Let him have his money back.

Stop Clenching

The moment we want happiness, we start to cling to it in our mind. First, we cling to our own idea of happiness. We relate to the outside world as a source of satisfaction and look outward for the things we normally associate with happiness--accumulating wealth, success, fame or power. As soon as we become attached to any idea--happiness, success or whatever--there is already some stress. Clinging is itself a stressful state, and everything that derives from it is also stressful. For example, try to clench your hand to make a fist. As soon as you start to clench your hand, you have to use energy to keep your fingers clenched tightly. When you let go of the clenching, your hand is free again.

So it is with the mind. When it is in such a state of clenching, it can never be free. It can never experience peace or happiness, even if one has all the wealth, fame and power in the world.
(-Thynn Thynn, Living Meditation, Living Insight)

Rather, give nothing back.

“Sir,” said he “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”’
(--from Matthew 25)

Don't vote for the bailout.

If a capitalist, a king, or a god wants a return on his money experiment, let him find someone else to kowtow to him.

I'm off the bus.

I'm walking.

"When they said REPENT REPENT, I wonder what they meant." It's a Leonard Cohen lyric.

Immovable as mountains,
single-mindedly seeking true awakening,
with a mind inspired to effort
cultivate the path of concentration,
practice diligently for countless eons
with never any regression or digression.
- Avatamsaka Sutra

"There is a crack, a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in."

Another song. Another Cohen meditation.

Friday night foggy mist.

Fire in wood stove.

Comes midnight.

Alaska, Georgia, and Minnesota still await an elected senator.

William P. Young's The Shack has been read and listened to.

There's a lot to be enthusiastic about.

The moon’s appearance, a river of stars,
snow-clad pines, clouds hovering on mountain peaks.
In darkness, they glow with brightness.
In shadows, they shine with a splendid light.
Like the dreaming of a crane flying in empty space,
like the clear, still water of an autumn pool,
endless eons dissolve into nothingness,
each indistinguishable from the other.
In this illumination all striving is forgotten.
- Hung Chih Cheng Chueh (1092-1157)

An American aide worker was killed in Pakistan.

Two American soldiers were killed in Iraq.

Executive signing statements and executive privilege are being tied into a tight unraveling knot.

There's much to be wary about, much to lament.

It rains in Maine tonight.

A good conversation at the shop.

We must be vigilant.

Cynicism is afoot.

Let's change.

What do we value?

Practice is nothing other than the
capacity to arouse fearless energy.
Without this energy,
whatever practices you perform,
whatever virtuous feelings you have,
all are without substance.
Without this energy,
will you be prepared when
you come face to face with death
in your ordinary state of mind?
How then will you persevere over other hardships?
- Suzuki Shosan (1579-1655)

The furnace is gone in the house. It will fall to 25 degrees under the full white moon. Wood stove in kitchen glows through glass doors.

We spoke of animals tonight. Peter Singer's ethic of all animals are equal:

Many philosophers have proposed the principle of equal consideration of interests, in some form or other, as a basic moral principle; but, as we shall see in more detail shortly, not many of them have recognized that this principle applies to members of other species as well as to our own. Bentham was one of the few who did realize this. In a forward-looking passage, written at a time when black slaves in the British dominions were still being treated much as we now treat nonhuman animals, Bentham wrote:

The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been witholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sarrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason, nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
(from ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, By Peter Singer, from: ANIMAL RIGHTS AND HUMAN OBLIGATIONS)

The light is as midday at midnight.

That we might see.

Wind blows from northwest rippling water as tide begins to fall.

Not drawing the dichotomy between humans and nature, we are not other than nature. Thus we think about how best live in nature considering our needs, animal needs, and the rest of this planet. That's what I'm listening to as ethics philosopher Peter Singer responds to a question about a morally defensible position regarding environment, animals, and nature.

Walking town, living an ethical life suggests mindful appreciation of all of Being along with caring ways of behaving with and within Nature and Being. One zen teacher calls it 100% correct relationship. Responsible and respectful engagement/interaction calls forth from us a new way of being-in-the-world. Awareness invites compassion and forgiveness.

A lord asked Takuan, a Zen Teacher, to suggest how he might pass the time. He felt his days very long attending his office and sitting stiffly to receive the homage of others. Takuan wrote eight Chinese characters and gave them to the man:

Not twice this day
Inch time foot gem
This day will not come again.
Each minute is worth a priceless gem.
- Master Takuan (1573-1645)
http://deoxy.org/koan/32

It is a question of how are we to be with one another. John Rawls' theory of justice contract formulated behind a wall of ignorance suggests the rules and standards we develop will be fairer and more just if the possibility exists that it would be applied equally to us whether we were black or white, male or female, Arab or Italian, Jew or Hindu, rich or poor, very intelligent or not so intelligent.

