tariki

Not entirely cut and paste here, but basically a transfer from my blog with added bits as takes my fancy as I sit with my coffee in McDonalds. The blog is enhanced by illustrations, but simple text here will have to do. Hopefully the text is not too irrational or esoteric! Recently my dear wife and I swept through the entire series of "Rumpole of the Bailey" and enjoyed it immensely. Rumpole was constantly quoting Wordsworth, who he obviously loved as a poet. I am not really over familiar with his works, but a few of his quotes moved me to look up his works. Anyway, here is the cut and paste of my blog (it has come out a bit ragged but hopefully that will not spoil your "enjoyment"...):- Tragically I have until now thought Wordsworth and his poetry very much on the boring side. Obviously my heart has often danced with the daffodils but beyond that very little has stirred me. Until recently that is. Almost by chance ( actually, watching Rumpole of the Bailey) I happened upon Wordsworth's Ode based upon a visit to the countryside around Tintern Abbey. Much to my surprise I read the poem right through and was almost moved to tears. One short passage particularly caught my eye - or ears - or heart. Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, Through all the years of this our life, to lead From joy to joy: for she can so inform The mind that is within us, so impress With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings. Certainly the world has been "too much with me" lately. The heart of a bodhisattva is far from me - hell not quite other people, but often close. But moving on from that passage and those thoughts, another few lines from the poem mentioned the "burthen of the mystery" being lightened, this in contemplation of natures beauties. Really, I have not delved that deep into Wordsworth's thoughts and mood as expressed in his Ode to actually claim disagreement. It is simply that I feel no burden (or "burthen") from any "mystery". It is mystery, in the sense of having reached no conclusions, of actually having claimed no answers, that actually seems to offer to me, as gift, a way of approaching and accepting Reality as it unfolds. In a strange way, if there was no "mystery" my heart would be dictated to; by formulas, creeds or custom. The Pure Land myokonin Saichi has exclaimed in his Journal:- "Not knowing why! Not knowing why! That is my support! Not knowing why! That is the Namu-Amida-Butsu". Such joins with a simple faith, a trust that "all shall be well" no matter what unfolds in any immediate future. Anyway, getting back to Wordsworth and his own words from his poem. He speaks of the "still sad music of humanity" but then of:- A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. Good stuff! Maybe best not to crawl and trawl through each and every word looking for seeds of disagreement - better to feel and open to the presence of another human heart contemplating the "burthen of the mystery". To join with them. And sadly, this as a retreat from the mass of people I often feel around me, the barren crowd, the awful pointlessness of so many pursuits, the apparent direction of so many towards aimlessness. What is the link between "mystery" and "aimlessness". Is there any at all? Something to give thought to. Shades of Dogen with that last question, where he alludes to the need of deepening the intimacy of the present moment with a fundamental "meaninglessness", this lest we seek to advance towards the 10,000 things rather than allow them to advance to us. (Ha! How's that for esoteric!........)

Just another word or two David. As "Telegram Sam" ( "Born to Boogie" ) on another forum I will be found often far less "esoteric". Possibly I am a bit of a chameleon. Again, you are invited to engage on the threads here in the "Other Wisdom Traditions". Speaking for myself, you could say what you like there (in spite of the fact that I might still be the moderator of that section.......😁) All the best

I am. Really. That you choose to call irrational/esoteric statements are simply common parlance among many modern people (even Christians) genuinely interested in finding meaning in this sometimes sad, mad world where all the old signposts have gone. I think I explained clearly that Jesus "coming to die" related simply to the worldwide common theme of dying to self, thus in Christian speak:- Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Thank you.

No, not that one. (This is a family forum!) 😄

Here are two I like..........well, I can't tell the one about the Foreign Legion camel..........😇 A small congregation of Catholics in a village in Ireland were told that their priest must take six months absence owing to health reasons. On leaving he told his flock that should they need any counselling during his absence that they should approach the Protestant vicar.Meeting in the local pub they elected one of them to go to the vicar, to ask a question or two. This man knocked on the vicar's door and the vicar answered and asked what the problem was." Well, we have been asked to approach you with any problems but we have no idea exactly how to address you""Oh, then how do you address your priest?" the vicar said." We call him 'Father' " the man answered."Then call me 'Father' " replied the vicar.The man returned to pub and exclaimed to the others: " You won't believe it! He wants us to call him 'Father', him with a wife and six kids! " And the other:- A guy loves betting and likes the races, particularly watching the horses being paraded around the ring prior to their race. One day he is watching this parade and notices a Catholic priest stretch out in front of one of the horses and gesticulate with his hands. He thinks little of it but sees that the horse actually wins the race. During the next parade the priest does much the same and once again the horse wins! Thinking he is onto a winner he goes back to the parade ring and keeps watch. Sure enough, the priest leans out and once more gesticulates. The man runs off to the track bookie and puts £100 on the horse.It falls at the first fence and sadly has to be shot.The man runs back to the parade ring and starts shouting at the priest. "What on earth are you playing at? You picked out a couple of winners then mine falls at the first and has to be shot!"" Ah" says the priest, "I can tell you are not a Catholic. If you were you would know the difference between a Blessing and the Last Ritespanpan widget

