18thday of the First month
There is a hidden truth that humans seek to extract from or to imbue existence with. This is merely an homage to fidelite. Fidelite cannot be chronologically situated and so resists discovery—though it is created anew moment to moment. The arrow is fidelite and the breeze we feel is homage. The destination is ever-changing, ever the same. A journey. At once dislocating plot and unifying narrative thereby introducing mystery as a theme of themes in the expression of which we find individual meaning, the homage to fidelite. Eliciting sense of sense as from a telegram transmission. The arrow flickers ineffable, ineluctably shot and striking home simultaneously.
Prayer For Good Humor
By St. Thomas More
By St. Thomas More
Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others.
Ab corde: From the heart…from the heart
Ego: Obstructing “I”…humility opens eyes
20thday of the First month
Excerpt from Canticle Of The Sun
By St. Francis of Assisi
Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon
and the stars, in heaven you formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.
and the stars, in heaven you formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which
You give sustenance to Your creatures.
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which
You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night and he is beautiful
and playful and robust and strong.
through whom you light the night and he is beautiful
and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
Look into your own nature.
During Daruma-ichi, the annual Daruma doll festival held at the Shorinzan Temple of Daruma in Takasaki, Japan, the right eye of countless Daruma dolls is drawn in with the hope of reaching a set goal before next year’s festival. When the goal is achieved, the doll’s other eye will be colored in and at the next festival all of the dolls will be burned ceremonially with gratitude and prayers for peace by monks of the temple. Thereupon another doll will be bought and the cycle renews, as does the year. Renewal, resilience. The blank white eyes of the dolls reminded me of pictures of survivors who witnessed the blinding flash of atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Not filling in the eyes of the Daruma doll is a reminder that life is precious. Burning it is a reminder that life is short. The entire process points directly to the human heart—see without seeing.
In the devastation of Hiroshima, there is a wonderful negation of atomic destruction in a passage from Hersey’s book:
The bomb had not only left the underground organs of
plants intact; it had stimulated them. Everywhere were
bluets and Spanish bayonets, goosefoot, morning glories
and day lilies, the hairy-fruited bean, purslane and clotbur
and sesame and panic grass and feverfew. Especially in a
circle at the center, sickle senna grew in extraordinary
regeneration, not only standing among the charred
remnants of the same plant but pushing up in new places,
among bricks and through cracks in the asphalt.
A circle. At the center. Nyokodo—Love your neighbor as yourself.
To the astonishment of the population of Japan, the voice of the Emperor was heard for the very first time in a radio address conceding all war efforts. The voices of Hibakusha, victims of the atomic bombings, would become the lasting storytellers of peace.
As a baby, Sadako Sasaki survived the atomic bombings yet succumbed to leukemia in girlhood at the age of twelve in the Red Cross Hospital, Hiroshima. Fragile and ill, Sadako found the strength and scraps of paper to fold 1,000 cranes, a feat granting the folder a wish, before her death.
Heiwa Wo—Grant Us Peace! This is the prayer of Hiroshima survivor Takashi Nagai, a prayer he repeatedly brushed in calligraphy.
“Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. Since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.” Viktor Frankl, himself a survivor of Auschwitz
23rdday of the First month
I have committed to fold 1000 paper cranes. I will be using a combination of Tuttle origami papers, 500 6” Chiyogami patterns and 500 4” Washi patterns. In the end, I should have 500 parent cranes and 500 child cranes to give out at a local children’s hospital. On the back of the larger papers I am writing this chant:
Ten-line Life-affirming Sutra of Kanzeon [Japanese transliteration]
Kanzeon
Namu butsu
Yo butsu u in
Yo butsu u en
Bupposo en
Jo raku ga jo
Cho nen Kanzeon
Bo nen Kanzeon
Bo nen Kanzeon
Nen nen ju shin ki
Nen nen fu ri shin
In English:
Kanzeon, perceiver of the cries of the world,
Takes refuge in Buddha,
Will be a buddha,
Helps all to be buddhas,
Is not separate from Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—
Being eternal, intimate, pure, and joyful.
In the morning, be one with Kanzeon.
In the evening, be one with Kanzeon,
Whose heart, moment by moment, arises,
Whose heart, moment by moment, remains!
