Stephen's Day. The motif of a father's grief for his son. Contemplation takes in both sorrow and joy. At times they are indistinguishable.

Once, in Vienna Austria, inside the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, a late afternoon light through stained glass fell to floor. That was 17 years ago.

Stephen wrote the Admonitiones (Admonitions) in Latin for his beloved and talented Christian son Imre. This writing was the most noteworthy piece of literature in Hungary at that time. After his power was consolidated, Stephen planned to abdicate in the favor of Imre and dedicate the rest of his life to God. The Illustrated Chronicle reports about this in chapter 69:

"After God's glory and mercy was made manifest in King Saint Stephen, by driving off kings before him and subduing the principalities and powers of the neighboring nations, King Saint Stephen decided and was determined to leave all the pomp of this world, to lay down the crown of the fleeting earthly kingship and to dedicate himself to God only. He planned to cast off worldly problems, to spend his life in quiet peacefulness and contemplation, and to give the crown to his son, Prince Imre, who was blessed and full of holy virtues and was raised this way."

But Imre died unexpectedly in 1031: "By God's secret decision, he died, so that wickedness would not change his soul and false imaginations would not deceive his mind - as the Book of Wisdom teaches about early death." (Chapter 63) Mourning took its toll on Stephen and he became very ill:

"The great and bitter anguish made King Saint Stephen very sick; after many days his health recovered somewhat, but his old health never returned. He suffered from pains in the foot and was tormented by sadness, mainly because he couldn't find anyone among his brethren who would keep the Hungarians in their Christian faith after his death. For Hungarians were attracted more to pagan rituals than to the faith in Christ. (Chapter 69)"

King Stephen died on August 15, 1038 at Szekesfehervar (a city in central Hungary) and he was buried there. His people mourned for three years:
(from "Stephen I, the First Christian Hungarian King, Reigned 997-1038" http://www.cryingvoice.com/Christianity/HunIstvan.html)

We worry and pray that our Father will not grow sick at our plight. There is so much to despair, sorrow, and lament. Is there light for joy?

Joy is prayer- Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
Mother Teresa 1910-1997

Today, faith in Christ is grounded trust there is no place foreign to redeeming presence.

There are times I cannot see. I cannot see anything but the suffering of human minds being played out in the drama of take and hurt. At other times I cannot see anything but the light of Christ shining through every crack in the masking protection we wear in the cultures of this existence that demand protective masking and hard faces.

I prefer the light. I often do not know what is meant when people say, "We are a Christian nation." In my view, to be Christian is to allow the light of God be seen through. This "seeing through" is the view of Christ.

At times I wonder what I am -- who I am.

A man who is a former chaplain once said, "I always saw you as a Zen Catholic Hybrid." (I think his caps are overstated.) I'd write it, "zen catholic hybrid."

American Heritage Dictionary has "zen" as
[Japanese zen, from Chinese (Mandarin) chan, meditation, from Pali jhanam, from Sanskrit dhyanam, from dhyati, he meditates.]

That fits.

American Heritage Dictionary has "catholic" (with a small 'c') as:
cath'·o·lic (kath'-lik, kath'lik) pronunciation
adj.
1. Of broad or liberal scope; comprehensive: "The 100-odd pages of formulas and constants are surely the most catholic to be found" (Scientific American).
2. Including or concerning all humankind; universal: "what was of catholic rather than national interest" (J.A. Froude).

That fits.

American Heritage Dictionary has "hybrid" as:
hi'-brid pronunciation, n.
1. Genetics. The offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock, especially the offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties, species, or races.
2.
a) Something of mixed origin or composition.
b) Something, such as a computer or power plant, having two kinds of components that produce the same or similar results.
3. A word whose elements are derived from different languages.

That, too, fits.

As a "zen catholic hybrid," then, I seem to have something to do, as well as something to be.
-- One who meditates
-- Broad or liberal scope; comprehensive.
-- Including or concerning all humankind; universal.
-- Looking at words whose elements are derived from different languages.

Thomas Merton said we need a new language of prayer. I think we need a new mind to look at everything as a whole.

Stephen's son Imre died, the narrative tells us, "By God's secret decision, he died, so that wickedness would not change his soul and false imaginations would not deceive his mind - as the Book of Wisdom teaches about early death." (Chapter 63)

The son of the Creator Itself also died early -- perhaps, as the teaching of his followers goes, "By God's secret decision, he died, so that wickedness would not change his soul and false imaginations would not deceive his mind - as the Book of Wisdom teaches about early death."

