With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Morning of the only day there is
opens in silence.
My breath is slow and steady.
My heart opens to you.
Breathing in, I take in our suffering,
breathing out, I offer us my love.
But there is so very much suffering
and yet I am serene.
Last night
at a Rabbi's house
We said a blessing,
ate a lovely meal,
and settled in to watch.
a film
.
It was about an IED unit in Iraq.
And demanded recall:
war is far more than a nasty word...
The energy of deep compassion
Set a-swirl, like the stars in the sky
in a drunken night...i chant,
Everything is precious.
All my past and harmful karma...
Born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,
Through body, speech, and mind,
I now fully avow...
Scotch helps.
As does zazen.
Breathing in,
breathing out.
It is morning.
and I have not slept much.
I sit in the zendo and listen.
The sky is still dark
But the swirls have
become gentle streams.
Vast wings
enfold all beings
and I release myself
into them.
Let war be no more, let love be your light.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Dance
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Senzaki-roshi says, "The old timers in a religious group consider themselves to have reached the top, and then jump from where they are, leaving the very principles of that religion. They are poor fish who cannot swim in the water."
When our eyes are open, there is no question, we swim because it is what we do. An open eye is a completely integrated eye, therefore eye and no eye at once.
When about to face a question, we cannot answer. We answer only when the question is asked and we do so without pointing.
As Leonard Cohen says, dance me till the end of love.
And if love is the essential, core, complete and total reality?
Dance on...
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Senzaki-roshi says, "The old timers in a religious group consider themselves to have reached the top, and then jump from where they are, leaving the very principles of that religion. They are poor fish who cannot swim in the water."
When our eyes are open, there is no question, we swim because it is what we do. An open eye is a completely integrated eye, therefore eye and no eye at once.
When about to face a question, we cannot answer. We answer only when the question is asked and we do so without pointing.
As Leonard Cohen says, dance me till the end of love.
And if love is the essential, core, complete and total reality?
Dance on...
Be well.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Awe
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
The morning brings desert wind and small splatters of rain. I imagine the desert floor is being swept by the Infinite. I remember once while climbing the Organ Mountains, a storm came out of the southwest. From my elevation, I could see it rolling across the valley toward the mountains. The feeling was a sweet combination of fear and utter awe.
Such moments enter one's body like a shotgun to the stomach.
Over time, this feeling lays in wait. It can open and spread, like a pool of honey being fed by that Infinite Wellspring or it can remain a puddle being stepped over by those of us who are busy.
This morning as I walked outside, my feet refused to move. My eyes were fixed on clouds rolling down the slopes of the Organs. I was transfixed.
Whatever the Infinite is, it is here.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
The morning brings desert wind and small splatters of rain. I imagine the desert floor is being swept by the Infinite. I remember once while climbing the Organ Mountains, a storm came out of the southwest. From my elevation, I could see it rolling across the valley toward the mountains. The feeling was a sweet combination of fear and utter awe.
Such moments enter one's body like a shotgun to the stomach.
Over time, this feeling lays in wait. It can open and spread, like a pool of honey being fed by that Infinite Wellspring or it can remain a puddle being stepped over by those of us who are busy.
This morning as I walked outside, my feet refused to move. My eyes were fixed on clouds rolling down the slopes of the Organs. I was transfixed.
Whatever the Infinite is, it is here.
Be well.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
What Next?
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning came too soon and not soon enough. Too soon in the sense that I had a late night with Study Group followed by dinner and long conversation with my close friend friend and psychiatrist, Abe. Not soon enough in that life is so short and there is so much to do.
We discussed a sort of midrash in group. Midrash is a story offering a back-story to a biblical tale. This midrash was about what happened after Jacob discovered God was everywhere and he saw the ladder to heaven. God asks Jacob to go up the ladder and Jacob refused. The question then becomes quite existential.
I likened this to the Zen koan about having attained the top of the hundred foot pole to only be asked, "What is your next step?"
If the top of the pole signifies awakening, then what? Buddha faced this on the morning of his awakening. Jesus likely faced it in the desert after his dance with the devil.
Is this all there is?
How do I face my future? If I am One, then what is the meaning and role of two?
Am I a hero or a coward? Which is to ask, am I authentic or a fraud?
Even with awakening, God in our heart, Jesus on our shoulder, and direct connection with Everything, we still must live.
How?
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning came too soon and not soon enough. Too soon in the sense that I had a late night with Study Group followed by dinner and long conversation with my close friend friend and psychiatrist, Abe. Not soon enough in that life is so short and there is so much to do.
