The same light illumines each face. Each face is different. The same light reflects this difference. Welcome to humanity. Welcome to existence.

When enlightened Zen masters
Set up teachings for a spiritual path,
The only concern is to clarify
The mind to arrive at its source.
It is complete in everyone,
Yet people turn away from this basic mind
Because of their illusions.
- Yuanwu

No piece of the puzzle should be wasted. No crumbs left over from feeding thousands should be wasted. Each one is absolutely necessary. The whole demands each one.

Sons of men, how long will your hearts be heavy?
Why do you seek for vain things?
Why do you run after illusions?
(from Psalm 4)

There's no accounting for discrimination. No accounting for stupidity.

Our ignorance is (oddly) forgiven.

Save the leftovers.

Redeem the puzzle-piece.

No more illusions.

Get with what is...real.

Charlie said he wasn't feeling so good. He asked if we still had conversations.

Coming, going, the waterfowl
Leaves not a trace,
Nor does it need a guide.
--Dogen

Kobutsu Malone sends one of his articles: "The Paradox of Freedom: Prison Dharma on the Edge -- Buddha Dharma is not Buddhist Dharma."

It ends with the words:
Lilla Watson, an Aboriginal woman activist once said:
If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.
But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine,
then let us work together.

Let's do this.

One with another.

Don't say the word 'war.' It sounds like you know what it means.

Rather, say: 'These men and women, with their children were killed by bombs, bullets, and missiles in Lebanon and Israel.'

Poem

The unspoiled colors of a late summer night,
The wind howling through the loft pines -
The feel of autumn approaching;
The swaying bamboos keep resonating,
And shedding tears of dew at dawn;
Only those who exert themselves fully
Will attain the Way,
But even if you abandon all for the ancient path
of meditation,
You can never forget the meaning of sadness.
(from The Zen Poetry of Dogen, Steven Heine, p.133-134)

The word 'war' is insufficient. As though it explained anything.

War is no explanation.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you in every way and preserve your life and your soul and your body without blemish, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23, from Compline)

The Lord Jesus Christ does not understand the word 'war.' Nor should his followers.

Christ reality is more dangerous than war. It is not the absence of war -- which is just war undressed.

Christ reality is spare, unadorned, radical -- peace.

It's a shame when Christians refuse Christ reality. They want formulations about Jesus.

Meanwhile, while fundamentalists condemn anyone not mouthing their slogans, a saddened Jesus weeps with those that weep in bloodied streets where no one recognizes the new embodiment of Christ suffering our ignorance.

Spare me the triumphalistic bombast. Share with me a more real humanity -- one that begins with kindness and compassion. A humanity we shun, but a humanity embraced by Jesus.

We are not better nor more clever than God. We're meant to love.

Shut up. Go home.

Love to be unknown.

Be different. Care.

Coming through barn, wanting to run away, blue beetle turning left up Barnestown Road, cat under red van, dog stretched in front room, bird feeder fallen to ground behind two spare tires alongside tipped seed can itself empty, end of July hot and muggy, orange juice and fruit bar.

Tathata (Sanskrit) is variously translated as thusness or suchness. It is a central concept in Buddhism as well as the Hindu Upanishads; in the latter, it is used to refer to Brahman, i.e. the Absolute. One of the synonyms of the word Buddha is tathagata, which means "thus gone" or "thus come".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tathata

The thought occurs opening screen from barn to mudroom: No talk about Christ, just Christ; No talk about Buddha, just Buddha.

Put differently: Be what you long to see -- as best you can -- be loving, be kind, be awake, be wise, be compassionate, be relief of suffering.

Zen is a school of practice. As a Zen Christian, practice Christ mind and heart. As a Zen Buddhist, practice Buddha mind and heart.

An attitude of mind and heart that is zen mind/zen heart is one of no-barrier, no-separation, and no-other. It is based on the practice that as our true self is uncovered we come to see one another in true light of lovingkindness, wisdom, and compassion.

Birds chant to open air songs of hunger, attraction, communication, meditation, and sunlight. Cars roll down Barnestown flashing by front window going toward Hosmer Pond. There's nothing to do right now but observe and listen to what, and that, I am.

Benediction

God banish from your house
The fly, the roach, the mouse

That riots in the walls
Until the plaster falls;

Admonish from your door
The hypocrite and liar;

No shy, soft, tigrish fear
Permit upon your stair,

Nor agents of your doubt.
God drive them whistling out.

Let nothing touched with evil,
Let nothing that can shrivel

Heart's tenderest frond, intrude
Upon your still, deep blood.

Against the drip of night
God keep all windows tight,

Protect your mirrors from
Surprise, delirium,

Admit no trailing wind
Into your shuttered mind

To plume the lake of sleep
With dreams. If you must weep

God give you tears, but leave
you secrecy to grieve,

And islands for your pride,
And love to nest in your side.
(Poem: "Benediction" By Stanley Kunitz from The Collected Poems. W. W. Norton & Company.)

Harold said be the culture you wish to see. Writing from his cell 2nd tier in corner -- he is what he writes -- encouragement and sound.

Dick said, "They're really getting to you, eh?" Sure, it's true. It's like visiting relatives you didn't know were family. In the midst of suffering, practice with/in healing mind/healing heart.

Sun lays green on green.

Zen sees this stillness.

As what it is.

That it is.

These days seem to be covered with a daze of disdain. Is it new moon? Or is the world depressing on its own?

"Earthly life is the time for bloodshed, war, and danger." That's what John Chrysostom quotes talking about James whose feast is celebrated today. Zebedee, James' father, wanted for him what he did get. But the intention shifted. From glory adorned to humility simply worn.

In my pot nothing but the wind's deep moan,
For company only a staff of wisteria vine;
Last night we chatted and laughed till all hours
The empty sky listened with a cold heart.
- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

Some see what is there and say 'yes' -- some see and say 'no.' It is the revelation of the pattern that some connect with.

In his novel "Pattern Recognition," William Gibson writes of character Cayce, "She is only there to serve as a very specialized piece of human litmus paper."
When asked by another character, "It must be difficult...when you don't like something. Emotionally, I mean." -- Cayce responds, "It isn't about liking anything, Bernard,...it's like that roll of carpet, there; it's either blue or it's not. Whether or not it's blue isn't something I have an emotional investment in." (p.13)

Sam M. said on Sunday that 'like' is the opposite of hate. Love, said Thomas Merton, has no opposite; there's only love...and the perversion of love. Ordinarily, in our dualistic thinking we'd reactively respond that hate is the opposite of love. But what if Sam is correct? What if likes/dislikes as a genre is where 'hate' looks for its other side?

From a homily on Matthew by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop, "Sharers in the suffering of Christ"
The sons of Zebedee press Christ: Promise that one may sit at your right side and the other at your left. What does he do? He wants to show them that it is not a spiritual gift for which they are asking, and that if they knew what their request involved, they would never dare make it. So he says: You do not know what you are asking, that is, what a great and splendid thing it is and how much beyond the reach even of the heavenly powers. Then he continues: Can you drink the cup which I must drink and be baptised with the baptism which I must undergo? He is saying: "You talk of sharing honours and rewards with me, but I must talk of struggle and toil. Now is not the time for rewards or the time for my glory to be revealed. Earthly life is the time for bloodshed, war and danger".
Consider how by his manner of questioning he exhorts and draws them. He does not say: "Can you face being slaughtered? Can you shed your blood?" How does he put his question? Can you drink the cup? Then he makes it attractive by adding: which I must drink, so that the prospect of sharing it with him may make them more eager. He also calls his suffering a baptism, to show that it will effect a great cleansing of the entire world. The disciples answer him: We can! Fervour makes them answer promptly, though they really do not know what they are saying but still think they will receive what they ask for.
How does Christ reply? You will indeed drink my cup and be baptised with my baptism. He is really prophesying a great blessing for them, since he is telling them: "You will be found worthy of martyrdom; you will suffer what I suffer and end your life with a violent death, thus sharing all with me. But seats at my right and left are not mine to give; they belong to those for whom the Father has prepared them." Thus, after lifting their minds to higher goals and preparing them to meet and overcome all that will make them desolate, he sets them straight on their request.
Then the other ten became angry at the two brothers. See how imperfect they all are: the two who tried to get ahead of the other ten, and the ten who were jealous of the two! But, as I said before, show them to me at a later date in their lives, and you will see that all these impulses and feelings have disappeared. Read how John, the very man who here asks for the first place, will always yield to Peter when it comes to preaching and performing miracles in the Acts of the Apostles. James, for his part, was not to live very much longer; for from the beginning he was inspired by great fervour and, setting aside all purely human goals, rose to such splendid heights that he straightway suffered martyrdom.
(http://www.universalis.com/readings.htm)

Christ is a mystery to me. The speculation borne out by scripture and tradition is that Jesus came into this existence to be a ramsom for the sins of humanity, to wash our sins away, to die for our sins. Then, the story goes, he rose (again) from the dead, ascended into heaven, and there awaits an endtime whence he will come (again) to judge the living and the dead. This pattern is recognizable to anyone familiar with Christianity. So is the pattern of bloodshed, war, and danger.

