Return To The Center

my story isn't pleasant

 

 

 
 

"I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in the books; I'm beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn't pleasant. It's not sweet and harmonious like invented stories. It tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves." 

- Hermann Hesse

 

 

(quote via Whiskey River)

 

 

Now..

 

 

 

 

"Now, how does one pass through this gateless gate?"  

~ Mumon ~

 

 

Et exultávit spíritus meus

 

 

 

 

Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum.
Et exultávit spíritus meus: in Deo salutári meo.
Quia respéxit humilitátem ancíllae suae:
Ecce enim ex hoc beátam me dicent omnes generatiónes.
Quia fécit mihi mágna qui pótens est: et sánctum nómen eius.
Et misericórdia eius in progénies et progénies timéntibus eum.
Fécit poténtiam in bráchio suo: dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui.
Depósuit poténtes de sede: et exaltávit húmiles.
Esuriéntes implévit bonis: et dívites dimísit inánes.
Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum: recordátus misericórdiae suae.
Sicut locútus est ad patres nostros: Ábraham, et sémini eius in saecula.

Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto,
Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculórum. Amen.

 

 

 

A prison of my own making

 
 

 
 

In this liminal space I find myself in, instead of simply letting things take their course without grasping or aversion, I spent the past week painstakingly constructing a prison of juicy expectations and sunny daydreams of the future. When things did not go as expected, those prison doors slammed shut with a sobering clang. Despair and me were cellmates. 

And - what a shitty time to be engaging in such self-centered delusion, what with my Church closed down for the season and salt-water poultices being scarce on the ground.

What an idiot.  I behaved as if I had not heard one word of the Dharma spoken ever - at all. A Hungry Ghost running after dreams of "happier" times. 

For whatever reason the Second Noble Truth popped into my mind today.  That's the one that says essentially "The source of all your suffering is attachment." 

Boom.

This past week had been object lesson in the Second Noble Truth.  

So - the cell door has squeaked open enough for me to pass back outside into the breezy contingencies of daily life.  Despair called out from our cell telling me he'd be there for me the next time I forget about how things roll..  He said he'd always be there for me.. 

 

Some folks are gonna feel a little silly...

 

 

 

Some folks are gonna feel a little silly in the end, because way, way, way,  outside the pronouncements of some speerchul clubs where some high falutin' members get to say who is a lamb and who is a goat and who is in and who is out and who will be saved and who will not, there is this fellow above, Amida Buddha, working tirelessly to save all sentient beings. He has said that all one has to do is call his name as few as 10 times to be saved. 

 

Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul 
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul
Namu Amitabul

There.

You're all good. 

And just in case - if one or two of you skipped over the recitation of Amida's name and are in slight danger of falling through the cracks into H-E-DoubleToothpicks, there is this guy below, Jijang Bosal, who has taken a vow to free all beings that find themselves in hell realms. JiJang Bosal does this regardless of how they got themselves there - by not believing in something or other - by being a great sinner - no matter - JiJang Bosal will work until the end of time freeing all sentient beings from all the various hell realms.

  

 

So that should pretty much cover everyone. 

Now that you all know this - there is really no need to make a big deal about this to those of our fellow humans who may see things differently. Honrestly, it will just upset them. In the end they'll see - and yes, they might feel a little silly when it comes to their turn and they find themselves hanging out with all the rest of us sinners, doubters, apostates and heretics - but that feeling will no doubt fade as the scintillating realization of complete and total enlightenment and salvation for every living thing gently descends upon them.. 

Carry on chilluns.. carry on.

 

Heard at the Cathedral..

 

 

 

 

Yesterday before going up to the church of my heart - the great Cathedral of Sky, Sun, Wind, and Water, I went to mass at the Cathedral Church of St Paul in Boston where I heard the following:

Proverbs - Chapter 8 Verses 1-4, 22-31

¹ Does not wisdom call out?
    Does not understanding raise her voice?
² At the highest point along the way,
    where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
³ beside the gate leading into the city,
    at the entrance, she cries aloud:
⁴ “To you, O people, I call out;
    I raise my voice to all mankind.

    ……….

²² “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,
    before his deeds of old;
²³ I was formed long ages ago,
    at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
²⁴ When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,
    when there were no springs overflowing with water;
²⁵ before the mountains were settled in place,
    before the hills, I was given birth,
²⁶ before he made the world or its fields
    or any of the dust of the earth.
²⁷ I was there when he set the heavens in place,
    when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
²⁸ when he established the clouds above
    and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when he gave the sea its boundary
    so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
³⁰     Then I was constantly at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
    rejoicing always in his presence,
³¹ rejoicing in his whole world
    and delighting in mankind.

At the Great Cathedral of Sky, Sun, Wind and Water - if one listens carefully, one can still hear Wisdom calling out -

Geese honking -
Gulls squawking -
Plovers  cheeping -  
Blowing sand whispering at one's feet -
Flags snapping -
Waves breaking -
Emerald green acres of marsh grass dancing in the wind..

One long, continuous lesson.

Free of charge.

 

parting after so long a time together

 

 

 

Farewell after a "Craft Lecture" 

"Fair winds. Go forth. Save up little pieces that escape other people--your dreams, the side glances your irresponsible mind makes, snatches of talk, whiffs from encounters. Pick up the gleanings.

    And remember to be on guard against the routines you think you know, the forced commitments that you shun questioning.

    Be careful of 'craft.' "

 

"The Answers Are Inside the Mountains" ~ William Stafford

not for me..

 

 

 

 

Before this is lost to the winds of forgetfulness -

    As told to me by my Teacher:

Long ago there was an Emperor who wanted to host an opulent banquet. He invited dignitaries from all across the land. He invited the kingdom's most revered Zen Master to be the guest of honor. 

When the invitation arrived at the Zen Master's hermitage, he gathered his spare set of robes, his begging bowl and his staff with the six jangly rings on it, and set off for the celebration. After many days of walking, the Zen Master arrived at the gates to the Emperor's palace. He was met there by a guard.

"Who are you?" barked the guard.

Showing his invitation, the Zen Master replied "I have been invited by the Emperor to attend his great celebration." 

The guard squinted at the invitation and then at the Zen Master, "Look old man, this is a very refined gathering, you can't attend it looking as you do. I mean, come on, your robes are threadbare and dirty and seem to be mostly made of patches. Go away now. Stop bothering me."

The Zen Master turned on his heel and walked straightaway to the town center. He placed his begging bowl at his feet and started chanting. By the end of the day, Zen Master had gathered so many donations, he could afford a beautiful set of brocade golden robes.

The next day, wearing his new robes, the Zen Master once more approached the Emperor's front gate. He was immediately ushered in and was seated at a place of honor at the banquet table. Platters of delicious food were brought forth from the kitchen and all the guests selected mounds of tasty morsels for their plates. 

