Saturday, November 27, 2021

each new step


Yesterday, camden

harbor, Susan, solo, stands

approaching town dock


Today, first dusting

foot of ragged mountain 

printing each new step


Tomorrow has no

image, does not exist, dim

possibility


single flame holds all

time and hermit cell within

One’s nameless silence
 

Friday, November 26, 2021

this day closes

 May you be pain free

And joy surround every move

Mind bright inner peace

be still

 Even while moving.

Have patience. Wait until the mud settles and the water is clear. Remain unmoving until right action arises by itself. ~ Lao Tzu

There’s nowhere to go.

We’re already there.

There where here is. 

call steps outside all walls

 red sky morning light

neighbor throws firewood in truck

deer hide one more day —

everything now slow pace —

world becomes monastery

and yesterday’s gone

 it’s name was merely

thursday— came and went — so now

we twirl through friday 

Thursday, November 25, 2021

gratefulness assists those passing through

 At my Thursday post

Hat, rucksack, coat
Empty chair

Thanksgiving volunteer 

With gratitude

kwan seum bosal


early zazen she

listens to sound of what is 

being said — just now

yesterday’s prep for meal with deer friend



outside our window

nibbling low yew branches, she

reminds us — be still

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

εὐχαριστεῖν

It has to do with corporeality, not spirituality.

Any gratitude is embodied realization.

It is characteristic that John twice employs the expression “he gave thanks”(6:11,23) instead of the verb “blessed” (Mark 6:41) in the account of the miracleof the feeding of the five thousand, thus probably alluding to early Christian interpretations of the communal meal as thanksgiving (εχαριστεν). This miraculous feeding story also has a striking ecclesiological background as well as literal and motivic affinities to the Pauline and Lucan traditions of the Lord's Supper. John uses the same verbs [λαμβάνειν, εχαριστεν, (δια)-διδόναι] and the noun bread (ρτος) that occur in the relevant Pauline and Lucan Texts. There are also etymologically (κλν/κλάσμα) or semantically (σμα/σάρξ) related terms which link not only the miracle of feeding the five thousand but also the Bread of Life speech (v. 51) with very early traditions regarding Christological interpretation of the communal meal…

(—The Philosophical-Religious Hybridity in John 6 and Its Reception in the Commentaries of Origen and John, by Athanasios Despotis, Academia)

 Do not be mistaken.

Bread, water, body, reality.

nothing exists alone

 I read this twice.

Then a third time.

[I]n nature nothing exists alone. 
-- Rache
l Carson, Silent Spring (1962)

It feels true.

A phrasing that turns, dances, then sits down beside you, as though nothing else matters, nothing more true.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

beyond all that can happen

 When you think about it —

Man becomes what he believes himself to be. Abandon all ideas about yourself and you will find yourself to be the pure witness, beyond all that can happen to the body or mind. 
—Nisargadatta Maharaj

 There’s not that much worth thinking about.

Except what is actually here.

three day old coffee, a good dog, sun and book

 Sardiner backs away from berth, turns in empty harbor, half speed ahead crossing sun-splotched water and disappears behind USCGC Abbie Burgess at Coast Guard station at end of Tillson Ave in Rockland.

“Who needs a master’s degree to boil water?” (-line in Colum McCann novel)

Captain of Kingfisher (1243750) sprays down deck of lobster boat as she drifts and turns in float-stripped marina.

No degree needed to haul catch or lift boat to the hard in late November. 

Nor to sit and watch what wharf and tide let come before you.

of a culture as unhealthy and unhealed

In a nutshell.

We are finding it is nearly impossible to heal isolated individuals inside of a culture as unhealthy and unhealed as the USA, and inside any version of Christianity that supports exclusion and superiority. Individuals who remain inside of an incoherent and unsafe universe soon fall back into anger, fear, and narcissism. I sadly say this after 46 years of giving retreats, conferences, and initiation rites all over the world. Only people who went on to develop a contemplative mind could finally grow and benefit from the message that they heard.

(—from Richard Rohr email, A Great Story, 23nov21) 

 Our small story.

Looking to see from where it fell.

Monday, November 22, 2021

the absence of you

Standing one either side of fence surrounding tennis court at snow bowl, neighbor and I talk about Emmet Fox and Thomas Aquinas about this very topic found in quote after coming home.

Emptiness is effectively 

the absence of you.

And where there is 

the absence of ‘you’,

there shines 

the presence of God.

(~ Mooji)

My neighbor was quoting someone (Emmet Fox) saying “the only real presence is God — all the rest is but shadow.”

Good fences make good neighborly conversation.

knowing beyond hope

Don’t stop. 

Nothing stops you from being a Gnani here and now, except fear. You are afraid of being impersonal, of impersonal being  It is all quite simple. Turn away from your desires and fears and from the thoughts they create and you are at once in your natural state 

(-- Nisargadatta)

 It is naturally true.

"I hope more and more to become a person who can live in the world as it is, whatever that is. That’s what I hope for.” (—Elizabeth Gilbert)

To dwell where you are in the world as it is. 

Where hope bows and gives everything over to surrender.

22 november

 Feast of Cecilia 

With gratitude to Gounod —

Death of Kennedy

Her crime, burying martyrs

Ours, years ago in Dallas

Sunday, November 21, 2021

new facts of life

 homicidals drive 

their guns and cars killing folks —

this deranged stark time

final day liturgical year, renaming

Not that title, not

king, not one I’d choose, hobo

more likely, tramp, scamp