Category Archives: Dharma Bum

May 29 – “Our Life Is Our Path”

Today’s senryu: Our Life Is Our Path

How did I get here?

Where am I going today?

I pause, breathe and smile.

If I had to label my spiritual path, Zen Christian comes close to describing it. This Summer I’m scheduled to be “ordained,” first as an Interspecies, Interspiritual Animal Chaplain through Compassion Consortium and later as a lay brother in the Order of Interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village Tradition.

Below are two quotes which explain how I see my Zen Christian practice today.

First, “to be a human being is to be a knower and a lover of nature and spirit, because to be human is to be both.” Dr. Christopher Baglow (https://strangenotions.com/two-paths/)

Science and Faith: Two Paths of Knowledge

The second quote comes from Thich Nhat Hanh:

“We enter the path of practice through the door of knowledge, perhaps from a Dharma talk or a book. We continue along the path, and our suffering lessens, little by little. But at some point, all of our concepts and ideas must yield to our actual experience. Words and ideas are only useful if they are put into practice. When we stop discussing things and begin to realize the teachings in our own life, a moment comes when we realize that our life is the path, and we no longer rely merely on the forms of practice. Our action becomes ‘non-action,’ and our practice becomes ‘non-practice.‘” from The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh (c) Broadway Books, p.122

“Thích Nhất Hạnh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who lived in southwest France where he was in exile for many years. Born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Thích Nhất Hạnh joined a Zen monastery at the age of 16 and studied Buddhism as a novitiate. Upon his ordination as a monk in 1949, he assumed the Dharma name Thích Nhất Hạnh. Thích is an honorary family name used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan. He was often considered the most influential living figure in the lineage of Lâm Tế (Vietnamese Rinzai) Thiền, and perhaps also in Zen Buddhism as a whole.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209574.The_Heart_of_the_Buddha_s_Teaching

Apr 15 – Becoming Reducetarian

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http://www.amazon.com/Future-Be-Possible-Buddhist-Everyday

The Five Mindfulness Trainings defined by Thich Nhat Hanh are an updating of the five Buddhist precepts for modern times. In brief they are

Reverence for Life
Generosity – True Happiness
Sexual Responsibility
Deep Listening and Loving Speech
Diet for a Mindful Society – Nourishment and Healing

While these are easy to understand, they are challenging to fulfill. Thich Nhat Hanh has elaborated on these in his book For A Future to Be Possible and explains that they are a “North Star” to guide our lives with the understanding that we won’t be perfect.

In the spirit of improving my behavior without expecting perfection, I’m currently reading The Reducetarian Solution by Brian Kateman (see cover and endorsements below).

Here’s today’s senryu: Becoming Reducetarian

I am not perfect

yet, I’d like to be better

kaizen for karma

http://www.amazon.com/Reducetarian-Solution-Surprisingly-Reducing-Transform

https://www.reducetarian.org/book

Feb 8 – Stream of Consciousness

Feb 15 – Three Dharma Poets: Bouse, Brehm and Metters

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Today’s senryu: Now and Zen

Ev’ry now and zen

we take pleasure from life’s puns,

with or without wine

Below are pictures and links for three dharma poets, three wise men, that inspire my spiritual and poetic path. Perhaps they will inspire you as well.

“Ari Bouse helps you breathe fresh air into your soul so you may then exhale the dead air of old ways that no longer serve you. … Something to Chew On serves as a walking meditation that will help you align with nature as it unfolds during the spirit of the season to enable you to rekindle a sense of magic, mystery, and adventure in your life.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45290399-something-to-chew-on

Photo by Tracy Pitts https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-brehm

“The experience of reading a poem is a meditative experience in and of itself. As author John Brehm writes in The Dharma of Poetry, to enter a poem is to ‘shift out of everyday consciousness. . . to step out of the ongoing flow of experience and look at it.’ A poem inspires a moment of pause in which we can ‘engage in an imaginative activity that has no practical value.’” https://tricycle.org/article/meditative-poems/

Brehm adds “a poet may be defined as one who stops, one who is inclined by temperament and training to step out of the ongoing flow of experience and look at it, and to help us do the same.” https://tricycle.org/article/poetry-meditation/

Dr. Brian Metters http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-About-Wine-philosophy and https://thetwodoctors.uk/