After a few welcoming words from the Emperor, guests began to enjoy the feast. A disturbance erupted near the Zen Master. Guests seated near him gasped in horror and disgust. The Zen Master was taking great handfuls of food and rubbing them all over his beautiful golden robes. 

The Emperor, seeing the disturbance approached Zen Master yelling "Stop! Stop! What are you doing? What is the meaning of this?"

The Zen Master stopped rubbing food on his clothes, looked up at the Emperor and said "When I arrived at the gates to the your home the other day, I was forbidden entrance because my robes, which are tattered and mostly made from patches, were dusty from my long journey. I purchased these beautiful new robes yesterday to wear instead. When I presented myself, dressed as I am, at your gate today, I was shown to this place of honor at your banquet table."

"I am rubbing this food all over these new robes because this banquet was intended for these lovely new robes and not for me.."

 

 

 

 

The Disease of the Mind

 

 

 

 The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind.

"Hsin-Hsin Min" - Sosan 3rd Zen Patriarch

 

At the Cathedral yesterday, it was as if Sosan Dae Sa - the great Zen Patriarch came back to life, climbed to the podium, thumped his gnarled Zen stick on the floor, and preached his lovely poem "Faith in Mind."  Although the preacher didn't use Sosan's poem directly, he preached a very moving sermon about the the disease we humans all carry within us - that of drawing lines of "Us vs Them."  He did this specifically in reference to the two young men responsible for the Marathon bombings. He said (and I am paraphrasing his beautiful words with my own faulty memory and inarticulations) drawing the line of Us/Them, In/Out, Good/Bad is all too human. The very act of drawing that line, though,  is death. Death. In fact, the preacher said that the line of distinction was his understanding of Original Sin. 

Boom. 

This is one of the many things I love about this joint. They try and act out this concept of radical inclusion.  I see it all around me when I am there. I see it by who shows up and who is welcomed and who participates. Before every weekly Eucharist , they say "This is God's table, not ours. As such, all are welcome to share bread and wine." As it was at Larry's Church, I don't have to feel like an outlaw to take communion. 

The Cathedral often records sermons and posts them on their website. If the sermon shows up - I'll post a link to it here.

 

  

The Whole "Love Your Enemies" Thing is a Big Pain in the Ass

 

What a pain in the ass… 

Why couldn't the J-man have given me an out?  

Why did he have to say in Matthew:

⁴³ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

⁴⁴ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

⁴⁵ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

⁴⁶ For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

⁴⁷ And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

⁴⁸ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Why did the Buddha have to go and convert Angulimala (the serial killer that made a mala with the fingers of his victims) to a monk and member of his Sangha?

Why did HH the Dalai Lama have to say:

"I must emphasize again that merely thinking that compassion and reason and patience are good will not be enough to develop them. We must wait for difficulties to arise and then attempt to practice them.
 
And who creates such opportunities? Not our friends, of course, but our enemies. They are the ones who give us the most trouble, So if we truly wish to learn, we should consider enemies to be our best teacher!
 
For a person who cherishes compassion and love, the practice of tolerance is essential, and for that, an enemy is indispensable. So we should feel grateful to our enemies, for it is they who can best help us develop a tranquil mind!"

They're all big fat pains in the balls if you ask me…  the whole lot of them..

Why couldn't it have been written somewhere: "Thou shalt love thine enemy, unless thine enemy getteth under thy skin - then it is acceptable to layeth thine enemy to waste with the jawbone of an ass - or at least behaveth towards them in a small and mean spirited manner, spreading calumny against them - thick as ox dung in thine fields..."

It would be a whole lot easier (not to mention fun) to nurse old injuries and slights, tell them over and over again to my friends in order to get much needed validation and then lay in wait for just the right moment to slay mine enemy with the jawbone of an ass (metaphorically speaking, natch).. 

Perhaps that conditional clause is out there somewhere. Maybe I just have to look harder.  Maybe it's like Big Tobacco always says, "More study is required."

 

 

 

No name in no place

 

 

 

"It doesn't matter who becomes pope. It is the ones who walk in selfless recollection of true nature that enliven the kinship and connection of all beings.

All we can do is take one step then another with another quietly passing through the illusions woven by mind and mayhem until we come to see no one walking through no door before complete absence profoundly bowing in the instant to the radiant radical wholeness encapsulating no name in no place attended by nothing other than itself."

 - From the mysterious and beautiful Meetinghouse Hermitage

 

 

Cranes

 

 

 

 

Molestation and Enablement - Buddhist Style

 

Here and here. 

Sasaki Roshi has been a very bad boy.

He's been molesting women for decades. And very much like the course we Catholics take when priests shove a dick up a boy's ass, the good old Zen-Boyz in charge looked the other way and enabled decades of suffering and possible criminal activity.

Of course Zen Buddhism does not have the centralized infrastructure that we Catholics have. So - it takes a bit more work to enable molesters in the Buddhist tradition. There's no Zen-Bishop or Zen-Ratzinger to move these knuckleheads around from sangha to sangha to avoid scandal. 

In Zen - it is a much more personalized treatment. 

There must be a localized group of enablers that believe. They believe that maybe the teacher with a hard-on is more than just a regular letch, more than just a run-of-the-mill rapist. Maybe he's a little magic. Maybe he shares his magic with women by inserting his holy phallus into their vaginas, or mouths. There's been one or two of these guys that have actually come out and said as much.. "It's for their own good." The believer group act as bouncers. If an abused person comes forward to complain - they are shunned, ridiculed, silenced.  And so, abuse can continue.

Leonard Cohen was Sasaki's personal attendant for years at Mt Baldy during the 90's. One wonders how the wise, gentle, artist with the gravelly voice could not have known that his teacher was hurting women. If he did - well then Lenny - fuck you too, baby, because now Everybody Knows.

Then - when it all falls completely apart - as it always eventually does - the victims are proffered this Cardinal Mahony-esque "my training didn't prepare me for dealing with this.." bullshit:

"We see how, knowingly and unknowingly, the community was drawn into an open secret," the council wrote, adding: "We have reports that those who chose to speak out were silenced, exiled, ridiculed or otherwise punished."

Paul Karsten, a spokesman for the center interviewed about the controversy before the council's report was completed, said Roshi was too ill to respond and cautioned that the sexual misconduct allegations had not been verified. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The council of Rinzai-ji oshos — senior Zen teachers ordained under Roshi — however, responded with a public statement: "Our hearts were not firm enough, our minds were not clear enough, and our practices were not strong enough so that we might persist until the problem was resolved. We fully acknowledge now, without any reservation, and with the heaviest of hearts, that because of our failure to address our teacher's sexual misconduct, women and also men have been hurt."