On the back of the smaller papers I am writing a haiku with chant lines:
Wind-blown narcissus
Caretakers of the unseen
Work of innocence
Cho nen Kanzeon
Bo nen Kanzeon
24thday of the First month
Ten Bulls of Zen in Animation 十牛図アニメ
Ten Poems: Bull by Bull
I. Tramping through tall grass
In search of the ox—river
Bluffs, foothills, far mountains
Weary of distances, roads
Fading strength, traces of ox
II. Among bankside reeds
Muddy tracks trailing out path
Rich fragrant grassland
Range of remote mountains track
Clear and big as bluest sky
III. Breeze in the willows
Green song of warbler warm sun
Ox drinking from stream
IV. By bent horns the ox caught
With will and strength struggling on
Into gullies of mist
V. Tether, whip in hand
Keeps the ox from straying off
Down dusty roads
Patient miles, gentle prodding
The ox follows and obeys
VI. Now atop the ox
Flute drawn charmed melody
Riding in one rhythm
VII. Borne by the ox home
Blissful dawn greeting thatched hut
Untethered, at peace
VIII. Whip, tether, ox, rider,
One and the same, united
Big as sun and sky
Snowflakes cold in hottest fires
Welcome house of ancestors
IX. Root and source, the way
A journey homeward, true self
A tranquil river
With and without, flowing back
Where crimson flowers deepen
X. Passing ragged
Barefoot through the dust and crowds
Joy and the world bloom
“And let him acquire the habit of reciting the Psalter, if he wishes to have a daily method of telling the time; so that when he cannot see the brightness of the sun or the movement of the stars because of a thick cloud, he will act as a sort of clock, with the regular duration of the Psalms.”
—Peter Damian
Horologium vitae: The monk becomes a living clock where the continuity of the appointed hours of the Divine Office manifest a life of liturgy, of unceasing sanctification. Rising in the middle of the night to pray, awakened by a vigilant brother from a tug on the feet.
One day Augustine spied his master Ambrose silently reading scripture alone. He read, he ruminated. The resultant breakthrough of silently accessing internalized scripture and prayers for reflection or recitation within the small space of the mind regardless of the physical activity of the body was the birth of meditatio, the uninterrupted individual augmentation of the devotion to the Divine Office, a sancta conversatio, not unlike the kindred relationship between zazen and chanting. The entirety of the monk’s existence fully used to merge into higher unity.
Rule and life of Franciscans: To live in obedience, in chastity, and without anything of their own, an ascetic renunciation of possessions and property as well as any rights to possessions and property. Ownership was forbidden, only the de facto use of things out of necessity and then only those things of unrenounceable use such as the essential matter of everyday life—food, clothing, shelter. The form and life of Franciscans were a state of innocence like that of a child in a state of nature like the very birds Francis himself preached to. Bonaventure observed in Defense of the Mendicants, “A madman and a minor cannot begin to own without the authorization of a tutor, for they lack the disposition to possess, even though they may be in physical contact with the object as would be the case if something were placed in the hand of a sleeping man.” For Francis, awakened to creation, the air and the sunlight were for the good and use of all men and living things. Thoughts on Agamben, The Highest Poverty
“I have declared to you my life.” St. Francis
“The size of the orthodox tea-room, which is four mats and a half, or ten square feet, is determined by a passage in the Sutra of Vimalakirti.”
Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea
According to Burton Watson’s Four Huts, the quoted dimensions of the tea-room are also the same as those of a traditional hermitage, ten square feet. In both spaces, there would have been a tokonoma or “alcove” with a hanging scroll, flowers, and incense for devotional obeisance to Buddha.
“Thus prepared the guest will silently approach the sanctuary…the tea-room being preeminently the house of peace. Then he will bend low and creep into the room through a small door not more than three feet in height. This proceeding was incumbent on all guests—high and low alike—and was intended to inculcate humility.” Kakuzo, The Book of Tea
The Buddhist monastic practice of takuhatsu or begging for food from the lay community was also intended to inculcate humility. The mendicant monk, his only true possession a begging bowl, relied on simple kindness to fill his bowl each day so that he may eat. Unlike Franciscans, many Buddhist monks left the cloister for a life of itinerant solitude, many eventually settling down in grass hut hermitages. Tea too is traditionally served in bowls.
“Words, what are they? One tear will say more than all of them.” Schubert
“You yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in your bottle.”
Psalm 56:8
The record of the life of Werther, a man of feeling often overwrought with tears, concluded in the remark on his funeral, “No clergyman attended.” Perhaps the above comments would suffice for an eulogy of such a death of despair.
Mystics like St. Ignatius and St. Teresa of Avila were given the gift of tears, weeping rooted in awareness of the great gifts—love, mercy, compassion, and grace. These tears are ultimately tears of joy and gratitude. Too many in our society, like Werther, succumb to sorrows and to despair. Life is precious. Err on the side of kindness. With your heart, see the unity of all living things.
Consider concentrating on the letter “A” (ah): This is the shortest of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras—a single letter.
The letter a is the main body of the word vast.
“The word vast must reign over the peaceful silence of being…For it is a word that brings calm and unity; it opens up unlimited space. It also teaches us to breathe with the air that rests on the horizon…With it, we take infinity into our lungs, and through it, we breathe cosmically…”
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
Happy flowers, oh, in a lotus grove of delight,
Quivering hum, oh, it belongs to the little bee.
Melodious song, oh, recurring strum of the lute.
Sweet dew, oh, enjoy the extract of honey,
Yes, little bee, a bu lo lo wo!
Namtrul Rinpoche in a letter to his beloved Tare Lhamo wrote of their deep love over the course of past lives.
The beauty of these eternal flowers are indeed a delight for all of us and for the little bee. A bu lo lo wo!
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