Are you ever impatient with impermanence? Does time marching on ever bring solace? Is life itself exasperating? Just three questions on a Friday morning resulting in three senryus linked below.
Today’s linked senryus: Why Wait?
At your service or
at your mercy – I’m tired;
tired of waiting …
Godot or Bardot
daydreams no longer work – I’m
tired of waiting …
Time is not my friend
I know I am breathing – so?
tired of waiting …
Today’s senryu: The Knowing – Doing Gap
I know what to do
but have not done it just yet.
Do I really know?
I’m listening to Bhikkhu Bodhi‘s audio book The Noble Eightfold Path – The Way to the End of Suffering (c) 1984. Here are a couple of early passages:
“It would be pointless to pose the question which of the two aspects of the Dhamma has greater value, the doctrine or the path. But if we did risk the pointless by asking that question, the answer would have to be the path. The path claims primacy because it is precisely this that brings the teaching to life. The path translates the Dhamma from a collection of abstract formulas into a continually unfolding disclosure of truth. It gives an outlet from the problem of suffering with which the teaching starts. And it makes the teaching’s goal, liberation from suffering, accessible to us in our own experience, where alone it takes on authentic meaning.
To follow the Noble Eightfold Path is a matter of practice rather than intellectual knowledge, but to apply the path correctly it has to be properly understood. In fact, right understanding of the path is itself a part of the practice. It is a facet of right view, the first path factor, the forerunner and guide for the rest of the path. Thus, though initial enthusiasm might suggest that the task of intellectual comprehension may be shelved as a bothersome distraction, mature consideration reveals it to be quite essential to ultimate success in the practice.
The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not start with lights and ecstasy, but with the hard tacks of pain, disappointment, and confusion. However, for
suffering to give birth to a genuine spiritual search, it must amount to more than something passively received.”
From another perspective, I’m fond of the book The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton (c) 2000 where the authors explain “knowing comes from doing and teaching others how … in a world of conceptual frameworks, fancy graphics presentations, and, in general, lots of words, there is much too little appreciation for the power, and indeed the necessity, of not just talking and thinking but of doing – and this includes explaining and teaching – as a way of knowing.”
The book goes on to quote a senior executive who says, “Where we go from an awareness state to a real knowledge is where we have problems. We are aware of it but we don’t have the knowledge because we’ve never had to teach it or implement it. And I see that’s a huge gap.” p. 248-249
Can we ever truly know without actually doing something with that knowledge?
Today’s senryu: Heart of Flesh
First heart of gold then
a greater truth – heart of flesh.
I and Thou are All
———————————————–
Neal Young sings of his search for a Heart of Gold while racing against the time of getting old. (See https://genius.com/Neil-young-heart-of-gold-lyrics)
Martin Buber‘s explains in, I and Thou, that “human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships.”(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_and_Thou)
Joan Chittister‘s book, Heart of Flesh, broadens these concepts to say that “the full humanity of women, leads all of us to new, better ways of being and relating.” (See https://joanchittister.org/books-page/heart-flesh-feminist-spirituality-women-and-men)
“The feminist image of God is humble and feeling, nonviolent and empowering. Jesus, the feminist image of God, cures and loves, is vulnerable and receptive, laughs and dances at wedding feasts, cries tears and feels pain. This glimpse of God is the glimpse of otherness at its ultimate. It is in this model of otherness that the feminist puts hope for equality, for recognition, for respect, for the end of the sexism …
The world needs the voice of this otherness in order to hear the cries of the whole human race. The world needs the presence of otherness to redeem it from its headlong plunge for profit, power, comfort, control, individualism, and dominance. The world needs respect for this otherness, not simply patronizing approval.“
—from Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men, by Joan Chittister (Eerdmans)
Yin, Yang, Qi, All
Perhaps another equation worth considering comes from the Tao Te Ching, verse 42:
Tao gives birth to One,
One gives birth to Two,
The Two gives birth to Three,
The Three gives birth to all universal things.
All universal things shoulder the Yin and embrace the Yang.
