Zen Sense

The Meeting of Jesus and Buddha And so they arrive at this strange yet familiar place a desert before a forest. Each with a small entourage, which they caution back. Robed in cream and tan, palms pressed together before their heart, they step across the gap. Bowing to each other they smile and embrace. Sitting together on the earth, they face each other, as a warm light holds the world in profound silence. 

  This begins a series of posts to share the  zen sense in our lives. Share yours and  favorites.   1. From ancient Chinese poet Stonehouse (1300) trans. Red Pine T hese lines from ancient poet Stonehouse echo my own thoughts:  the leaves in the stream move without a plan the clouds in the valley drift without design I close my eyes and everything is fineI   open them again because I love mountains - Stonehouse.#52 (My love is for clouds.) 2. Apple zen Poem by poet Stonehouse trans. Red Pine Two Zen Hermit Poets: Stonehouse & Ryokan  500 years apart .com/Poem Peace Is this Moment poem by Dorothy Hunt Peace is This Moment Without Judgment  --Dorothy Hunt ​ Do you think peace requires an end to war? Or tigers eating only vegetables? Does peace require an absence from your boss, your spouse, yourself?... Do you think peace will come some other place than here? Some other time than Now? In some other heart than yours?  ​ Peace is this mo...

===== What Is Not There This evening I look out at the tree trimmed today and  smile at something that is not there. On a book cover once I printed a title word white on white. It was not there. I regreted it until I saw my sorrow was for something not there. Last year I drove past my old family home and found an empty lot. It was not there, yet it was.   Imagine your pain and fears and then...stop imagining. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

STONEHOUSE POEMS I sit and meditate in the quiet and dark where nothing comes to mind I sweep in front when the west wind is done I make a path for the moonligh ==== How could someone who practices not become a buddha if water drips long enough even rocks wear through it’s not true a thick skull can’t be pierced a person just needs a hard enough mind

Healings Imagine your pains and fears and then...stop imagining. Know this... You are loved and you love others.

  [These lines from ancient poet Stonehouse echo my own thoughts.  Translation  by Red Pine ]   the leaves in the stream move without a plan the clouds in the valley drift without design                                       I close my eyes and everything is fine I  open them again because                                                                           I love mountains - Stonehouse.#52    

Pathways                        (for Nancy) Wayfinding they call it now, the moving along a trail without directions. And no longer guide but interpreter who fills you in at the end. So wayfinders we become, with a nod from Lao Tzu. All life a Zen koan for us to interpret.

Just this...

Ann and Larry Smith... Join Us.  

 Thoreau on being a poet July 1, 1840 in Thoreau’s  Journal: The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper, coincident with the production of this which is stereotyped in the poet’s life —is what he has become through his work…Let not the artist expect that his true work will stand in any prince’s gallery.

CHANTING IN TIME  

  From The Zen of Creativity -John Loori "The freedom of Zen and the Zen arts appears not in rejection or disregard of form, but within the form itself. It unfolds as practice. It ls there that it becomes the form of no form, the effort of no effort, the rule of no rule." Like a Zen koan here. Like the meaning of practice not for something other than itself. The practice of practice.

  Prayer for us all Terry Tempest Williams Prayer for us all....Terry Tempest Williams  I prayed for strength to remain open and receptive. I prayed to love and be loved in all its manifestations.  I prayed to be generous, to give and receive. I prayed for the forgiveness of those I have harmed. I prayed that I might survive my griefs and express my gratitude. I prayed to honor differences, while seeking unity.  I prayed for discernment, to praise what is beautiful and to sanctify what is not.  I prayed for the poor and I prayed for the lonely.  I prayed for the health and wholeness of all beings, human and wild.  I prayed for my body and the body of Earth, believing we are One. I prayed for arousal that leads us to birth.  I prayed for rain in times of drought.  I prayed for mothers in their times of need as they meet the needs of others. I prayed for each woman, whose heart has been ripped from her chest through sorrow and love, through vio...