We discussed a sort of midrash in group. Midrash is a story offering a back-story to a biblical tale. This midrash was about what happened after Jacob discovered God was everywhere and he saw the ladder to heaven. God asks Jacob to go up the ladder and Jacob refused. The question then becomes quite existential.
I likened this to the Zen koan about having attained the top of the hundred foot pole to only be asked, "What is your next step?"
If the top of the pole signifies awakening, then what? Buddha faced this on the morning of his awakening. Jesus likely faced it in the desert after his dance with the devil.
Is this all there is?
How do I face my future? If I am One, then what is the meaning and role of two?
Am I a hero or a coward? Which is to ask, am I authentic or a fraud?
Even with awakening, God in our heart, Jesus on our shoulder, and direct connection with Everything, we still must live.
How?
Be well.
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Cosmic Egg
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
There are living opportunities hidden in each moment regardless of time or space. The ground of our lives is fertile. When we reach out, risk, invite, embrace, or express, we transform seed into seedling. Life unfolds through us and our creative spirit moves across its face. The Infinite is in Everything. Allow awe to enfold you, then speak its name.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
There are living opportunities hidden in each moment regardless of time or space. The ground of our lives is fertile. When we reach out, risk, invite, embrace, or express, we transform seed into seedling. Life unfolds through us and our creative spirit moves across its face. The Infinite is in Everything. Allow awe to enfold you, then speak its name.
Be well.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
An Evening
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyman,
Last night was very good to my heart. Children descended on our house. We had a neighbor join us. We enjoyed pizza, a delicious eggplant dish, Buffalo wings (for those who eat such things and son Jacob made a marvelous desert. Granddaughter Livvie played with Pappa's iPhone, son Jacob played a guitar, and at various times, the music of either Jacob or Leonard Cohen.
Laughter was a prominent feature.
After everyone left, I sat for a few moment and enjoyed the silence.
It was a beautiful evening. I am sorry My Little Honey wasn't here to enjoy it. But she is enjoying daughter Sam and grandson Tate in Memphis.
So, after a bit, I decided to put my laundry in the washer, get the dishes done, and take a late night walk under the desert stars. I walked 3/4 of a mile. It was chilly. The sky was expansive and deep and full of starlight.
I walked briskly, stumbling once or twice, but finally getting My Left Foot not to drag. Its an exercise in mindfulness, that. But on the way back I could not help but stop and look a deeply as I possibly could into that velvet sky. We are so fortunate to live in such a way.
There is beauty everywhere because there is life everywhere. Even in the midst of witnessing a disaster such as that in Haiti, we are surrounded by the wonder of humanity and the natural world. When our focus is on the loss, we experience great sadness, but we should then shift our attention to those being in service: there is the practice opportunity. Witness it. Then we take our own next step.
Morning Zazen at 6:30 and 9:00. A Memorial Service for friend Bernie Lieberman at 3:00.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyman,
Last night was very good to my heart. Children descended on our house. We had a neighbor join us. We enjoyed pizza, a delicious eggplant dish, Buffalo wings (for those who eat such things and son Jacob made a marvelous desert. Granddaughter Livvie played with Pappa's iPhone, son Jacob played a guitar, and at various times, the music of either Jacob or Leonard Cohen.
Laughter was a prominent feature.
After everyone left, I sat for a few moment and enjoyed the silence.
It was a beautiful evening. I am sorry My Little Honey wasn't here to enjoy it. But she is enjoying daughter Sam and grandson Tate in Memphis.
So, after a bit, I decided to put my laundry in the washer, get the dishes done, and take a late night walk under the desert stars. I walked 3/4 of a mile. It was chilly. The sky was expansive and deep and full of starlight.
I walked briskly, stumbling once or twice, but finally getting My Left Foot not to drag. Its an exercise in mindfulness, that. But on the way back I could not help but stop and look a deeply as I possibly could into that velvet sky. We are so fortunate to live in such a way.
There is beauty everywhere because there is life everywhere. Even in the midst of witnessing a disaster such as that in Haiti, we are surrounded by the wonder of humanity and the natural world. When our focus is on the loss, we experience great sadness, but we should then shift our attention to those being in service: there is the practice opportunity. Witness it. Then we take our own next step.
Morning Zazen at 6:30 and 9:00. A Memorial Service for friend Bernie Lieberman at 3:00.
