Illustrated History of the Universe

At home the day after a lovely Christmas. To accompany the beautiful sunny day outside and the fact that all of my kids are home for the holidays, I offer the painting shown above, "Illustrated History of the Universe", by Beat generation visual artist, Jay Defeo. I saw this piece in the Oakland Museum of California (see Oakland Museum of California) and spent a long time gazing at it – and thinking about the universe.

From the signage: "The abstract composition has a light gray impasto surface with a dark gray outline of a circle that appears above center and slightly to the left. Small dots of dark gray paint are splattered across the surface in several places, and a gestural gray line appears at upper right. The artist's handprint is visible at bottom left. A small arrow with "up" appears at top center". Just so you know.

Happy holidays.

Zen and the Art of Planetary Crisis

Lovely, lovely book. Dr. Susan Murphy is the founding teacher of the Zen Open Circle in Sydney, Australia, dharma heir of John Tarrant Roshi (Pacific Zen Institute) and Ross Bolleter Roshi (Diamond Sangha - Robert Aitken), a radio producer, a film director - and a terrific writer. Hard to pick only a few illustrative passages, but:

"The crisis facing us all right now is a tremendous koan set for us by the earth, speaking to us plainly but in words we cannont yet fully comprehend, caught as we are in the frame of the past that cannot conceive of this emergency. To respond we need to free ourselves from a too narrow sense of self, and an unquestioned assumption of self-entitled priority as a species."

"I see the great adventure of our time as not losing heart or going crazy but regaining humanity in the course of fighting for a planet where our children's children can safely flourish".

Me, too. This a great book, and I highly recommend it, and you can buy it here. 

[NOTE: Beautiful cover design by Gopa & Ted2, Inc].

Doan Book With Post-Its

Kyosho Valerie Beer led a Rohatsu zazenkai (one-day retreat) last Sunday at Empty Hand Zen Center. The service was a little different than usual, e.g. we chanted the Maka Hannya Haramita Shingyo (Heart Sutra in Japanese), and there were several bell changes in the doan script.  Hence, the Post-Its. Couple of other key items for the person hitting the bells during zazenkai are also visible in the image: 1) a clock, 2) the sitting schedule, and 3) a bell (shokei, or small bell, is shown). [NOTE: Bows to Valerie (thx) for a wonderful eighth-day celebration]. 

This Way

Scene from Shwedagon a few days prior to the Tazaungdaing Festival (see Tazaungdaing). I imagine these two statues are pointing (with painted fingernails) to something really important. Couldn't figure out exactly what. The temple they are pointing to contains a beautiful statue of Buddha, much (to my eye) like the one shown in the background of the image. [NOTE: Day three of Rohtasu week; I'm doing a lot of sitting].

Rohatsu 2014

First day of Rohatsu Week, the seven days leading up to Buddha's enlightenment on December 8 (see Rohatsu, Rohatsu 2011). As the story (one of them) goes, Siddhartha Gautama took his seat under the Bodhi tree and vowed not to get up until he had found the truth. He was visited by the demon Mara (shown above), who repeatedly tempted and assaulted him with sensory pleasure, violence, and mockery to prevent him from attaining enlightenment. Gautama remained still, and finally said, "I know who you are, Mara". "You are me". Ouch. Mara gave up and slunk away. As the morning star rose in the sky, Siddhartha Gautama realized enlightenment and became a Buddha.

Respect For Things

From Suzuki Roshi's Not Always So:

"Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves, and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them".

Both things and people. Worth reading over slowly and reflecting on the current state of politics, and human rights, and the environment. [NOTE: Thanks to Kyosho Valerie Beer for sharing this last night].   

Yay Susan

Michael Wenger (see Sumi-e) wrote a beautiful appreciation of my late teacher Susan Jion Postal in the November 2014 newsletter of the Dragon's Leap Meditation Center. I can't find a link to the piece (came in an e-mail), so I offer the whole text below (thx, Miguel; thx, Susan): 

Susan Postal knew who she was. You may ask, "how can you not know who you are?" Perhaps because it is so painful to be who you are without hiding or touching up. When I think of Susan, I think she was, is, and will be many things, but her courage stands out.

When her first teacher, Maurine Stuart, died, she carried her life practice on with very little personal or institutional support. She met many fine teachers after that, but nothing quite clicked. Perhaps she was stubborn, perhaps she was strong willed, or perhaps she was just Susan.

Things changed when she met Darlene Cohen and asked her to be her teacher. They were well matched, each had had long battles with their health, and were strong, steadfast, Buddhist women practitioners. Their hearts truly opened to each other, but not without struggle.

For two people to truly meet, it may take some heated back and forth. During Susan's dharma transmission with Darlene, there was a palpable seriousness that was also warm and with some humor. Susan's warm heart was evident in everything she did with Empty Hand Zen Center and the practitioners there. This was clear to me every time I visited Empty Hand. Her close attention to detail of the Center was very evident.

With her giving dharma transmission to Dennis Kegan, she recognized him as a teacher to carry her lineage. Zen lineage hopes to be of help to many people as well as to replicate itself through time, so that the practice can continue through time and space. In all her struggles, Susan is a good example of someone who kept her strong practice intention through difficult times. Yay Susan.

[NOTE: Susan passed from this life in February 2014. Her teachings and influence, however, are still quite active in mine].   

Tazaungdaing

Alms ("dana") floats being paraded through Shwedagon Pagoda as part of the Tazaungdaing Festival celebrations. The hand looms and the non-stop saffron robe weaving were spectacular, but I was strangely drawn to all of the pomp and reverence surrounding the Angry Birds towel (right next to a Buddha image).

Looking Back

Young monk in Homalin (see Roadwork) turns back to assess the blue-eyed, bearded stranger during his morning alms rounds.

Shwedagon Roses

Heading out in a bit to the airpot to start the journey north to the Htamanthi WS. Planes and boats and legs. Image above is from yesterday's visit to Shwedagon. [NOTE: Am moving out of internet contact and this will be my last post for a couple of weeks].