hello, we feel; and bye, we trust

From weekly summary, Center for Action and Contemplation, Richard Rohr, https://cac.org/creativity-weekly-summary-2018-06-09/

  “To worship was formerly to prefer God to things, relating them to him [sic] and sacrificing them for him. To worship is now becoming to devote oneself body and soul to the creative act, associating oneself with that act in order to fulfill the world by hard work and intellectual exploration.” [3](—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution, trans. René Hague (Harcourt Brace & Co.: 1969), 92-93.) 

 And:

Teilhard indicated that “the total Christ is only attained and consummated at the end of universal evolution.” [3] . . . That is, the Christ of the physical universe, the Christ of all humanity, the Christ of all religions. In this respect, Christ is not a static figure, like a goal post with a gravitational lure, toward which the universe is moving. Rather, Christ is in evolution because we, human and nonhuman creation, are in evolution. . . . We must take seriously the impact technology and science are causing on the shape of life in the universe. . . . 

Technology can be defined as the organization of knowledge for the achievement of practical purposes. We may also describe it as the development of mechanical devices by the human community in its efforts to control or exploit the forces of nature. Throughout history, humans have been inventive in various ways, enhancing human life through means of technology. . . . The development of technology expresses the human’s self-development and self-expression through matter [i.e., the human capacity to be creative]; it is integral to being the image of God and thus integral to authentic self-realization. . . . 

The notion of the human as a dynamic image of God, with a vocation to develop this image by evolving dialogue with the material cosmos, sets technology in a wider framework that provides strong religious, moral, and humanistic controls on its exploitation. . . . [4] (— Ilia Delio, Christ in Evolution (Orbis Books: 2008), 157-159.)

 Cool breeze through early sun with waking birdsong. Cars roll toward town. Woodpecker practices on Han.

Say it — there is nothing else.

Only this.

And you are at beginning and end in same instant — a metal tone in transitioning wind chime a swirling invitation at bamboo hollow for what is passing through and by.

Hello, we feel; and bye, we trust!

despite what you think

A heart

that feels

the world

is holy



Is

what is

coming

to be

weather bombast

There’s climate change and global windbaggery taking place in the nations capital.

63 million people look at their timepiece.

Surely it’s time to end the recess.

normandy and a hotel kitchen

Thousands were slaughtered on the beaches of Normandy.

Robert Kennedy fifty years ago was assasinated by a man who was hypnotized.

Sirhan remembers nothing about the shooting.

I don’t think we know enough.

as far as God

Rainy morning Office of Readings. 

I am gripped by two/three thousand year old psalms that capture contemporaneous culture of our times.

I’m not sure there is the same expectation now as then that “the Lord” will protect us and help us.

“For the poor who are oppressed and the needy who groan
I myself will arise,” says the Lord.
“I will grant them the salvation for which they thirst.” 

The words of the Lord are words without alloy,
silver from the furnace, seven times refined. 

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care
and protect us for ever from this generation.
See how the wicked prowl on every side,
while the worthless are prized highly by the sons of men. 

Help, O Lord, for good men have vanished:
truth has gone from the sons of men.
Falsehood they speak one to another,
with lying lips, with a false heart. 

May the Lord destroy all lying lips,
the tongue that speaks high sounding words,
those who say: “Our tongue is our strength;
our lips are our own, who is our master?”
(— from Psalm 12, A cry for God’s help against powerful oppressors)

The white border collie goes downstairs to be let out. Gregorian Chant drifts from speaker in hallway. Perhaps God has not changed. I think our conception of God has changed. We’re unsure where to look. Or how to pray. Or if there is anyplace else. Or any other time than now.

Is God not? Or silent and absent? Or is God under our feet, in our hands,  our seeing eyes, hearing ears, feeling breath?

Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ’s flock. Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as Saint Gregory writes in his book of Pastoral Instruction.                               (—in Second reading, From a letter by Saint Boniface, bishop and martyr. The careful shepherd watches over Christ’s flock)

And Christ?

Is Christ to be? Awakened in our awakening? No longer suffering mankind but realized companionship?

Was it easier to chronicle a linear historical narrative of scriptural orthodoxy handed down edict by edict, synod by synod, and bow obediently?

Or, to take unsuspected responsibility for the creation, culture, and society before us, asked by it to enter wholeheartedly into an artistic and spiritual engagement that longs pragmatically to transform and transfix what is real and here into What Is Real and Here.

Is Christ the realization of the true nature and relationality of each to each with caring, compassionate thought and activity toward what is here and What Is Here?