Let's look into the pattern to see if some deeper pattern arises. The cup Jesus must drink is his true nature. So too, he says, will James. He will be martyr. A martyr is sufferer -- one who suffers for the sake of principle, refusing to give up what is true for him or her. In this pattern you are not dying for principle, you are suffering, choosing your true nature over false idea -- the false idea being that you can be real if you affirm what is not true for you. You can't. Only true nature is real. All else is artifice, simulacrum, and substitute.

To suffer is to allow that true nature, to permit its presence, to be patient in the presence of What Is True revealing itself. This presence of mind and heart is what is often called suffering. Jesus suffers us. We suffer one another. Our presence is permitted as Christ's presence reveals itself. Or, put from a deeper pattern -- Christ's presence allows our presence to come to it's true nature alongside his. There is an interdependence that redeems us from separation and hostility, baptizes and confirms us in the very reality of the Christ.

Let's acknowledge that 'sin' might be understood as the attempt to sever us from our true nature, a separating impulse that tries to impose hostility and division. If this view works, then Jesus (whom we call Christ) arrives to embody and reveal that sin is not a necessary componant of human life, that he (by the grace of God) is completely human and completely divine in that he is able to reconcile the hostility and division within his very body and being. Christ, then, chooses -- not death, but life.

The body/mind of this earthly human existence is not the body/mind of Being Itself. That reality, some have called it the only reality, all else a fabricatiion, an artificial substitution. The reality of Being Itself (or 'God') is the deepest pattern within pattern, very ground of being at foundation of life itself. Jesus the Christ, some say, was the embodiment of that core reality. That core reality of life itself is love. Love is all there is. It has no opposite.

Our opinions, our likes and dislikes, our conditioning and our situation patterns -- all are difficulties we face as we attempt to let go of the artificial and fall with surrender into our true nature.

Zen Master Seung Sahn at an Esalen sesshin in 1975 is quoted by Sherry Ruth Anderson: "Deep in the mountains, the great temple bell is struck. The truth is just like this." Then, "Let go of your opinions, your situation, your condition," the Zen Master shouted again. "Then your mind is clear like space. And enlightened and unenlightened are empty words." (http://www.soulfulliving.com/meetingthebuddha.htm)

I have long loved the words, "The truth is just like this."

About one and a half centuries after Hui-neng, Lin-chi founded the southern Ch'an line of transmission named after him. In the Lin-chi Records the treatment of truth is headed in the direction we have already anticipated. Rather than the truly-so, Lin-chi emphasizes the "true person" (chen-jen(t)); rather than Hui-neng's no-thinking, Lin-chi speaks of "no position" (wu-wei(u)). Putting these together, we find in the third chapter Lin-chi's famous reference to the "true person of no position." This term played a central role in Lin-chi's training techniques, and he often demanded of his disciples that they make manifest this true nature of the personality. In a sense, Lin-chi sees a fundamental connection between Hui-neng's "original nature" and "original face;" that is, Lin-chi makes it explicit that the truly-so is manifested in the activity of the true person. The truth is based as much in the person as it is in the tathata. The roots of Lin-chi's idea may be in chapter 6 of the Chuang-tzu: "There must first be a true person before there can be true knowledge." The "true person" is one of Chuang-tzu's common designations for the sage who acts spontaneously, responsively, and without contrivance. In this respect, we can understand Hui-neng's "no-thinking" as a state of responsive awareness in which one is not self-consciously putting one's experience into static con-ceptual frameworks. In any case, Lin-chi expressly states that the true person represents the spontaneous functioning at the basis of all human activity (3; ch. 3) and the mode in which intention and act are inseparable (yao-hsing-chi-hsing; yao-tso-chi-tso(h), 11d, ch. 10).
(from TRUTH AND ZEN, By T. P. Kasulis, http://daophatngaynay.com/english/meditation/Zen/007-truth.htm)

I suspect in Jesus the Christ, a true person, intention and act are inseparable. Christ nature is what we call true nature. So is Buddha nature. So is your and my very body/mind when we act spontaneously, responsively, and without contrivance.

I am not fond of fear, of punishment, nor am I fond of the judging and condemnation so rampant in the culture of religious people. Their pattern of humorless disdain and dislike, segregating, denouncing, shunning, and dismissing feels to be a surface pattern based on ego and likes/dislikes.

If there were any true Christians, true Buddhists, true Jews, true Muslims, true Hindus, true Pagans, true Agnostics, or true Atheists -- I suspect they dwell in a deeper pattern wherein true nature, true self, true no-self, and true God dwell in common company.

The world is depressing on its own.

We have a great need for one another's inspiration to dwell together in the community of What Is True.

We will know we are true by our love and hospitality.

Keep careful watch.

Toll the bell. Telltale the true when seen or felt.

See what is just like this.

Just a little absurd. That's what we cannot help being. All the words about God, country, and the coming tribulation.

Somewhere deep within each one of us, Christ Jesus resides in stillness and silence. For Buddhists it is enlightenment that awaits our realization of it. Either way, so much depends on our waking up, being born and reborning being -- and for some -- again attempting and again beginning.

Supreme enlightenment is not for oneself,
Not for others, not for fame, not for gain.
To nevertheless seek unexcelled
Supreme enlightenment wholeheartedly
And singlemindedly,
Persevering without regressing,
Is called "awakening the mind for enlightenment."
- Dogen (1200-1253)

I look for my home, my cell, my room, my solitude. The cultivated hostilities of radical fundamentalists and sophisticated power-brokers equally sicken. The religious fascists are as disappointing as the cynical nihilists.

PROSPERO.
You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort,
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.--Sir, I am vex'd:
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity.
If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell
And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,
To still my beating mind.
(from The Tempest -- Act IV, Scene 1, by William Shakespeare)

Someone dreams us. It becomes nightmarish. Our center has fallen through into unsmiling certitude and coded phrases intent on sorry superiority.

The notion that the world is meaningless, derived from an essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus," by Albert Camus, which suggests that man has an unquenchable desire to understand but that the world is eternally unknowable. The resulting conflict puts man in an "absurd" position, like Sisyphus, who, according to Greek myth, was condemned for eternity to push a rock up a mountain, only to have it always fall back down before it reached the top.
(highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0767430077/student_view0/glossary.html)

Sisyphus, Camus concluded, must be assumed as being happy.

In Philosophy, The Absurd refers to humans who continue to live their lives, despite knowledge that their lives are utterly pointless.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurd

What's the point? A God-Creator who, many believe, ordered the death of his son? Or the robotic believers who have never felt the emptiness of their posturing platitudes?

I'll tell you the point --
We are poor passing facts
warned by that to give
each figure in the photograph
his living name.
(from poem "Epilogue" by Robert Lowell)

Ah, yes, one's living name!

Presence itself as it is.

Let's look here.

Now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ. For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single New Man in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God; In his own person he killed the hostility. Later he came to bring the good news of peace, peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near at hand. Through him, both of us have in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father.
Ephesians 2:13 - 18

Let's listen now.

Hostilities abound. Something is up. Too much insanity all at once portends danger.

Mary Magdalene is a unique and important character in the story of the Resurrection, chosen by Christ as one of the first witnesses of the event that changed the world. http://www.universalis.com/-400/today.htm

How change the world? By recognizing the insanity of the world and still opting to live in the world deep within oneself eradicating the walls of hostility.

Beginners should let the truth reveal itself at all costs. Before the truth reveals itself, you should not engage in unreasonable practices or excessive zazen. If you try to force your vital energy to reveal itself and you become involved in austere practices, your resolve will break down and your vital energy will diminish. It will be useless, and that will be the end of it. All of you should keep this in mind. When you are feeling bad, your resolution will be weaker than normal.
- Shosan

There's no changing the world. There's only opting to see within oneself.

To see within oneself is enough for today.

Blood is life.