Remember chilluns:

Whenever the focus shifts from the teachings to the teacher - whenever talk springs up about how "Master has special powers!! Master is special!!" it's the slippery slope to mayhem and injury...

Run - and don't look back.

Samsara Journals

 

 

 

 

The new house on the street that replaced this one is coming together nicely. Never fear, the Dr Seussian look of the structure is due solely to the 10.5 mm fisheye and then Lightroom 3.6 applying lens correction.. I assure you it's a very nice looking house. 

I chose to make the image this way because it captures a kind of strangeness -  the way the world just keeps rolling and rolling.. It's that kind of strange you feel when you're at the gas station and you see a child that grew up with your son. You haven't seen her in decades. She looks much the same although sadder. A person with lots of worries. The child gone.

I don't post these pictures or tell these stories to mock people. I don't know any more than they do about how to live a good life. I'm not making a comment on the urge to make a nice place for oneself in the world. I know full well how hard this life is. It's just lately it's all I see, or all I notice. Change. Impermanence. On the one hand very comforting because nothing lasts - even the bad shit. On the other hand, not very comforting at all because nothing lasts - not even the good shit. 

It's just change, change, change, change, change… all the way down… change. And at the bottom of it all are creatures like me that try so hard to claw reality to a standstill. Truly, the walls of the well that many of us find ourselves in are lined with fingernail scrapes and blood.

So - no answers here.

No easy or pleasant answers, anyway.

No entrusting.

No faith.

No scripture snippet.

No hymn.

No chant.

Just change - and the primal urge to make things stop - or at least slow down.

The Samsara Journals..

 

 

 

Samsara Journals

 

 

 

 

  

 

From Wikipedia:

"Saṃsāra (Sanskrit, Pali; also samsara) is a Buddhist term that literally means "circle" or "wheel" and is commonly translated as "conditioned existence", "cyclic existence", "cycle of existence", etc. Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death that arises from ordinary beings' grasping and fixating on a self and experiences.

Specifically, samsara refers to the process of cycling through one rebirth after another within the six realms of existence,where each realm can be understood as physical realm or a psychological state characterized by a particular type of suffering."

 

help

 

 

 

This helped.

More than any promise of a sky-god who

is my bestest buddy in the whole wide world

and who knows the number of hairs on my head

and who suffers with me

and who bears me up on eagle's wings

or any of the other baloney...

This helped.

 

 and this:

 

"The Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha), monks, is this:

Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering,

death is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering,

dissociation from the pleasant is suffering,

not to receive what one desires is suffering --

in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering."

 Samyutta Nikaya LVI.11

 

 

 

All Dharmas Are Marked With Emptiness

 

 

 

English version of the Heart Sutra can be seen by clicking here.

 

 

 

Metta

 

 

 

 

 

Anicca*

 

 

Mr Chimney was taken down yesterday.

Broken up.

Piled up. 

He now lives his life as a small mound of dusty brick

and cement just next to the excavator above. 

He thinks the view is quite different than 

in his previous incarnation

and wonders what he did wrong.

The original foundation is under siege as well. 

Big dump trucks full of sand have arrived too.

Sandy is going to make a swimming hole

out of this mess.

 

 

* Anicca is the Pali word for Impermanence,

one of the three marks of existence. 

 

Forgive this (possible) re-post

Dear reader - 

Please forgive this (possible) re-post. I googled the blog and couldn't find a prior post that matched this - but after nearly 2000 posts since the Great Blog Purge of '09 and at least that many in the years prior - well - I just may be repeating myself.. 

Sincerely,

 - roy.

---

 

 

I was just up on youtube looking for some Impermancey kinds of videos when I ran into the above recording done by Korean artist named Youngdong Kim. Mr Kim recorded the monks at Song Gwang Sa temple in Korea as they chanted the Heart Sutra. He then overlaid the flute and synthesizer parts. The "knocking" you hear is from the Mok Tak - a percussion instrument used in many Korean chants. 

I really love the Sunim's chanting.  Love. Love. Love. And here's why - it's so sad and full of longing. The Sutra is about Avalokiteshvara teaching one of the Buddha's disciples, Shariputra about emptiness. Avalokiteshvara says Shariputra's name twice in the sutra, once at the beginning of the sutra when he says:

Shariputra,
form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
That which is form is emptiness,
that which is emptiness form.
The same is true of feelings,
perceptions, impulses, consciousness.

And then again when he further expounds on emptiness:

Shariputra,
all dharmas are marked with emptiness;
they do not appear or disappear,
are not tainted or pure,
do not increase or decrease.
Therefore, in emptiness no form, no feelings,
perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch,
no object of mind;
no realm of eyes

In the recording above (and in the Korean chant) though, the Bodhisattva doesn't just doesn't say Shariputra's name (Sharija in the Korean version) again.. He adds the honorific "-shi" suffix. It seems like the Bodhisattva was trying to really make sure Shariputra was paying attention and understood.. kinda like verbally shaking him..  "Sharija-shi !!!"

The sadness of the melody seems so apt to me. After all, how many people upon hearing what the great Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara had to say about emptiness, truly understood it.. or could put it into practice in our lives? 

It's only 2:47 long.. take a listen.. 

Here's a link to the Heart Sutra in English..

 

 

 

Digital Prayer Flag

 

 

 

My Tibetan Buddhist brothers and sisters have the lovely practice of the prayer flag. Brightly colored squares of cloth have prayers and aspirations written on them.  Many of these squares are then attached to long cords and hung outside in the wind. It is said that when the wind blows, the prayers and aspirations written on them are released to the world. 

Above is my digital prayer flag for all who visit here - no matter who you are - or where you are from. It is a picture of JiJang Bosal (my favorite Bodhisattva) over which is written the Metta (or lovingkindness) Prayer.

This digital prayer flag releases its simple aspiration whenever it gets downloaded over the interweb, stored (however fleetingly on your hard drive), and rendered on your screen. 

 

May we be peaceful.

May we be happy.

May we be safe.

May we awaken to the light of our true natures.

May we be free.

 

 

Almost gone..

 

 

 

The house across the street from us is almost gone now.  A piece of the garage and a lonely chimney are about all that remains. The demolition person took bites off the house with his excavator bucket that had been fitted with a "thumb".  Then  he would drop the mouthful of debris into what had been the basement and carefully break all the big pieces up by pounding them with the bucket.  Once the bits were all the right size, the operator scooped them all up and daintily dropped them into a waiting dumpster.