Cat comes to tell me it is time for breakfast.

oinos-less

The ideological clash between right and left threatens to materialize into a violent clash rife with bullets, bombs, and beatings.

This is not good news.

It feels like we’ve invited a provocateur to head of government and he delights in setting two differing approaches on fire with loud explosions.

I think we’re in for a hard and difficult time.

And love has nothing to do with it.

Unfortunately.

There is no love in this upcoming turmoil.

Unless...

Oinos

Un-us.

until (it transforms us)

There are times when the middle way of Buddhism, the no way of Taoism, and the out-of-my-way of existentialism combine with the no-periphery omnipresent center of Einstein to leave me nowhere to be found.

The creative, transformative dance between attachment and detachment is sometimes called the Third Way. It is the middle way between fight and flight, as Walter Wink describes it. [1] Some prefer to take on the world: to fight it, change it, fix it, and rearrange it. Others deny there is a problem at all. “Everything is beautiful,” they say and look the other way. Both instincts avoid holding the tension, the pain, and the essentially tragic nature of human existence. 

The contemplative stance is the Third Way. We stand in the middle, neither taking the world on from another power position nor denying it for fear of the pain it will bring. We hold the hardness of reality and the suffering of the world until it transforms us, knowing that we are both complicit in evil and can participate in wholeness and holiness. Once we can stand in that third spacious way, neither directly fighting or fleeing, we are in the place of grace out of which genuine newness can come. This is where creativity and new forms of life and healing emerge. 

(—Richard Rohr)  http://email.cac.org/t/ViewEmail/d/16EF5BFFC83DDBEE2540EF23F30FEDED/D7E1331FA0AEA466942A2DF08F503B7C

 It is the word “until” that catches my attention.

and the mirror unreflects

There are two things that capture my attention:

1. 

2.

Oh my! They’ve disappeared.

I now have nothing that captures the nothing that is my attention and the nothing that is me.

enter here and despair

Note: These are surprisingly, eerily, prescient.
From Matthew Chapman tweets, 1june18, @fawfulfan :

...
"Believe it or not, Trump's insane proclamation that he will keep tariffs in place until there are no more Mercedes on Fifth Avenue gave me a moment of clarity.

I think I finally understand Trump's economic philosophy now. And we are absolutely screwed."

...
"The one thing that you need to understand about Trump is that he is, at his core, a con man with no empathy.


Therefore, he assumes that all other people are also con men with no empathy, and every exchange of goods and services that exists in the world is, on some level, a con."

...
"Trump assumes every transaction in the world — between people, businesses, nation-states, even between two different agencies of the same government — has a winner and a loser, a scammer and a sucker. He believes if you're not ripping someone off, you're getting ripped off."

...
"From an economist's perspective, this is complete nonsense. Unless there are major information asymmetries or distortions of market power, and often even then, most transactions are generally to the mutual benefit of both parties.
Otherwise no deals would ever get made."

...
"But Trump — the man who created a fake university, made stiffed contractors, hired the mob, and filed for bankruptcy six times — cannot believe his.

So he goes out of his way to cherrypick how he sees the world, so that everything we do looks like either a ripoff or a steal.

...
It's not simply that Trump *doesn't* think the Paris Climate Agreement, Iran nuclear deal, TPP, NAFTA, or luxury cars from Germany are a good deal for America. It's that he *can't* think that.

It's an alien concept to him that a deal other people want with us could also help us.

...
To Trump's mind, the mere fact other countries sought out these deals with us, and that their own economies benefit, is unassailable proof we got ripped off.

He can't see the evidence they helped us too. His mind will only cherry-pick potential ways it could be bad for us."

...
"This is why Trump will never, ever, be able to negotiate with the rest of the world. He doesn't believe in mutual benefit.

The second anyone tells him "this is your end of the deal" he'll rip it up. He believes only one party can have an end of the deal, and it shouldn't be him."

...
"This is why Trump will never, ever, be able to negotiate with the rest of the world. He doesn't believe in mutual benefit.

The second anyone tells him "this is your end of the deal" he'll rip it up. He believes only one party can have an end of the deal, and it shouldn't be him.

...
And we're not just screwed on foreign policy, but domestic. This explains his behavior over DACA, spiking two bipartisan deals even though they were what he asked for.

He assumed if Democrats were willing to talk, his deal wasn't ripping them off, ergo it would rip him off.

...
That implies if Democrats win Congress, we are going to enter an all-out legislative standstill like we've never before seen.

Our system is entirely reliant on compromise and compromise isn't compatible with Trump's beliefs. We will struggle to pass even basic reauthorizations."

