First day of the Fourth month
The resource for the following chant is Zen Chants by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
I have taken lines from different chants and added one of my own.
Life and death are of grave importance—
impermanent and swift.
Wake up, all of you.
Do not waste your life.
May all be equally nourished!
The first spoonful is to end unwholesome actions.
The second spoonful is to cultivate wholesome actions.
The third is to awaken all beings.
Together may we realize the awakened way!
One healthy mindful people!
Second day of the Fourth month
5:26 am British Summer Time
Put the kettle on. No, scratch that, boil some water!
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a healthy baby boy,
weighing 7lbs 3oz, 7thin succession to the throne of England,
named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
The boy is the first grandchild for Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Now put the kettle on.
Third day of the Fourth month
I photograph what I do not wish to paint and I paint what I cannot photograph. —Man Ray
The only known photograph of Vincent Van Gogh was taken in 1872 when the artist was aged nineteen.
Van Gogh painted over 30 self-portraits, notably Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, Easel and Japanese Print (1889) after partially cutting off his own left ear.
Frida Kahlo was photographed frequently at events and even sat for acclaimed photographers Nickolas Muray, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston.
Nonetheless Frida painted 55 self-portraits, notably Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940) after cutting off her own hair with a pair of scissors.
Emotional confessions beyond the eye of the camera, candid expressions in indescribable color, a body of work, a body at work, to see and be seen.
Viva La Vida. Long Live Life. —Frida Kahlo
Fourth day of the Fourth month
I long to have such a memorial of every being dear to me in the world. It is not merely the likeness which is precious in such cases—but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing…the fact of the very shadow of the personlying there fixed forever! It is the very satisfaction of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say, what my brothers cry out against so vehemently, that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest artist’s work ever produced.
Elizabeth Barrett (in a letter, 1843)
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge houses an impressive collection of British portrait miniatures including one of poet John Keats painted by his friend and devoted caregiver Joseph Severn. Most portrait miniatures are oval (approx. 3” x 2½” framed) and painted on ivory, enamel, or vellum—for the Keats’ miniature Severn used watercolor on ivory but chose a slightly larger rectangular frame (4¼” x 3¼”) which also holds a lock of the poet’s hair.
“This miniature was painted as a token of the poet’s love to be given to Fanny Brawne and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1819,” according to a Fitzwilliam Museum handbook.
Sometimes even poets prefer images to words…a matter of expedience.
Fifth day of the Fourth month
Excerpted from The Dodo:
IN THE WILD
Nice Whale Returns Phone Woman Accidentally Dropped Into Sea
"We almost didn't believe what we saw."
The other day, while out and about in Hammerfest, Ina Mansika and her friends decided to head down to the waterfront to see if they could spot the alleged former spy [Beluga whale supposedly trained by the Russian navy]. It was then that something pretty amazing happened.
Not only was the beluga whale there to greet them — he came to the rescue when Mansika had a mishap.
"We laid down on the dock to look at it and hopefully get the chance to pat it," Mansika told The Dodo. "I had forgotten to close my jacket pocket and my phone fell in the ocean. We assumed it would be gone forever, until the whale dove back down and came back a few moments later with my phone in its mouth!"
Beluga whales are beautiful, intelligent creatures. Indeed, nature itself is beautiful and in need of our deep appreciation. It is time to have a sincere conversation about reversing climate change. Nature is calling.
If we live like children of God and we let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, we do good to all creation as well.
