where belief in separation fails

If God is everywhere, where does someone go when they die and leave the body?

world of difference

I am not
In
The world

I am
In-the-world.

hush, little baby, don’t you cry

I had a dream

In it I didn’t know who i was

I woke up — relieved to discover

Now I don’t know who I am

univocity

Here is what Richard Rohr writes:

Nature: Week 2 

The Univocity of Being 

Monday, November 14, 2016 

Christ has something in common with all creatures. With the stone he [sic] shares existence, with the plants he shares life, with the animals he shares sensation, and with the angels he shares intelligence. Thus all things are transformed in Christ since in the fullness of his nature he embraces some part of every creature. —Bonaventure [1] 

In the stories of his life, St. Francis is quoted as talking to or about larks, lambs, rabbits, pheasants, falcons, cicadas, waterfowl, bees, the famous wolf of Gubbio, pigs whom he praised for generously giving their bodies for our food, and hooked fish that he tried to throw back into the water whenever possible. He addresses inanimate creation too, as if it were indeed ensouled. His “Canticle of the Creatures” includes fire, wind, water, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and, of course, “our Sister Mother Earth” herself. He even told the friars to only cut down part of a tree for their needs so that it could sprout again. 

So-called “nature mysticism” was a worthy entranceway for Francis, and then Bonaventure laid the theological foundation for the same by seeing all things as likenesses of God, fingerprints and footprints (vestigia Dei) that reveal the divine DNA underlying all living links in creation. John Duns Scotus would philosophically name this “the univocity of all being.” In other words, we may speak of all beings with “one consistent voice.” Dawn Nothwehr, a Franciscan sister, lovingly calls it “cosmic mutuality.” [2] 

The Franciscan notion of the “univocity of being” gave an early philosophical foundation to what we now call the circle of life or ecosystems, holons and fractals (parts that replicate the whole), unitive or contemplative thinking, and mysticism itself. Duns Scotus believed creation was more than an “analogy of being,” as Thomas Aquinas taught; there was an objective continuity between Creator and Creatures.

(—from Center for Action and Contemplation, Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM))

so you say

-1°

Rekindle wood stove.

Invite dog off bed returning to room.

What conversations we had on Heidegger, language, and phenomenology in prison morning and afternoon Friday! And evening at hermitage. Both venues replete with laughter and familiarity.

We consider no matter what intent, feeling, concept or idea we attempt to pour into words, what ultimately gets conveyed is what language presents as its own speech despite our belief we are steering the bus. The route it takes, the stops it makes, the view from its windows — these belong to language speaking itself — perhaps fueled by what we pour into the process tank, but detached from our control.

This might, or might not, be what Heidegger meant by Die Sprache spricht — but, QED, there you are, Dasein!

The weather app says in an hour it 

will

fall

to

-4°

so much to unlearn

"The essence of genius is to know what to overlook."—William James.

residing in the question

I’ve come to think those whirlwind questions in the Book of Job were like zen koans, not to elicit an implied “No, I wasn’t,” but, rather, “Yes, of course I was, if anything is, I, too, am.”

The voice continues to invite us into the created universe as an intricate and intimate presence as that universe.

once, ever, there

Just because a character dies doesn’t mean they’re written out of the script.

Truer than it sounds — whether in Danish film or in (real) life.

After reflection, credits rolling, the proposition persists.

not going anywhere...uh oh

Do you go to church?

-- someone asked.

No, I said.

(From beyond, a low MU!)*

Uh oh!

...   ...   ...

* Some English translation equivalents of wú or mu 無 are:

• "no", "not", "nothing", or "without"^[3]

• nothing, not, nothingness, un-, is not, has not, not any^[4]

• [1]Pure human awareness, prior to experience or knowledge. This meaning is used especially by the Chan school. [6] The 'original nonbeing' from which being is produced in the Daode jing.^[5][2] A negative. [3] Caused to be nonexistent. [4] Impossible; lacking reason or cause. [5] Nonexistence; nonbeing; not having; a lack of, without.

In modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean it is commonly used in combination words as a prefix to indicate the absence of something, e.g., Chinese: 无线; pinyin: wúxiàn / musen (無線) / museon(무선 ) for "wireless".^[6] In Classical Chinese, it is an impersonal existential verb meaning "not have".^[7]The same character is also used in Classical Chinese as a prohibitive particle, though in this case it is more properly written Chinese: 毋; pinyin: wú.^[8]

(--Wikipedia) 

troubling unpredictability

 I'm unsure normal rational assessment of current cultural and political unfolding circumstances can do justice to or deepen our steps toward resolution of blatant undermining of underpinnings of our constitutional representative republic grounded in the rule of law and the proper administration of legal principles and legal rulings following therewith.