From Bamboo Forest Temple,
I faintly hear the evening bell.
Twilight touches the brim of your hat
As you turn and enter dark blue hills.
- Lui Ch'angt-ch'ing (710-785)

Sometimes we forget what it is to be human. Many decide that certainty and perfection -- things attributed to God -- will be theirs once their lives are given to God. Maybe they're right. So many want to be God.

But -- only God is God.

Now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:13 - 18

The blood of Christ entered humanity.

And remains.

Human.

It is curious that God was not embarrassed to be human. Whereas we wish to be rid of our humanity to become God.

The incarnation is too profound for our likes.

Here's what to do when someone asks you what you believe.

I explored the grounds with monks this evening,
And now the night has passed.
Heavy silence rises all around us
While late moonlight spills through the forest.
The mountain rises almost to heaven.
Sleeping in the clouds is cold.
A single stroke of the early prayer-bell wakes me.
Does it also waken my soul?
- Tu Fu (712-770)

Answer that you believe in what you believe in.

And if they do not understand -- pray the bell of awakening silences the both of you.

Bow, and be gone.

Humans divide by naming and then forget silence. We forget that in silence and root experience we share same parentage, same creation, same creator, and same essential realities of life.

Kabir writes:
I have been thinking ...
I have been thinking of the difference between water
and the waves on it. Rising,
water's still water, falling back,
it is water, will you give me a hint
how to tell them apart?

Because someone has made up the word
"wave," do I have to distinguish it
from water?

There is a Secret One inside us;
the planets in all the galaxies
pass through his hands like beads.

That is a string of beads one should look at with luminous eyes.
- Kabir (http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/kabir/kabir_index/i_have_been_thinking/document_view)

Someone is always making up words. Some practice not to make separate the thing in itself from the word about it. This is difficult. Words are things too. When you have the thing-in-itself and the word-thing, it is difficult for many of us not to take sides, draw lines, defend perimeter, and ultimately attack over erected walls whenever someone thinks their "thing" is threatened by another's "thing."

I prefer no-thing.

"There is nothing but water in the holy pools. I know, I have been swimming there. All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can't say a word. I know, I have been crying out to them. The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words. I looked through their covers one day sideways. What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through. If you have not lived through something, it is not true."
-- Kabir, (Indian Philosopher, 1398-1519)

Susan M. and John C. respond to street handout gotten on way to French and Brawn about getting to heaven from Camden. In it the writer tells how Jesus, who created the universe, became human and asked the Father to punish him for our sins so that we need not receive the punishment we deserve. I tell them I'm not fond of that point of view, that emphasis on punishment.

John, when asked, says that the life of Jesus is an example of non-violence and self-sacrifice for the sake of others. I'm more fond of that view, the emphasis on leading us through the mystery of life.

Sant Kabir (1398 - 1518): conflicting legends abound about his birth. The most commonly held view is that he was born in a Hindu family but adopted and raised in a Muslim household. A weaver by trade, he was one of India greatest mystic-poet, who counted both Hindus and Muslims as his followers. http://www.storytellingmonk.org/ref/holy_sights/people/kabir_hinduism.htm

I think of Diane Eck -- she holds that whoever knows only one religion doesn't know any.

Kabir's tone is direct. He is scathing about all the externals of religion -- idol-worship, pilgrimage, caste, ascetic practices, scriptures and the like are all targets for his scorn -- and Hindu and Muslim divines fare equally badly. He calls for man to awake, to be aware of the inevitability of his own death, to transform inwardly and to die to self, and to live in the awareness of God. His is the path of Love, which he depicts as being extremely difficult. His monotheistic religious stance, "nirgun bhakti," or devotion to the Unqualified Absolute, is shared by all the other Sants of whom Kabir was the first in North India.
(p.204, in Who's Who of World Religions, edited by John R. Hinnells, c.1992)

A terrific storm rages through the area knocking trees and power down. The harbor is torn by wind and rain. There was concern for three schooners out in the bay. (They return safely.)

Without electricity following storm I sit with Andre V. and family from Bangor and Jim O'C. from West Virginia. Jim is an artist and priest who makes cds, sings and plays and performs his lovely music. The Mystery of Christ, we agree, transcends any formulation of it. God will not be measured or limited by our language.

Water, wave, Christ, incarnation, wind, rain, friendship, concern for others, family, homegoing, homecoming, home itself!

How great thou art!

Song, as praise, itself.

A man walks up to me and asks if I've accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I say, "Yes; what's the next question?" He doesn't want to know about me and Jesus. He wants me to be someone else. He wants me to be what he isn't. I can't be that.

Meaning to get away from intellectualization
And avoid word traps,
I sailed across the sea to search for the
Transmission beyond the teachings;
Went on pilgrimages till my sandals broke
And found water in the clear stream,
The moon in the sky.
- Kakua (1143 - ?)

I don't know why Jesus doesn't just take away all those people who want desperately to be taken away and not left behind.

Take pity on us, Lord, take pity:
we have had our fill of contempt.
Our souls have had their fill
of the laughter of the rich,
of the contempt of the proud.
(from Psalm 123)

War is not the answer. Unfortunately, our leaders have never asked the question. Most men and women have never asked the question.

What is the question?

Why aren't you Christ?

The fear is President Bush really wants a devastating war in Middle East. It's only fear, right?

The white clouds
On the mountain tops
Poke halfway into this thatched hut
I had thought too cramped
Even for myself
- Koho Kennichi (1241-1316)

But no one really wants a devastating war in Middle East.

Right?

The Middle East erupts. Again. There are those in our world that want war and chaos. Those not knowing why are killed. They are called "innocent."

What we call Buddhahood is the fact that all things are originally empty. Fundamentally, there is no me, no you, no dharma, no Buddha. Buddhahood is complete separation from everything, letting go and being free. Whether it is satori or anything else, if something is there, it is not.
- Shosan

The words, "complete separation from everything," are not immediately appealing. I might have thought it would be called, "completely what everything is."

Christ is both the way and the door. Christ is the staircase and the vehicle, like the throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant, and the mystery hidden from the ages. A man should turn his full attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the cross, full of faith, hope and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then such a man will make with Christ a pasch, that is, a passing-over. Through the branches of the cross he will pass over the Red Sea, leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulchre, as if he were dead to things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside Christ: Today you will be with me in paradise.
(From the Journey of the Mind to God by St. Bonaventure)

Today might just be paradise.

The Lord God asked prophet Amos what he saw. "A plumb-line," Amos answered. Vertical reference. True, and integral. In right relation with earthen gravity.

In the Pagan gathering the other day some men did a severance and blessing ritual for someone leaving prison that day. Not to have him back, releasing and separating his spirit from everything to do with the prison. I thought it a kind thing to do.

In Christian service this afternoon talking about going home, singing Dvorak melody for song "Going Home" -- recognizing we are called back, to turn around, to change our thinking -- to return to Source, Christ, and Spirit.

God is no discrimination.

Holiness is dwelling in the presence of God.

Finishing a day of begging,
I return home through the green mountains.
The setting sun is hidden behind the western cliffs
And the moon shines weakly on the stream below.
I stop by a rock and wash my feet.
Lighting some incense, I sit peacefully in zazen.
Again a one-man brotherhood of monks;
Ah...how quickly the stream of time sweeps by.
- Ryokan (1758-1831)

To be present is to have a change of mind.

"The burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness." So says Sosan, The Third Zen Patriarch.

If God is what is taking place right now, how can we be separated from the presence of God?

Christians have a difficult job. To be present -- and not dictate to God how God could be a better Christian.

What is seen?

The foolish reject what they see,
Not what they think;
The wise reject what they think,
Not what they see.
Observe things as they are
And don't pay attention to other people.
- Huang-po (9th cent)

Things as they are.

Just like that.

What is, seen

I wonder why so many men want other men dead.

The practice of Zen
Has no secret,
Except standing on the
Verge of life and death.
- Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)

Breath by breath let us invite men and women to live.

Basic trust. Unclutching faith. Love that surrenders to what is.

Maybe they don't want each other dead.

In that case, we'll come to see.

(Rain, rain, and mosquitos.)

We chant Vespers in chapel/zendo in honor of St. Benedict. We purchase blue VW used Beetle. A Benedict's Day transport!