And us? Are we ready for such a death? Maybe not the stop-breathing death, but the non-change, non-deceive kind of death?

This keeps-breathing death says we will not be changed by wickedness and falsity. The wicked and the false will not withstand light. They will have to stand upright in the light.

Christ is the transparent emerging light that shines though everything as it is.

Our task is to let fall all that blocks that light.

(Buddhists call this Buddha-nature: awake and aware. Can we learn to see and speak all and everything through many ways of expression?)

This Christ-light and Buddha-nature encourages us.

To become transparent.

To be seen through.

To see through.

With this light.

Our true nature.

As our life.

Old woman closes her eyes.

Sitting meditation is a method of great liberation;
all teachings flow forth from this,
myriad practices are mastered this way.
- Daikaku (1213-1279)

Goes to place we cannot follow.

Yes, I'm truly a dunce
Living among trees and plants.
Please don't question me about illusion and enlightenment --
This old fellow just likes to smile to himself.
I wade across streams with bony legs,
And carry a bag about in fine spring weather.
That's my life,
And the world owes me nothing.
--Ryokan

Walking from cabin after dark, stopping to look up to stars, the thought: who are we?

Goodbye Charlotte.

Bell rings.

Pizza.

Mother is strong medicine. Biological mother. Mother earth. Mother of God. All understanding of mother derives from direct, intuitive, experiential connection to source of being.

When suddenly mind and environment are both forgotten there is the ability to penetrate freely earth, mountains and rivers. The whole substance of the real body of the king of Dharma is manifest --
People these days face it without knowing it.
- Daio (1235-1309)

Not knowing our mothers is odd gift. We are all orphans and parents of orphans. Mother/Father disappears. We remain alone. Only one another to be, as community, mother/father to one another.

The Feast of the Dormition or Falling Asleep of the Theotokos commemorates the death, resurrection, and glorification of Christ's mother. To help us in our preparation of the feast, it is preceded by a two week fast. As with the Nativity of the Virgin (September 8/21) and the feast of her Entrance to the Temple (November 21/December 4), the Feast of the Dormition also comes from the Tradition of the Church.

There we learn that Mary died as all people die because she had a mortal human nature affected by the corruption of this world. The Church proclaims that Mary needed to be saved by Christ just as all of us are saved from trials, sufferings, and death of this world. Having truly died, she was raised by her Son as the "Mother of Life" and already participates in the eternal life of paradise which is prepared and promised to all who "hear the word of God and keep it." (Luke 11:27-28) Finally, we celebrate the fact that what happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience and love.

It is important to remember that there are no relics of the Theotokos. Their existence has never been mentioned throughout history. At one time in Constantinople there was a center of pilgrimage where the belt and veil of the Virgin were venerated.
(Adapted from The Orthodox Church, Volume II: Worship, by Fr. Thomas Hopko. http://www.theologic.com/oflweb/feasts/08-15.htm)

God-Bearer, she and we, must be.

The definition of the Council of Chalcedon states:

Following the holy Fathers we teach with one voice that the Son [of God] and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be confessed as one and the same [Person], that he is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, very God and very man, of a reasonable soul and [human] body consisting, consubstantial with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching his manhood; made in all things like unto us, sin only excepted; begotten of his Father before the worlds according to his Godhead; but in these last days for us men and for our salvation born [into the world] of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God according to his manhood. This one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son [of God] must be confessed to be in two natures, unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably [united], and that without the distinction of natures being taken away by such union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved and being united in one Person and subsistence, not separated or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son and only-begotten, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Prophets of old time have spoken concerning him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ hath taught us, and as the Creed of the Fathers hath delivered to us.
Source: http://www.monachos.net/patristics/christology/chalcedon_definition.shtml

The word Theotokos comes from the Greek Theos = God, and tiktein = to be the mother of a child, or to bear. Therefore the word is translated as "God-bearer" - or more eloquently, "she who bore God in her womb" or "she who birthed God into the world." This makes the real meaning behind the name "Mother of God" a lot less confusing and controversial.

We are theotokoi

In a non-biological sense, every Christian is also a theotokos, a God-bearer. All Marian titles teach us something about Christ, because Mary points us to Christ ("His mother saith unto the servants, 'Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.'" John 2:5, KJV) and Jesus Christ is the focus of our faith.

