Greenway Abbey

Greenway Abbey

I stopped enchanted by a pool of trees,
A path that knew its course was false.
Our vision shifted to tree reflections
Calling to be seen, to be followed.

I stood enchanted on the pine forest floor.
A face, two eyes, a nose, looked out from
The nearest - old, chants sent upward,
Branches gone, shorter, longer, green.

I sat enchanted above the river basin.
A morning orchestra of birds bursts sudden.
A dry seat for sound and a visit to
Basho’s beaches, mountains and streams.

I turned to the temptation of nonexistence,
Corn stalk cemetery’s lines of silence.
Up! It's time to walk on in true silence,
No longer grasping for endings.
They will come.
They will go.


Genesee Abbey, April 21, 2007

A lotus for you, a Buddha to be.

I've heard this expression before, Thich Nhat Hanh teaches it as a greeting. It is very rich in it's potency and latency - how do I act and talk with another who is a Buddha to be?

What never occurred to me is that joining the palms creates a lotus bud. Duh! What a beautiful way to greet another Buddha to be - with a lotus bud and a bow.

Ven. Nhat Hanh says, "As I bow, mindfulness becomes real in me. Seeing my deep reverence, the person to whom I bow also becomes awake... Suddenly the Buddha in each of us begins to shine, and we are in touch with the present moment."

As Jack R. teaches, only raised consciousness and raise consciousness.

A lotus for you all, Buddhas to be. Gassho.

Haiku by Basho

From "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" (1689)

Turn the head of your horse

Sideways across the field,

To let me hear

The cry of a cuckoo.

Thomas Merton

I spent the weekend at the Genesse Abbey, a Trappist monastery south of Rochester, NY. I'll talk more about this experience later this week. But quickly I want to share a couple of quotes from Thomas Merton's book "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander". Merton was a Trappist monk and so much more.

"Why can we not be content with an ordinary, secret, personal happiness that does not need to be explained or justified? We fee guilty if we are not happy in some publicly approved way, if we do not imagine that we are meeting some standard of happiness that is recognized by all. God give us the gift and the capacity to make our own happiness out of our own situation. And it is not hard to be happy, simply be accepting what is within reach and making of it what we can. "


"In the long run, no one can show another the error that is within him, unless the other is convinced that his critic first sees and loves the good that is within him. So while we are perfectly willing to tell our adversary that he is wrong, we will never be able to do effectively until we can ourselves appreciate where he is right."

"Love, love only, love of our deluded fellow man as he actually is, in his delusion and in his sin: this alone can open the door to truth."

Grief in a Whole World

I grieve for the students and the family and friends of the V. Tech students who were murdered the other day. Sadness comes from my gut for them. I also grieve with all those associated with V. Tech. I also grieve, in a different way, for the terribly delusioned murderer.

Now - in a whole world I also grieve for 150 residents of Iraq murdered yesterday. And I grieve for the 15 to 30 soldiers killed every month now. And on. In a whole world all these deaths call for grief and for attention to delusions that bring them about.

Jealousy

My son recently described an experience of his to me, an intense meditation experience. I found myself feeling jealousy

(I was able to let it be, let it pass, and it was replaced with pride for him.)

Why do we feel jealous? Some teachers say it is because we are not fully in love with ourselves; that makes sense. It seems to me however that first we need to fully know ourselves, to know our full selves, and to know ourselves fully in each moment. Gods, that seems like it could be a lot of work. But better than the suffering that jealousy brings.

My jealousy yesterday was a doorway to knowing myself fully in that moment and a window to seeing myself more fully in this moment now.

Doorways opening inward
allow spring breezes to push open
doorways opening outward.

Practice and Liturgy

How do we become more compassionate than we often are? Practice.

How do we become more peaceful than we often are? Practice.

How do we ...? The answer ALWAYS is PRACTICE.