St Benedict (480 - 547)
Benedict was born at Nursia, in Umbria, and studied in Rome; but he was unable to stomach the dissolute life of the city, and he became a solitary hermit at Subiaco. His reputation spread, and some monks asked him to be their abbot, but they did not like the discipline he imposed and tried to poison him.
Benedict organised various small communities of monks and nuns in various places, including the great monastery of Monte Cassino. He drew up a set of rules to guide the communal life of monasteries, and, though not the first monastic rule ever, the Rule of St Benedict has proved so wise and balanced that it has served as the foundation of practically every attempt at communal living ever since. It recognises that people aim at perfection but often fall well short of it, and aims to be a "rule for beginners" in which even the least perfect and least able can grow in spiritual stature. To visit a Benedictine monastery of almost any kind is to find oneself spending time among a group of people who, by their strivings to live and grow together, have become more and more themselves, as God intended them, instead of being crushed into false uniformity by some idealistic and authoritarian regime.
For those of us in the world, too, the Rule of St Benedict has much to say: it drags our eyes up to the stars but keeps our feet firmly on the ground; it calls us to perfection but keeps us sane.
(http://www.universalis.com/-400/today.htm)

To become more and more ourselves, as God intended us -- this is monastic practice.

Oblivious, I pass Hsiang-chi Temple,
Walking on through mountain clouds,
An empty trail through ancient trees.
Deep in the mountains, a bell resounds.

The singing river flows among stones.
Sunlight streams though frozen pines.
In this still pool, in falling light,
Zen overcomes the serpents of delusion.
- Wang Wei (710-761)

The delusion is "false uniformity by some idealistic and authoritarian regime." So many compel so many into delusion.

When Jesus realized God's power flowed through him in the presence of faith, he became humble. He became human. He became what the Father longed for him to be. One of us.

We can no longer be afraid of those afraid of God. Their fear is that they will not have the mettle to allow God to flow through them -- and will be stuck quoting scripture and condemning people the remainder of their bitter lives.

Our body is on the cross. Benedict knew this. As God is made flesh, and dwells among us, it is the time of Christ even as there is no more time.

Richard was in rare form tonight at shop. Even with bruised ribs.

With gratitude, the monastic rule of Benedict is complete.

Speaking of her father, Mary Karr writes, "His love of language made words his sacraments, too. Poetry was the family's religion. Beauty bonded us." (From Afterword, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer," in her book of poems, Sinners Welcome, by Mary Karr, c.2006)

Mark, visiting from Ontario, was reading Karr. We were talking about poetry -- how it is for me a universal scripture for spirituality. Heather and he sat with Saskia and I over breakfast wondering whether anyone was willing to face with faith the falling through the trapdoor of certitude and belief. So assured that belief meant that you "know" -- there is a powerful reluctance to enter the darkness of faith falling through the never-ending and ungrasping love of God.

Faith is falling through the loving trust of God itself.

It's a delight to meet, set out, and together
Visit Master Dharma-Guile's Ch'an stillness
Where people never go.
At his stone hut
We find only a tiger dozing in a hammock,
Shadowy wind harboring perennial snows, and
Springwater welling up into pine cascades.
We came from lives so different, but here,
Dharma mats offer a joy we share utterly.
- Meng hao-jan (689-740 C.E.)

As chaplain in prison there is a wide circle that is walked. Men in segregation. Men in worship or study groups. Men in wary trust. Along that circle there are welcomes and there are abandonments. Both welcome and abandonment feel an uncertain footing stepping over trapdoor. What could be gallows, could also be ungrasping falling touch of God. All bets are off as foot feels creaky contour of floor.

In my terror, I said
"I am cut off from your sight";
but you heard the voice of my prayer
when I called to you.

Love the Lord, all his chosen ones.
The Lord keeps his faithful ones safe,
heaps rich revenge on the arrogant.
Be brave, let your hearts be strong,
all who trust in the Lord.
(from Psalm 31)

Certitude is a sure bet. Most money is laid on it. Knowing is short odds. A tight yield that is familiar. Faith, on the other hand, is a very long shot, with rare odds coupled with unforseeable payoff.

In this vision, faith is God looking through us as we look into the face of God invisibly positioned between gaze and mirror, self's regard and neighbor's response.

Last week Betty's daughter's boy stopped by the shop. He was reading Robert Service. Susan and Sam were there and Susan traded lines with Peter from Service's poems. Here's one they might not know:

Faith

Since all that is was ever bound to be;
Since grim, eternal laws our Being bind;
And both the riddle and the answer find,
And both the carnage and the calm decree;
Since plain within the Book of Destiny
Is written all the journey of mankind
Inexorably to the end; since blind
And mortal puppets playing parts are we:

Then let's have faith; good cometh out of ill;
The power that shaped the strife shall end the strife;
Then let's bow down before the Unknown Will;
Fight on, believing all is well with life;
Seeing within the worst of War's red rage
The gleam, the glory of the Golden Age.
("Faith" a poem by Robert William Service)

Dusk slides green down Bald Mountain.

In the night of faith, our night prayer: "You, Lord, are in our midst, and we are called by your name; therefore do not abandon us, Lord, our God." (Jeremiah 14: 9)

God's wisdom excludes nothing.

Or, if from a Buddhist perspective, Nothing includes God's wisdom.

Perhaps a middle view: Nothing God loves more that inseparate inclusion.

If you can stop your heart from its ceaseless running after whisps of the will, you will not be different from the Buddha and patriarchs. Do you want to know the Buddha? None other than the one who here and now is listening to the Dharma.
- Rinzai (d.866)

I admit befuddlement. The detritus of dualism that says, "My religion is the only truth -- all others be damned."

The mind has honed the razor sharp edge that divides one thing from itself.

There is so much suffering caused by religious intolerance.

I'd have thought Christian virtue included hospitality, engagement, forgiveness, and love. As would Muslim virtue. Buddhist virtue. Hinduism virtue. Jewish virtue. Pagan virtue. Human virtue.

Be vigorous, but do not sin:
speak in the silence of your heart,
in your bed, be at rest.
Offer righteousness as a sacrifice,
and put your trust in the Lord.
From Psalm 4)

It is a rare joy to sit with those who understand our task to be that of fostering peace and understanding -- no matter what form their prayer and worship takes.

Midnight.

Mother's birthday.

No candles these twenty five years .

It astonishes me that God longs to dwell with us.

It's also no mystery that we don't really want that shared dwelling place to come about. Why not?

For that answer we'd have to search our hearts. Something dies in us when we shut out another or others. We fail to grieve our own death. "Screw it" we say. We wander away not even realizing we've got nowhere to go.

I belong to the Christian wing of the Christian faith. We prefer hospitality, forgiveness, and acceptance. We'd rather celebrate true life than condemn someone we think ought to be punished because how they think is different than how we think.

Where respect and open invitation into dialogue comes first. Where authentic conversation between differing points of view continues and expands our compassion and charity for one another.

I am astonished that God longs to dwell with us!

A young man from Georgia who washes dishes on a cruising yacht bought a Charlie Parker set of cd's. He had a half hour. It passed. He left for launch. He thinks its time religions and races found common ground

The years of a lifetime are a flash of lightning;
Why clings to objects?
They are empty through and through.
Even if you care for the nose
Hung in front of your face,
Still be careful and value every moment
To work on enlightenment.
This is a statement for people
In meditation; what about a
Statement for the seasoned adept on the mountain?
- Dogen (1200-1253)

It is time.

Common ground is formless consciousness.

Then goes time.

Raymond's mother takes a turn for the worse. He'll visit her tomorrow. A last visit. He won't go to the funeral. He can't.

The iris pond has flowered
Before the old temple;
I sell tea this evening
By the water's edge.
It is steeped in the cups
With the moon and stars;
Drink and wake forever
From your worldly sleep.
- Baisao (1675-1763)

In final prayer at hospice memorial service I invoke "The All Holy Creating Spirit Itself."

What person, however careless, who had to address someone of importance, would not spend time in thinking how to approach him so as to please him and not be considered tedious? He would also think what he was going to ask for and what use he would make of it, especially if his petition were for some particular thing, as our good Jesus tells us our petitions must be. This point seems to me very important. Could you not, my Lord, have ended this prayer in a single sentence, by saying: "Give us, Father, whatever is good for us"? For, in addressing One Who knows everything, there would seem to be no need to say any more.
(from "The Way of Perfection" of St Teresa of Avila)

Back home Jon says it might have been a Cardinal the cat got earlier.

Grief is that way. Not one of us is separate from each one of us.

Maybe that's a place to start.

With impermanence.

Again.

It is an odd birthday celebration.

In my pot nothing but the wind's deep moan,
For company only a staff of wisteria vine;
Last night we chatted and laughed till all hours
The empty sky listened with a cold heart.
- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

We're trying to discern what independence means these days. It is a bit confusing.