But it also teaches us about ourselves - Catholics regard Mary as the prototype follower of Christ. Her virginity represents the purity the Bible tells us to live up to. Her immaculate conception shows us our final state when our fallen nature is perfected by Christ. Her assumption into heaven depicts our future glory when our bodies and souls are united in heaven and spent eternity with God. And her role as God-bearer shows us in an intimate way how we are to personally bring Christ into the world for others. Jesus is the light of the world, and we are the bearers of that light, and he tells us not to hide that light (Matt 5:15.) We are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20.)

We are truly theotokoi because we bring Christ into the world to be experienced by others!
http://www.theotokos.co.za/theotokos.html

Charlotte R. died yesterday. I bow to Sando's grave in honor of that good dog's good friend Charlotte. They walked home often together.

This is how we mother each other.

Walking one another home.

May we safely arrive.

Right where we are.

Asleep or awake.

In the Tibetan folktale a bear squeezes the life out of someone who listened to the animals' conversations for his own personal gain and greed. The other man, the one who had a generous heart, who'd heard their wisdom and freely helped heal those who suffered -- he lived on as a humble and happy man.

Humility brings us to earth. Greed opens the door to hell.

Heaven is the realization of service. This service sees and engages everyone and everything as oneself. Put another way -- one's self is all around us -- no separation or exclusion or selfish fog of illusion is known in heaven.

What is really clear in heaven is really clear on earth. This is why loving service is an open doorway through which heaven is revealed.

It is most urgent that you seek real, true perception,
So you can be free in the world
And not confused by ordinary teachers.
It is best to have no obsessions.
Just don't be contrived.
Simply be normal.
You impulsively seek elsewhere,
Looking to others for your own hands and feet.
This is already mistaken.
- Linji (d. 867)

Some loving men from Kairos came into prison yesterday morning to meet with other men (some who are loving and know it, some who are loving and do not know it yet) who live there.

We step by step attempt to see what is love and what is our humility in the face of love. Nothing special.

Here is what is nothing special -- Presence without preference without prejudice.

Jesus said in reply, "Stop complaining to each other.
No one can come to me
unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me,
and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They will all be taught by God,
and to hear the teaching of the Father,
and learn from it,
is to come to me.
Not that anybody has seen the Father,
except the one who comes from God:
he has seen the Father.
I tell you most solemnly,
everybody who believes has eternal life."

Believe in Presence.

Hear it. Learn by it.

Come to see...

To be...

It.

Sing a new song to the Lord all the earth.

Everywhere turn around freely,
Not following conditions,
Not falling into classification.
Facing everything, let go and
Attain stability.
So it is said that the earth lifts
Up the mountain without
Knowing the mountainÂ?s
Stark steepness.
A rock contains jade without
Knowing the jade's flawlessness.
This is how truly to leave home.
- Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157)

The song's name is "All the Earth"

Be that new song.

Speak well of God.
Speak well of one another
Speak well of yourself.

This song of life.

Love itself.

Gossip is toxic. Gossip is toxic because it tricks us into believing we are talking about someone else -- and not ourselves.

God's life flows within and through every one of us, everyone. Call it Christ life. Call it the life of the Holy Spirit. It fills and empties every one of us. Now. And always.

When we gossip we are intending (whether we are aware of it or unaware of it) to decide for God where God is. They say the sin against the Holy Spirit is saying and believing that the Holy Spirit is not where the Holy Spirit is.

I explain to you matters
Pertaining to enlightenment,
But don't try to keep your mind on them.
Just turn to the ocean of your own essence
And develop practical accord with its nature.
- Yangshan

Billy Graham winds up centrist at 87. Far to the right of him, hard core fundamentalists denounce him for allowing God the room to be God. A Vietnam vet said tonight he was scared of fundamentalists because they remind him of the fundamentalism and fear to open up that resides in himself.

For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?
(from Matthew 16:24 - 28)

The world isn't worth one life. And yet One Life is in and beyond the world. Now the world is worth it.

Seven Tips for Giving Up Gossip

1. Recognize that gossip doesn't undo the situation you're talking about. It only puts in motion another situation based on negative feelings.

2. Know that comparing yourself to others is useless. Everyone has his or her own talents. In this way, give up jealousy and the wish to put others down.

3. Be aware of and transform your own thoughts, words, and deeds rather than commenting on those of others.

4. Train your mind to see others' positive qualities and discuss them. This will make you much happier than gossiping ever could.