Be well.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Blessing
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Reader Michele wrote:
Harvey can you provide me with some insight on blessings. I need balance. I keep hearing from people that they are blessed because they were not part of the Haiti tragedy. I get sooo angry when I see or hear this...I know since I am not in the neutral zone upon hearing "I am blessed," I am not perceiving something......HELP. Please post. Thanks and apologies for the intrusion...
I replied briefly: No one is blessed by not being harmed when others are. If one blade of grass is harmed we are all harmed. Second, try to use your anger to energize you into action. The best way to deal with such things is to do something about them.
It is a human experience to feel relief that we slipped out of harm's way. It is delusion to believe that because you have, you are somehow one of God's "elect". A long time ago, people seemed to dwell obsessively on the question of where they resided in God's eye. Calvin put forth the notion that some of us were, indeed, God's "Elect". How to know? Well, it was easy, those who prospered were the elect, those who didn't weren't. It was the ultimate in dualistic discrimination.
From a Zen perspective, to be blessed is not something we are granted, it is something we experience. The Infinite does not, in our view, parcel out this or that, the Infinite is just that, Infinite. To feel blessed, on the other hand, is to feel gratitude.
All of life is a blessing, that is, an opportunity to experience deeply. We are blessed even in suffering, as suffering is like cold water on the skin on a hot day. Or the sound of an unexpected thunderclap. Suffering demands something of us. First, that we wake up to its existence and second that we experience it in a way that will release it.
On the other hand, none of are special in our experience. And no experience is better or worse than any other It is all life. To assign a meaning to a "good"experience is just as deluded as assigning a meaning to a bad experience. Experience is nothing other than itself.
When someone feels blessed for having escaped destruction, be happy for them. When someone feels special as a result, care for them.
People like Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh are suffering. If we respond with anger, we are not helping. Better to take the energy of anger and turn it into a source of power of transformation. In order to do this, though, we must examine it's source within ourselves.
Being open is a challenge,a it requires a degree of vulnerability we are not accustomed to, yet it is this precisely, which allows for the possibility of intimacy, something tragically missing in our culture.
Kannon taught, "the Bodhisattvas live this deepest wisdom with no hindrance in the mind, no hindrance therefore no fear.." In order to be intimate with each other,we need to feel safe. But most importantly,to feel safe we need to realize our True Nature Practice.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Reader Michele wrote:
Harvey can you provide me with some insight on blessings. I need balance. I keep hearing from people that they are blessed because they were not part of the Haiti tragedy. I get sooo angry when I see or hear this...I know since I am not in the neutral zone upon hearing "I am blessed," I am not perceiving something......HELP. Please post. Thanks and apologies for the intrusion...
I replied briefly: No one is blessed by not being harmed when others are. If one blade of grass is harmed we are all harmed. Second, try to use your anger to energize you into action. The best way to deal with such things is to do something about them.
It is a human experience to feel relief that we slipped out of harm's way. It is delusion to believe that because you have, you are somehow one of God's "elect". A long time ago, people seemed to dwell obsessively on the question of where they resided in God's eye. Calvin put forth the notion that some of us were, indeed, God's "Elect". How to know? Well, it was easy, those who prospered were the elect, those who didn't weren't. It was the ultimate in dualistic discrimination.
From a Zen perspective, to be blessed is not something we are granted, it is something we experience. The Infinite does not, in our view, parcel out this or that, the Infinite is just that, Infinite. To feel blessed, on the other hand, is to feel gratitude.
All of life is a blessing, that is, an opportunity to experience deeply. We are blessed even in suffering, as suffering is like cold water on the skin on a hot day. Or the sound of an unexpected thunderclap. Suffering demands something of us. First, that we wake up to its existence and second that we experience it in a way that will release it.
On the other hand, none of are special in our experience. And no experience is better or worse than any other It is all life. To assign a meaning to a "good"experience is just as deluded as assigning a meaning to a bad experience. Experience is nothing other than itself.
When someone feels blessed for having escaped destruction, be happy for them. When someone feels special as a result, care for them.
People like Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh are suffering. If we respond with anger, we are not helping. Better to take the energy of anger and turn it into a source of power of transformation. In order to do this, though, we must examine it's source within ourselves.
Being open is a challenge,a it requires a degree of vulnerability we are not accustomed to, yet it is this precisely, which allows for the possibility of intimacy, something tragically missing in our culture.
Kannon taught, "the Bodhisattvas live this deepest wisdom with no hindrance in the mind, no hindrance therefore no fear.." In order to be intimate with each other,we need to feel safe. But most importantly,to feel safe we need to realize our True Nature Practice.
Be well.
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