No more does the Lord do anything
without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets.
The lion roars: who can help feeling afraid?
The Lord speaks: who can refuse to prophesy?
(Amos 3)

Whose lion? Which Lord? What prophecy?

On Hosmer Pond today, climbing from canoe to island, watching two loons bobbing in wind swelled waves. Suddenly, from land across pond, sound of huge tree falling and crashing. No sawing, no "timber," nothing but falling tree sound. Loons didn't even glance toward direction of the sound. Something needs reversal in this country.

According to Fujitani, reversed words are the
"spirit of things" (kotodama) hiding the presence of
Being (kami); they are "true words" (makoto, written
with the same characters as shingon) incorporating a
spiritual presence (tama). Poetic language explodes
conventional vocabularies beyond the constrictive
field of denotation, informing the word with the
formlessness of the noumenal/experiential. Kotodama
is a language without words (fugen) that only a
poet, a child, or a sage possesses. Poetry contains
the hidden voice of Being (kakurimi) whose secrecy
only the hermeneutical act can disclose.
(from p.382, JAPANESE AESTHETICS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING, By Michele Marra, Philosophy East and West, Volume 45, Number 3, July 1995, P.367-386
(C) by University of Hawaii Press)

The loons prophesy life without the question 'why?'

The hidden voice of Being is in dripping paddles, swimming dog, and splashing woman. The burden of unseen falling is shared among all those who cannot hear the sound and those that can.

I hear the sound.

Does that make the tree reverse its fall?

Happy Birthday USA!

Are we any closer to a recognizable wisdom?

No tellin' what could happen next.

Meaning to get away from intellectualization
And avoid word traps,
I sailed across the sea to search for the
Transmission beyond the teachings;
Went on pilgrimages till my sandals broke
And found water in the clear stream,
The moon in the sky.
- Kakua (1143 - ?)

No matter what you call God, or Jesus, -- or don't call anyone, other than some action they perform -- we are at odds.

Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, while you are the learned men in Christ; we have no power, but you are influential; you are celebrities, we are nobodies.
(from 1Corinthians 4)

It's nice to be nothing and no one.

Half of life is form. Half, emptiness. Both are necessary. We live in the middle tension between them.

"God, the scripture is saying, is formless consciousness and the essence of who you are." (Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth, p.219, commenting on a scripture from the Upanishads)

It gives new meaning to someone saying they do not believe in God, or, there is no God. Is there no consciousness? Is there no essence?

The white clouds
On the mountain tops
Poke halfway into this thatched hut
I had thought too cramped
Even for myself
- Koho Kennichi (1241-1316)

Formless consciousness will fit. It belongs wherever anything is what it is.

Sing praise, yes. Observe silence, yes.

Be still, yes.

And know.

Yes.

Christian Chapel Service goes into Psalm 130 (NIV):
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.

We're terrified about being forgiven, being accepted as who we are, sacrificed for, loved, and given a freedom beyond imagination and understanding. As so, we fear God. We're afraid of anyone forgiving us.

The operations of Heaven and Earth proceed with the most admirable order, yet they never speak. The four seasons observe clear laws, but they do not discuss them. All of nature is regulated by exact principles, but it never explains them. The sage penetrates the mystery of the order of Heaven and Earth and comprehends the principles of nature. Thus the perfect person does nothing, and the great sage originates nothing. That is to say, they merely contemplate the universe.
- Chuang Tzu

Contemplating the universe hardly seems like legitimate work. For cosmologists and poets, perhaps, but the rest of us have more quotidian tasks to perform -- stocking shelves, changing diapers, or ringing up sales. Contemplating God fits in this category. What to contemplate here? For that we'd have to ask: Where is God not?

Jesus Christ, although he shared God's nature, did not try to seize equality with God for himself; but emptied himself, took on the form of a slave, and became like a man -- not in appearance only, for he humbled himself by accepting death -- even death on a cross.
For this, God has raised him high, and given him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bend, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will proclaim "Jesus Christ is Lord", to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2

Emptying -- is grand work. Not try to seize equality, or extend our arm to lay hold of something, takes a rare stability.

To voluntarily empty is to accept death. Accepting death is accepting life. This acceptance is the true name of God.

With and in this name, we pray.

For all prisoners, their families, those they've harmed. For the staff and correction officers. For the society and culture that is concerned with care.

In the name of light and love.

We watch, with great interest, for the morning.

Attentive.

Crying for mercy.

The 10th anniversary of Meetingbrook Hermitage Bookshop & Bakery by the harbour.

A consecration and commitment to what is now taking place.

No one is absent and no one is ignorant.
This is a gathering of the Buddha-mind
That is given to us at birth.
When you return home,
Be mindful of all your daily matters,
Just the way you are listening to the teachings now.
Then you’ll be just living with unborn Buddha-mind.
Because of desire, we become stubborn,
Self-centered, and deluded.
This way we move away from Buddha-mind,
And become foolish.
Originally, no one is deluded.
- Bankei

10 Years
29 June 1996 – 29 June 2006

On this day, we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Meetingbrook Hermitage’s Bookshop & Bakery at Camden Harbour.
~ ~ ~
INTENT OF MEETINGBROOK: Meetingbrook is a place of collation and recollection dedicated to open conversation & hospitality. We are a place between. Meetingbrook dwells in the thin place between all points of view, where universal respect for all expressions of faith or no-faith, and authentic inquiry into interreligious, interfaith, and interdenominational thought/experience is shared in a safe, hospitable environment.

Meetingbrook is recognized: 1) By the Federal Government as a 501C3 Public Charity (since 1998) as a Schola Gratiae et Contemplationis; 2) By the State of Maine as a tax exempt Religious House of Prayer (since 2005), and; 3) By the Mid-Coast community as a place where All events are free, open, and informal.

PROMISES & VOCATION: Today also celebrates Bill & Saskia’s taking solemn promises as Monastics of No Other, (mono). These public promises, first taken in 1998 and renewed yearly, embody our vocation within Meetingbrook Hermitage. These promises are Contemplation, Conversation, & Correspondence.

COMMUNITY COMMISSION: The community at Meetingbrook gathers today to recognize, affirm, and ordain Bill and Saskia’s vocation as a new form of religious life as hermit/monastics in the open. The hermitage is a place of prayer and learning in all traditions. A particular focus is the side-by-side practice and study of Buddhist Zen Meditation, Christian Contemplative Prayer, and the Engaged Service flowing from each.

~ ~ ~
On this day the gathered community acts to ground this vocation – as it has been lived, is now lived, and openly hopes to live – in and with this practicing community.

BLESSING: By touch of hand, prayer of heart, and intention of mind, the community assembled does indeed -- recognize, affirm, and ordain -- Bill & Saskia’s willingness to faithfully carry out the mission and spirit of Meetingbrook.
~ ~ ~
GRATITUDE: With gratitude for this gift, here and now, we thank each and all for your presence and ongoing support.

~~ With love – Bill and Saskia, Meetingbrook Hermitage, 29 June 2006 ~~

Embodying the dwell-place of the Alone;
Stepping aside to make room for another,

Tomorrow, June 29, is the 10th anniversary of Meetingbrook Hermitage Bookshop & Bakery at the harbour.

Before the eaves, slender bamboos,
A thousand stalks of jade, sing when the cool
Rains fall, with a rustling sound,
Their feathery green intruding at my desk-
They know there is no purer hidden spot than this.
- Isho Tokugan (1360-1437)

We like what a Bishop said several years ago -- a new form of religious life.

We like that the community holds the authority to recognize, affirm, ordain, and bless those who serve them and God in everyday understanding.

We like that we publicly solomnize promises that hold us to simplicity, integrity, and faithful engagement.

Many are saying, Who will give us good things?
Let your face shine on us, Lord,
let the light of your face be a sign.
You have given me a greater joy
than the others receive
from abundance of wheat and of wine.
In peace shall I sleep, Lord, in peace shall I rest:
firm in the hope you have given me.
(from Psalm 4)

The light of one's face will be a sign.

We long to become a sign that is read.

And the words?

"I am."

"With you."

"All ways."

To be the way itself -- not on the way, or in the way.

People of the Way
Journey through the world
Responding to conditions,
Carefree and without restraint.
Like clouds finally raining,
Like moonlight following the current,
Like orchids growing in shade,
Like spring arising in everything,
They act without mind,
They respond with certainty.
- Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157)

On our 10 anniversary of the bookshop/bakery we will join the community in declaring we are who we are.