My Catholic priest friend Mark Hobson remarked recently to me on how the core of Catholic liturgy is belief and faith-based; and how impressed he was that core of Zen liturgy is practice-based. In fact, from the Zen perspective all of life is liturgy if we are practicing non-judgemental awareness in each moment.

This Habit of "I"

Just as in connection with this form, devoid of self,
My sense of "I" arose through strong habituation,
Why should not the thought of "I",
Through habit, not arise related to another?

- Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

Kindness and exploration

Meeting strangers with openess while I travel is an invigorating experience. It reaffirms that kindness brings joy and exploration can expand personal horizons.

My taxi driver here in Dallas last night is a member of the Baha'i faith. I learned more about Baha'i in 20 minutes than Wikipedia could ever have taught me, including a personal experience of an incredibly generous response to loss and suffering.

Ruben, who just brought my breakfast into my hotel room now is professional and kind despite working a job since 6:00 this morning; one that I would run away from.

Where and when today can I offer kindness and the opening for another person to expand their horizon of what they thought was possible in the world?

Snowfall on Easter day

Snowfall on Easter day,
Sparrows back at the feeders.
Nomi's way is blocked.

Stabat mater dolorosa

Yesterday I was listening to music on my headphones in Talkies. When the music I queued up was done playing the next song automatically played. It was the medieval hymn Stabat Mater

Stabat mater dolorosa is Latin for "the sorrowful mother was standing." It is a meditation on Mary's suffering during her son's crucifixion. A timely meditation on Good Friday. The full text of the hymn (http://www.shrinesf.org/stabatmater.htm) gets overly theological for me, not being Christian, but the music is so beautiful.

What I always remember about Good Friday is the response of the wonder that was Jesus to this painful, unjust death. He said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." What if we all, Christian and non-christian alike, took this as the message of the Easter season?

Comfort horizons

These extra couple days of winter don't seem so bad knowing that Spring will be back soon. That's a time horizon to which I can attach hope. A comfort horizon.

How does that work? I have different length comfort horizons for different future events. My three o'clock in the afternoon doldrums will be over by six, that's easy. My chronic nerve condition will last until death, also easy. But in the midst of Winter it is so hard for my body and emotions to hold onto hope.

Maybe trust is the secret.

Winter's last kiss is
cute, maybe affectionate.
Trust her, she'll be back.

Waning gibbous

I did not see her
Waning gibbous late last night.
Shall I say goodbye?

10 Steps to Happiness

A group of UK social scientists tested out ten steps to happiness in Slough, England. Slough is about 20 miles west of London and a diverse but economically challenged city of some 120,000. (The British comedy "The Office" is set in Slough.) The experts called their 3 month experiment a success.

At any rate here at The 10 Steps to Happiness:

• Plant something and nurture it
• Count your blessings - at least five - at the end of each day
• Take time to talk - have an hour-long conversation with a loved one each week
• Phone a friend whom you have not spoken to for a while and arrange to meet up
• Give yourself a treat every day and take the time to really enjoy it
• Have a good laugh at least once a day
• Get physical - exercise for half an hour three times a week
• Smile at and/or say hello to a stranger at least once a day
• Cut your TV viewing by half
• Spread some kindness - do a good turn for someone every day

I say add some meditation and some Van Morrison and make it an even dozen.

Check it out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4436482.stm

Fascinated by sadness

I am both captured by and fascinated with sadness of late. I can't escape it and instead of moping around in it, as had been my habit, I've been expressing it. In the expression there is unveiled a depth to the sadness inside of which I often appreciate what I find - not only real reasons for being sad but also other emotions mixed in, mostly appreciative ones: affection, longing, even joy.

An obsolete use of the word fascinated is "bewitched" - for me the being caught in moping. The current use can included "enthralled." Isn't it interesting for one to be enthralled by sadness. I love these seemingly contradictory meanings. They are great for haiku. They are true for life.

Walking away

Walking away brings
realization of ways
in the mist, both front and back.