inherently (in)complete

"What’s your name? I have seen you before. What’s your name? May I walk you to your door?”  (Don & Juan, 1962)

Names of the unified mind are

Buddha-nature,

True suchness, the hidden essence,

The pure spiritual body,

The pedestal of awareness,

The innocent, universal round mirrorlike knowledge,

The open source, the ultimate truth,

And pure consciousness.

The enlightened ones of the past, present, and future,

And all of their discourses,

Are all in your fundamental nature, inherently complete.

You do not need to seek,

But you must save yourself;

No one can do it for you.

--Xuefeng (822–908) dailyzen

I’m torn between the Buddha of history or the Arhat of Pennsylvania Avenue. If I’m meant to accept what appears before me, then the wizard of woefulness is my spiritual test. Yes, he is awful; yes he is crude and impertinent, vulgar and mean-spirited -- but he is our president, the only one we have, and (somehow) occupies an office and role that demands our respect. Even if a priest has been a pedophile, we trust that the priesthood remains, somehow, more than the sexual abuser. So, too, the presidency.

Since I’ve been ABC (a buddhist catholic) for over sixty years, and AZC (a zen contemplative) for the same half-century-plus, I’ve come to appreciate the complexity of judgment and the value of judicious evaluation. I also appreciate the failure and brokenness of my resolve and practice.

I find very little about the current president to recommend him. A letter of recommendation would be filled with abhorrent details of fraud, corruption, sexual abuse, grift and graft, lies, illegal activity, sour temperament bordering on vile cruelty and obnoxious surliness. 

But still, he is my brother, and were he in Maine State Prison I’d visit and invite him to meetingbrook conversations with others interested in sorting out things and deepening our lives.

We understand those final three lines:   

    You do not need to seek,  

    But you must save yourself; 

    No one can do it for you.

Of course I apply the same to myself, there’s no escaping (the) singularity. As someone inherently incomplete, as someone not inherent -- but irrelevant, inappropriate, extraneous, impertinent -- I understand the paradoxical nature of being-human, and sit with that complexity, looking out into penitential wholeness for dharmic/religious reincorporation.

quitte, s’il vous plâit

There’s no shame 

in being 

a bad president.

Pick yourself

Up, dust yourself off

And resign.

We’ll be fine

Without you

If you go away

yes

 Is

One

All

There

Is

ginnungagap*

In prison today conversation about thought and matter, purusha and prakriti, form and emptiness.

Norse-man, Greek-man, Hindu/pagan-man, two Buddhist/catholic-folks, and a waiting Stephen Dunn poem not gotten to.

Energy and utterance.

Essence and existence.

Time now and never other.

It was good company and worthwhile experience.

….  …   …

* In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap (old Norse: [ˈɡinːoŋɡɑˌɡɑp]; "gaping abyss", "yawning void") is the primordial, magical[1][2] void mentioned in three poems from the Poetic Edda[3][4] and the Gylfaginning, the Eddaic text recording Norse cosmogony. Wikipedia

even though warriors and nuggets lose

a good day

new pope

breakfast pastry

evening walk

sit nomen omnium benedictum

 I will not 

tell you

my name 

do not 

ask again

my name 

is un-

pronounceable 

my name

is your 

soundless gaze

my name 

your eyes

our vision 

white smoke

everyone waits

to see

what will 

come to be

perhaps

only (simple)

presence

emerges

if we

were 

able

to see

neutrinos pierce me into slivers of absence

mud and mire

all impertinence

obviates me

so I am gone

you don’t see me

only microscopic

residue

floating in headlamp

on night walk

with good dog

in dooryard

outside barn

gabbiano, sei minuti

 seagull sits

on roof peak of

Sistine Chapel

just above and

off to side of

stovepipe with

no smoke rising 

7:39pm in Rome 

surely some sign

some revelation

at hand -- or,

just a quiet evening

in the history of

papacy, in history 

of world, flies away

7:45pm -- signing off

tranquillement

I look over at the Buddha

quiet guy

I look over at man on cross

quiet guy

Rain sounds on roof of porch

quiet sky

Night has no where to go,

sits, tranquillement

gauging

Many think Donald Trump is dishonest, cynical, and stupid. 

 

I don’t know if that’s the case. 

 

I prefer to think he is merely an unaware, unkind, and self-absorbed man. 

 

I suspect there are differences between the two sets of three descriptives. 

 

Siskel and Ebert* used to ask whether the movie watcher liked the character(s) in the film.  

 

It was the criteria for staying with the film and caring about its story. 

 

I don’t care for the president.

Nor the story he is trying to tell. 

And doing it so poorly.

. . .

* The question "Do you care for the characters in the movie?" was a recurring theme in their reviews, particularly in their "thumbs up/thumbs down" judgments. Siskel and Ebert valued the emotional connection viewers could have with the characters, and this question helped them gauge the effectiveness of the film's character development. 

:

• If they felt a strong emotional connection to the characters, they would often praise the film for its ability to make the audience care about the characters' fates and experiences.
• If they felt the characters were underdeveloped or unlikable, they would criticize the film for its inability to engage the audience in a meaningful way.
• They would also discuss how well the actors portrayed the characters, and whether the actors were believable and engaging in their roles.   (--AI) 

via transitus

 I never wanted

to be a zen priest

and am not

I once thought

to be a catholic priest

but did not

I now think that

being nothing but this

is a kind of priestliness

and even that is not

something I wish to be --

looking to road out window

and just like that, there they were

 two Baltimore orioles on roadside bushes in drizzling rain

outside front picture window in rural Maine between mountains --

morning is replete with color, complete with visiting birdlife

rien

Very little

Goes on

This time

Of night

I see

None of it

inside word

Colum McCann’s Apeirogon, A Novel.

History, its tensions and heartbreak, as art.

Words that are alive. Life an inside word

a fragment of reality

Islamic Ulama, Jewish Rabbinic, and Christian Exegetic dialogue in prison this morning. You never know what will arise. 

And this did.

Koran, Torah, Gospels -- the time went by, and it was time for count, the dogmatic rubric of prison.

It steals into my heart

BY SRI CHINMOY

There was a time when I loved

The fantastic fabrics of the mind.

There was a time

When I lived my life

Based on culled fictions.

There was a time

When I was satisfied

With a fragment of reality,

Splintered, broken and smashed.

But now a lucid illumination

Steals into my heart.

The eternal Presence

Of Infinity’s Light

Feeds my Vision’s Dawn.

                    (c. Sri Chinmoy, 1973)

Translation, interpretative hermeneutic, exegetical subtleties -- good humor and agreeable differences.

A good “rtsod pa”* was had. 

                                                                                                                                                   

* In Tibetan monastic tradition, the debate is known as "rtsod pa" (pronounced "tsod-pa").This term refers to the formal, rigorous philosophical debate practice used for studying and clarifying Buddhist doctrines (AI)

nescience

 When I die

I will not know

I am dead

Why, then,

Worry about

When I die

the waters saw you

 Been watching 

“The Chosen.”

Last episode, 

season three.

Well worth 

The watch.

longing

 In an episode of “The Chosen”, this, spoken by Mary Magdalene to Matthew:

“Sometimes the world expresses its longing to be whole, and God steps in.”

 Well worth the listening.