Because God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal.
for God created us for incorruption,
and made us in the image of his own eternity,
but through the devil's envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.
--Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24, NRSV

Death is not to be who one is -- who we are.

No masks. No facade. No illusion.

Nothing corrupt.

God creates.

Elsewhere, 12 hour vigil ends in small Lincolnville UCC church. Here, under heavy rain, sitting on porch after zazen, shiny wet green leaves tell of their morning.

Resonance wanders within of Taize service at St Thomas' Episcopal last night after practice.

This is Monday morning.

Profound quietude delivered me
To the transparent moonlight.
After enlightenment one understands
That the Six Classics
Contain not even a word.
- Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529)

No word captures one's being what one is doing.

My heart was sore, my being was troubled --
I was a fool, I knew nothing;
I was like a dumb beast before you.
But still I stay with you:
you hold my right hand.
You lead me according to your counsel,
until you raise me up in glory.

For who else is for me, in heaven?
On earth, I want nothing when I am with you.
My flesh and heart are failing,
but it is God that I love:
(from Psalm 72 (73))

At Sunday evening practice, someone said they are seldom there doing what they are doing -- rather, mind has taken them down the road or to another time. They said they do not pay attention to the 'itself' of what is taking place.

Is this connected to our difficulty with experiencing God?
Not to give attention to the reality itself, as we are engaging and performing it, cuts us off from the power of Life Itself to reveal itself and us in full measure.

What is itself there presents itself through the unveiling of each present moment, each person, and every thing.

"It is" God.

"That" I love.

"This is."

Our life.

What is the meaning of the words "Let us cross over to the other side"?

In the account in Mark's Gospel, those on the boat intuited they were "going down." In a contemplative interpretation they were dropping down to the core of their being, to core of care, the bottomless depths of what we call God.

With the coming of evening that same day, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us cross over to the other side". And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, "Master, do you not care? We are going down!" And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Quiet now! Be calm!" And the wind dropped, and all was calm again. Then he said to them, "Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?" They were filled with awe and said to one another, "Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him."
(Mark 4:35 - 41)

We can look beyond conjurer's accomplishment usually associated with the telling -- where wind and sea obey the invitation of Jesus to "Quiet now! Be calm!" -- to another way of looking, namely contemplative reflection. Contemplative looking might see the invitation referring to the journey of mind and spirit within us through worries and frets to a more profound traverse of God's loving passage through our reality -- both inner and outer.

We are often in turmoil, seldom in respite. Our mind needs rest. Our spirit, trust. Things are seldom what they seem to be. More likely, we have written a horror story that we become terrified of -- even as we continue its composition.

The raft, the other side, the shore -- these images invite us into the passage we long to make. We always begin, if we dare begin, in fear. As we continue we experience fear, not so much as a paralyzing thing, but as a companion slowly transforming into benevolent guide through the journey. It is a spiritual journey traversing one shore across ourselves to another shore beyond what we thought was ourselves. Beyond thought, beyond self -- the raft is abandoned -- we have arrived. Where? Home!

Where is home?

In 1974 Daniel Berrigan retreated to Paris in order to take time for personal healing and reflection. He had been intensely involved in resistance to the war in Vietnam, serving 18 months in prison for acts of protest. Thich Nhat Hanh was a native of Vietnam, a Buddhist monk and poet, active in the service of nonviolence. In 1974 he was living in Paris because his passage home had been denied due to his activism for peace. This book is the fruit of the encounter of these two contemplative social activists at that time and place.

[T]he core convictions of the authors continue to challenge the reader of this book to get on the raft and negotiate the current. Though the causes today seem far more ambiguous, the call to risky discipleship remains to be heeded. Still children die each day from lack of bread and basic medicine. Still women and children suffer at the hands of violent men. Nations continue to betray their sacred trust, favoring the powerful at the expense of the weak. In a globalized economy, responsibility has become so diffuse that we scarcely know where to turn. In many respects the way before us seems murkier and far less certain.

What remains impressive is to see through this book how Daniel Berrigan and Thich Nhat Hanh have stayed the course. Christian and Buddhist together, they inspire faithful and courageous activism rooted in a deep spiritual foundation. To join them on the raft means a dangerous ride.
(from Book Review, Currents in Theology and Mission, Dec, 2002 by Craig Nessan, Lutheran School of Theology and Mission. About, "The Raft Is Not the Shore: Conversations Toward A Buddhist-Christian Awareness." By Thich Nhat Hanh and Daniel Berrigan. Foreword by bell hooks. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2001.)

The risky ride begins with setting off from our seemingly safe yet insufficient shore. We're meant to undertake the passage. It is our common calling. Our true home is in the passage -- and in all the embarkings that follow this one. Some have tried to teach us that the passage is God. Those who think of these things have long suspected that God has no beginning and no end. They contend it is beyond our ability to fathom God -- so immense, so intimate, so right here and now, as well as the one which is emerging with diverse unity through what is taking place.

Green Canoe

I don't often get the chance any longer
to go out alone in the green canoe
and, lying in the bottom of the boat,
just drift where the breeze takes me,
down to the other end of the lake
or into some cove without my knowing
because I can't see anything over
the gunwales but sky as I lie there,
feeling the ribs of the boat as my own,
this floating pod with a body inside it...

also a mind, that drifts among clouds
and the sounds that carry over water --
a flutter of birdsong, a screen door
slamming shut-as well as the usual stuff
that clutters it, but slowed down, opened up,
like the fluff of milkweed tugged
from its husk and floating over the lake,
to be mistaken for mayflies at dusk
by feeding trout, or be carried away
to a place where the seeds might sprout.
(Poem: "Green Canoe" by Jeffrey Harrison from Feeding the Fire. Sarabande Books)

This morning, for me, the crossing is contemplative life. It is the sounds of nature, of mourning dove bird call, of the click click click of woman cutting vegetables, of vehicles passing along road, of mountain green stillness outside my window. The crossing is finding quiet now and stillness here in the passage through the core of the presence of God in unfolding reality.

We often say with intuited awareness -- "Who can this be?" -- when we find ourselves face to face with the mystery of God's emergence.

Where seeds might sprout.

Carrying us away.

Through God.

Is home.

Here.

We're already tied together.

Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn has its many moons.
Summer has cool winds,
Winter its snow.
If useless thoughts do not
Cloud your mind,
Each day is the best of your life.
- Wu-Men-Hui-Kai (1183--1260)

Don't let anyone tell you how to tie into their version of "the only way." It's madness to claim the wink and nod of God.

The word of the Lord was addressed to me, saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
before you came to birth I consecrated you;
I have appointed you as prophet to the nations".

I said, "Ah, Lord; look, I do not know how to speak: I am a child!"
But the Lord replied,
"Do not say, 'I am a child'.
Go now to those to whom I send you
and, say whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to protect you --
it is the Lord who speaks!"
(from Jeremiah 1:4 - 19)

John the Baptist was an odd fellow. His task was to recognize what he himself was -- only in another -- then, make himself obsolete.

Is our purpose likewise?

What possible purpose might it serve? That's what the character asked when questioned about testimony that could hang someone.

The sounds of streams are Buddha's speech.
The colored mountains are Buddha's pure body.
Night brings eighty-four thousand poems of Buddha.
Listen, and someday you may awaken.
- Su Shih (1031-1101)

Every cell of the body wants to understand what we are doing here.

Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove "that nests in a hole in the cliff", keeping watch at the entrance "like the sparrow that finds a home". There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, "draw water from the wells of your Saviour; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers", inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.
Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God's service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart. "O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal light! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time! Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows "the river which gladdens the city of God" and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that "with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light".
(from writings of St Bonaventure, "With you is the source of life") http://www.universalis.com/readings.htm

Holy hearts long to be what Sacred Heart purports to see.

The peace and reconciliation between one and all.

God's being springs from here. We are grateful for being brought here.

Without a jot of ambition left
I let my nature flow where it will.
There are ten days of rice in my bag
And, by the hearth, a bundle of firewood.
Who prattles of illusion or nirvana?
Forgetting the equal dusts of name and fortune,
Listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut,
I sit at ease, both legs stretched out.
- Ryokan (1757-1831) (http://www.dailyzen.com/)

My father came here. Today is the anniversary of his transition from here to a deeper mystery of here. I honor his coming and his going.

The Lord shall write in the book of the nations:
"Here is their birthplace".
They will sing as in joyful processions:
"All my being springs from you".
(from Psalm 87, Thursday Lauds)

New aspirations might sound like: "From your being, here!" Or: "In your being here!" And: "In gratitude for bringing me here!"