The Yin and Yang mingle and mix with each other to beget the harmony.
https://www.learnreligions.com/tao-te-ching-verse-42-3183165
In her book When Society Becomes an Addict (c) 1987, author Anne Wilson Schaef, writes, “any addictive system is contagious, and those who live within it become infected with the disease sooner or later. The dynamics and patterns are the same for those infected as they are for the alcoholic.” p.12
Schaef continues, “it is rare for a person to have only one addiction. Instead, the addictive person, or the individual operating within the addictive system, usually has multiple addictions. These work to trap the person in the Addictive System. … I am talking about a whole system that has such elements as confused, alcoholic thinking (‘stinkin’ thinkin’), dishonesty, self-centeredness, dependency, and the need for control at its core. Individuals functioning within an addictive system exhibit these characteristics even when they are not personally abusing drink or drugs. … the primary addictions in the Addictive System are the addictions to powerlessness and nonliving, and that all secondary addictions lead to these two primary addictions” p.13 – 16
Today’s senryu: Infected Sooner or Later
sick of sickness and
trying to get well are hard
when zombies prevail
“As Dylan’s first release during his “gospel” period, “Gotta Serve Somebody” was met with divisive reviews; John Lennon famously criticized the song and wrote a parody titled “Serve Yourself” in response. Nevertheless, the single won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male in 1980. … Cash Box said that the “bluesy instrumentals” were the song’s highlight and that “Dylan avoids a preachy tone with humorous asides.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotta_Serve_Somebody
Yesterday’s blog Living In-Between was a difficult message directed at myself. It is something I needed. I shared it with you in case it might be of help to someone you know.
Upon second thought, I realize that some messages are best kept to oneself, at least until you’ve had more time to consider the possible consequences for putting those words out into the world.
Here’s two more thoughts on yesterday’s blog:
Gotta Serve Somebody en.wikipedia.org
Here’s a repost from the goodnewsnetwork.org with many thanks to Ana Daksina @ https://troubadorofversepoetry.wordpress.com/
By Andy Corbley – Mar 1, 2023
Around the US and UK, dozens of animal hospitals have a catch-all when it comes to grieving pet parents who have lost a furry friend: they give them the poem Rainbow Bridge.
Yet this poem that has touched millions of peoples’ hearts has remained largely authorless for years until the sleuth work of an art historian and cat owner Paul Koudounaris, who managed to turn up the original poet decades after Rainbow Bridge became famous.
Her name is Edna Clyne-Rekhy, an 82-year-old Scottish artist and animal lover who traveled the world, and failed to notice her poem’s popularity.
The story begins with Koudounaris’ work researching pet cemeteries, and the constant references he found to Rainbow Bridge. Looking back over the use cases of what he determined to be the single most important text in animal mourning, Koudounaris pinned it to a 1994 appearance on the advice column Dear Abby, the most syndicated column in American history.
A reader told Abby Van Buren that she had received a copy of Rainbow Bridge from her local Humane Society chapter in Grand Rapids Michigan. From that debut to her 100 million readers, Rainbow Bridge began appearing on everything to do with the loss of a pet—Hallmark cards, veterinary clinics, etc.
Koudounaris worked out that of the 15 separate authorship filings at the United States Copyright Office, none of them was the legitimate poet. Eventually expanding the list to 25 names in connection to the poem, he determined one, Edna Clyne-Rekny, was the most promising.
This January, Clyne-Rekhy received a strange phone call asking if she were the author of Rainbow Bridge, to which she answered “How on Earth did you find me?”
In 1957, when she was 19 years old, Clyne-Rekhy was grieving the loss of Major, her Labrador retriever, who “died in my arms,” she told Nat Geo. Her mother told her to write down how she was feeling.
“It just came through my head, it was like I was talking to my dog—I was talking to Major,” she says. “I just felt all of this and I had to write it.”
When Koudounaris met her, he found she still had the original handwritten text of the poem. She explained that she had given out handmade copies without her name on them to several of her friends over the years who had lost pets, before moving to live in India, and Spain, all the while the poem’s popularity blossomed across the US and UK.
“Can you imagine?” she says. “Every vet in Britain has it!”
