Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
–T.S. Eliot (1935), The Rock, Part 1. image: last day at the Mayne Island farmers’ market.
just a moment, please
mindfulness task #8
Ryushin writes from Great Vow Zen Monastery in Oregon:
My sincere apologies [...] I’ve been away visiting family and wasn’t mindful of having someone tend to the weekly task in my absence. For the next two weeks we will return to smiling practice. It’s a wonder that our body functions and the world comes together moment to [...]
ready for this?
From a talk given by Japanese Zen Teacher Roshi Miyamae in 1999:
“You think your physical body is ‘real substance.’ Not only your body, but also you are probably convinced that your mental process is real-substance as well. You feel the pinch on your skin. You speak, you think, you hear and see. You actually exist [...]
close to home
This is a follow-up to Monday’s post (we are one). I’ve since found the book I’d hoped someone had written. In Oneness: great principles shared by all religions Jeffrey Moses shows that the founders of every major religious tradition–among them Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, and Mohammad–have taught the notion of loving our neighbour.
Why do “we” find it so difficult (impossible) to like, love, [...]
sickie
i’ve been sick with flu for a week. will post again soon. keep warm. lots of liquids. garlic under your tongue. vegetarian chicken soup. socks in bed. hack, hack. may all beings be happy!
update: GP listened, probed, and prescribed antibiotics. plan to be back in a day or so. thank you for your kind wishes.”
“sounds like bronchitis to [...]
last words
Fear has no home here
Salmon swims back to its stream
No hesitation.
Rena Chase is a retired health care social worker living on Mayne Island. She writes: “During a retreat we wrote our own ‘death haiku.’ Mine was inspired by the amazing life-cycle of the salmon.”
monkey mind (2)
BBC World Service: Man found to have monkey under hat
A man has been questioned by police at LaGuardia airport in New York after smuggling a monkey onto a flight from Peru/Florida by hiding it under his hat. Passengers spotted the animal when it climbed out and perched on the man’s ponytail, a Spirit Airlines spokeswoman [...]
spiritual companioning
Rev. Linda Siddall is chaplain with the Hospice of San Mateo, CA. She was one of my classmates in the Metta Program and continues to teach me ways of being present with another person. She describes spiritual companioning as the art of soul-to-soul presence.
“Spiritual companioning allows us to enter another’s world, seeing them as whole. It is [...]
we are one
… continuing from my post of Saturday, November 17
Michael Laitman writes: “According to the wisdom of Kabbalah*, our interdependency stems from the ‘oneness’ concept, from the fact that we are not only interdependent, but are all one entity. Our faces may seem different, but underneath our skins, we are quite similar. If we hadn’t been [...]
everybody’s right
Ken Wilber writes that in his Theory of Everything,
“I have one major rule: Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody–including me–has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace …”(p.140).
Wilber (b. 1949), is an American integral thinker and author. [...]
are we all one?
revised Monday
I’ve long been uncomfortable with the one-religion-versus-another attitude. Continuing from yesterday’s post, I’m exploring what various wisdom traditions make of the phenomenon of inter-connectedness.
To start, Dan Millman (author of The Way of the Peaceful Warrior) writes: “The act of ‘exchanging self for other’ is one of the most profound spiritual practices of all time. In a sense, with every breath you live [...]
breathing as one
A recurring concern of sitting with a dying person is knowing what to do when there seems nothing TO do. The patient doesn’t acknowledge my presence, doesn’t respond when I address her, seems not to notice my touch when I offer it. Last week a seasoned volunteer told me that in such situations she might stay for a while, then [...]
monkey mind
Independent scholar Ken Wilber has studied the world’s contemplative practices and arrived at an integral “theory of everything” which embraces the truths of Eastern spirituality and Western science. His thoughts on meditation are of great help whenever I feel discouraged by all that commotion within:
“When you practice meditation, one of the first things you realize is that your mind—and [...]
who .. me .. timid?
The sorcerer Don Juan said to Carlos Castaneda (in Journey to Ixtlan):
“We don’t have time, my friend, that is the misfortune of human beings. Focus your attention on the link between you and your death without remorse or sadness or worrying. Focus your attention on the fact that you don’t have time and let your [...]
in remembrance
November 11: a holiday, according to the calendar, for many a day off from work. For one brief moment, let it be a Holy Day. A day to remember all who have suffered from wars (and all who are suffering this moment around the globe), regardless of religion, nationality, beliefs–whether civilian or combatants, making no distinctions between aggressors and vanquished, [...]