There is no place like here. To see where we are is to appreciate who we are. Such appreciation is the beginning of accepting knowledge. Accepting knowledge -- with all its majestic and terrifying implication -- is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is full appreciation of what is here.

Remembering my father, I recall e.e. cummings' poem:

my father moved through dooms of love

my father moved through dooms of love
through sames of am through haves of give,
singing each morning out of each night
my father moved through depths of height

this motionless forgetful where
turned at his glance to shining here;
(from poem, "my father moved through dooms of love," by e.e. cummings)

When we look, glancing with attentive presence, shines out "here," calling for our care.

St Thomas More (1477 - 1535)
He was born in London, the son of a judge, and himself became an eminent lawyer. He married twice, and had four children. He was a humanist and a reformer, and his book, Utopia, depicting a society regulated by the natural virtues, is still read today.
Thomas More was a close friend of King Henry VIII. As a judge, he was famous for his incorruptibility and impartiality, and he was made Lord Chancellor -- the highest legal position in England -- in 1529.
When Henry VIII demanded a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Thomas More opposed him. He resigned the chancellorship in 1532 and retired from public life; but he could not retire from his reputation, and so it was demanded that he take an oath to support the Act of Succession, which effectively repudiated papal religious authority. He refused, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After the execution of John Fisher, he was tried on the charge of high treason for denying the KingÂ?s supreme headship of the Church, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He went to his execution, on 6 July 1535, with a clear conscience and a light heart; he told the spectators that he was still "the king's good servant -- but God's first", and carefully adjusted his beard before he was beheaded.
He wrote a number of devotional works, some of the best of them while in prison awaiting trial. He fought his fight without acrimony, telling his judges that he wished that "we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation". (http://www.universalis.com/)

We are complex beings -- even if we consider God to be the simplist of Being Itself. And in this complexity we are called to serve. And serve we will -- always aware of implications and consequences, should such grace be available to us.

God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and, yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping. (Thomas More, to his daughter Margaret, in Robert Bolt's screenplay "A Man for all Seasons", 1966)

When we run away into here, we are likely -- hurting and winded -- to arrive as the place where our origin is always ground for us.

let it go-the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise-let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go-the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers-you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go-the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things-let all go
dear
so comes love
(Poem by e.e.cummings)

Here is where I long to be.

One thing is not the other. Some fear the distinctions and separations they've carefully cultivated over years will be dissolved by a vision that is not so separative nor hierarchical.

There is no other. There is only each one of us attempting to hear and respond to the call of love. Of truth. Of freedom. Of God. This is unfamiliar ground to many of us. But it is ground under our feet, in our being, and before our eyes.

The mind cannot seek the mind.
You ignore what is real and hold on to
That which is unreal, then try to find
What it is. You think you are the mind and,
Therefore, ask how it is to be controlled.

If the mind exists,
It can be controlled,
But it does not.
Understand this truth by inquiry;
Seek the real, the Self
- Ramana Maharshi

Perhaps the real cannot be experienced by the mind -- especially if as Ramana Maharshi says, the mind does not exist. Some say the experience of God is beyond mind. They call it faith, or hope, or love. What is meant by these three words is often different in the formulations of different perspectives. But there is a common thread -- namely, the presence of what some call God. Others might say -- that which is.

Happy the people that knows the cry of praise!
They will walk in the light of your presence, Lord,
and rejoice in your name all the day --
for you are the splendour of their strength,
and by your good will our standard is held high.
(from Psalm 89)

Today is Summer Solstice, first day of summer in northern hemisphere. In the north, today is longest day of the year; tonight, shortest night. We observe these realities, as we attend to the sound of birdcall, or neighbor calling cat in from field.

I learn to have compassion on those who cause and receive suffering brought about by those who think they must divide, exclude, and harm.

There is a place to go to seek, and find, our common ground.

Look up. Look down. Look around.

This is it.

We are here.

Open.

Morning dew on way to cabin. No place to step God isn't.

For twenty seven years
I've always sought the Way.
Well, this morning we passed
Like strangers on the road.
- Kokuin (10th century)

We are strangers to one another lost in thought that says, "We are strangers to one another." Every day the tension -- the instantaneous decision mind has to make -- this is not me, I am not that, I am this, that thou art.

God, when you set out in the sight of your people,
when you crossed the wilderness -- the earth shook.
The heavens sent down dew at your coming --
(from Psalm 68)

We come to have compassion for the suffering involved in separating oneself from everything and everyone in this existence, in this world. We often choose to spit out, to spew -- rather than not to split away, to feel the dew as we pilgrimage through wilderness.

We are new and ever-present wilderness.

God is passing through our midst.

Look under your feet.

The war is over. Occupation is going badly. Do not confuse fact with story.

Not to see what is right there before our face is to believe the story invented by someone else.

Don't believe the story; face what is there.

The great path is clearly before your eyes,
But the ignorant who are deluded
And confused cannot recognize it.
It is in one thought of the mind.
So why search for it elsewhere?
- Pao-chih

Of course it is impressive that one of the great deceptions of our age is continuing (as we speak) in Iraq and Washington DC. Here's how Thom Hartmann puts it:
Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "War in Iraq" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.

There is no longer a war against Iraq.

It ended in May of 2003, when George W. Bush stood below a "Mission Accomplished" sign aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and correctly declared that we had "victoriously" defeated the Iraqi army and overthrown their government.

Our military machine is tremendously good at fighting wars - blowing up infrastructure, killing opposing armies, and toppling governments. We did that successfully in Iraq, in a matter of a few weeks. We destroyed their army, wiped out their air defenses, devastated their Republican Guard, seized their capitol, arrested their leaders, and took control of their government. We won the war. It's over.

What we have now is an occupation of Iraq.

The occupation began when the war ended, and continues to this day. According to our own Pentagon estimates, at least ninety five percent of those attacking our soldiers are Iraqi civilians who view themselves as anti-occupation fighters. And last week both the Defense Minister and the Vice President of Iraq asked us for a specific date on which the occupation would end.

The distinction between "war" and "occupation" is politically critical for 2006 because wars can be won or lost, but occupations most honorably end by redeployments.
(Reclaim the Issues - "Occupation, Not War"-- by Thom Hartmann
Published on Monday, June 19, 2006 by CommonDreams.org)

Deception is the job-skill of deceivers. Calling something what it is not is not mere lie -- it is uncreating what is true. If God is what is true, the (impossible) attempt to undo what is true is the antithesis of God. It cannot be done. But -- the story can be told in such a way that God (not undone) is replaced by the story in the minds of believers who do not experience the truth of God but who glom onto the substitute story.

It is said by C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters:
Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous -- that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle on to the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it 'real life' and don't let him ask what he means by 'real'.

It is a dangerous time.

Some find it difficult to know what to think.

It's sad when we are convinced to deny truth in order to believe the story.

Can anyone make the conversion? Drop lie, find truth. End story, face God. Let dissolve ego, recognize authentic self.

No wonder conversion is so feared.

Chris today said a chaplain is like a bank -- whatever denomination is put into it, it returns equal value and worth to the transaction.

We need to argue better.

Tell truth.

Not story.

In John 18:38, Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Silence followed. Only the bare, present face of the man was seen. Pilate was given only Jesus' face, no explanation, no story.

Like Pilate, like Jesus, we must face the truth.

Peanut Butter Swirl ice cream with rhubarb comport. A fine ending to day.

Although we know that a frozen pond is entirely water,
The sun's heat is necessary to melt it.
Although we awaken to the fact
That an ordinary person is Buddha,
The power of dharma is necessary to
Make it permeate our cultivation.
When the pond has melted,
The water flows freely.
When falsity is extinguished,
The mind will be numinous and dynamic and
Then its function of penetrating brightness will manifest.
- Kuei-feng

The earth, Pannikar writes, is animal. It does not 'have' a soul -- it is animate.

He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone. (Mark 4: 34)

We tell story. We live story. But we seldom, if ever, comprehend story. The power of story is enough to accomplish much -- even the most nefarious goals -- just by sticking to your story.
What's most impressive about Mr. Rove, however, is not his ruthlessness, it's his unshakable faith in the power of a story. The story he's stuck with, Iraq, is a loser, but he knows it won't lose at the polls if there's no story to counter it. And so he tells it over and over, confident that the Democrats won't tell their own. And they don't - whether about Iraq or much else. The question for the Democrats is less whether they tilt left, right or center, than whether they can find a stirring narrative that defines their views, not just the Republicans'.
(from "Karl Rove Beats the Democrats Again," by Frank Rich. Published on Sunday, June 18, 2006 by the New York Times)

It becomes ludicrous to follow political snake's oil.

