Our ability to cooperate, says Yuval Noah Harari, is “The ability to invent and believe fictional stories.” (--from, How Humanity Came To Rule The World | Yuval Noah Harari & Neil deGrasse Tyson on StarTalk, you tube 42 mins)
Tyson responded, “Maybe a better word would be…a bit of mythology.”
“I prefer to use the word fiction,” says Harari.
The inmate resident quoted Emily Dickinson this morning: "The heart wants what it wants, or else it does not care,"
Tonight T.S. Eliot was quoted: “Teach us to care and not to care. Teach us to sit still.”
In summary:
Give it no mind;
Do what needs be done;
Then let it go.
“Sit close
Be brought
Into the fold”
The baker’s
Preparation of
Linzer torte dough
Conversation and
Belonging
Community
Religion is the practice of what is holy.
What is holy is that which rises up each moment in each place.
Everyday and ordinary — the origin and manifestation of the holy real.
This religion, this moment to moment practice, is spirituality with each breath.
“It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.”
“In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.”
(— Juan de la Cruz, 1542–1591)
Maybe.
Just maybe.
The world is how you see it and what you make of it. If you look at the world with benevolent eyes, the world reciprocates with benevolence. If you project suspicion and self-interest, you get the same in return. Trust begets trust and fear begets fear. Recognizing the benevolence of the universe is not to deny the shadow side, but seeing nature as red in tooth and claw and people as selfish and greedy makes us respond in similar vein. If we sow seeds of malevolence, malevolence will grow; if we sow seeds of benevolence, benevolence will grow.
(from, Satish Kumar, Soil, Soul, Society: A New Trinity for Our Time (Brighton, UK: Leaping Hare Press, 2017), 160, 161–162, 163)
https://email.cac.org/t/d-e-zjyikid-tlkridklo-f/
Is that the essence of zen?
To see “what is” there?
“As it is” with us?
... ... ...
notes: from Online Etymology Dictionary
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=beneevolence, https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=malevolence
"the character of being ill-disposed toward another or others; ill-will, malice, personal hatred," mid-15c., from Old French malevolence and directly from Latin malevolentia "ill-will, dislike, hatred," from malevolentem (nominative malevolens) "ill-disposed, wishing ill, spiteful, envious," from male "badly" (see mal-) + volentem (nominative volens), present participle of velle "to wish" (see will (v.))
Yes
Con umiltà
I have
And am
Nothing
Grazie
This
This is
Una gioia
What else do we long for than to “be-with”?
“Vocabunt nomen eius Emmanuel, quod est interpretatum Nobiscum Deus” (Mt 1, 23).
“They will call his name ‘Immanuel’, which means ‘God with us’” (Mt 1:23).
Be-withing.
The human longing, even among solitaries, to be-with.
Is that what God is?
Presence itself?
Do we long for God in this regard?
Do we long for one-another in this way?
For nothing else?
Be-withed presence.
One with another.
Whether in community or in solitude.
With-us.
One with another.
Itself, no-other, co-responding.
And we wonder what love is…
In prison today
Four of us spoke of the word
‘Correction’ — to stand
Together, right with each one —
How we long a life to be
We are
So to speak*
Speaking the universe
Into existence
We are
πολλαχῶς λεγόμενον
Learning how to
Think by elements
Molecules and empty
Space
Here we are
Mind becoming
Universe manifesting
One and another
Isomorphic
The trees talk
Being listens
Being speaks
Tree limb’s winter buds
Stepping out of barn
Hard ground underfoot
Gate roped close
Brown white dog stares
Sniffing air lingering trails
Night animals zigzag remnant
Dawn speaks up saying
Now humans word world
As world thinks living beings
Into Being, a discourse
Sounding one another
Pronouncing morning
Telling what will come to
Come quickly, cat at open
Window haunching, watching
Birds fly to and from
Green feeder hanging from
Slow yawning branch thin
Green lime line hanging
Down, handing out, love
(So to speak)
there, here, no other
where is nothing to reach out
hand to grasp or hold
At once we fall down fall up
Every direction at once
Hard to hear about
chaos and great doubt, very
existence, dwelling
ungrasping and unholding
what great faith and great trust breathes
Three promises:
Contemplation, Conversation, Correspondence.
...as held by Meetingbrook Dogen & Francis Hermitage“m.o.n.o.”(monastics of no other).
Contemplation is the promise of simplicity.
It is a gift of poverty inviting open waiting, receptive trust, attention, and watchful presence. It is a simple Being-With.
It is attentive presence.
Conversation is the promise of integrity.
It is a chaste and complete intention to listen and speak, lovingly and respectfully, with each and all made present to us. It is a wholeness of listening and speaking.
It is root silence.
Correspondence is the promise of faithful engagement.
It is responsible attention and intention offered obediently to the Source of all Being, to the Human Family, to Nature. It is a faithful engagement with all sentient beings, with this present world, with existence with all its needs & joys, sorrows & hope.
It is transparent service.
…………………………………………………………………
Meetingbrook Dogen & Francis Hermitage invites & welcomes individuals interested in the practice of these 3 promises in their life. Whether the interest is in conversing, praying, deepening, learning, or even holding these 3 promises, we invite you to enter the inquiry and stillness. May the loving light and the compassionate peace of the Christ and the Bodhisattva accompany and support the efforts of each one.
………………………………………………………………..
Quotes: 1. We are going to have to create a new language of prayer. (Thomas Merton, Calcutta 1968)
2. When you go apart to be alone for prayer…see that nothing remains in your consciousness mind save a naked intent stretching out toward God. Leave it stripped of every particular idea about God (what he is like in himself or in his works) and keep only the awareness that he is as he is. Let him be thus, I pray you, and force him not to be otherwise. (Anonymous)
3. I long for a great lake of ale. / I long for the men of heaven in my house. / I long for cheerfulness in their drinking. / And I long for Jesus to be there among them. (Brigid, Celtic saint)
4. It is not by closing your eyes that you see your own nature. On the contrary, you must open your eyes wide and wake up to the real situation in the world to see completely your whole Dharma Treasure, your whole Dharma Body. The bombs, the hunger, the pursuit of wealth and power - these are not separate from your nature….You will suffer, but your pain will not come from your own worries and fears. You will suffer because of your kinship with all beings, because you have the compassion of an awakened one, a Bodhisattva. (Thich Nhat Hanh)
5. He who truly attains awakening knows that deliverance is to be found right where he is. There is no need to retire to the mountain cave. If he is a fisherman he becomes a real fisherman. If he is a butcher he becomes a real butcher. The farmer becomes a real farmer and the merchant a real merchant. He lives his daily life in awakened awareness. His every act from morning to night is his religion. (Sokei-an)
Consciousness creates
reality
Reality creates
consciousness.
And always
the
twain shall
meet
Inmates this morning (now called ‘residents’) talk about quantum physics, Vedanta, consciousness, good and evil, yogic types, and the evolution of spiritual insight into the nature of existence.
‘Just like this’
Truth and reality
Of a Friday morning.
‘Namaste’ one said. ‘Nah, I’m-a-go’ said another.