Two links, to "The Harlequinade", and to "A Mahayana Christology" for anyone interested. http://weiwuwei.mysite.com/aai.html http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ADM/keenan.htm

Ah ha! From tariki in therapy, to tariki the joker (though his humour be "sick"), and over on another forum its Telegram Sam who was "born to boogie". Do I lay down on a counch, enter BGT as a stand up comedian, or bop my way down the high street after leaving McDonalds? The "soul". From reading a few posts here (and I must thank David for stirring up this rather dormant forum) my mind turned in its rather strange way to a comment made by C S Lewis who insisted that Jesus should not be seen as a "good man" or whatever. No, "Jesus came to die"! In my own way I agree with him. Beyond all the "teachings" and "sayings" is the eternal mythos of death and renewal (as per Joseph Campbell, who speaks of all these common themes and parallels across the whole cultural spectrum of humanity) Before Jesus, there were more that 15 crucified saviours. Of course, "Jesus was the real one in time/space history", the others merely the work of the devil, who seeks to corrupt and decieve.........etc etc etc etc ad nauseam. Yet there are many books now making a strong case that Jesus never existed at all - but let us not go there. Back to the "eternal theme" of death and renewal, found right across the spectrum of humanity. This is really the theme of Wei Wu Wei's Harlequinade, from which came the "divest yourself of your garments" saying found in the Gospel of Thomas. (The whole "Halequinade" is readily found on the internet) It may seem a jump, but associated with this is the way some modern Christian theologians seek to speak of new Christologies, making the point that the "eternal mythos" in its Hebrew home then evolved within the context of Greek philosophy/thought. That Christianity is basically a product of such. They seek to speculate just how the mythos (or the event itself of the death and resurrection of Jesus) might have flowered in a Mahayana context of thought. A bit of googling will reveal "A Mahayana Christology" if anyone is interested. Myself, I stagger on. Though chastised for making jokes I am basically unrepentant. I think of Merton writing in his Journal as he read a passage from Irenaeus (A passage that I have said before here somewhere can relate to my understanding and experience of the Pure Land notion of "being made to become so (of itself) without/beyond the calculation of the devotee, where "no working is true working" - Japanese hakarai)Merton read:- If you are the work of God wait patiently for the hand of your artist who makes all things at an opportune time........Give to Him a pure and supple heart and watch over the form which the artist shapes in you........lest, in hardness, you lose the traces of his fingers......Merton comments......The reification of faith. Real meaning of the phrase we are saved by faith = we are saved by Christ, whom we encounter in faith. But constant disputation about faith has made Christians become obsessed with faith almost as an object, at least as an experience, a "thing" and in concentrating upon it they lose sight of Christ. Whereas faith without the encounter with Christ and without His presence is less than nothing. It is the deadest of dead works, an act elicited in a moral and existential void. To seek to believe that one believes, and arbitrarily to decree that one believes, and then to conclude that this gymnastic has been blessed by Christ - this is pathological Christianity. And a Christianity of works. One has this mental gymnastic in which to trust. One is safe, one possesses the psychic key to salvation...... I am serious about this. I do not joke about it. (In fact being serious about it allows me to joke about much that others consider serious, which I see as trivialities) I do keep a close watch on my mind/heart for any evidence of hardness, and often find, but always give thanks for the pure gift of "softness" that I know I can never "earn" from my own poor efforts. Like the common mythos of death and renewal, the "encounter with Christ" (the Universal Christ, the Dharma, the Tao etc etc etc) is found across the whole spectrum of humanity, and is not the possession of anyone or any creed. My worldview, my faith, sees reality itself as a vital, ephemeral agent of awareness and healing. Or as another has said......"the liberative qualities of spatiality and temporality. " Others may mock such a faith. For me it is the Reality in which I live and move and have my being.

Well thank you David! You grow on me! ( I need sympathy today, having just had our "old folks" Christmas Dinner and afterwards a Christmas sing song by a guy who looked remarkably like David Brent [Ricky Gervais] ) PS You may not know the character, he was in the sitcom "The Office", a UK show.

