nineteen beats a troubled heart

               (for 6jan2021)

1.

     katauta:

slow death ravages

no cure for hypocrisy

next time, think, if there is one

2.

     recitative:

what can we do? no-

thing rises to look over 

troubled souls, hearts gone, minds dark

inclusive imagination, alium nomine domine

Student: 

Believing in the spirits and through communication is not easy at all. Currently being in prison has hindered a lot of my rituals that I would normally preform on the outside with family. I think the worst part of this is trying to follow my religion. This prison is highly Christian, Muslim, and Catholic and a lot of these people look at the Pagan, Odin, and Druid culture as if we worship the devil. During this class I have tried to be open minded and I take a lot away from others mistakes. I had recently a friend who is highly Christian and he found out that I wasn’t walking his same path. 

This lead to some serious issues one because he thinks that my soul is damned to burn I the pit of hell. Right now it is all he can talk about and to an extent it drives me nuts now because our relationship has changed from friends to almost enemies. I have accepted that he is Christian and if my religion is bothering him to that extent I am fine in walking away from him. This is where the fact of why Indians like this class comes into play. I cannot or rather will not judge him based on his culture and I found that this class did a lot of judging of others cultures. 

So I found that I don’t like being a judgmental person and I also think that we weren’t able to really get effective communication when we sat down with each other. We seemed to argue rather than what we needed to do. However, these discussions and journal entries have helped me review what I would consider honor, respect, and my morals. I also think this gave me a better understanding of what philosophy is how I would define philosophy as deep thinking.  

(per.gm) 

Tutor:

Opinionated judging is what people do when inclusive imagination has not yet been born in them. Which is always troubling to experience with those in the Christian metaphor, because inclusive imagination is, in my opinion, one of names of God resonating in the Christ-reality.

balance

You're not wrong.

I'm not right. 

“Right and wrong are temporal, but time is neither right nor wrong. Right and wrong are the Dharma, but the Dharma is neither right nor wrong. In the balance of the Dharma, wrong is balanced. In the balance of the Dharma, right is balanced. And so, in learning of complete and utter Awakening, in hearing the Teachings, doing the training, and realizing the effect, this is profound, vast, and wonderful. Some hear of unsurpassed Awakening from good friends, and some hear of it from the sutras. What one hears first is, “Not doing wrong action.” If one does not hear “not doing wrong action,” one is not hearing the Buddhas' true Dharma but demonic talk. Know that hearing “not doing wrong action” is hearing the Buddhas' true Dharma.” 

(-- from, Shobogenzo: The Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching, from student's paper))

We've fallen out of balance.

Here's my hand.

Help me up.

We can find our balance, don't you think? 

current of life

Prayer is intentional participation in a shared reality for the good of each. 

 The Alchemist “The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it is all written there.”  (--quote from student's paper)

We pray tonight. 

and lead us

Let the sorrow of having experienced ignorance and cynicism find solace in wisdom. 

Hold the violators accountable. President. Senators. Representatives. 

Those who inflamed and those who rioted, threatened, and soiled democracy with infamy.

Let us be seen and known for what we are, henceforth and openly, in public sight.

Some of us turn within. We look at our resemblance to chicanery, deceit, and blind ambitious power.

Prayer begins.

God, come to my assistance!

Lord, make haste to help us!

We have offended.

May the Lord protect us, defend us from all evil, and lead us to life, authentic and compassionate life, now, and going forward!

Amen.

none are so blind

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” (Theodore Roethke)

It is a dark time.

Will those who intentionally turn away their eyes ever be able to see?

It takes courage to see what you are looking at.

show them the door

 There must be a door to exit those who cannot be trusted to represent democracy, civility, and decency.

Surely the outgoing president, clawing senators and congresspeople, and irresponsible fawning pundits, should all be shown that door, immediately, for sanity’s and integrity’s sake.

voting, our, asset, off

May it be so! 

 “In this country we have one great privilege which they don’t have in other countries,” [Mark] Twain once said on the issue of voting. “When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That’s the finest asset we’ve got – the ballet box.”

https://checkyourfact.com/2019/09/16/fact-check-mark-twain-voting-difference-illegal/

a mendicant and a holy family walked into a zendo

 

we welcome ensō to the hermitage community

Driving back to Maine from Burlington Vermont. 

This gentle soul, a mix of Border Collie and St. Bernard. He was rescued from North Carolina. He'd had a good home, they think. Both shelter places, in North Carolina and Vermont, described him as wonderful, gentle, and good company.  

Quarantining in front room while cats wonder what that new smell is in their house.

Bonne chance to everyone! 

And welcome!

The first thing he did upon arriving home with us was to attend his first Sunday Evening Practice in bookshed, thumping his tail and snorting through the silent sitting. Those attending on zoom knew someone new was present but were too well disciplined to say anything until three bells brought bows followed by introduction to the new meditation face in our midst.

(Ps. 'Chance' was his name coming into and from the two shelters. Ensō will be his new first name, with 'Chance' as respected backup as long as needed. 

His papers say his birthday is 29 December. If so, then he was two years old on 29dec20. Why not? Isn’t everyday our birthday? Our new beginning day?)

Bonne année à vous et à tous les vôtres! 

And to us all!

...   ...   ...

Addenda:

Ensō was born on the feast day of the notable Thomas à Becket.

St. Thomas Becket, also called Thomas à Becket or Thomas of London, (born c. 1118, Cheapside, London, England—died December 29, 1170, Canterbury, Kent; canonized 1173; feast day December 29), chancellor of England (1155–62) and archbishop of Canterbury (1162–70) during the reign of King Henry II. His career was marked by a long quarrel with Henry that ended with Becket’s murder in Canterbury Cathedral. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion.  (--from, britannica.com)  

And from Jean Anouilh's Becket:

ACT TWO

KING. Does it amuse you—working for the good of my people?~ Do you mean to say you love all those folk? To begin with they're too numerous. One can't love them, one doesn't know them. Anyway, you're lying, you don't love anything or anybody.

 

BECKET. There's one thing I do love, my prince, and that I'm sure of. Doing what I have to do and doing it well.

 

KING. Always the es—es . . . What's your word again? I've forgotten it.

 

BECKET. Esthetics?

 

KING. Esthetics! Always the esthetic side, eh?

 

BECKET. Yes, my prince.

 

[p. 54].  

(--from, Anouilh, Jean  Becket; or, The Honor of God. Translated by Lucienne Hill. New York: Coward-McCann, 1960. 128 pp.)

ensō

In Zen, ensō (円相, "circular form")[1] is a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create.

The ensō symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and mu (the void). It is characterised by a minimalism born of Japanese aesthetics.

(—Wikipedia)

                                                    Ensō (c. 2000) by Kanjuro Shibata XX