5. Forgive, knowing that people do harmful things because they are unhappy. If you don't make someone into an enemy, you won't want to gossip about him.

6. Have a sense of humor about what you think, say, and do, and be able to laugh at all of the silly things we sentient beings carry out in our attempt to be happy. If you see the humor in our human predicament, you'll be more patient.

7. Practice saying something kind to someone every day. Do this especially with people you don't like. It gets easier with practice and bears surprisingly good results.

(Seven Tips for Giving Up Gossip, in article "the truth about gossip -- if you don't have anything nice to say..." by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, published in Tricycle, Summer 2006)

These are words that are useful. I listen to them.

I have to forgive myself for trying to limit God.

No gossip. Nothing to hide. There is no other.

Open view.

Before I wake up, tell me one thing -- what is life awake like? Would I be alone?

The teaching of the mind ground
is the basis of Zen study.
The mind ground is the
great awareness of
being as is.
- Fayan (885-958)

A retired minister in the Methodist tradition wandered into the shop during conversation tonight. He stood by the bakery case and joined in the circle. Tom and Maria were up. Jayen and Saskia were on the other bench.

God is ground. Jesus understood this. Don, the visitor heard Tom say that "revitalization" was his understanding of "born again." Maria said it was "turning point" for her. And for me? I like not knowing the unknowable.

God's ways are not our ways.

From an Orthodox website:
"Wake Up O Sleepers" to Newness In Christ!

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP! St. Paul tells us all "... It is high time to awake out of sleep ... the night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:11-12).

Or in short: Wake Up O Sleeper!
St. Paul is urging us to wake up to the spiritual realities which direct our destinies. It is very true that we can -- and often do -- sleep through some very important and vital aspects of our Christian lives.

Therefore, it is very important to ask, " ARE WE AWAKE ENOUGH TO BEGIN ?"
TO BEGIN WHAT?
There is another message which goes with this call to sobriety -- this call to be awakened to the spiritual realities of life. It is a message which comes from beyond space and time; across the past, through the future, and into the present moment of eternity. Indeed, it is a message meant to secure our living in the Eternal Now! The message is from God Himself, and its significance is so great, but at the same time, it is so very subtle, that we can easily miss it. You have heard it many times already.

Jesus Christ, the God-man, says to us: " Behold, I make all things new ." Let me repeat that: " Behold, I [Jesus the Son of God] make all things new ." Do you hear that?
God does not say, " I am going to make all things new tomorrow." Nor does He limit its application by saying, " Behold, I made all things new at one point and then stopped ." The sense of God's message to us is this:

Behold --Listen up, this is very important -- I have, and will continue to make all things new in your life. It is a process which I have begun for you, and will continue to do with you -- if you live the Christian life of faith and action -- and this newness will be an ongoing process of life springing up in you for all eternity!"
(From website, a piece adapted from a Homily By +Fr. Isaac Henke, http://www.antiochian.org/wake-up-o-sleepers)

Karl Rahner talked about anonymous Christians.

Unknown authorship.

No-name God.

Who are you?

And are you alone?

Reality is the answer.

"It doesn't matter what you say in answer," said the monk's father, "it's what the reality is."

Our words only try to point to the reality. They cannot contain it, nor can they substitute for reality.

As an old friar once said of God -- "God is God!" So too with reality -- Reality is Reality!"

The World Dharma is the same as the Buddha Dharma. If you do not have faith that you can attain enlightenment through the World Dharma, you know nothing of the true essence of Buddhism.
- Shosan

Reality is not what we think it is. God is not what we think God is.

Perhaps for Christians "being saved" means being saved from exclusionary thinking about Christ by embodying what the reality of Christ is.

But at once Jesus called out to them, saying, "Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid."
Matthew 14:22 - 36

Maybe saying 'reality is the answer' falls short. Maybe reality is the whole circle outside of which there is no outside.

I look on Christ -- not as the one punished by the Father for our sins -- but as the very wholeness of reality come to our particular existence to invite us into the wholeness of Christ life as way to the wholeness of God Itself.

The blood, gore, formulas, and punishment motif is far down the line of explanation.

'God is movement, not explanation,' wrote the novelist Elie Wiesel.

Let's move through reality with grace and wholeness. We are not separate from wholeness.

We are saved from separateness by wholeness itself.