As far as I was concerned I was saying on the other thread that basically I agreed with it. Given my own reading and understanding of Dogen, he would have recognised the import. That all, in their own way, "contribute", "assist" in Reality. With which I concur. (Given my own Universalism, I would add that breaking free of the total identification with a linear time frame can add the dimension of a theodicy to this whole canvas of reality - but please don't ask me to elucidate that any further at the moment; it is my faith currently seeking understanding)

Ha ha! Well obviously from my own point of view it was a case of mistaken identity!

Hi again David, just to say I am a veteran of over twenty or so Discussion Forums spanning about 25 years. I have morphed from being afraid to say boo to a goose to virtually saying whatever I like. My apologies if it has come across as rude, but I do have a pretty weird sense of humour at times. Myself, I give you a hearing but simply do not want to engage. That is the end of it. Getting back to forums, just recently on another I was told that they did not want to hear any "inter-religious ######", and I was basically hounded off the forum (this a Buddhist Forum) Again, I have even been called the "antichrist" on a Christian forum, as well as a hypocrite and a liar on others. That is the way of it and I apologise again if, in becoming hardened to such robust exchanges I have offended you in any way. I try to keep my mind/heart soft and pliable, open to the workings of grace, but sometimes I fail. All the best

This seems to be a repeat of your post on the Merton/Dharma thread. I responded there.

Hello again Rom, Following the 13th century zen master Dogen, we must each find our own path, time and place. In such a way we each "actualise" our own reality Zen itself, irrespective of many "new age" type books on the subject (which warble about it being "beyond words" and suchlike) developed and cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, ephemeral agent of awareness and healing. Putting the two together, as another has said, "however lowly one’s symbols and practices are as in, say, a peasant’s religion, one is nevertheless entitled to enlightenment if and when one uses them authentically. Here is the egalitarian basis for the claim that Dōgen’s religion is a religion of the people." To care is therefore paramount.

As a spin off from another thread, a few words on the meaning of the word "Dharma", this very much drawn from a book by Sangarakshita, AKA Dennis Lingwood of Romford (now known for his falling away from pure Buddhist ethics by his predilection for..............no, let's leave it.....) Two basic meanings:- The first – Dharma as truth or law or principle or reality – refers to the objective content of the Buddha’s experience of Enlightenment. And the second – Dharma as doctrine or teaching – refers to the Buddha’s expression of his experience for the benefit of others. In the well known Dhammapada, it says, ‘Not by hatred is hatred ever pacified here [in the world]. It is pacified by love. This is the eternal law.’ The word for ‘law’ here is Dharma. It’s in the very nature of things that hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the principle, this is the law, this is the truth. As the character of the Buddha's teaching, dharma (Dharma = Sanskrit, Dhamma =Pali) the Dharma is:- svakkhato. This literally means ‘well-taught’, or ‘well-communicated’ suggesting it is appropriate fir human beings. sanditthiko, which can be translated as ‘immediately apparent’. In other words, you will see the results of your practice of the Dharma yourself, in this lifetime. ehipassiko. Ehi means ‘come’ and passiko derives from a word meaning ‘see’, so ehipassiko means ‘come and see’. The implication is that we need not take on the Dharma in blind faith, or believe it because somebody tells us to believe it, or because it is written in some holy book. paccatam veditabbo vinnuhi – a phrase which can be translated ‘to be understood individually'. This means that the Buddha’s teaching is to be experienced by each person for himself or herself.

Thanks Paul, and as I see it we have to get away from any particular "moral" or "goodness" or "ethical" dimension for recognising such people. This is why, from my own perspective, "emptiness" (which contains and is the source of all things) is better for me than "God", with all the baggage that can accompany that word. Also as I see it, such is the reason that the "Godhead beyond God" is a feature of some Christian mysticism. Just as both Merton and Suzuki were in agreement on the importance of the exclamation "Praise be to God that I am not good!" It makes me think of something Alan Watts said concerning the various faiths, that each would - or have - developed their own way of carrying out our various daily tasks. The beauty of difference, far beyond any purely moral dimension. Much like the Jewish story, of the guy who travelled over a 100 miles having heard of a famous rabbi. Upon his return he was asked what the man taught. "Oh, I wasn't interested in his sermons, I just wanted to see how he tied his shoelaces" Once again, it comes back to the zen koan:- "A clearly enlightened person falls into the well. How is this so?" As per the zen layman Pai-chang, "the graduations of the language of the teachings—haughty, relaxed, rising, descending—are not the same. What are called desire and aversion when one is not yet enlightened or liberated are called enlightened wisdom after enlightenment. That is why it is said, “One is not different from who one used to be; only one’s course of action is different from before.” Why in the Mahayana there is no betrayal of this world for some imagined "other", samsara IS nirvana. Perfection is vastly overated, it can leave us with nowhere to go. In the end I feel that I am working my own slow and staggering way to "acceptance" of others, irrespective of who or what they are. Looking for anything in particular in another, particularly "goodness", is a non-starter. First we must see others, beyond any pre-conceptions or expectations. Anyway, I have waffled enough. My coffee is getting cold.