In other words, we are in a crisis of mammoth proportions, a crisis that threatens to escalate and erupt in ways we can barely imagine.

The shrinking openness and corresponding closedness of current leadership in the United States signals a concealment and conditioning that obscures and hides what is useful and universal in response to the needs of the population of the country and the reliable relations with other countries depending on thoughtful and necessary interactions with the United States.

As reciprocal relations and trustworthy articulation of our responsibilities toward one another take on a troubling unpredictability, we must reevaluate who we are and what we are doing with one another.

In the late Middle Ages the philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart preached that to know the truth you must be the truth. But how to be the truth? Eckhart’s answer comes in the form of an imperative: release yourself, let be. Only then will you be able to understand that the deepest meaning of being is releasement and become who you truly are.  

(--from summary, Eckhart, Heidegger, and the Imperative of Releasement, Ian Alexander Moore - Author)

Solve the koan: "Who would you be if you weren't in your own way?"

acquaintance with night

Dreams are the way night reveals itself as having no limit.

God is night dreaming dawn.

Wake!

Night dreams you here.

ainsi soit-il

“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness."

(--Thich Nhat Hanh)

إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللّٰ (inshallah)

Watching "Last Men in Aleppo."

Children are pulled from bombed house.

Some alive, most die.

Later

Man on ground is kicked, "Praise Assad!" voice says.

"Nobody cares. No one comes to help" -- one White Hat says.

"Where is the world? Where is humanity?"

And I think of this coming country --

"Praise Trump!" the echoes resound.

"Who cares any more?" voices ask.

We will become Syria.

We can only hope some men

some women

will remain here to help

notes on a theme — heavy burden* -- a wandering through

This morning’s vigil/matins in new light snow at 2AM with new monastic Max Manjushri in muted mountain white-light brings attention to “already/not yet” — the deep sorrow of already being enlightened but not yet ready to be what we are.

As with much of human life, it has to do with what might be called the baffling inquiry into the question of What-is, or, what some refer to as the question of God. 

For many, religion has muted these questions by proposing a world view placing God and heaven or hell as something else or somewhere else, something to believe, have faith in, or consent to dogma about.

Perhaps our grief has something to do with a profound suspicion and intuition that God, heaven, hell is something more organic, breathtaking, and challenging. And we are deeply embodied as reality-itself in a pulsating energy moving through “this” as non-dual expressions of the seeming paradox of being/becoming already/not-yet, one/many, here/there, having been born/nearing death, this/that, arriving/departing/going nowhere — or what in Zen is phrased as “don’t make two/don’t make one.”

     

The grief men and women feel is, perhaps, not so much about loss, but about the profound realization of what we are, alongside an equally profound realization of an unexplainable reluctance to actualize what we know (but won’t admit) to be true.                                         

The movement from knowing, through feeling, to actual being-in-the-world as inter-relational expression of personal existence, alongside and throughout, engaged existence with another/others, is a journey both difficult and liberating. 

We grieve what we know and feel, yet find ourselves reluctant to, or lacking courage to, actualize and practice everyday inter-relational expressive forms of care, wisdom, and compassion.

Only a committed practice of seeing/being/doing grounded in the fields of wisdom and compassion can place us in quiet, light, and joyous freedom to be-with one another as-we-are respectfully moving through the “already/not-yet” of ordinary everyday existence.

Does the heavy burden felt after disappointment or loss become less or lighter with nearing enlightenment easing us into renewed vision passing through an inseparate whole-sight of seeing/being/doing, with and as, what is there, what is real, what is beyond a division of inside or outside, here or gone, my or mine, you or yours? Is there a field of emptiness, a field of wholeness, wherein everything is completely Itself, and we are nothing other than this "Itself" in the presence of one another?

Where we honor the feelings and experience of one another, and go in search of what is alone, surrounding, intrinsic, and inchoate in this appearance, in this existence, in this here, in this now. 

We comfort, and are comforted, in this way of being-with one-another.  

We contemplate this way of being: “Embodying the dwelling-place of the Alone; stepping aside to make room for Another.”

10feb20

Feast of Scholastica

...   ...   ...

* ORIGIN OF GRIEVE:  1175–1225; Middle English greven, grieven < Old French grever < Latin gravāre to burden, derivative of gravis heavy, grave2

Postscript: Perhaps the question, "Is there life beyond the grave?" can be answered now, "Yes, here we are!"

quae visa est sine te

I do not try to be holy so

that I might be saved,
I try to see what is holy so

that all might be saved

dette er mit legeme

Fireplace embers
Matins icy steps
Moonlit dooryard
Yoghurt eucherist —

Now, lord, you may
Dismiss your servant
In peace
According to

Your word