We are capable of a just society.

A Wonderful Painting

A wonderful painting is the result of feeling in your fingers. If you have the feeling of the thickness of the ink in your brush, the painting is already there before you paint. When you dip your brush into the ink you already know the result of your drawing, or else you cannot paint. So before you do something, "being" is there, the result is there. Even though you look as if you were sitting quietly, all your activity, past and present, is included; and the result of your sitting is also already there. You are not resting at all. All the activity is included within you. That is your being. So all results of your practice are included in your sitting. This is our practice, our zazen.
-Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

To turn our attention to what is already there within us, we participate in the creation of a wonderful society, a wonderful world within which to live in peace and justice for all.

This Veteran's Day, elsewhere in the world the 11th month, 11th day, 11th hour of the signing of the Armistice ending World War I -- we might consider ending all war.

Even the war within our minds.

The war in our hearts.

The physical wars everywhere.

But how?

“...we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.”
­(--Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation)

The Buddha said everything has Buddha nature. That's a first step. That, and then we have to solve the 1st koan:

Chao-chou's Dog
The Case
A monk asked Chao-chou, "Has the dog Buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou said, "Mu."

Wu-Men's Verse
Dog, buddha nature--
the full presentation of the whole;
with a a bit of "has" or "has not"
body is lost, life is lost.

Take your time.

Start now.

It's 11, 11, 11.

Alone on the bay. Rowing to bell buoy. Rise and fall of oars. Swell and trough of water.

Better than a hundred years of mischief
is one day spent in contemplation.
Better than a hundred years of ignorance
is one day spent in reflection.
Better than a hundred years in idleness
is one day spent in determination.
Better to live one day wondering
how all things arise and pass away.
- Buddha in the Dhammapada

Some solitude at harbor. Walking to Rockport cemetery.

Listening to The Shack, rowing and walking. Rising and falling.

Wondering about September 11th during soup and bratwurst.

The night stillness of inner harbor water.

We are, Paul says, where God lives.

Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you?
(1Cor.3)

After years of dark and shadowy hissing that we are stupid but muscular sellers of cellars of fear and cynicism, we hear a clear and open sound that speaks to us as an attentive mother/father saying we are the thoughtful, loving, and just dwelling places of the light-filled holy finding its way through us into the world.

Notes on Serene Reflection

Silently and serenely one forgets all words;
clearly and vividly That appears before you.
When one realizes it, it is vast and without edges;
in Essence, one is clearly aware.
Singularly reflecting is this bright awareness,
full of wonder is this pure reflection.
- Hung Chih (1091-1157)

If we look around with simple wonder, there is a wide vista coming to be seen that has been hidden behind unkindness and deception. We are beginning, again, to see the awakening body/soul of a too long comatose country.

Arthur Miller liked to say that the essence of America was its promise. In the darkest of the dark times, in wartime and drastic economic downturns, in the crucible of witch hunts or racial strife, in the traumatic aftermath of a terror attack, that promise lights the way forward.

This week marked a renewal of America’s promise. Voters went to the polls and placed a bet on a better future, handing the power to an unlikely candidate who promised to draw people together rather than exploit their differences.

The final tally wasn’t close.

We still have two wars to deal with and an economic crisis as severe as any in decades. But we should take a moment to recognize the stunning significance of this moment in history. It’s worth a smile, a toast, a sigh, a tear.

America should be proud.
(Op-Ed Columnist, Take a Bow, America, By BOB HERBERT, Published: November 8, 2008, NYTimes)

It is time to be lovely again.

And humble.

We are ready to be what God is ready to be.

Greet one another as you are.

Step from the darkness of fears out into the open release of tears.

Come home!

Too many voices, too many words, today.
No one had anything of interest to say.

Evening mountains veiled in somber mist,
one path entering the wooded hill:
the monk has gone off,
locking his pine door.
From a bamboo pipe
a lonely trickle of water flows.
- Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672)

It's me, of course.

Sometimes words are ski pole banging against metal trash can.
They rattle along curb, topple into street, strew empty elan.

It's my mind.

There is
no one here
save me

When door closes,
it isn't what is

kept out;

it's what isn't
ready to be

let out.

Invitation and excitement. Issue one, delight in what follows.

All week the conversations have been rich. At shop. At prison. In liturgical dialogue. At university class. In mindful presence without object. What is itself needs nothing more.

Western Peak

Highest mountain in the West,
eighteen thousand miles from the East,
reaching the sky and dwarfing the other peaks.
If one wishes to reach it, one is there already;
for a Zen student can make a mountain
wherever the feet are touching.
- Jakushitsu Genko Zenji (1290 – 1368)

Prayer is dangerous involvement with God. With God there is no bargaining. Everything has to be as it is. No delusion. No wishful thinking.