The original text goes like this:
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, your pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water, and sunshine, and friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who have been ill and old are restored to health and strength, those who were hurt are made better and strong again, like we remember them before they go to heaven. They are happy and content except for one small thing—they each miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are shining, his body shakes. Suddenly he begins to run from the herd, rushing over the grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cuddle in a happy hug never to be apart again. You and your pet are in tears. Your hands again cuddle his head and you look again into his trusting eyes, so long gone from life, but never absent from your heart, and then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together.
Today’s senryu: Why Mindfulness is Key
touch a place of peace
deep listening/skillful speech
joy stronger than hate
“Mindfulness, meditation and active listening can help us take more nourishing climate action, says Sister True Dedication, a Zen Buddhist Nun ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh on TEDxLondon’s Climate Curious.”
Check out this podcast which offers a 5-minute introduction to Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet and explains how Mindfulness can help us achieve change through compassion. As Sister True Dedications says:
In the book, Interbeing – The 14 Mindfulness Trainings of Engaged Buddhism (Fourth Edition) by Thich Nhat Hanh (c) 2020 by Parallax Press, Thay’ says:
“The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings were born in a sea of fire in 1966 in Vietnam. The situation of the war was extremely hot. And we know how hot the fire of fanaticism can be. That is why the very first precept is about nonattachment to views, openness, and tolerance, because we see that attachment to views, narrowness, and fanaticism is the ground of a lot of suffering.” p.30
The First Mindfulness Training – Openness
Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined to not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. We are committed to seeing the Buddhist teachings as a guiding means that help us learn to look deeply and develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. We understand that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a dualistic or discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform dogmatism and violence in ourselves and the world.” p.29
Similarly, Richard Rohr speaks of “solidarity instead of judgment.”
Richard Rohr from http://www.sightmagazine.com.au
In the book, The Universal Christ – How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe by Richard Rohr (c) 2019 by Center for Action and Contemplation, Inc., Richard says:
“A mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else. That is a definition that will never fail you, always demand more of you, and give you no reasons to fight, exclude, or reject anyone.
Isn’t that ironic? The point of the Christian life is not to distinguish oneself from the ungodly, but to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything else. … Humans were fashioned to love people more than principles.” p.33
In the book, The Essential Rumi – Translations by Coleman Barks, New Expanded Edition (c) 2004 HarperOne, Rumi, 13th-Century Persian poet, Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic from Iran, says:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense.” p.36
Here is my humble senryu to these great teachers: Nhat Hanh, Rohr and Rumi
Looking for the truth
I found love, then hope, then faith.
Thank you, dear loved ones.
It’s been many years since I attended parochial school or celebrated Lent for that matter. However, this year I have a poem to share that uses the word lent in perhaps a different way. May this Lent be a time of good reflection for all of us regardless of our faith tradition.
What We Are Lent
sometimes we think too much
sometimes not enough
sometimes it’s time to pause and breathe
I think that’s the “right stuff”
or is it right view, right action
or right effort
whatever it is
let’s recognize the common hurt
then embrace and smile
and enjoy this moment
it’s a short ride after all
and life is what we are lent
From my latest book of poetry, Natural Beauty and Other Poems, (c) 2021
The last stanza of one of Robert Frost’s most famous poems is both support and challenge to my new vocation as an animal chaplain. The stanza goes like this:
“But yield who will to their separation,
my object in living is to unite
my avocation and my vocation
as my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
and the work is play for mortal stakes,
is the deed ever really done
for Heaven and the future’s sakes.”
Tomorrow, I will receive a certificate of completion for animal chaplain training through Compassion Consortium (https://www.compassionconsortium.org/training). As the program describes:
Animal chaplains provide support for both animals and humans by using ritual, ceremony, and the tools of spiritual companionship. Compassion Consortium’s Animal Chaplaincy Training helps you fulfill your heart’s call to honor and celebrate the lives of all species, including how to companion them through joys and challenges.
This six-month program was offered to:
I’d like to think that I fit in all three categories above. Now that I’ve completed this part of the program, I will continue on for another 3+ months toward ordination in late June.
As Robert Frost referred to his role above, I hope to combine my author and animal shelter roles into one so that I may serve both animal and humans more effectively. Ultimately, my goal is to live up to the Compassion Consortium objective to “honor animal lives and heal human hearts.”
With the support of family & friends, not to mention Heaven and Mother Earth, may it be so.
_/\_
Life Matters 