“Read this slowly, take your time, just think about it. … Now that you’ve read it what are you going to do about it?” https://thetwodoctors.uk/2022/12/08/be-mindful-today-21-gradual-awakening/

Jan 4 – The Art of Awakening

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Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault and Fr. Thomas Keating @ chalice-verlag.de

In my quest to learn more about mindfulness from an inter-spiritual perspective, I’m now reading Cynthia Bourgeault’s book Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening (c) 2004 via Cowley Publications with a foreword by Thomas Keating. In this book, Bourgeault describes in chapter 2: “Virtually every spiritual tradition that holds a vision of human transformation at its heart also claims that a practice of intentional silence is a non-negotiable. Period. You just have to do it. Whether it be the meditation of the yogic and Buddhist traditions, the zikr of the Sufis, the devkut of mystical Judaism, or the contemplative prayer of Christians, there is a universal affirmation that this form of spiritual practice is essential to spiritual awakening.” p.9

Also, as an appreciator of simple visuals, I enjoy the three-circle display of the levels of Awareness:

“Silence is God’s First Language @ adishakti.org

There is so much to mine in this treasure trove of a book that it will take multiple posts to share.

So, to begin, here is today’s senryu: The Art of Awakening

release the ego

getting out of our own way

silence is golden

https://www.cynthiabourgeault.org/books

Jan 2 – Meditation Is Free(ing)

High Coo – Sept 27 – What’s in a Name?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Norway

My mother wanted to name me Christopher but my father preferred Patrick.

Today’s haiku: What’s in a Name?

In life there is pain,

suffering consequences,

maybe finding truth

@ Pinterest – See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences,_New_Mexico

High Coo – Sept 12 – Happy Birthday H.L. Mencken

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“Famed for his rapier wit as much as his ill-temperament, Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken rose to national prominence as a journalist and correspondent for the Baltimore Sun.” See https://allthatsinteresting.com/hl-mencken-quotes

Two of my favorite Mencken quotes are: “After all is said and done … a lot more is said than done.” and “When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.”

Today’s haiku: Happy Birthday H.L. Mencken

Cynical somedays

fortunately, do not last.

Persevere, my friend.

Note: today is also National Day of Encouragement. I wonder what Mencken would have said about this. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Encouragement

this and photo above by George Karger / Getty Images

High Coo – August 27 – August New Moon

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A new moon is the least visible to us but still has significant impact on our planet and therefore our lives. See https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/moon-phases/

I will be celebrating this new moon at a meditation retreat center that includes monastic and lay people sharing observations on the state of our four-fold sangha practice. Previous retreats with this group have generated surprises and new insights. We shall see what this day brings.

Today’s haiku: August New Moon

My name, peaceful moon

of the heart (and of the sky),

let’s pause, breathe and smile

Life Matters – August 6 – Happiness

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Photo by Lina Trochez | https://tricy.cl/3ylxv3V

Some of you may have noticed the subtitle for this blog, “We can find the joy – together.”

Coincidentally, I came across a great article from Tricycle magazine which then led to my latest version of The Dhammapada – A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic (c) 2005 by Egil Fronsdal (https://www.amazon.com/Dhammapada-Translation-Buddhist-Classic-Annotations/dp/1590303806.)

First, the Tricycle article, Where to Find Joy and How to Cultivate It, (August 27, 2021) is co-authored by Christina Feldman and Jaya Rudgard, both mindfulness teachers in the Insight Meditation community. One of their main points is: the best way to find joy is to create it. Their 1,500 wordcount article can be found in its entirety here: https://tricycle.org/article/cultivating-joyfulness/

Second, the authors make a reference to The Dhammapada; specifically, verses 197 – 198 on Happiness. My copy of this book, see translation mentioned above, says:

“Ah, so happily we live, without hate among those with hate. Among people who hate we live without hate.

Ah, so happily we live, without misery among those in misery. Among people in misery we live without misery.” p.53

The point of the article, the quote and this post is that we are very unlikely to find ourselves in a perfect place, with perfect people all enjoying perfect joy. More likely we will need to work with ourselves and with a small group of kindred spirits to cultivate joy for one another.

I welcome your thoughts and your translations on how you find joy …. individually and together with others.

With gratitude for you, dear reader.