(I ask you - how much fun does that sound like?}

 

 

It's been an interesting process to watch. I had a concern yesterday because nobody was spraying the structure down to reduce blowing dust. Ordinary dust was not my worry, it was the bits of pink fiberglass dust that no doubt sprinkled the neighborhood yesterday when the breezes were fresh across the lake.

Dharma quote to go along with today's doings is by The Lord Buddha:

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds
To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance.
A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky,
Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.

Buddha (563 - 483 BC)

 

 

polite society...

 

"When faith ceases to be a challenge to the standards of polite society;

it is no longer, or has not yet become, faith."

~ Donald Spoto ~

 

 

 (poster by Sojourners)

 

"i was hungry and you blamed it on the communists
i was hungry and you circled the moon
i was hungry and you told me to wait
i was hungry and you set up a commission
i was hungry and you said "so were my ancestors."
i was hungry and you said, "we don't hire over 35."
i was hungry and you said, "god helps those..."
i was hungry and you told me i shouldn't be
i was hungry and you told me machines do that work now
i was hungry and you had napalm bills to pay
i was hungry and you said, "the poor are always with us."
Lord, when did we see you hungry?"

Matthew 25:37"

 

 

 

If I Do it With Love - Can I Hurt Them Myself?

 

I am surprised. I've reacted quite viscerally to the story that a couple of gutless, dickless Taliban punks shot a tiny, brave, 14 year-old girl, Malala Yousufzai in the face recently. They did this because they, like all simpering patriarchs, are deathly afraid of educating women and Malala is an advocate for educating girls - an apparently revolutionary stand in some stone-age societies.

As a father I can tell you that perceived threats to my own daughter bypass all higher brain functions and go straight to the lizard brain. The lizard brain quickly spins up all sorts of blood-red vengeance scenarios. Thankfully all the other higher level, more civilized, executive functions in my brain rush in and say things like "No, we're not going to dip that young man in tar then and then feather him." and "No you can't bite him." etc.

In the case of the Taliban punks shooting Malala - my lizard brain has been working overtime. As a result my orbitofrontal cortex has been working up quite a sweat as well keeping things on an even keel.

Anyway - enough of biology.. all you believers - here's a question for you.

I know the J-Man and the B-Man both took a dim view of physical violence against enemies.  I mean the J-Man even said things like "Love your enemies" - but how am I to love men who shoot little girls in the face? Do you love them?

What if I do it with love in my heart for them, could I spend an hour or so in a locked room with tough guy Mullah Fazlullah (who ordered the attack) and the little shithead Ataullah who was the trigger man? Would you want to be in the room with me?

If I do it for their own good - could I hurt them? Could you?

There must be some loophole in the whole "love your enemy" thing right?  

I mean - J-Man really didn't mean love those guys right?  And the B-Man's precept against killing - that was just a guideline right?

Help me out here..especially you pragmatic "just-war" types.  You know who you are.. You feel me right? That whole "Love your enemies" schtick is just librul commie hyperbole right?  

Right?

 

 

Look Closer

 

 

 

 

 

 

this fleeting world

 

 

 
  

After visiting a brick-and-mortar church today for its annual fair, I chanced the weather and headed up to my church for afternoon service. Today's sermon was on the last verse of the Diamond Sutra of all things:

This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:

Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream."

So is all conditioned existence to be seen.  

~ The Buddha ~ (from www.diamond-sutra.com)

Of course, the sermon was not so much spoken as performed. High wave action had carved out a five-foot cliff in the normally graceful incline of the shoreline.  Just last week, none of this was there.

It's an important lesson, impermanence. It must have been for The Buddha to close one of the most famous Sutras in the Mahayana canon with it. He must have known that we'd always be forgetting it… or at least he knew I'd always be forgetting it… searching for dependability and constancy in a world that is simply not able to provide it. 

It was a shock to see the sermon.

It's not what I was expecting.

It's what was needed though.

I'll tell you, once you get past the awful shocked terror of seeing that nothing in this life, not the body, not possessions, not relationships, not family, not friends, not coastlines - none of it - lasts - well.. it's quite a freeing experience. It's also a call to appreciate those phantoms, those flickering lamps that we travel this life with.

The evanescence of this conditioned existence makes it all the more poignant.

 

 

 

here with you wherever you are..

 

 

  

 

A few weeks ago, an RTTC reader kindly forwarded me information about a workshop that Edward Espe Brown was giving on Mindfulness Touch.  Although I was very interested in the course and jazzed at the thought of meeting Edward in the flesh, I couldn't make it. The course fell on a day when the kids were home for a visit.  I've been thinking about Mindfulness Touch and where Edward could have come across this practice ever since.. 

 

I did a bit of looking around and found an interview with Edward that had the following snippet:

 

"I now teach something I call mindfulness touch. Part of the inspiration for that is having done classes with Charlotte Selver and Charles Brooks at Tassajara. In mindfulness touch it’s the same thing – mindfulness is the Buddhist concept for experiencing something without judging good/bad, without assessing right/wrong. Just to experience something. This is very challenging, but I’ve come to understand that as long as you’re judging, then you’re not experiencing. Touch mostly comes with directives, and I think most moments of consciousness come with directives, and when you’re giving out directives about what to do or how to be, then how do you experience anything?"

 
So, obviously at least part of what he teaches now as Mindfulness Touch he learned as a young man at Tassajara practice center all those years ago..

 

But - then there's this excerpt from the introduction to "Not Always So", a collection of Dharma talks by Edward's teacher Suzuki Roshi. Edward edited "Not always so."

 

"…Other times when I struggled to sit still [in meditation], Suzuki Roshi's hands would rest motionlessly on my shoulders, touching me through and through. My breath would soften and lengthen. Tension would release, and my shoulders would start to radiate with warmth and vitality. Once I asked him what he was doing when he had his hands on my shoulders, and he said, "I'm meditating with you."

 

It's quite rare to be touched like that, receptively and openly, with kind regard. Most touch says, "Go over there" or "Get over here", "Straighten up" or "Calm down." This touch said "I'll be here with you wherever you are. I'm willing to touch whatever it is." This was the spirit of his meditation, the spirit of his teaching, "Sit with everything. Be one with everything." Innumerable people were touched by Suzuki Roshi's presence and by his teaching, each of us in our own way responded to his kind and upright regard, his meditating with us." 

It seem clear to me that a large part of Edward's Mindfulness Touch teachings come from long ago when his tiny Japanese teacher would place his hands on Edward's shoulders "touching me through and through" to calm him during meditation. So very sweet. It slays me. 

It takes a lot of courage and compassion to touch another person (physically, with speech, or simply presence) with the intention "I'll be here with you wherever you are. I'm willing to touch whatever it is." I mean, you have to put aside your own personal agendas and your own fears. When it happens though, for the person being touched - Ah! They are liberated (perhaps only for a while) from the idea that they can never be reached because what they carry within them is so broken, nobody else could bear it. How rare it is to experience that kind of radical acceptance - and how truly healing.

