For Shelter, the World

Wild

When in the wilderness, you must become wild.

-- Dan Millman, The Journeys of Socrates

Wolf Moon

Full "Wolf" Moon
January 3, 2007
photo taken in Vancouver, Washington State, USA

As it is

Empty cognizance of one taste, suffused with knowing,
Is your unmistaken nature, the uncontrived original state.
When not altering what is, allow it to be as it is,
And the awakened state is right now spontaneously present.

--  Padmasambhava, "Lamrim Yeshe Nyingpa"

gáyatrí

ॐ भूर्भुवस्वः ।

तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।

भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।

धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

om bhur bhuvah svah

tat savitúr várenyam

bhárgo devásya dhimahi

dhíyo yó nah prachodáyaat

You who are the source of all power,

whose rays illuminate the whole world,

illuminate also my heart,

that it too may do your work.

-- trans. Ralph H. Blum

-- gáyatrí mantra; sloka iii, 62,10  of the Rig Veda

Shunyata

Prajñápáramitá
Hridaya Sutra
(Heart Sutra)

The great Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, in the deep course of wisdom beyond wisdom, seeing that the five aggregates are also empty of inherent nature, overcame all suffering and distress.

Shariputra, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is not other than emptiness. Emptiness is not other than form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness.

All phenomena are marked with emptiness. They are neither produced nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of eye, no realm of mind-consciousness, nor anything in between. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, no old-age-and-death, no extinction of old-age-and-death, nor any of the twelve links.

Likewise there is no suffering, no origination, no cessation, and no path; no understanding, no attainment, and no non-attainment.

With nothing to attain the bodhisattva relies on wisdom beyond wisdom and the mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance, there is no fear. Passing beyond every upside-down view, the bodhisattva abides in Nirvana.

All Buddhas in the past, present and future, relying on wisdom beyond wisdom, realize unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment.

Therefore this is the mantra of wisdom beyond wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the mantra that is unsurpassed, the mantra that is equal to the unequalled, the mantra that pacifies all suffering. Free from deception, it is the simple truth:

GATÉ GATÉ PARAGATÉ PARASAMGATÉ BODHI SVAHA

the five aggregates or human attributes (skandhas) = form, feeling, perception (cognition), impulse (volition) and consciousness

prajñápáramitá = the perfection of wisdom

śunyatá (Sanskrit शून्यता) = emptiness

The Wisdom of Insecurity

When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure.

-- Rudolf Bahro, as quoted in Letting Go of Hope by Margaret Wheatley, who goes on to say:

I find it hard to imagine how I can work for the future without feeling grounded in the belief that my actions will make a difference. But Bahro offers a new prospect, that feeling insecure, even groundless, might actually increase my ability to stay in the work. I've read about groundlessness - especially in Buddhism - and recently have experienced it quite a bit. I haven't liked it at all, but as the dying culture turns to mush, could I give up seeking ground to stand on?

Lakshana

25. Transforming that which cannot be transformed

"Subhuti, what do you say? Don't any of you ever say that the Tathagata has this thought: 'I am saving sentient beings.' Subhuti, don't have this thought. And why is this? In truth, there are no sentient beings for the Tathagata to save. If there were sentient beings for the Tathagata to save, then the Tathagata would have lakshana of self, human being, sentient being, and soul.

"Subhuti, when the Tathagata speaks of a self, it is the same as no self, and yet all ordinary people take it as a self. Subhuti, the Tathagata says that ordinary people are not ordinary people, and that this is what is called ordinary people."

-- Section 25 of the Diamond Sutra; Chinese trans. Kumarajiva (401 C.E.); English trans. Tom Graham

(lakshana: deluded awareness)

Prayer for Peace

-- traditional round in three parts

Beginning again

Foundation

With the wild nature as our ally, we see not through two eyes only, but through the many eyes of intuition.

[...]

To live close to the instinctual nature does not mean to become undone. It means to establish one's creative territory, find one's pack, be in one's body with creativity and pride. It means to act in one's own behalf, to find what we belong to. It means to rise with dignity, to proceed as a powerful being who is friendly but never tame.

-- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

Songs for the Winter Solstice (2006)

All praise to Thee, my God, this night,
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,
Beneath Thine own almighty wings.

"Tallis' Canon"; music: Thomas Tallis (1505-1585); words: Thomas Ken (1637-1711)

MIDI file

Skamania County, Washington State, December 2006Mountain peaks obscured by clouds

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse's lineage coming,
as those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
amid the cold of winter,
when half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
the Rose I have in mind;
with Mary we behold it,
the Virgin Mother kind.
To show God's love aright,
she bore to men a Savior,
when half spent was the night.

Words: 15th cent. German, trans. Theodore Baker; Music: 'Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen', Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesang, 1599; Harmony by Michael Praetorius, 1609

MIDI file

No Mind

Little Zen Calendar entry on my birthday:

Just have no mind on things and no things on mind, and you will naturally be empty and spiritual, tranquil and sublime.

-- Te-Shan

Grace

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I'm found

Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear,

The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares

I have already come;

'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease;

I shall possess, within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who call'd me here below,

Will be forever mine.

-- Amazing Grace,  John Newton

All righty, then ...

Clambering up Cold Mountain path,

The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:

The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,

The rushing creek, the dew-soaked grass.

The mossy rocks are slippery, though there's been no rain.

The pine sings, though there's no wind.

Who can leap the world's ties

And sit with me among the clouds?

-- Han-Shen

From Little Zen Calendar, August 31, 2006.

Sat-chit-ananda

I went to a friend's 60th birthday celebration a week ago last Saturday. Instead of a traditional party, she decided to throw herself a birthday meditation, with kirtan (Sanskrit devotional singing) ... and a  homemade-from-scratch chocolate cake afterwards, of course.

Most of the guests were people she has known for a long time, some as long as 30 years, through working at hospice and from other places. Some of them she hadn't seen in many years until inviting them to this. I observed them all as we went around introducing ourselves, and it was neat to see how connected they still were to her, despite the intervening time and space. I was the "newbie" in her life, having met her in March, so instead of being able to talk about my history with her, I talked about the present and future.

A few days ago, she sent us all an email about it.

The past week has been pretty profound and challenging for me -- as it has for a lot of people, I think. I have moved through (or dissolved, or transformed) some roadblocks ... resolving yet again more "stuff"; closing some significant doors and opening new ones; shifting energy; moving to yet another level of being. I got my friend's email right in the middle of that process and immediately took her words deep within, letting them act on me. I kept coming back to her message, reading it over and over. What she said -- the words as well as the energy of it -- became an integral part of what I was doing and experiencing.

With my friend's kind permission, I am copying her message below, to share it with my blog readers.

Dear friends and family,

It's taken me several days to really digest and assimilate my birthday gathering and I just wanted to share with you my deep gratitude for your being there and some further thoughts about it.  It was during meditation that the idea came to me - I had a brief flash of ego stuff -- ie., I don't like big groups, I never have birthday parties etc.--but I have long ago learned to trust my inner guidance, and I said, "oh well, I guess that's what I'll do' but I didn't have a picture of how the night would look and so it took me off guard as I think it did many of you.

WOW! ...when I sat down I realized that the circle that came together really represented the trajectory of my life and heart over the last 30 plus years...I was so struck with the truth that one learns working with people who are dying, that in the end everything fades away except for the love between people.  And there it was for me, and I didn't have to die to experience it -- all of the dramas, the ups, the downs, the goods, the not so goods -- all that we have helped each other through, all of it was gone, and there was the shining love, all that is left, all that is really real.

My guru, Neem Karoli Baba (Maharajji) was with us the whole time - I experienced him hanging out in the middle of the circle, laughing and very pleased with himself.    We not only experienced his Grace, but we, as a group, experienced what on the yogic path is known as sat-chit-ananda (truth/conciousness/bliss)...in other words, that the underlying reality is nothing but love.  What a great gift to have received together.