Pope Francis
Sixth day of the Fourth month
Modern ergonomic toilets perform a myriad of functions. Nowadays, designers seek utilitarian solutions for the least significant utensil and minutest implement. We seek comfort in a 1,000,001 things like neck pillows. Yet a little prayer, a little gratitude is more comforting and can easily fit into your carry on luggage.
thepadproject.org brings a machine and a simple manufacturing process for feminine sanitary napkins to rural villages in developing countries where awareness of and access to such hygiene articles is unknown due to negative attitudes about menstruation unquestioned in traditional patriarchal society. During their periods, girls and women are thought to be unclean which prevents them from going to school and interacting in their communities—confining them to home mostly because they don’t have the products they need to manage their own health. Education about the use of ‘pads’ and changing attitudes about menstruation is the goal so that girls and women can lead uninterrupted lives. It’s a cottage industry where the ladies earn wages at manufacturing the pads which in turn they sell (and use) so the model is sustainable, liberating women from their homes, giving them back their self-esteem, and providing economic independence for the first time to women who traditionally do not hold jobs—all for about 30 rupees or 43 cents a box…the product is called Fly. The slogan ‘Rise and Fly’. 43 cents = a box of pads = freedom: Money is truly arbitrary. The value of freedom for girls and women to make their own way is well beyond any measure. What we assign meaning to and what we value should be the same things. thepadproject.org found a way to manage more better, putting the heal in health.
Whenever there is violence against innocent populations, whether in war zones, border areas, or in our own backyards, children suffer the most. Children are the innocent of the innocent, most vulnerable to abuse, victims in their own homes and at school, victims of bullying and increasingly alarming school shootings. Children hurt, children lost, grieving parents, students who will never graduate. Breaking violence starts with kindness, patience, and goodness.
Where I live in Chattanooga, even though teacher salaries are not what they should be, and staff of school counselors and social workers are well below the national standard, 3200 students will graduate from Hamilton County Public Schools this year—this month 3200 children walk forward to collect a diploma. Breaking violence ends with education and hope. Humans walking forward with kindness, patience, and goodness. Hope!
Educators are sworn to the tremendous task of telling people about each other.
—Orson Welles
On his BBC show called Orson Welles’ Sketch Book, Orson spoke out about the beating of U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a black soldier, at the hands of South Carolina police.
February 12, 1946
Sergeant Woodard had that day been discharged from service at Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia and caught a Greyhound bus home to his family in North Carolina. At a rest stop outside Augusta, Woodard asked to use the bathroom. Grudgingly, the driver conceded. Back in his seat, the bus got underway and shortly stopped again near Aiken, South Carolina just over the Georgia line from Augusta where Woodard was removed from the bus by South Carolina police who after scrutinizing his discharge papers beat him senseless with nightsticks. Woodard woke the next morning in a cell still in uniform—he was blind. And no one was talking.
On air, Orson addressed the assailants as Officer X: Officer X brought the justice of Dachau and Auschwitz to America. I’m talking to you Officer X. Where stands the sun of common fellowship, when will it rise in your dark country? I must know Officer X because I must know where the rest of us are going in our American experiment. We will blast out your name Officer X.
The story galvanized the civil rights movement and led directly to the desegregation of the armed forces and federal government by executive order on June 26, 1948. The practice of segregation would not be outlawed in schools, public accommodations, and the workplace until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which also ended discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Tell the story…Tell their stories…The story is your own: In the telling we redeem ourselves. We are one race, one people.
Tenth day of the Fourth month
Pollution threatens by land, by sea, by air, endangering our very existence.
Combustion of fossil fuels floods the atmosphere with greenhouse gases.
Garbage and plastics glut landfills and oceans.
Contaminants seep into groundwater, aquifers, and fresh surface water.
Clean air and clean water are precious resources necessary to life.
The Safe Drinking Water Act grants the Environmental Protection Agency direct federal oversight of all states, localities, and water suppliers implementing regulatory standards. The standards for clean drinking water concern limiting six hazardous categories:
1. Microorganisms: harmful pathogens
2. Disinfectants: chlorine compounds added to rehabilitate water
3. Disinfection byproducts
4. Inorganic chemicals: harmful trace amounts of metals like lead and mercury
5. Organic chemicals: harmful carbon compounds and pesticides
6. Radionuclides: harmful nuclear waste
Public health and welfare depend on strict adherence to these standards to prevent neurological disorders and reproductive problems. Widespread lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan is an example of spectacular governmental failure in which inequity played no small part. Regardless of status, safe drinking water is imperative to human life—the quality of peoples’ lives depends on access to water of quality, not just in America but in every community across the globe.