 

 

 

Home Leaver

 

 

 

 

 

Memory

 

 

 

I found the above at the bottom of a post on Monkey Mind this morning. It's a recording of the Great Dharani.  The Great Dharani is embedded in the much longer (and very beautiful Thousand Hands Sutra (which is not recorded in its entirety above).  The writing on the right hand column above says "Thousand Hands Great Dharani by Young In Sunim" 

in 1995 at Mun Su Sa Temple in Wakefield, Gak So Sunim taught me the Great Dharani.  Partly it was a Buddhist practice piece, partly it was for penmanship because he had me write it out over and over and over again, partly it was to get me chanting.  It took me a long time before I could recite it end to end. I often bugged Sunim for a translation of the Dharani. His reply was invariably "Just chant Mr Roy."  When I would push him, the most he would say is that the Great Dharani was very powerful and contained the very heart of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Mostly though, he said "Just chant Mr Roy." 

And chant we did.  Many early mornings after the regular temple chanting was completed (Morning Bell Chant, Homage to the Triple Gem, Heart Sutra, Thousand Hand Sutra), Sunim and I would stay behind and in the Dharma hall. He sat up on raised altar dais. I sat on my seiza bench in the back of the hall. We both faced the Buddha and chanted the Great Dharani 21 times back to back to back. We did this many times. On cold days in the Dharma hall, our breath would rise in clouds before us. When we finished chanting the Dharani, Sunim would stand, we would bow to the Buddha, then he would turn and we would bow toward each other. One time when he turned toward me I looked at him and he glowed with a golden light. It was quite an intimate experience. A Korean Monk and an Irish Catholic street rat from Saugus in a Dharma hall chanting in the early morning light, both of them so far from home. 

So here's the thing.

Even though I don't chant in the morning any more, and I haven't been back to the temple for over a year now, The Great Dharani is still in my brain, like the Hail Mary, the Our Father, and the Hail, Holy Queen. That's a tribute to the hard work Sunim expended drilling it into my thick skull.  It's an amazing thing to recall these several hundred transliterated syllables and say them out loud. In and of themselves, they have no meaning to me at all. The experience of chanting them though, transports me back to a time 17 years ago when I busted in on a bunch of Korean monks who took me in and tried, to the very best of their abilities, to teach me something. 

The Great Dharani

(Transliteration by the Kwan Um School of Zen)

shin-myo jang-gu dae-da-ra-ni na-mo-ra da-na da-ra ya-ya
na-mak ar-ya ba-ro-gi-je sae-ba-ra-ya mo-ji sa-da-ba-ya

ma-ha sa-da-ba-ya
ma-ha ga-ro-ni-ga-ya
om sal-ba-ba-ye su da-ra-na
ga-ra-ya da-sa-myong
na-mak-ka-ri-da-ba
i-mam ar-ya ba-ro-gi-je
sae-ba-ra da-ba i-ra-gan-ta
na-mak ha-ri-na-ya ma-bal-ta
i-sa-mi sal-bal-ta sa-da-nam
su-ban a-ye-yom sal-ba bo-da-nam ba-ba-mar-a nii-su-da-gam da-nya-ta
om a-ro-gye a-ro-ga
ma-ji-ro-ga ji-ga-ran-je
hye-hye-ha-rye ma-ha mo-ji sa-da-ba sa-ma-ra sa-ma-ra ha-ri-na-ya
gu-ro-gu-ro gal-ma sa-da-ya sa-da-ya do-ro-do-ro mi-yon-je
ma-ha mi-yon-je da-ra da-ra
da-rin na-rye sae-ba-ra ja-ra-ja-ra ma-ra-mi-ma-ra a-ma-ra
mol-che-ye hye-hye ro-gye sae-ba-ra
ra-a mi-sa-mi na-sa-ya
na-bye sa-mi sa-mi na-sa-ya
mo-ha ja-ra mi-sa-mi
na-sa-ya ho-ro-ho-ro ma-ra-ho-ro
ha-rye ba na-ma-na-ba
sa-ra sa-ra shi-ri shi-ri
so-ro so-ro mot-cha mot-cha
mo-da-ya mo-da-ya
mae-da-ri-ya ni-ra-gan-ta
ga-ma-sa nal-sa-nam
ba-ra-ha-ra-na-ya
ma-nak-sa-ba-ha
shit-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
ma-ha-shit-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
shit-ta-yu-ye sae-ba-ra-ya sa-ba-ha ni-ra-gan-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
ba-ra-ha mok-ka shing-ha
mok-ka-ya sa-ba-ha
ba-na-ma ha-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
ja-ga-ra yok-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
sang-ka som-na-nye mo-da-na-ya sa-ba-ha ma-ha-ra gu-ta da-ra-ya sa-ba-ha
ba-ma-sa gan-ta i-sa-shi che-da
ga-rin-na i-na-ya sa-ba-ha
mya-ga-ra jal-ma ni-ba
sa-na-ya sa-ba-ha na-mo-ra
da-na-da-ra ya-ya na-mak ar-ya
ba-ro gi-je sae-ba-ra-ya sa-ba-ha 

 

Here's the Dharani encapsulated in The Great Compassion Dharani Sutra.  In this sutra, the Dharani is written out in Sanskrit I believe.  Avalokiteshvara explains the many benefits of chanting the Dharani, one of which is that reciters of the Dharani will not be eaten by tigers or wolves. The sutra says that after Avalokiteshvara recited the Dharani, the earth shook in six ways and flowers rained down from the heavens.  

Here's a translation by D.T. Suzuki. Honestly - the translation won't help you. It's better, as Sunim taught me, to just learn the syllables and "Just chant Mr Roy."

 

 

 

 

Mah Buddy

 

 

 

 

Amida Buddha.  

The Buddha of Infinite Light.  

So glad he's out there.. 

Saving everyone without restriction.

He's a nice counterbalance to the Pissy Sky Judge

Proposed by Evangelical Christians

And by those who seek eternal revenge.

He's mah Buddy.

  

 

Safe Sex Is Skillful Means, Yo!

 

 

 

I encountered this Buddha at the MFA yesterday.  The piece, part of the "Seeking Shambhala" exhibit,  is titled "Radioactive" and is done by Tibetan Artist Gonkar Gyatso. The sculpture is done in cast resin and is covered with stickers that range from the radioactive symbol on his forehead to pricing stickers to newspaper headlines to images of all sorts.. 

