analogy of being left or right

 In last night’s conversation a contrast between two ways of being in the world.

The one: receiving and passing on.

The other: initiating and dominating.

only prayer will, break, your mind

Monastery bells 

From France, office of prime, first

Day delivery

body-mind; no-mind nobody

My small pinky practices mu-shin. 

 Dogen emphasises that we cannot separate our minds, even in their highest functioning, from our bodies. In Shobogenzo Shinjin Inga (A07/89 Deep Faith in Cause and Effect), Dogen writes: The self is identified with the mind. The mind is explained as something remaining apart from the body. This is the way in which non-Buddhists think about the body. 

In contrast with this, Buddhists should not regard the mind as remaining apart from the body: the two are inseparable.

(—Glasgow Zen Group) 

My nose wu-xin. 

What am I?

Nobody!

you want a reward for virtue

 I go back to sleep

Reading Nietzsche, übermensch

Politics grinds on 

welcome to new day, land of hope and dreams

  יְהוָה--אָהַבְתִּי, מְעוֹן בֵּיתֶךָ;    וּמְקוֹם, מִשְׁכַּן כְּבוֹדֶךָ.

LORD, I love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.

          

                 (from Psalms Chapter 26 תְּהִלִּים)

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

                 (from,  Psalm 27, Authorized (King James) Version)

a healthy dusk

              (for some in America, after Eph.4:26)

In your anger do 

not sin.  Don’t let sun go down 

while you’re still angry

for the joy of ear and eye

                  (after matins hymn)

Beauty of each hour —

  This our hymn of grateful praise —

Gentle thoughts and mild

into my rest

               (after psalm 95)

Four years I endured

That aberration. I said,

“They shall not enter . . .”

happy no-birth, dear dōgen zenji

This:

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), also called Dogen Kigen or Dogen Zenji, was a Japanese Buddhist monk who established Soto Zen in Japan. He is also known for the collection of his writing called Shobogenzo, a masterpiece of the world's religious literature.    https://www.learnreligions.com/eihei-dogen-450198

 And this:

Dōgen Zenji was a Japanese Buddhist priest, poet, philosopher, writer, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

He is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work – Shōbōgenzō, but also Eihei Shingi, the first Zen monastic code written in Japan  https://www.insightstate.com/quotes/dogen-zenji-quotes/

 Leads to this:

#1 ”In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.” 

#2 ”Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.” 

#3 ”Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.” 

#4 ”But do not ask me where I am going, As I travel in this limitless world, Where every step I take is my home.” 

#5 “Forgetting oneself is opening oneself” 

#6 ”Cause is not before and effect is not after”

https://www.insightstate.com/quotes/dogen-zenji-quotes/

Dōgen Kigen, along with Francis of Assisi, these two, are the guiding inspiration of meetingbrook dōgen & francis hermitage.

We are grateful novices sitting and walking in the long shadow of their vision, poetry, wisdom, and direct connective simplicity. 

The ten thousand things sing through our mere attending presence moving through this moment, as it is.

as credits begin to roll

Final day sunrise

Hate travels south —  remnant trolls

Following in tow

beyond abilities

 Just because my soul

Is saturated with scorn . . .

I still see slim moon

meaningless mimicry of mindless minions

 I listen to hate.

The sound of lies recruiting lies.

Men and women who’ve lost their souls.

One more day of empty bodies.

Then they fly off.

To mausoleums.

a good man

 Martin Luther King Jr.

A good man.

Even today.

Someone who cared, helped meaningfully, then had his life taken by racists for whom ugly acts are a menu laid out before their eyes as they sit with smug certainty at family dinner gatherings. Their sacrificial snacks eaten with purity on white table covering.

We remember you today.

We honor you, Martin.

We break bread, and, in desolation, pray for your continuing spirit, on this day, in this time, a birthday repast.

Αγάπη, an αγάπη of inclusive imagination.

a martyr for mendacity

 And still, amid fears of a reprise of January 6, the outgoing president of the United States, who led chants of twelve more years, does not say to his followers “I have lost. America goes on. Biden defeated me. Honor our traditions and constitution. He is your president. Be good citizens.”

But this is 2021.

Schoolyard politics are all the rage.

I am not sure. I suspect one of the MAGA crowd, disillusioned with sorrow, will attempt to put the failed king of the mountain out of his inglorious indignity by making him a martyr for mendacity and once glorious untouchability, a Mar-a-Lago sacrifice for the wealthy class of privileged superiority, a mounted head for adulation and worshipful obeisance, stuffed, a taxidermy of righteous mis-memory, a recumbent pseudo-savior come to fest and rest without a tear being shed.

I’d prefer an old fashioned prison cell. 

Where yarns could be spun. Appeals filed. Commissary chits exchanged. And weekly bible study reading about the failed Jesus who was not as great as this fellow with no one to pardon him, no one who really cares, complaining about the grub, waiting for his odd and photogenic family to one day visit him when their busy schedules allow.

Last night, at practice, we read about metta, loving kindness, good will.

I wish him well.

Would that we all might be, with him safely tucked away, well!

I am . . . this place

 One of four wonderful photos from friend in Vankleek Hill Canada.

A response:

Haiku
      (for pic 289)


No need to climb, sits

Each snow flake on ladder rung, 

Sees . . . I am  . . . this place


(wfh, 17jan21)