Taste, color, and odor are only considered secondary or aesthetic standards for drinking water quality. This means that while the water is technically potable, it isn’t always appealing—you can drink it if you have to is not good enough. Water should be cleansing and refreshing. Air too.
Purity is a worthy goal—transparency and wellness.
Eleventh day of the Fourth month
This Poem [below] is not finished. Add your own verse.
This Poem
This poem
is an antenna
This poem
is a divining rod
This poem
is a totem
This poem
is a pointing finger
This poem
is a gift
of tears and of joy
is the world
This poem
is hope
This poem
is prayer
This poem
is yours
swelling with love
This poem
is a heart light and full
Twelfth day of the Fourth month
The more we get together,
Together, together,
The more we get together
The happier we'll be
Together, together,
The more we get together
The happier we'll be
'Cause your friends are my friends
And my friends are your friends,
The more we get together
The happier we'll be
And my friends are your friends,
The more we get together
The happier we'll be
British folk lyric, The More We Get Together
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Let’s all walk each other home.
Ram Dass
Thirteenth day of the Fourth month
Cubomania, developed by Gherasim Luca, is a surrealist technique of cutting an image up into squares then rearranging the squares to form a new image—a change in continuity, like information parsed in the Yellow Pages, one index referencing another somewhere else, like folding and re-folding a road map, a distortion of visual legibility transforming the familiar into a strange journey. Imagine cubes of white space repositioned within repositioned cubes of white space—what you see all depends on where you want to go.
From cause to effect is the sequence of our ideas. But I think that if at some time we should obtain an altogether different and broader sequence of ideas, we may discover that there are various other alternatives.
Richard Jeffries
Fourteenth day of the Fourth month
Hitoshi:
I’ll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven’t a choice. I go.
One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I have yet to meet, others I’ll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes.
I earnestly pray that a trace of my girl-child self will always be with you.
For waving good-bye, I thank you.
—from Moonlight Shadow by Banana Yoshimoto
The story of weaver maid (Vega) and cowherd (Altair) is the very definition of star-crossed lovers. Thwarted by the celestial river of the silver Milky Way, the couple can meet only briefly one night a year when magpies form a bridge across the galaxy—Tanabata.
Separated by a single surging stream / they look but cannot speak
—No. 10 of the Nineteen Old Poems
Fifteenth day of the Fourth month
From theArtist’s Way by Julia Cameron:
BASIC PRINCIPLES
1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life—including ourselves.
3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
5. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
8. As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As
we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.
This mind creates the buddha. This mind is the buddha. The sea of omniscience of the buddhas springs from the thoughts of the mind.
—Contemplation of Amitabha Sutra
Sixteenth day of the Fourth month
I was alone…I walked to the top of a sand-hill and looked round the horizon like a captain on his bridge. This sea of sand bowled me over. Unquestionably it was filled with mystery and with danger. The silence that reigned over it was not the silence of emptiness but of plotting, of imminent enterprise. I sat still and stared into space. The end of the day was near. Something half revealed yet wholly unknown had bewitched me. The love of the Sahara, like love itself, is born of a face perceived and never really seen. Ever after this first sight of your new love, an indefinable bond is established between you and the veneer of gold on the sand in the late sun.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars
A perception of love. Sudden insight, kensho in Zen tradition.
Gold on the sand. Gradual deepening. Meditation, koan study, or even exercise like elementary Shaolin kung fu, movements to strengthen tendons and sinews derived from observing the Arhat statues in the temple—some claim the methods were first revealed by Bodhidharma.
Acknowledge and practice.