On the back of the Sticker Bood, I found a sticker that showed how to apply a condom:

 

 

Some may find this piece objectionable because it is built out of what is normally considered a holy image and garish secular images.  Personally I don't find it offensive. For me this piece is about the Dharma's ubiquity and unconquerable nature. I mean there he is, Shakyamuni Buddha, sitting like a mountain amidst the banal marketplace bleatings.

Additionally, I've long thought that any spiritual tradition that can be defiled by a handful of paper stickers (or a container of urine, or a box of explosives) really doesn't deserve to be calling itself a spiritual tradition.... 

 

Inside the Gate

 

 

 

 

My friend and teacher, Seon Joon Sunim, recently gave a talk at The Korea Society in New York City.  Sunim's talk is just packed with fascinating information about the monastic experience in Korea. 

Thank you Sunim for taking the time to share your experiences.  Thanks to The Korea Society for preparing such a beautiful video recording and for posting it on Vimeo for people to watch and share all around the globe. 

Enjoy...

 

 

An offering to my fellow Bardo dwellers...

 

 

 

 

...

"Oh you compassionate ones possessing the wisdom of understanding, the love of compassion, the power of acting, and of protecting in incomprehensible measure, one is passing through this world and leaving it behind. No friends does (s)he have, (s)he is without defenders, without protectors and kinsmen. The light of this world has set. (s)he goes from place to place, (s)he enters darkness, (s)he falls down a steep precipice, (s)he enters a jungle of solitude, (s)he is pursued by karmic forces, (s)he goes into a vast silence, (s)he is borne away on the great ocean, (s)he is wafted on the wind of karma, (s)he goes where there is no certainty, (s)he is caught in the great conflict, (s)he is obsessed by the great affecting spirit, (s)he is awed and terrified by the messengers of death. Existing karma has put her/him into repeated existence and no strength does (s)he have although the time has come to go alone. 

 

Oh you compassionate ones, defend who is defenseless, protect who is unprotected, be his kinsman, protect her/him from the suffering in the depression of the Bardo, turn her/him from the storm wind of karma, turn her/him from the great awe and terror of the Lords of Death, liberate her/him from the long narrow way of the Bardo. 

 

Oh compassionate ones who do not allow the force of your compassion to be weakened in assistance, who do not allow one to be in the miserable states of existence, forget not your ancient vows, you who do not allow sentient being to be influenced by habit, and protect from the misery of the Bardo."

….

 

(From The Reluctant Messenger) 

A very good day..

 

 

 

 

It's a rare thing when one actually gets to meet one's heroes.  That happened for me today when I got to meet Seon Joon Sunim in person.  So - instead of just reading her great blogs I got to see her and speak with her  - and laugh with her - in person.  It was quite a thing, and something that will stay with me for a long time. 

Sunim had just flown in to Boston from Korea the night before.  Doff and I picked Sunim up from the Cambridge Zen Center this morning and then spent the day eating, chatting, and looking at aht.  So much fun.  I got to ask her all the questions that were rattling around in my mind about what being a Nun was like and the Korean Buddhist tradition in general. 

In the days leading up to today - I was a bit of a spazz (Doff will verify).  I've only met one other person in real life that I've known through the interwebs.  Meeting someone in person is a completely different kettle-o-fish than just meeting them through letters and blog posts.  I mean - there you are - warts and all.  There is no carefully honed internet presence mediating things (yes- I carefully hone this presence - just the right blend of crotchetiness - wiseassedness - and sens-a-TEEV artsy junk.).  Prior to meeting Sunim, I worried about completely sensible things like  "What if I simply burst into flames when I meet her, the way that Vampires do when they are exposed to light?"  As with most things I spazz about - none of my fears came true.  For example - I did not burst into flames - there was not even a single puff of smoke in evidence.... 

A very good day indeed… 

 

In case you were wondering -

 

 

 

 

 I have it from

an impeccable source:

No one

is a 

jerk

or 

bunghole.

 

only don't know

 

 

 

 

teeth feel better and sickly trapped

 

I am still on Mun Su Sa's (the Korean Buddhist Temple I attended for years) mailing list for some reason, most likely because they don't have the person power to trim their mailing list.

Every once in a while, I'll get a letter from them that looks like this:

부처님 오신날 특별 수계법회 안내

불자여, 만약 일체 중생이 처음으로 삼보의 바다로 들어감에 믿음으로써 근본을 삼고, 부처님 가문에 머물러 사는 데 있어서는 계로써 근본을 삼느니라. 처음으로 발심 출가하여 보살의 위 잇기를 원하는 이는 마땅히 먼저 정법계를 받을지니라. 계는 일체행의 공덕장의 근본이며, 바로 불과(佛果)의 길을 행하는 일체행의 근본이니라.

<보살영락본업경 대중수학품>

계를 받는다는 것은 삼보에 대한 믿음을 내었고 불법을 배우고자 한다는 의지의 표현입니다. 범망경 보살계서에서는 이 계를 지니면 어두운 곳에서 불빛을 만난 듯하고, 가난한 이가 보배를 얻은 듯하고, 병난 이가 쾌차함과 같고 갇혔던 죄수가 풀려남과 같고 멀리 집 떠난 이가 돌아온 듯 하리라 하였으니 계가 얼마나 소중하고 기쁘고 환희로운 것인지 모릅니다. 계에 대하여 이런 마음을 가질 수 있는가 없는가는 바로 삶을 이끌어 줄 바른 지표로써 믿고 받아들이느냐 아니냐에 달려 있습니다. 그 판단은 다른 누가 강요할 수 있는 것이 아니라 바로 자신이 하는 것입니다.

따라서 계를 받는 의미는 이것만이 나를 피안으로 인도하는 바른 길임을 확실히 알고 믿는 것입니다. 그리하여 어두운 곳에서 빛을 만난 듯, 폭풍이 몰아치는 바다 한가운데서 구명선(求命船)을 만난 듯 그렇게 반갑고 간절한 마음으로 받아 지니는 것입니다.

밤길을 갈 때에는 등불에 의지하는 것과 같이 아직 지혜가 밝지 않은 초심자는 계율에 의지할 수밖에 없습니다. 그러므로 만일 부처님의 제자가 되겠다고 하는 이는 누구나 계를 받을 수 있으며 받아야 합니다.

‘나는 근기가 안됐어, 다음에 받지‘하고 물러설 것이 아니라 부처님의 가르침이 고통스러운 현실에서 상락아정(常樂我淨)의 열반의 세계로 이끌어가는 길이라는 믿음이 있고 또 그 길에 함께 하고 싶다면 먼저 수계하고, 주의의 사람에게도 수계를 권해야 합니다. 이번 초파일에 한국의 전계대화상이셨던 일타 큰스님의 제자이신 포해당 도범 회주스님을 계사(戒師)로 모시고 특별 수계의식을 갖고자 합니다.

