching of Buddhism is nothing but the doctrine of One Mind. This Mind is originally perfect and vastly illuminating. It is clear and pure, containing nothing, not even fine dust. There is neither delusion nor enlightenment, neither birth nor death, neither saints nor sinners.
- Han-Shan Te-Ch’ing   (Dailyzen)

Only you and me.

Even after I depart. 

We remain.

a bodily quality

The thought occurs during shikantaza: "Being what I am becoming."

Then, later, Thomas Aquinas:

Ad decimum dicendum, quod Deus dicitur omnem intellectus nostri formam subterfugere, non quin aliqua forma nostri intellectus ipsum aliquo modo repraesentet; sed quia nulla eum repraesentat perfecte. 

10. God is said to elude every form of our intellect, not because there is no form of our intellect that can represent Him at all, but because there is no form that can represent Him perfectly. 

Ad undecimum dicendum, quod ratio quam significat nomen, est definitio, ut dicitur IV Metaph.; et ideo illud est nomen proprie alicuius rei cuius significatum est definitio; et quia, ut dictum est, nulla ratio significata per nomen definit ipsum Deum, nullum nomen a nobis impositum est proprie nomen eius, sed est proprie nomen creaturae, quae definitur ratione significata per nomen; et tamen ista nomina quae sunt creaturarum nomina, Deo attribuuntur, secundum quod in creaturis aliqualiter similitudo eius repraesentatur. 

11. As is said in the Metaphysics: “An intelligible character signified by a noun is a definition. Hence, the name of a thing is proper if its meaning is its definition. Now, since no intelligible character signified by a name defines God Himself, no name we apply to God is proper to Him. It is proper rather to the creature defined by the character signified by the name. These names, though the names of creatures, are attributed to God, however, in so far as a likeness of Him is found in some way in creatures. 

Ad duodecimum dicendum, quod scientia quae Deo attribuitur, non est qualitas; et praeterea qualitas quantitati adveniens, est qualitas corporalis, non qualitas spiritualis, sicut est scientia. 

17. The knowledge attributed to God is not a quality. Furthermore, a quality that follows upon quantity is a bodily quality—not a spiritual quality, as knowledge is. 

(from, ARTICLE I This question treats of knowledge, and in the first article we ask: Is there knowledge in God? [ARTICLE S.T., I, 14, 1; I Sent., 35, 1; C.G. I, 44; XII Metaph., lect. 8, n. 2542 seq.; lect. 11, n. 2600 seq.; Comp. Theol., I, cc. 28-3 2.], Thomas Aquinas, Question Two, God's Knowledge)  Monks chant Compline. Day is done.