Seventeenth day of the Fourth month
What is this energy which we all have? This energy is thinking, feeling; it is interest, enthusiasm, greed, passion, lust, ambition, hate. Painting pictures, inventing machines, building bridges, making roads, cultivating the fields, playing games, writing poems, singing, dancing, going to the temple, worshipping—these are all expressions of energy…What is energy for? Is it the purpose of energy to make war? Is it to invent jet planes and innumerable other machines, to pursue some guru, to pass examinations, to have children, to worry endlessly over this problem and that? Or can energy be used in a different way so that all our activities have significance in relation to something which transcends them all?
Krishnamurti, Think On These Things
We are struggling after something, and we have never paused to inquire if the thing we are after is worth struggling for.
Krishnamurti, Think On These Things
As a river creates the banks which hold it, so the energy which seeks truth creates its own discipline without any form of imposition; and as the river finds the sea, so that energy finds its own freedom.
Krishnamurti, Think On These Things
Breath and light, goodwill and peace!
Eighteenth day of the Fourth month
Unrequited…love.
Petrarch’s career 366 poems to Laura. Many composed after her death.
One can imagine Petrarch in retirement in Padua sitting quietly in the Cappella degli Scrovegni contemplating the murals of Giotto, masterpieces all and a starry vault.
And the poets studied rows of verse,
And all the ladies they rolled their eyes
And all the ladies they rolled their eyes
—Lou Reed, “Sweet Jane”
Listen carefully. You want to be loved because you do not love; but the moment you love, it is finished, you are no longer inquiring whether or not somebody loves you.
Krishnamurti, Think On These Things
Each time the sky burns, each time cold winds blow,
at every rising, every setting sun,
let him chase you, as a dog will chase a doe.
My love, locked in my heart, is seen by none.
I only boast a hidden flame and know
no glory but in secret faith alone.
—Torquato Tasso, Love Poems for Lucrezia & Laura
And men go about admiring the high mountains and the mighty waves of the sea and the wide sweep of rivers and the sound of the ocean and the movement of the stars, but they themselves they abandon.
—St. Augustine, Confessions
Listen carefully.
Nineteenth day of the Fourth month
It is the person you most want to hear from who never bothers to write. The complacency, if it’s that, or the indifference, of such individuals is exasperating; it can drive one frantic sometimes. This sense of frustration can and does persist until the day one makes the discovery that he is notalone, notcut off, and that it is notimportant to receive an answer. Until the realization dawns that all that matters is to give, and to give without thought of return.
Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch
What Miller suggests violates the implicit rule of correspondence, a dialogue conducted over a distance. Since this approach will not work for face-to-face conversation, H.P. Grice attempts to formulate a reciprocity rule:
Cooperative Principle: "Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged."
Unlike a letter, conversation demands a response so cooperation is essential and the following maxims support the notion.
1. Maxim of Quantity: Information
- Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange.
- Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
2. Maxim of Quality: Truth
- Do not say what you believe to be false.
- Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
3. Maxim of Relation: Relevance
- Be relevant.
4. Maxim of Manner: Clarity
- Avoid obscurity of expression.
- Avoid ambiguity.
- Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
- Be orderly.
It is in fact possible however to respond and also to violate Grice’s rules for conversation—to humorous effect.
Violation of quantity maxim Man: Sugar?
Woman: Yes?
Man: Say when.
Woman: What?
Man: Say when.
Woman: Now?
Man: Say when.
Woman: Stop it.
Man: Sugar?
Woman: Thank you.
Violation of quality maxim I savor the tannins in tea.
It’s so good for the skin.
Violation of relation maxim I got married in a veil.
Man: A thick fog.
Violation of manner maxim Woman: I'm not domesticated.
Violation of all 4 maxims Man: Eyes like eggshells.
Woman: Ain't you sweet.
Give and take. That’s talking. Holding your own. That’s talking.
Words can be hurtful and a lack of words in the case of a letter.
Give and receive. Understanding.
Art is a healing process…To make living itself an art, that is the goal.
Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch
Twentieth day of the Fourth month
In the summer of 1914 an Austrian archduke was killed at Serajevo, under, it was said, Servian auspices. Austria’s honour, since she was a bigger country than Servia, demanded that she should seek what is called satisfaction. Servia agreed to make certain of the obeisances and motions of humility suggested to her, but rejected certain others. Complete satisfaction being necessary to the honour of Austria, no course was left to her but the forcing of these other obeisances upon the smaller country. The force applied led directly to the killing of ten million men who were not archdukes, and, directly or indirectly, to the deaths of uncounted thousands of women and children. Even so, however, the object remained unachieved. The further obeisances were not made, and four years later Austria was still incompletely satisfied…
That is the story, told as concisely as possible, of The Great War…By this I mean that I think war wrong: as I think cruelty to children wrong: as I think slavery and the burning of heretics wrong: as I think the exploitation of the poor wrong, and the corruption of the innocent. I think war wrong. I also think it silly.
A. A. Milne, Peace with Honour
Aristophanes thought war wrong, and he used Lysistrata and the women of Greece to make it silly. Tired of the lengthy Peloponnesian War, Lysistrata rallied the women of Greece to her cause of bringing the war to an end by withholding sex from their menfolk—with a solemn oath, the matter was resolved. Resolve was the matter. That’s right the women are smarter. Peace talks between the warring parties soon followed and reconciliation was reached. The play ends in singing and dancing.
I say, it's the women today, smarter than the men in every way.
—Grateful Dead, Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
Don’t make war, make love.
Twenty-first day of the Fourth month
But what does that mean, to just live? To live without creating, to live only in the imagination…is that living?...If you have the vision and the urge to undertake great tasks, then you will discover in yourself the virtues and the capabilities required for their accomplishments. When everything fails, pray! Perhaps only when you have come to the end of your resources will the light dawn. It is only when we admit our limitations that we find there are no limitations.
Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch
What is the sound of one hand clapping? —Hakuin
Moving the hand, moving the mind, moving the hand, moving the mind…
Twenty-second day of the Fourth month
Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gatiis taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moha-gatiis aberration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption…Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear…Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavor, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions…It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute. At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments. It is man’s vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear
Twenty-third day of the Fourth month
Buddhism, the foundation of traditional Burmese culture, places the greatest value on man, who alone of all beings can achieve the supreme state of Buddhahood. Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth through his own will and endeavor and to help others to realize it.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom From Fear
It [Thingyan: water festival preceding New Year in Burma] is a time for taking stock of the past year and using the last few days before the new year comes in to balance our ‘merit book’. Some people spend the period of the water festival in meditating, worshipping at pagodas, observing the eight precepts*, releasing caged birds and fishes and performing other meritorious deeds…It is especially important not to get angry during Thingyan or to make others angry.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters From Burma
*To undertake the Eight Precepts is to abstain from taking life, taking what is not given, wrong conduct in sexual desires, telling lies, drinking alcohol, taking solid food after midday, dressing in any colour but plain white, and sleeping in high or big beds.
He [Dogen] went deep into the mountains in the region of Shihi, where he cleared away thorn bushes, built a thatched-roof hall, hauling dirt and stones, and upheld the ancestral way. This is the present-day Eihei Monastery…At the Eihei Monastery, a dragon god came and asked to receive the eight pure precepts and have them chanted in dedication to him daily. So, Dogen wrote the eight pure precepts and chanted them to the dragon god every day. This is still practiced at the Eihei Monastery without fail.
Kazuaki Tanahashi, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
Clear the way.
Twenty-fourth day of the Fourth month
The calmer we become, the more clearly we see how terrible we are.
Kodo Sawaki
Only when we seek the truth of our selves and create our own spiritual life can we give birth to the potential that can point the way for our time.
Kosho Uchiyama
If you wish to make repentance,
Sit upright and be mindful of the true reality.