법명이 있으신 분들은 이름과 법명을 법명이 없으신 분들은 생년월일과 이름을 적으시어 5월 20일 까지 보내 주시면 감사하겠습니다.

수계식; 5월 27일 일요일 오후 3시 문수사 법당

불기 2556(2012) 5월 10일

문수사 주지 혜각 합장

Due to my own slothfulness, something that regular readers of this blog should be well acquainted with by now, I failed to learn to speak Korean with the exception of some very badly pronounced common phrases like "I'm sorry" (used quite bit), "Hello", "Goodbye", "Thank you very much" etc. In the olden days of the mid 90's, when I received a note from the temple, I used to break out my Korean to English dictionary and try to translate the text.  Ah - the blissful ignorance of those early days.  To think that all there was to translating was a good codebook or decoder ring.  Rarely did I come up with what seemed like possibly true translations. Most times, I quit in frustration after several hours. My efforts would usually result in an unsatisfying lap full of nouns and root verbs.  (By the way - for an excellent article on the art of translation - please see Chong Go Sunim's post over at Wake Up & Laugh.  It will be well worth the mouse-click)

My experience with the 90's dictionary method and dim memory of Korean vocabulary leads me to think that the note above is about Buddha's Birthday and perhaps about sign up sheets for the ancestor tags that hang beneath the lotus lanterns in the dharma hall.  I'm not sure though.. 

This morning I turned to the magic of Google Translate, which took the above Korean text and translated it into the following.  Boy - if I only had Google Translate in the old days.. I could have, with a few mouse clicks, figured out that this note was not about Buddha's Birthday at all, but rather that "teeth feel better and sickly trapped.."

Great Basin Vesak ceremonies Guide

 Blew over, if all sentient beings in a sea of Sambo for the first time by entering these fundamental beliefs and teaching of the Buddha stayed in the house when it comes to buying gyerosseo samneunira fundamentals. Balsim first ordained above the Bodhisattva offline first Act ought to want the system shall receive. Gyeneun chapter is the bedrock of the merits of any row, it just (佛果) way of doing any of the fundamental yinira row.

                                             <Bosalyoungrakboneopgyeong daejungsuhakpum>

 Sambo, a belief in it is get gyereul illegal steaming is an expression of commitment to learning. If the genie in bosalgye beommanggyeong this plane met the light in the dark devouring, devouring the poor gained precious teeth, teeth feel better and sickly trapped like a prisoner, released the same distance south and left the house back teeth will seem precious and hayeoteuni gyega may joy and delight to new. These systems the mind there is no way that you can have just the right to lead a life as an indicator will depend on whether or not to accept believed. To enforce the judgment, rather than someone else that they will immediately.

Thus, under gyereul meaning that leads to this only hits me know for sure is to believe right stretches. I met seemed so light in dark places, in the midst of a stormy sea, the lifeboats (求 命 船) met seemed so happy and will eagerly accept the genie.

When going into the night, as yet, relying on the wisdom of light not as bright as the beginners are forced to rely on the precept. If, therefore, to become a Buddha's disciple, and that it must be gyereul anyone.

"I'm not muscular, not the next 'step back, and the teachings of the Buddha, but in reality this painful sangrakahjeong (常 樂 我 净) of the Buddha's world has led to the belief that the road along the way and then if you want to First, water, and water system must encourage a man of note. Chopail dialogs in this field in South Korea who was a disciple who keunseunimui ilta pohaedang dobeom gray monk Broiler (戒 师) invite to the ceremony will take up water.

Beopmyeong know if you are a name and a beopmyeong beopmyeong the date of birth and name of the people who do not write to Shea on May 20th, we would appreciate your sending us.

Sugyesik; Sunday, May 27, 15:00 munsusa hall

2556 Blow (2012), May 10 

Twisting hyegak not munsusa

Cathedral of the Holy Apophasis

 

 

 

 

Peter puts his finger right on my dark, howling, and ever present uncertainty.

And how I just want to run screaming from liturgies

that are all about how much

G-d loves us.

Tell me: where is the

Cathedral of the Holy Apophasis?

 

 

 

Your Problem….

 

 

 

 

 

"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are."

 

 - Anne Lamott  (via The River of Whiskey)

 

 

Thank you card for WU&L

 

 

 

 

 

for taking the time

to post

 

 

 

What is left to be said - an exhortation and a plea

 

 

 

 

Marcus over at Wake Up and Laugh noted in a new blog post the relative quiescence that has been evident on that blog for the last two months or so.  He said he looked back through the archives at the many wonderful posts that are there and wondered "What is there left to say?  How many ways can one say it?  How many times can one say it?"

For my own selfish sake and for the sake of all sentient beings, I offer Seung Sahn Kun Sunim's exhortation: "Try, try, try, for ten thousand years non-stop!"

For my own selfish sake and for the sake of all sentient beings I offer this plea:  Keep going.  Keep sharing.  Even if what you do is re-post popular posts so they get into people's RSS feeds again.  Repetition is good.  Many times I'll read the same things at various times in my life and they will hit me completely differently. The Bood knew about repetition.  Spend a few minutes with one of the Tathagata's discourses and you'll see what I mean.... 

Plus, WU&L is like this beacon or lighthouse that pulses wisdom and kindness out into the blogosphere.  It would be a loss for it to go dark. 

I hope they keep at it.  

Whatever happens - I extend my sincere thanks to Chong Go Sunim and all the other authors at WU&L for their generous and good hearted efforts over the years..  

 

 

(A note on the image above:  This is Amida Buddha's attendant Avalokiteshvara bending over to offer a Lotus bowl for those he is welcoming into the Pure Land.  I found this figure very moving because unlike most other Buddhist statues, this one is not posed in a classic position with his hands in one of the standard mudras.  Avalokiteshvara is engaged.  He is offering what he has, over and over and over and over again.)

 

May we all offer what we have to the world, over and over and over again.

 

 

Samsara in animation and song

 

 

 

 

 

..with a little bit of the Fire Sermon at the end..

(Thx to my favorite portal into NYC coolness - Dance, nails. Dance.)

 

 

"Easy Way Out"

Seventeen seconds and I'm over it
Ready for the disconnect
Putting on a brave face
Trying not to listen
To the voices in the back of my head

But it's alright now
(It's a distant memory baby)
Alright now
(You know you should just let it go)

Some feelings have a habit of persisting
Even though you wouldn't let it show

Wearing me out
(All this)
Hanging around
(It just starts)
Getting me down
('Til I'm just)
Looking for an easy way out

Brain-dead from boredom
I'm led to distraction
Scratching the surface of life
Nothing really happens
But it's easy to keep busy
When you tell yourself you're traveling right

But it's alright now
(Was it really worth it baby?)
Alright now
(Was it just a waste of time?)

