to hear ‘yes’

These are depressing times in the US. Mr Trump is erratic and untrustworthy in executive responsibility.. Mr McConnell is cynical and obstructive to legislative integrity. Republicans dismantle protections for the people in matters of health care, women’s autonomy, and electoral fairness. And Democrats are like a football team refusing to leave the huddle while endlessly deliberating the calculus of the next play.

Our president in Normandy was a robotic speech without anyone believable presenting the words.  We so long for inspirational and genuine representation on the world stage. Instead we see someone who fails to comprehend the play, the lines, the role, and the art of representational interior empathy.

I am neither optimistic nor joyful about our prospects to effectively serve either our own population’s needs or attend to the sorrows of the world. Where do we turn? And, more to the point, can we?

I would love to hear ‘yes’ — to say, ‘we can.’

room 2, 7:18

You might say she is

breathing

I rather think she is being

breathed

Spring leaves arriving

We both breathe

Our last breath —

This one, this one

Never certain

Another

To follow

all those deaths

I cannot imagine the terror felt by those troops landing on Normandy Beach in 1944.

They prepared my birth.

I salute them.

I fear those who do not remember nor comprehend the insanity that leads to such irrational approaches to the world as exemplified from 1939 to 1945 — will mindlessly ignore and thereby exacerbate a tone and atmosphere of belligerent ignorance dangerously undermining law and civil relationships.

War is terrible.

The disturbed minds and distorted emotions causing war are equally terrible.

On this 75th anniversary of D-Day I pray for enlightened minds and healthy emotions going forward in this fragile time of the world.

Prayer, heartfelt appeal to open wholeness underlying existence, is a way of life worth traveling.

In a world of nonduality, authentic prayer is the realization of God moving into what is to be.

jamais plus

Remembering Robert Kennedy who died by assassin’s gunshots, 5June68.

Aeschylus wrote the following, said Robert Kennedy the night Martin Luther King was assassinated, 4April68:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

51 years ago.

Such sadness.

Jamais  plus!

anywhere -- where Thich Nhat Hanh might be

Neighbor stops by hermitage. Brings rhubarb and daffodils. She and Saskia speak on wood deck about Thich Nhat Hanh.

He remains a light and blessing to this world.

An excerpt of an interview with Phap Dung -- [a senior disciple of the Buddhist monk and author, in interview with Eliza Barclay of Vox]

Phap Dung: 

We are aware that one day we are all going to deteriorate and die — our neurons, our arms, our flesh and bones. But if our practice and our awareness is strong enough, we can see beyond the dying body and pay attention also to the spiritual body. We continue through the spirit of our speech, our thinking, and our actions. These three aspects of body, speech, and mind continues. 

In Buddhism, we call this the nature of no birth and no death. It is the other dimension of the ultimate. It’s not something idealized, or clean. The body has to do what it does, and the mind as well.  

But in the ultimate dimension, there is continuation. We can cultivate this awareness of this nature of no birth and no death, this way of living in the ultimate dimension; then slowly our fear of death will lessen.  

This awareness also helps us be more mindful in our daily life, to cherish every moment and everyone in our life. 

One of the most powerful teachings that he shared with us before he got sick was about not building a stupa [shrine for his remains] for him and putting his ashes in an urn for us to pray to. He strongly commanded us not to do this. I will paraphrase his message: 

“Please do not build a stupa for me. Please do not put my ashes in a vase, lock me inside, and limit who I am. I know this will be difficult for some of you. If you must build a stupa though, please make sure that you put a sign on it that says, ‘I am not in here.’ In addition, you can also put another sign that says, ‘I am not out there either,’ and a third sign that says, ‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’”

(--Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully, By Eliza Barclay. Updated May 17, 2019, 11:50am EDT, in Vox)

I read.

And listen.

This Wednesday.

standing out, knowing wonder

Wondering what it would be like if I wasn’t here.

If  I wasn’t here.

What it — the world, existence — would be like.

Wondering, what it would be like if I wasn’t here.



What wondering would be like if I wasn’t here.

Wondering would be like if.

Here itself.

No I, knowing it.

evening prayer

 I don’t know.

About?

 Anything.

soon

be over

ha!

we’ll see

time of our culture

Men?  Or

Women?

Yes!

No

Further

Questions

down to earth

Does it matter that the mythic God is dead?

Look under your feet --

The grieving period is vast and long

in the morning

no luck

kitchen window open all night

found

nestled between embroidered

pillow and bed cover

bird

gone beyond

cat in bathroom overnight

in kitchen

flies from beam to picture frame to globe --

visiting bird