All misdemeanors are like frost and dew,
The sun of wisdom enables them to melt away.
—Sutra of Meditation on the Practice of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
Clear the way.
Twenty-fifth day of the Fourth month
The thabyeis in fruit, the waters are in flood,
Today the toddy nuts are falling, the rain is unceasing;
Oh, Ko Datha, I long to go back to mother;
Show me the way…
This is based on the Buddhist story of Padasari, the daughter of rich parents who ran away to a far place with one of her house slaves. After bearing two sons, she was filled with such longing to see her parents that she asked her husband to take her back home. On the journey, she lost her husband and both children in a series of tragic incidents. She managed to continue on to the land where her parents lived only to discover that her whole family—father, mother, and brother—had died and had just been cremated. The unfortunate young woman lost her mind and wandered around in a state of mad grief until the Lord Buddha taught her how to achieve peace of mind. Padasari is seen as the epitome of the consuming fire of extreme grief. But her tale is essentially one of supreme joy: the joy of victory over the self.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters From Burma
Bright before me the signs implore me:
Help the needy and show them the way.
Human kindness is overflowing,
And I think it's gonna rain today.
Help the needy and show them the way.
Human kindness is overflowing,
And I think it's gonna rain today.
Randy Newman, I Think It's Going to Rain Today
A simple universal prayer: God have mercy. Lord Buddha have mercy.
Kanzeon have mercy. God have mercy &c.
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Makes your eyes light up…
Makes your eyes light up…
I never get enough of that wonderful stuff.
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan dowdy makes the sun come out
When Heavens are cloudy,
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan dowdy makes the sun come out
When Heavens are cloudy,
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Gallop and Wood, Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy
Twenty-sixth day of the Fourth month
Innate Reality
Flowers in spring
cuckoos in summer
moon in autumn
snow in winter
serene and cool
—Dogen
Simple words to describe the essence of the seasons. Something close, intimate—the beauty of plainness, things as they are. This is the way of ordinary mind. Seeing things as they are.
Twenty-seventh day of the Fourth month
What on earth is this self? I can’t help but feel this is the self that is connected with the universe. In spring, buds emerge; in autumn, leaves fall. All these things including our selfare the expression of nature’s great life force. —Kosho Uchiyama
It’s pointless for human beings merely to live a life that lasts seventy or eighty years. —Kodo Sawaki’s last teaching
In the forest there’s a grove of sal trees, and among them one that was alive before the rest. For a hundred years the owner of the grove has watered and protected it. But now aged and sere, its leaves have fallen, and its bark has peeled, revealing what is truly real. So it is with the Tathagata.
From the Nirvana Sutra
Life is an offering to the ten directions.
Twenty-eighth day of the Fourth month
Now although we are within the dream of life and death, if we repeatedly contemplate the principle that selfand objectsare only the productions of our minds, like a dream, we are close to the morning of awakening.
Dogen
We know that the reality is thus because our bodies and minds appear within the entire world, and yet they are not our selves. Even the body is not our personal possession; our life is moving through the passage of time, and we cannot stop it even for an instant. Where have our rosy cheeks gone? Even if we wish to find them, there is no trace…The sincere red heart does not stay either—bit by bit, it is coming and going.
Dogen
The morning is always right.
Twenty-ninth day of the Fourth month
Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed…All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavor, then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.
Pascal, Pensees
Mountains sit. Rivers flow. Shikan: just doing.
If working, work. If playing, play. If resting, rest.
Mountains. Rivers. You.
Last day of the Fourth month
I am the smallest of creatures and I recognize my worthlessness, but I also know how hearts that are generous and noble love to do good.
Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.
St. Therese of Lisieux the “Little Flower”
What is zazen good for? Nothing! We should be made to hear this good-for-nothingness so often that we get calluses on our ears and practice good-for-nothing zazen without any expectation. Otherwise, our practice really is good for nothing.
Kodo Sawaki
You never know.
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