I remember one year at Breitenbush, K noted that she couldn't remember what the dramas were the year before, but we all were in our particular ones that year, and that the only thing we could know for sure was that there would be other ones the next year.....but somehow, we can connect into what underlies it all, hold on to the sat-chit-ananda, hold on to the love we have in this wonderful big family and moment by moment, we'll get through.

love, B

Liberation

Decay is inherent in all compound things. Work out your own enlightenment with diligence.

-- final words of the Buddha Gautama

These prisons of the senses, sorrow fraught;
Sore was my ceaseless strife!
But now,
Thou builder of this tabernacle--Thou!
I know Thee.
Never shalt Thou build again
These walls of pain,
Nor raise the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay
Fresh rafters on the clay;
Broken Thy house is, and the ridge-pole split!
Delusion fashioned it!
Safe pass I thence--deliverance to obtain.

-- Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia (poetic biography of the Buddha)

Interior of my house in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi -- November 20, 2005

Random photos of debris piles in front of my house in Bay St. Louis, MS -- October-November, 2005

Why I love Portland

This is why I love Portland.

This is from a Portland photo gallery website which publishes new photos daily. Take some time to check it out. Portland is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own unique history, charm and flavor.

Freedom

My barn having burned to the ground,
I can now see the moon.

~ unknown author

Strawberry Moon

I just realized that yesterday (June 11) was the sixth-month anniversary of my arrival in Portland. Things didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned ... I thought I would take a month or so to "rest", then get busy creating my new life here. In actuality, the process has taken a lot longer than that, as I've blogged about here. The good news is, I've learned pretty solidly how to trust and allow the process of my life to unfold. And it is unfolding in some pretty amazing ways, that have a much greater depth and excitement to them than I could ever have planned.

Yesterday was also the day of the Gemini-Sagittarius Full Moon. In Native American traditions, this particular full moon is known as the "Strawberry Moon", because the short harvest season of the strawberry crops takes place during June. There is a wonderful spot near my house that has a great view of Mt. Hood, where I have been wanting for months to take a photo of the full moon rising over the mountains. I went out at 9:45 tonight to do so -- at these high latitudes, that's when the sun goes down, nearing the solstice -- but the sky was overcast. Although there was a nice sunset going on in the west, the moonrise was not visible in the east. That's for another time, I guess.

On my way home, I stopped at a local establishment that has great fresh strawberry milkshakes, made from local Oregon strawberries -- one thing Oregon has in common with Louisiana, although in the South, the strawberries ripen in April. However, they were out of strawberries (people celebrating the full moon, perhaps?), so I had to "settle" for a mocha milkshake.

In the Buddhist calendar, the June full moon (the first full moon after Wesak, which celebrates the enlightenment of the Buddha Gautama) coincides with the Festival of Goodwill.

Peace, harmony, and good will toward all people and all beings, everywhere.

One of my favorite websites said today, about the zeitgeist of this full moon,

Optimism in the face of a host of conflicting and confusingly problematic scenarios isn't exactly the point...but maintaining a simple, quiet calm IS. The issue isn't optimism vs. pessimism. It's much more about finding the center.

When I'm in the center, I don't need to plan or figure out. Things I've known for a long time are becoming crystal clear at deep levels of my being.

There is nothing to fear.

Lotus

May we exist like a lotus,

At home in the muddy water.

Thus we bow to life as it is.

-- Zen saying

Change

A friend of mine referred me to this review of David Chadwick's biography of Shunryu Suzuki, Crooked Cucumber.

Shunryu Suzuki was once asked to summarize Buddhism in a sentence. The audience laughed at the impossibility of that challenge. But the Zen master had a ready answer. “Easy,” he said. “Everything changes.”

I'm heading back down to Dallas, TX tomorrow. My father's been in the hospital, so I need to be there. I'll be flying, and the cats are quite happy that they get to stay home this time. I think they got their lifetime fill of travelling last fall after the hurricane.

I'll be taking my laptop, so with luck I'll be able to have a good Internet connection.