Are You Sure?

     "Real faith means holding ourselves open to the unconditional mystery which we encounter in every sphere of our life and which cannot be comprised in any formula. Real faith means the ability to endure life in the face of this mystery.” Martin Buber 


When You Are Old
W.B. Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep, 
And nodding by the fire, take down this book, 
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look 
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace, 
And loved your beauty with love false or true, 
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, 
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars, 
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled 
And paced upon the mountains overhead 
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.



     “If you want a barometer for progress in practice, look at how skillful you are at holding ‘not sure’. It’s very different from what most spiritual disciplines teach. Exercise the skill of being mindfully ‘not sure’, apply it and try it out. Remember this is not just another technique or position we grasp in our search for security. Really try it out in your formal practice and in daily life. Start to experiment with the result of restraining the mind’s tendency to grasp at wanting to be sure.” Ajahn Munindo 


     "Certainty": http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/03/certainty.html

          "In the Forest" watercolour on rice paper by Krista Hasson   http://fogforestgallery.ca

Information, Progress, & Speed

     “In his 1936 essay ‘The Storyteller,’ (Walter) Benjamin posits that the storyteller, as well as the story itself, has lost primacy in a world that craves information, progress, and speed. The teller of tales is therefore left ‘remote,’ an endangered species. The storyteller, in the oldest sense of the word – ie the one who imparts counsel or wisdom, who carries forth the tradition of tales – has been eclipsed in Benjamin’s mind by the stultifying demands of modern life. ‘Every morning brings us the news of the globe,’ he writes, ‘and yet we are poor in noteworthy stories. This is because no event any longer comes to us without already being shot through with explanation. In other words, by now almost nothing that happens benefits storytelling; almost everything benefits information.’ ”

        Michael Paterniti “The Telling Room. A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese.” The Dial Press, NY, 2013.

Les Deux Magots, Paris

Responsibility, Self-sufficiency & Agency on our Journey

     "... a buddha's ultimate function is to keep reminding us that we must do the work of becoming a buddha ourselves. There will be no final confirmation of our enlightenment from our teacher. There will be no one to congratulate us at the spiritual finish line. In fact, there will be no finish line!"        Frank Berliner

       Frank Berliner. Falling in Love with a Buddha. Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Spring 2014. p43

 

Moon over Pancole, Tuscany, Italy

Refined action

     “Refined action … from the start … lies in peace & harmony. … Wherever you may be, your life is sustained and supported by the whole universe. The main purpose of human life is to maintain this sanctuary [universe]. It is not to climb a ladder to develop your own personal life.
     If you see refined action or nirvana or enlightenment, or even the aspiration for enlightenment, in terms of time or progress, your understanding is not correct. These four are without beginning or end. They are like a circle, where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning.
     … refined action comes neither from your effort nor from someone else’s. If your effort were not supported by the universe as a whole, you could not make any real effort at all. Pure, refined action makes no distinction between self and others. Trees, birds, and all other beings are completely harmonized in this sanctuary of the whole. This is our life.” 

     Katagiri D. “You have to say something. Manifesting Zen insight.” Shambhala, Boston, 1998.