The Hawaiian uses two phrases: "I'm sorry"; and, "I love you." That's what the note said. Along with the suggestion that he healed by working on himself. Clearing and cleansing that in him which kept another the way they were.

He has practiced "Ho'oponopono" with the late Morrnah Nalamaku.

The road runs into pine sighs;
From far off, it's even stranger.
Mountain light and colors in the water,
Tufted, raggedy.
On a crag in the middle,
In zazen, all alone,
One monk,
Sits facing the cassia bough:
Already old, long ago.
- Chiao Jan (730-799)

Old and long ago -- who? The monk? Or the bough?

Or the fact that once we knew how to heal, but choose not to practice, not to remember.

Morrnah Simeona...is a native Hawaiian Kahuna Lapa'au. Kahuna means "keeper of the secret" and Lapa'au means "a specialist in healing."

She continues, "The main purpose of this process is to discover the Divinity within oneself. The Ho'oponopono is a profound gift which allows one to develop a working relationship with the Divinity within and learn to ask that in each moment, our errors in thought, word, deed or action be cleansed. The process is essentially about freedom, complete freedom from the past."

Every memory of every experience, since the first moment of our creation, eons ago, is recorded as a thought form which is stored in the etheric realm. This incredible recorder/computer is also known as the subconscious, unihipili or child aspect within us. The inner child is very real and comprises one part of the Self. The other aspects are the mother, also known as the uhane or rational mind and the father, the superconscious or Spiritual aspect. The three comprise the inner family, which, in partnership with The Divine Creator, makes up one's Self I-Dentity. Every human being in creation, every plant, atom and molecule has these three selves and yet each blueprint is completely different.

The most important task for people is to find his or her true identity and place in the Universe. This process allows that understanding to become available.

The purpose of Ho'oponopono is to: 1) Connect with the Divinity within on a moment-to-moment basis; 2) To ask that movement and all it contains, be cleansed. Only the Divinity can do that. Only the Divinity can erase or correct memories and thought forms. Since the Divinity created us, only the Divinity knows what is going on with a person.

In this system, there is no need to analyze, solve, manage or cope with problems. Since the Divinity created everything, you can just go directly to Him and ask that it be corrected and cleansed.
(from "100% Responsibility and the Possibility of a Hot Fudge Sundae: Cat Saunders gets the scoop on Haleakala Hew Len", http://hooponopono.org/Articles/100_percent_responsible.html

Sorrow is acknowledgement of some pain and harm. Love is affirmation and acceptance of what is, or who is, there in our presence.

Sorrow invites forgiveness. Love invites wholeness and interconnection.

There is so much we do not understand.

Our interconnection. Our interdependence. Our profound need to be a place of healing and unity. Our longing to be beings sharing light and peace with one another without exception.

In zazen.

We practice.

All.

Alone.

Right now, in eternity, the dead from Hiroshima make their way through the veil.

Clear dawn enters the ancient temple.
First sun brightens the lofty grove.
Winding paths lead off to secret places.
ChÂ?an chamber: flowers deep among trees.
In mountain light, singing joy is bird-nature.
Pool shadows: empty, the hearts of men.
All sounds here fall to silence.
All that remains: the bell-stone's tone.
- Ch'ang Chien (708-765)

Within me, I drop bomb with my ignorance. Many, bewildered, scream.

Within 1.2 km. (.74 mi.) of the hypocentre there was probably a 50% death rate of the 350,000 people estimated to have been in Hiroshima at the time. Hiroshima City Survey Section estimated a figure of 118,661 civilian deaths up to 10 August 1946. Add to this a probable figure of 20,000 deaths of military personnel and the current figure -- for people are still dying as a result of the radiation received -- is in the region of 140,000. Among those who survived, the long-term effects of radiation sickness, genetic and chromosome injury, and mental trauma have been catastrophic, even unborn children having been stunted in growth and sometimes mentally retarded.
(Committee on Damage by Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social Effects of the Atomic Bombings; London, 1981). http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/bombing.htm

No one is better having exploded the bomb.

Right now, in time, I stop the bombing.

One down for peace.

Seeing the kingdom is an inside looking through the outside into the Inner Itself.

Ask Peter, James, and John. They saw the kingdom while still in the breath. (So many are willing to bide time and wait to be out of breath to see the glorious reality of the kingdom.) It is right here. Right now. No waiting.

See?

1 He also said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power." (Mark 9:1)

What does it take to see what is here and now?