The old phrase is true, just not as ordinarily conceived: "Out of sight, out of mind."

Mind disappears as eyes merely gaze with love at everything.

Save the world! Look as everything looks; not at.

Transfigure and transform.

That's the invitation.

Excited yet?

How proud we all feel. Something light has turned our heads and made us smile. Even those with mud still on their shoes recognize a sparkling moment and shake their heads.

Non-Effort

The wind in the pines plays a subtle
song, of which I have become
effortlessly aware.
I did not compose it, I do not perform it;
yet it simply is as it is.
Nor do I strain to be aware of it.
It just is as it has always been.
The music, strangely, is as bright as
My Self-lit interior.
If I tried to compose it or
perform it, I could not do so.
If I strained to become aware of it,
it would surely die and fade away.
- Ji Aoi Isshi

Many will be happy to see the backs of those who will be leaving office. We'll wish them well. We won't pretend bygones will go by and fade. We'll lobby for justice and accountability. But not now.

Now belongs to the fully feeling fantastic.

As God is.

My joy.

It feels like months ago. The election.

Better or Worse?

Ordinarily, we spend all our time comparing and discriminating between this and that, always looking around for something good to happen to us. And because of that we become restless and anxious about everything. As long as we are able to imagine something better than what we have or who we are, it follows naturally that there could also be something worse. We are constantly pursued by misgivings that something bad will happen. In other words, as long as we live by distinguishing between the better way and the worse way, we can never find absolute peace such that whatever happens is all right.

When we let go of our thoughts that distinguish better from worse and instead see everything in terms of the Universal Self, we are able to settle upon a different attitude toward life--the attitude of magnanimous mind that whatever happens, we are living out Self which is only Self. Here a truly peaceful life unfolds.
--Kosho Uchiyama, Opening the Hand of Thought

Universal Self is what we call undivided hope.

There's no need for hope.

The world is one.

For now.

President-elect Barack Obama will address the country in a few minutes.

Becoming a buddha is easy,
but ending illusions is hard;
so many frosted moonlit nights
I’ve sat and felt the cold before dawn.
- Shih-wu (1272-1352)

It is a good night.

Note: The bookshop/bakery will be closed Sunday 2Nov08. There will be no Sunday Evening Practice at the hermitage. The shop will re-open for conversation Tuesday Evening at 5:15pm.

.....

The Day of the Dead passes. All Souls Day arrives.

No one dies who sees life as it is.

Of course there is death and loss.

But no one dies... seeing life as it is.

Can you see?

Oh!

Say...

Let the wise one watch over the mind,
So hard to perceive, so artful,
Alighting where it wishes;
A watchfully protected mind
Will bring happiness.
- Dhammapada

The holy has nothing to say.

It is what it does.

All Hallows turns into All Saints.

What is holy invites what is longing for what is holy.

Hermits hide from mankind
Most go to the mountains to sleep
Where green vines wind through woods
And jade gorges echo unbroken
Higher and higher enraptured
On and on simply free
Free of what stains the world
Minds pure like the white lotus
- Han shan

God is. We are. There is nowhere God is not.

Psalm 8
(The greatness of God, the dignity of man)
How wonderful is your name over all the earth, O Lord, our Lord!
How exalted is your glory above the sky!

Out of the mouths of children and infants you have brought praise, to confound your enemies, to destroy your vengeful foes.

When I see the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you set in their place –
what is man, that you should take thought for him? what is the son of man, that you should look after him?

You have made him but one step lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour; you have set him over the works of your hands.

You have put everything beneath his feet, cattle and sheep and the beasts of the field,
the birds in the air and the fish in the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the waters.

How wonderful is your name above all the earth, O Lord, our Lord!

God's invitation is unlike our invitation. God's invitation is open, refusable, yet always offered.

We are invited by what is.

Taking.

Place.

Between us.

Is born, comes Christ. (That's the phrase that arrived during Thursday Evening Conversation.)

Lesson 303

The holy Christ is born in me today.

Watch with me, angels, watch with me today.

Angels, we've said, are the connective intuitive creative between what God is and where I am.

Wandering

My treasure is the cloud on the peak
The moon over the valley
Traveling east or west
Light and free on the one road
I don’t know whether I’m on the way
Or at home.
- Muso Soseki (1275-1351)

Of course we ask angels to watch with us. They are the seeing of itself.

Section 9. What is the Second Coming?

Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity. It is a part of the condition that restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place; the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve.