Keep on second-guessing
Use my memory like a weapon
On everything I try

Wearing me out
(All this)
Hanging around
(It just starts)
Getting me down
('Til I'm just)
Looking for an easy way out

Wearing me out
(But it's alright now)
Hanging around
(Alright now)
Getting me down
(But it's alright now)
Looking for an easy way out

Interesting post on Buddhism and Aht

 

 

 

 

Over at Sujato’s blog is post I quite enjoyed on Buddhism and Aht titled Art and Ought.   Some snippets to whet your appetite: I was at a Buddhist gathering recently, and I heard the following exchange. A young man asked the question: ‘I’m a painter. I’ve been through some dark times, and this is expressed in my work. I don’t know whether I should put my paintings out there. I think there’s something valuable in what I’ve done, but I don’t want to just make others depressed.’ The answer, more or less: ‘Wait till you’re happy and put out happy paintings.’ This captures a deep ambivalence in Buddhism towards art. On the one hand, there is an extraordinarily rich heritage of Buddhist art, so much so that for many places in some periods the history of art is the history of Buddhist art. But there is also this feeling, often not quite articulated, that there is something untrustworthy about art. It belongs to the realm of the senses, and is merely a trap, an illusion. …. On the other hand there is, shall we say, ‘expressive art’. This is art that has no ‘moral’ or ‘message’, but expresses what someone feels or wants to say. It has no ought, only an is. Lou Reed was once asked whether his song ‘Heroin’ was for or against taking heroin. He said it was not for it or against it – it was about it. That is expressive art in a nutshell: not judging, but experiencing. And that is why the moralists are afraid of expressive art. They are afraid that if everything we do or say does not contain the right kind of moral message, it is somehow an invitation to chaos. So for most Buddhists, who are primarily interested in Buddhism as a message or a moral, didactic art is fine, but expressive art is dubious. And so if you don’t have a Buddhist message, perhaps it’s best if you wait until you have the right thing to say before you say it. …… Thanks to Bhante Sujato for his post…

 

 

 

 

happiness

 

 

 

 

 

those naïve fools

who say

happiness

does not come

from material

possessions

never got a

brand new

atomic café coffee mug

in the mail

 

 

just sayin’

What is your thread?

 

 

 

 

From an Edward Espe Brown Dharma talk titled “I’m Still Here: “William Stafford, you know, says there’s a [Golden] thread you follow.  It goes among things but it doesn’t change.  As long as you hold onto it you can’t get lost.  You have to explain to people what you’re doing.  Tragedies happen.  People grow old and get sick.  You suffer and grow old.  Nothing you can do can stop time’s unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread. So we all have some thread, and it’s very mysterious. What is your thread and how do you find your way along your thread and not be caught up in seeking approval?  Um, you know, referencing yourself with everything outside of you…  Are they happy with you?  Do they approve?   And, uh, to follow your thread, sometimes, it’s not easy, and other people don’t necessarily agree or value what you’re doing”.  I’ve only recently rediscovered my thread from when I was a very young boy,  the solitude of the forest, the mountains, the sea.  What is your thread?

 

 

 

 

only the way of your life

 

 

“in matters of the heart..
…there is no right
or wrong
way
to do it,
but only the way
of your life.

Just paying attention
will teach you
what bears fruit
and what
doesn't.

But it will
be necessary
to revise —
to doodle,
scratch out,
erase,
make a mess of things —
in order to make
it come
out
right.”

(from “The Cloister Walk” –  Kathleen Norris)

Fuck 'em all but six...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Apple Dharma

 

 

 

 

words of wisdom lloyd, words of wisdom....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wise Up

~Aimee Mann~

 

 

It's not
What you thought
When you first began it
You got
What you want
Now you can hardly stand it though,
By now you know
It's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
'Til you wise up

You're sure
There's a cure
And you have finally found it
You think
One drink
Will shrink you 'til you're underground
And living down
But it's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
'Til you wise up

Prepare a list of what you need
Before you sign away the deed
'Cause it's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
It's not going to stop
'Til you wise up
No, it's not going to stop
'Til you wise up
No, it's not going to stop
So just...give up

 

 

 

 

 

Aimee Mann-Sensei laying down some excellent
riffs on dependent origination

 

 

 

 

 

a rapture even i can get behind..

 

One of the highest bars (even higher than belief in a supreme being) inhibiting me from joining a traditional Christian community is the notion of judgment and eternal punishment for the 'wicked.'  I can't get beyond this.  It seems barbaric in the extreme.  For me –  the idea that I (or anyone for that matter) could possibly worship a being that will torture me and my brothers and sisters for all eternity, is –  well –  just the teensiest bit bonkers.

 

One of my favorite philosophers, Schopenhauer expressed his views about eternal punishment in this way:

“Taken in its ordinary meaning, the dogma is revolting, for it comes to this: it condemns a man, who may be, perhaps, scarcely twenty years of age, to expiate his errors, or even his unbelief, in everlasting torment; nay, more, it makes this almost universal damnation the natural effect of original sin, and therefore the necessary consequence of the Fall. This is a result which must have been foreseen by him who made mankind, and who, in the first place, made them not better than they are, and secondly, set a trap for them into which he must have known they would fall; for he made the whole world, and nothing is hidden from him. According to this doctrine, then, God created out of nothing a weak race prone to sin, in order to give them over to endless torment. And, as a last characteristic, we are told that this God, who prescribes forbearance and forgiveness of every fault, exercises none himself, but does the exact opposite; for a punishment which comes at the end of all things, when the world is over and done with, cannot have for its object either to improve or deter, and is therefore pure vengeance. So that, on this view, the whole race is actually destined to eternal torture and damnation, and created expressly for this end, the only exception being those few persons who are rescued by election of grace, from what motive one does not know.

Putting these aside, it looks as if the Blessed Lord had created the world for the benefit of the devil! it would have been so much better not to have made it at all.

…

God creates a being out of nothing, forbids him some things, and enjoins others upon him; and because these commands are not obeyed, he tortures him to all eternity with every conceivable anguish; and for this purpose, binds soul and body inseparably together, so that, instead, of the torment destroying this being by splitting him up into his elements, and so setting him free, he may live to eternal pain. This poor creature, formed out of nothing! At least, he has a claim on his original nothing: he should be assured, as a matter of right, of this last retreat, which, in any case, cannot be a very evil one: it is what he has inherited. I, at any rate, cannot help sympathizing with him.”

I'm right there with Mr S.  Right. There.

But every now and again –  I run into Christian writing like Mr Rollins above and I think –  “How Buddhist!  This is a notion even I can get behind..”

Enjoy.