You want to be a mountain-dweller,
No need to trek to India to find one.
I've a thousand peaks
To pick from right here on the lake.
Fragrant grasses and white clouds
Hold me here.
What holds you there,
World-dweller?
-- Chiao Jan (730-799)

Elie Wiesel said, "God means movement, not explanation." (In Legends of Our Time, c.1968). We need to move with the Holy Spirit through what disturbs us to the place we are no other -- where Reality of God speaks truth with love -- a Christing Expression shown transparently in our transforming surrender to being-peace.

And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, "This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him." (from Mark 9: 2-10)

Voice from cloud -- origin ever-present -- word from silence.

We must listen to one another.

There are only two options: welcome God in one another; or, welcome one another in God. Many think there is a third option: not welcoming. That, I've come to see, is not an option.

It's welcome all the way down and up, inside and outside, like or dislike, oranges or silly putty.

The greatest welcome is kindness.

Be kind to yourself.

And, thus, to everyone.

Becoming Beloved.

Nothing to gain. Nothing to lose.

What is going on between us?

Yes.

The true follower of Tao does not grasp at the Buddha, nor at bodhisattvas, nor at arhats, nor at the exceeding glories in the three realms. Attaining transcendental independence and untrammeled freedom, the true follower adheres to nothing. Even if the universe should collapse, their faith would not falter. Should all the Buddhas from the ten heavens appear before them, there would not be the slightest elation. Nor would they experience the slightest fear, should all the demons come out. How can one be this calm?
- Lin chi

No ego means it doesn't start, nor finish with you, with me. Transparent self means awareness of what is passing between us.

The Lyric

Suffering
lament, sorrow and wild
joy commingle in

the lyric -- a collective
sigh of relief comes cascading
out of the blue --

a yearning to submerge
in life like the swimmer
in the pool forgetful

immersed and quenched --
water trailing scattered
diamonds in a rustling

voice of resigned subsidence
as though in the same stroke
everyone alive were speaking through you --
(Poem: "The Lyric" by Tom Clark from Light & Shade: New and Selected Poems. Coffee House Press.)

Through you. Through me.

What is taking place is what is going on between us.

Let it go.

When the bomb fell on Hiroshima many thought, "Oh, It is the Christian face of Jesus come visit. It is the Transfiguration." The religious mind called the test "Trinity" and the bomb "Big Boy." The mind that wants to build tents when the sacred is seen also wants to destroy houses and human life when its interests are in question.

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)

If form is emptiness (as Buddhists hold), then metamorphosis (a transformation; a marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function) is the shining of our deeper intuition and insight through who we thought we were into the vital appearance of now merely who we really are.

"WE WAITED UNTIL the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was extremely solemn. We knew the world would not be the same," recalled J. Robert Oppenheimer, first director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, moments after the first nuclear weapon test explosion, code-named Trinity, on July 16, 1945. Twenty-one days later, at 2:45am on Sunday, August 6, the Enola Gay lifted off with its single-bomb payload from Tinian Island and headed for its target. At 8:15am, the Air Force B-29 dropped the bomb, "Little Boy," from an altitude of 31,000 feet. Forty-three seconds later, the bomb detonated 1,800 feet above Hiroshima. Aboard the Enola Gay from a distance of 11 miles from ground zero, tailgunner George Caron described the scene as a "peep into hell." Of Hiroshima's population of 340,000 people, 130,000 were dead by November 1945 and by 1950 an additional 70,000 had perished, mainly from radiation-related illnesses. On August 9, another nuclear bomb fell on Nagasaki.
(Nuclear Testing Index: 54 Years After Trinity, Hiroshima, It Is Time to Cage the Nuclear Genie I S S U E B R I E F, VOL. 3, NO. 8, August 6, 1999, at http://www.clw.org/archive/coalition/briefv3n8.htm)

Pause here to stop the mind that attempts to justify such killing. Rest a while in the absence of compassion as (then and now) military powers force their will and wares on bodies of humans, suffering.

Once I was secure. I said, "I will never be shaken."
Lord, by your favour you had given me strength, set me high;
but then you turned your face from me and I was shaken.
I cried to you, Lord, and prayed to my God.

"What use is my life, when I sink into decay?
Will dust proclaim you, or make known your faithfulness?"

The Lord heard and took pity on me. The Lord became my helper.
You have turned my weeping into dancing, torn off my sackcloth and clothed me in joy,
It is my glory to sing to you and never cease: Lord, my God, I will proclaim your goodness for ever.
(from Psalm 30)

God will not be consoled. Not 61 years ago. Not today.