Rather, I go to brunch with my son. Before that I attend church at Chestnut Street Baptist. I got a pen and bookmark upon exiting. Context, for me, matters. Now, as chaplain, context places me where I will learn. They celebrate father's day with pastor preaching on Psalm 127.

March 8

Every so often my father comes over
for a visit he hangs his overcoat and hat
on my hat rack I brief him on recent
developments and serve us coffee
he is surprised that I like to cook
once when he made an omelette
he flipped it in the air much to my delight
and it landed on the floor yes that
was the summer of 1952, he remembered
the high breakers and how fearless
I was running into the ocean anyway
the important thing is to see you doing
so well he said and took his coat and hat
and left before I remembered he was dead
(Poem: "March 8" by David Lehman from The Evening Sun: A Journal in Poetry. c.Scribner Poetry.)

What I value in dreams is the showing up.

The visiting.

Earth alive.

Nothing is true but that which is in itself true.

We want truth, but we settle most times for our prejudices and opinions even when we suspect there's no real foundation for them. Truth waits. It knows we will come round sooner or later. Whether in life or in death. We'll see and affirm what is true. And yet, giving ourselves to what is true remains always a radical act.

There are two forms of error now prevailing among followers of Zen, laymen as well as monks. The one thinks that there are wonderful things hidden in words and phrases, and those who hold this view try to learn many words and phrases. The second goes to the other extreme, forgetting that words are the pointing finger, showing one where to locate the moon. Only when these two erroneous views are done away with is there a chance for real advancement in the mastery of Zen.
- D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966)

We ask: "Where is Christ? Who is Jesus? What is the correct way to behave in the face of the mystery of God's presence in this world of matter, creation, and human thought?

We get no answer. We look around. We wonder -- Is today a good day to die? It either is, yes. Or it isn't, no.

Jesus said, "Again, you have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not break your oath, but must fulfil your oaths to the Lord. But I say this to you: do not swear at all, either by heaven, since that is God's throne; or by the earth, since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great king. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or black. All you need say is "Yes" if you mean yes, "No" if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one."
(Matthew 5:33 - 37)

A woman asked at the shop why I would want to be chaplain at the prison. I tell her it's the same as asking whether today is the day to commit suicide. She was confused by this. I told her Camus was right about suicide being the only serious philosophical problem. Every statement about preference, affirmation, or negation is a meditation about suicide. Will I live? Should I? How? And why?

"The absurd man will not commit suicide; he wants to live, without relinquishing any of his certainty, without a future, without hope, without illusions, and without resignation either. He stares at death with passionate attention and this fascination liberates him. He experiences the "divine irresponsibility" of the condemned man." (from Sartre analysis of Mersault, in Literary and Philosophical Essays, 1943)

I choose to live until I die. When my death occurs, it will be time. Until my life is taken from me I will have to consider -- (from time to time, even without stress or duress) -- that my life is in my hands. Until then, I pray with ambiguity the words, "Take my life!"

Please.

Do with it that which is in itself true.

All this will soon be over. Thought-forms will dissolve as ego dissolves. What you are will be what you present.

Rujing said: "Studying Zen is dropping off body and mind. Without depending on the burning of incense, bowing, chanting Buddha's names, repentance, or sutra reading, devote yourself to just sitting."
Dogen: "What is dropping off body and mind?"
Rujing said: "Dropping of body and mind is zazen. When you just sit, you are free from the five sense desires and the five hindrances."
- Dogen (1200-1253)

Shahab said it at conversation. He said: "Time right now is slowing us down because we're hurting each other."

At the speed of light is light itself.

The ropes of death were around me,
the agonies of the underworld were upon me.
I came upon trouble and anguish,
and I called on the name of the Lord:
"Lord, free my soul".
(Psalm 114 (116A)Universalis.com)

We must stop hurting each other.

Not only is nothing as it seems, everything is as it is.

Wise listeners, the wisdom of enlightenment
Is inherent in each of us.
We fail to recognize it because
Of delusion of mind;
To know the essence of Mind
Seek the teachings of the enlightened.
- Hui-neng (638-713)

Jesus told the truth about life. He said "I am it." This was not a triumphal statement. Saying "I am it" is a statement of profound humility spoken by Jesus so that each of us might repeat it.

Practice now: "I...am...it."

This is not a self-referential statement. This is an utterance pointing out the way to recognize and realize what is in and of itself true.

Nothing is as it seems.

Everything is as it is.

God is "I am."

We are "it."

Ready?

Speak now!

I...
am...
it!

No more than knowing the unknowable. That's what Paul said at conversation tonight. Also, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Look. There was one who was enlightened with the sound of a bamboo being struck and another who clarified his mind upon seeing peach blossoms. Is the bamboo bright or dull, deluded or enlightened? Are peach blossoms shallow or deep, wise or foolish? Although flowers blossom year after year, not everyone who sees them is enlightened. When a bamboo cracks, not everyone who hears it realizes the way.

Enlightenment and clarity of the mind occur only in response to the sustained effort of study and practice. Endeavoring in the way ripens the conditions of your practice. It is not that the sound of the bamboo is sharp or the color of the blossoms is vivid. Although the sound of the bamboo is wondrous, it is heard at the moment when itÃ?’s hit by a pebble. Although the color of the blossoms is beautiful, they do not open by themselves but unfold in the light of springtime. Studying the way is like this. You attain the way when conditions come together. Although you have your own capacity, you practice the way with the combined strength of the community. So you should practice and search with one mind with others.
- Dogen (1200-1253)

The effort of study and practice is likely to place us at the origin of unknowing. Any effort to understand why things are so, or why someone made the decision they made will lead us to a silent stillness filled with significant emptiness.

In that emptiness we come to glimpse our true nature.

What we see is the way we are.

We practice the way.

One mind with others.

St Anthony of Padua is patron saint of lost and found.

Give up all questions except one: "Who am I?" After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The "I am" is certain. The "I am this" is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

We have lost our way.

Find us out.

The fellow asked what denomination. I said "non de nom" (of no name). The God of Judeo Christian heritage was a no-name God. That's my tradition.

Sages are benevolent without trying,
Trusted without speaking.
They gain without seeking,
Succeed without striving.
They take naturalness to heart,
Preserve ultimate reality,
Embrace the Way,
And promote sincerity,
So the whole world follows them as echoes
Respond to sounds;
As shadows imitate forms.
What they work on is the root.
- Wen-tzu

The root in soil of soul is nameless.

See the face.

Hear no name.

Try Neti Neti.

A new understanding of Trinity?

In Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya is questioned by his students to describe God. He states "The Divine is not this and it is not that" (neti, neti). (Neti neti, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

At Quaker Meeting in Children's Chapel the rain stopped. Wind swung to the southeast. I attended, finally, to breath. Inbreath, originator. Thin place between inhalation and exhalation, embodier. Outbreath, transformer.

We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit.
(from A letter by St Athanasius)

Above, through, and in. Not just above. Not merely through. Not only in. This is the practice of neti neti -- not this not that -- but above, through, and in all of it.

In Guantanamo, the American base in Cuba, three men commit suicide this week.
[S]aid Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based advocacy group that oversees lawyers representing many of the detainees[:] "This is an act of desperation because they have no way to prove their innocence. A system without justice is a system without hope."

The detainees had apparently used their clothing and sheets to fashion makeshift nooses in what military officials believe was a coordinated suicide pact. All left suicide notes written in Arabic, the officers said.

"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," said Rear Adm. Harry Harris Jr., the commander at Guantanamo. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
("3 terror suspects found hanged, Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay", by James Risen and Tim Golden, New York Times, Sunday, June 11, 2006)

The Rear Admiral tries to identify suicide -- taking one's life without taking another's -- as something waged against the United States. It is a convenient analysis, proving again that the US is victim of this new asymmetrical treachery. Nothing is said about the three men who died. They never existed. They were "enemy." "Other." Of no value but to kill themselves. The admiral would probably feel that Jesus was this type -- an annoying gap embodying empty wholeness in middle of Holy Trinity, a nano-second of clarity between what comes in and what goes out.

We can never truly define God in words. All we can do is say, it isn't this, but also, it isn't that either". In the end, the student must transcend words to understand the nature of the Divine. (Wikipedia)

I pray for rest for these men. I pray for their families. I pray for all of us who try to explain away the mysteries of human life and death, warfare and greed, sanctity and hope.

Try neti neti.

Become the trinity of breath.

Do not explain away life.