septembre 2009
Not thinking what I see
Late afternoon. I'm sitting in an armchair in the back garden, under the overhang, watching the wind whip the world to and fro. Above the tree line, the sky veers from pale gray back to [...]
Loop of what is at hand
Summer is drawing to its end, and I have no answer. Perhaps that is the answer, as always: Pen moving across page, fingers tapping keys, letters, then words, then phrases. Not looking forward or back, [...]
Contre toute attente
Rain today, contre toute attente, and after a night of somewhat stifling heat that had had me tossing over and over in my bed. Was convinced in reverie that it was all due to biological [...]
août 2009
Always returning, wherever I go
Coming and going again. Corsica was a marvelous Mediterranean gem. A perfect nine days wandering amid turquoise sea, white sand, rugged mountains. Kindness also bountiful. Now for something completely different: Normandy for final summer retreat. [...]
Talk in August 2009, Portugal
Out of Bounds: The Bodhisattva’s Way Since yesterday I’ve been thinking about a question someone asked: Is there ever any mention of compassion in this Zen practice? Is there any emphasis on compassion? I was [...]
Retreat notes, Portugal (II)
As we sit in the cool room in the midday heat, the roof cracks and creaks overhead. I am filled with a swelling love for this beautiful building, its selfless giving of itself so that [...]
Retreat notes, Portugal (I)
A woman tells me on the first night during my introduction instructions that although she didn't know anything about Zen, she came to the retreat because, she said, she told herself that if she didn't [...]
Talk in Portugal, Aug. 3, 2009
Ritually rich, in and out of order As was requested, I will try to say something about the forms and rituals of this practice. Before that question came up this morning, I had been writing [...]
juillet 2009
Sit and see
Ready to "go" again. Retreat in Portugal this time. After all these years, I still love (or am in love with?) the idea that any number of disparate individuals choose to come together from their [...]
Falls a maple leaf
Amid the bustle of worldly affairs, summer is hot and cool, dry and wet, clear and overcast, day and night... I'm like that, too, one activity, another activity, and another... The papers are full of [...]
We’ll never be there again
Back now from retreat. Return after a week away to find the city relaxed, moving step by step, unbound. Recall the mist on the green morning hills outside my window before a first sitting. Night [...]
To one and all
Off for a week, in retreat. Keeping in mind the words of Obaku, one of the ancestors: I don't expect anything. I just bow. And so I do, to one and all.
How the light gets in
Listen to the silence. Then Leonard Cohen last night. How marvelous: Everything has a crack; that's how the light gets in.
juin 2009
Life and death in black and white
Summer in the city. I'm just going through the day, hot and sunny, blue-sky fine. What else is there to do? Somewhere across the Atlantic, Madoff gets 150 years in prison and the talk is [...]
Summer retreats 2009
Living in occupied territory? Revolt! Sit down and vacate with the Wild Flower Sangha. Practice, study, experience the art of everything-is-practice. Beginners welcome. Two summer retreats, in France and in Portugal: Aug. 1-8, Portugal info [...]
A bonus plant, by night and day
Summer's good tonight. Not a cloud in the sky. The day birds are making their last calls, night birds not yet starting up. One of the orchids on my table - the bonus plant, I [...]
In accord with worldly affairs
It's Friday. There was work today, so much that I didn't stop for lunch. On a television in another office, weekly prayers in Tehran seemed loud amid what has until now been mostly silent upheaval. [...]
Happy Bloomsday!
Happy Bloomsday, one and all! Like Leopold Bloom 105 years ago today, you're the hero of this day. Look around! It's all worth celebrating, morning to night. As Molly said from beginning to end: Yes. [...]
This is where we are
D.H. Lawrence said that the soul can get to heaven in one leap but that, if it does, it leaves a demon in its place. It could also be like this: The soul that thinks [...]
In perpetual motion
Realize it's been a week since previous posting. Much coming and going (nowhere): In the Métro, in the streets, in the newspapers, on the radio and television, everybody's coming and going (nowhere), too. A plane [...]
Alexis says:
Alexis says:
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