God says, "They have been Christed, yet they do not see. They have been Spirited, still they don't hear."

Off to the side there is weeping.

Don't ask whose.

Face it.

Changing form.

The world? Moonlit
Drops shaken
From the crane's bill.
--Dogen

Changing emptiness.

Transfiguration

On Beech Hill at dusk view of Ragged, lake, bay, and fields in haze. Car lights up from route 17 curl west. Everything is as it is.

If you create the idea of a Pure Land and your aim is to be saved by the vow of Amida, a demon will attach himself to you through that aim. Because doubt, like the great sky, has no subjective body, the demon has nothing to hold on to.
- Shosan

Doubt and certainty meet on double rutted road. Certainty says, "Out of my way!" Doubt asks, "What way?"

Counting the Mad

This one was put in a jacket,
This one was sent home,
This one was given bread and meat
But would eat none,
And this one cried No No No No
All day long.

This one looked at the window
As though it were a wall,
This one saw things that were not there,
This one things that were,
And this one cried No No No No
All day long

This one thought himself a bird,
This one a dog,
And this one thought himself a man,
An ordinary man,
And cried and cried No No No No
All day long.
(Poem: "Counting the Mad" by Donald Justice from Selected Poems. Atheneum.)

The insane live among us with no one allowed on their way, or good enough for it.

The ordinary man lives with others secure in the knowledge there is no way out alone.

I ask you -- tell me about the way you see yourself?

We have time to talk. It's really all we do have.

Nobody's gone anywhere. We're all still here. Living and dead -- all still here. Only, some of us move around more visibly. Think more loudly. Carry on more quickly. That's ok. It's all ok.

Of late, I love but quietness:
Things of this world are no more my concern.
Looking back, I've known no better plan
Than this: returning to the grove.

Pine breezes loosen my robe.
Mountain moonbeams play my lute.
What, you ask, is Final Truth?
The fisherman's song strikes deep into the bank.
- Wang Wei (710-761)

Someone wrote somewhere about Final Judgment something that made me think: That's when God says "Shut Up!" to someone making one more judgment on someone else. That's the final judgment -- after which "No More Judging!"

I think, this feast of Ignatius, about a Jesuit I've long respected. Dan Berrigan once reminded himself: "Color it not kind with skies of love and amber. Make it plain with death and bitter as remember."

Transfiguration
(For Philip)

Don't mourn for what was;
there's languishing, recoil
in dire recalling.

Seek an austere rejoicing
in ghostly angelic absence -

a purified presence, a whisper
of that lion hearted voice
urging heartfelt action and
biblical fluency:
"I believe,
therefore I tame the world's
clamor, chaos, inanity."

Then behold -
transfigured by ordeal,
a different, difficult friend.
(Poem by Dan Berrigan SJ)

A taming faith. It's a belief I can get behind. It stands aside as the masses of professing believers chant mantra-like the name of Jesus as their own personal possession. Then, when the noise has passed, steps out Christ from the shadows and ministers to those who've been left blunted by the exultant crowd, those forgotten in the ecstasy of others' remembrance of how special they are, those not worthy enough in the eyes of The Few to be gathered into their cadre of triumphal inner circularity.

Christ be there in the open!

Inanity be tamed! Clamor be quieted! Chaos be stilled!

It will come -- the time of transfiguration -- when we recognize that it is us here, just us, the family that will not go away. Not by judgment. Not by exclusion. Not by secret handshakes and signal coded formulas that puff up those claiming especial privilege. There where Christ continues quietly showing up after the crowds pass by.

No false deals of privileges and commendations and elevations and dense plea bargains sacrificing something other, someone other, in place of a more personal surrender and awareness.

Christ will not be tricked after two thousand years into that scam of religious and political delusion. Nor should we.

End wars. Be peace. For God's sake -- try loving what Christ loves!

Be Jesuits in motto today: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam ("For the greater glory of God").

One another.

Us all.

Different, difficult friend.

God is One.

Here's the question.

Humans born into this floating world
Quickly become like the roadside dust:
At dawn small children,
By sunset already grown white-haired,
Without inner understanding,
They struggle without cease.
I ask the children of the universe:
For what reason do you pass this way?
- Ryokan (1758-1831)

If not love and understanding -- or as Sonny puts it "love of understanding" -- then, what?

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.