It is the all-inclusive nature of Christ's Second Coming that permits it to embrace the world and hold you safe within its gentle advent, which encompasses all living things with you. There is no end to the release the Second Coming brings, as God's creation must be limitless. Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way, because it shines on everything as one. And thus is oneness recognized at last.
(--from Lesson 301, The Course in Miracles)

The invitation.

Given.

Is.

Received.

It is not our doing, not anything, when we are given into the absolute. No gaining; no losing.

The Clod and the Pebble

'Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair.'

So sung a little clod of clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet;
But a pebble of the brook
Warbled out these meters meet:

'Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite.'
(Poem by William Blake)

In from Chicago, the couple sat in back through Tuesday Evening Conversation. Reading Eknath Eswaran on Arjuna and Sri Krishna.

Finally coming to proper knowledge.

Arjuna knew himself as warrior.

A knowing transparency.

Alaska is chillier today.

It becomes obvious there are two ways of doing things: the powerful connected way and the weak detached way. I've no way.

The spiritual light shines alone,
far transcending the senses
and their fields;
the essential substance is
exposed, real and eternal.
It is not contained in written words.
The nature of mind has no defilement;
it is basically perfect and complete in itself.
Just get rid of delusive attachments,
and merge with realization of thusness.
- Pai-chang (720 – 814)

Only a week left. Assassination plots are announced, last minute dirt is shaped into mud balls ready for slinging, and the world series prepares to end in a whimper.

Things seem ridiculous. Me too.

Change and Pain

[W]hen we realize that we are forced to change positions because of pain, we should question further to find out if there are other reasons. If the answer is that we change because we want to be comfortable, this is incorrect. It is incorrect because it is a distortion of happiness. The correct answer is that we change in order to "cure" the pain. We do not change to acquire happiness. The wrong answer comes from misunderstanding, and if we do not have the right comprehension when we change positions, defilements can and will spring up. Changing positions to "cure" pain indicates that we have to remedy the situation at all times. We should not misjudge and think that the reason is to attain happiness, since the curing of pain all the time is the same as having to take medicines constantly. It is like nursing a continuous sickness. Thus, we should not look upon nursing sickness and curing pain as being happiness at all.
(--Achaan Naeb, in Jack Kornfield's Living Dharma)

Camus said to be happy is to stop.

I'll do it.

A happy cure.

Stopping.

Here.

Chanting Heart Sutra in zendo was lovely at practice tonight. Reading Thomas Merton at table reminds that darkness of spirit does not point away from God's presence -- that renewal in one's own heart and mind helps reach for light string.

At Waterfall Temple

These peaks gather like snowy swords,
the waterfall a curtain of ice on the cliff.
Gibbons in the tree tops toy with clouds.
among blood-red azaleas.
The cuckoo sings till it bleeds;
from deep in caves, wind gods scream.
Compared to the hearts of people,
these mountain wilds are tame.
- Chang K’o chiu (1265-1345)

Foghorn four miles away tells of diminished view. Small animal in wall is restless. Hot soak surrounds body.

Why be a contemplative? Where does renewal lead?

Fingers feel for small metal whatsit at end of string. A gentle tug? Then?

No telling.

We'll have to wait.

We'll have to see.

Stacking wood, 4th cord, follows sitting on zafu, interspersed with kicking chewed-through soccer ball for ever hopeful Border Collie, perpetually crouched and ready,

Sitting and stacking suggest a way to practice and pray without ceasing. They involve and engage one. One at a time. One breath. One stick. One step. For Rokpa there is always and only one fetch, one run, one return.

We are invited to be the mindful and grateful servants of this one experience. Life unfolding itself.

Searching for Gathered Fragrance Temple
miles of mountains rise into clouds.
Ancient trees darken the narrow trail.
Where is that mountain temple bell?
Snowmelt crashes down on boulders,
the sun grows cold in the pines before
it drowns in the lake.
Keep your karma in good working order;
many dragons lie in wait.
- Wang Wei (701-761)

Perhaps my heart will stop. That's fine. The basement furnace starts and stops.

Attachment to the Body

180. Having accumulated suffering for no purpose
Because of my honoring and serving this body,
What use is attachment and anger
For this thing that is similar to a piece of wood?

181. Whether I am caring for my body in this way,
Or whether it is being eaten by vultures,
It has no attachment or hatred towards these things--
Why then am I so attached to it?

182. If (my body) knows no anger when derided
And no pleasure when praised,
For what reason
Am I wearing myself out like this?
(-- Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, trans. by Stephen Batchelor)

With all heart. All mind. All soul. And neighbor as self. Jesus summed it up for his interrogator. It's long odds we'll be willing to forgo our fascination with the fractured, and by allowing the whole, heal the pain of division.

If I was a betting man, I'd take these odds. Odd is regular at our shop. Odd works well coming through our door.

This self I am passing through.