...
"So yeah: our nightmare is not going to end until we get this pathological con man out of office.

He is not just bad at being president, he has a defective way of seeing the world that is not compatible with being president.

And we will pay for it."

...
[sic]                                        

(--From Matthew Chapman tweets, 1june18, @fawfulfan)

is this true

I’m thinking of telling you something you don’t know.

We’ll call it non-fact.

You are sitting somewhere reading this.

And,

You are writing this here with me.

Beyond this, you are the reader wondering why and whether it matters who does what where.

at all — nothing

SINGULARITY
by Marie Howe

(after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money —

nobody hiding in the school bathroom

or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.   Remember?

There was no   Nature.    No
them.   No tests

to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf    or if

the coral reef feels pain.    Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up   to what we were
— when we were ocean    and before that

to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?    before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb      no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with

is is is is is

All   everything   home

                      (Poem by Marie Howe)

prison talk

God is

What is

Coming

To be 

a waste of time

“Sometimes people have the idea that
practice means going to Dharma centers
or sitting in meditation or performing
rituals and this sort of thing. They think
that all this is practice while the rest of
the day is a waste of time. People think
there is this big split,, and they often
despair, feeling that their families and
their children are an obstacle that takes
them away from the spiritual life. But the
fact is … our family, our children, our
partners, our parents – they are our
practice and the ones who need our
loving – kindness, our compassion, our
patience, our joyous effort.”

https://zenflash.wordpress.com/2018/05/22/the-most-real-and-most-difficult-practice/

~ Tenzin Palmo, pp. 17-18, in, Into the heart of Life, 

 Buddhist Teachings on Wisdom and Compassion

Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective

unknowing possibility

Mail is placed in red box roadside.

Chainsaw down the road works on next winter's wood.

Cars climb Barnestown for Hope and Appleton.

I take day off.

I'm happy in this room.

Jesus and Jo-Ann icons overhead.

Water bottle on side table.

If there is God I wouldn't know.

And since I don't know -- there must be God.

But I still don't know what God is or how it matters we believe in God.

I will, no doubt, be surprised when it becomes clear what God is.

Appreciating those in monasteries and convents, ashrams and zen huts, temples and mosques -- who follow the unknown of their heart to the boundary of dark emptiness.

Until then, I continue to pray.

Not to.

But with.

Unknowing.

Possibility.

words belong to us

Justice, we might conclude, means someone remains responsible and accountable for actions taken or not taken with regard to laws, legal or moral, in the course of their engagement with others in our society.

Some say that justice has been compromised by those tasked with making laws, administrating laws, or ruling on the application and relevance of laws. These compromises have been felt in both the secular, civic, and religious sectors and the compromisers are those we thought were guardians and protectors.

Some go further and say there is no justice any longer.                    

Where do we look to for restoration?

The gift you carry for others is not an attempt to save the world but to fully belong to it. It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place. Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift—your true self—is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs. —Bill Plotkin [1] 

[1] Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (New World Library: 2003), 13.             (--in, Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation)

 The words, "No Justice, No Peace" -- have become part of our soul's curriculum.

To find real belonging there is a need to have those words belong to us.

to become real

 Woman says of her medical situation, "It's time for prayer."

We pray because the disproportion of human misery and human compassion is so enormous. We pray because our grasp of the depth of suffering is comparable to the scope of perception of a butterfly flying over the Grand Canyon. We pray because of the experience of the dreadful incompatibility of how we live and what we sense. 

Dark is the world to me, for all its cities and stars. If not for my faith that God in His silence still listens to a cry, who could stand such agony? 

Prayer will not come about by default. It requires education, training, reflection, contemplation. It is not enough to join others; it is necessary to build a sanctuary within, brick by brick, instants of meditation, moments of devotion. This is particularly true in an age when overwhelming forces seem to conspire at destroying our ability to pray.

(--from, On Prayer, by Abraham J. Heschel)
 http://www.notredamedesion.org/en/dialogue_docs.php?a=3b&id=417

We pray not so much to make things better.

We pray to become real. 

the real must be found again

Reality is responsive relationality infused with caring compassion.

We seem to have forgotten what reality is.

That’s why I ask what reality is.

Some things are worth remembering.

the dead and deadened this memorial day

Yes, the dead and deadened:

This Memorial Day we remember and pray for

All dead and deadened by war.

sistence, ek-sistence, in-sistence

Trinity.

Here, there, and everywhere.

Father, son, spirit.

ten minus nine finds one

Start here

with beginner’s mind

there are rocks and trees and small animals


As it is

there is only

one commandment — don’t steal, share