Just deviating, this in certain respects highlights why introductory books on Buddhism are better if many of the key terms are left untranslated. It may well seem easier at first to scan over "suffering", "teaching", "no-self" etc yet the actual Pali of dukkha, Dharma and anatta respectively have a depth and connotation, an inter-relationship, that relate to the complete depth of Buddhist thought/experience and insight. It is when such is grasped (as much as we are able) that we can then seek to relate it all to the Faith of another, again with the proviso that we have a sufficient grasp of that faith. This is why I find Thomas Merton such fertile ground as I make my own uncertain steps towards understanding, comparison and openess to others.

Ah ha! The old tried and tested "projection" angle. Always good for a trial run. 😊

I think Merton "had it"......The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. The beginning.....

Yes, the word does have many meanings and as far as I can recall Merton never used the word. Dharma (capital "D") = truth. The ultimate. dharma = the Buddha's specific teachings. dharmas = specific bits and pieces, or the 10,000 things, all lacking self existence.

🤔 I think you might need to get a sense of humour.

I must admit that until now I thought that I was the king of waffle. 😊

David, I have engaged with the various sayings of Jesus in the past, over many years. I am now a Pure Land Buddhist. Here, it is not "salvation by faith". Putting it simply, faith (shinjin) IS salvation. Trust. Letting go. Not identifying with any particular belief. It is a way of no-calculation (Japanese "hakarai") where things are made to become so of themselves. The "training ground" is life. All life. I no longer seek to relate to particular "sayings" of anyone. It is more relating to each moment, as mindfully as possible. That is as clear as I can make it. Thank you

Anyone familiar with my ramblings will know of my liking for Thomas Merton. Recently I ran a thread elsewhere on how my own path within the Dharma was interrelated with many of Merton's writings/musings. It is rather long, but here it is. Some might find it interesting. One thing that I have always liked with Merton is that he was rarely didactic. He seemed to have learnt a rich lesson:- I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably have not learned otherwise: to let go of my idea of myself, to take myself with more than one grain of salt................In religious terms, this is simply a matter of accepting life, and everything in life as a gift, and clinging to none of it, as far as you are able. You give some of it to others, if you can. Yet one should be able to share things with others without bothering too much about how they like it, either, or how they accept it. Assume they will accept it, if they need it. And if they don't need it, why should they accept it? That is their business. Let me accept what is mine and give them all their share, and go my way. Echoes of the line I have quoted before, from "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".........Just take what you need and leave the rest. Thomas Merton wrote many books but I've tended to favour his Journals and Letters. They tend to get under the radar of the Monastic censors. Merton wrote to many, of all faiths and persuasions. One was D.T.Suzuki and this is from a letter written in 1959, speaking of how Christianity should perhaps have approached those of other Faiths:- If only we had thought of coming to you and loving you for what you are in yourselves, instead of trying to make you over into our own image and likeness. For to me it is clearly evident that you and I have in common and share most intimately precisely that which, in the eyes of conventional Westerners, would seem to separate us. The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact? … Relevant to this are a few words Merton wrote when praising Suzuki, this from the book "Zen and the Birds of Appetite":- Speaking for myself, I can venture to say that in Dr. Suzuki, Buddhism finally became for me completely comprehensible, whereas before it had been a very mysterious and confusing jumble of words, images, doctrines, legends, rituals, buildings, and so forth. It seemed to me that the great and baffling cultural luxuriance which has clothed the various forms of Buddhism in different parts of Asia is the beautiful garment thrown over something quite simple. And further on:- I did feel that I was speaking to someone who, in a tradition completely different from my own, had matured, had become complete and found his way. One cannot understand Buddhism until one meets it in this existential manner, in a person in whom it is alive. Then there is no longer a problem of understanding doctrines which cannot help being a bit exotic for a Westerner, but only a question of appreciating a value which is self-evident. I find a phrase there beautiful and profound........" a value which is self-evident" Anyway, moving on, an episode in New York when Merton had tunnelled his way out of his monastery and met up with Suzuki in the flesh. As Suzuki left Merton read out a few words of a South American theologian, "Praise be to God that I am not good". Suzuki was quite taken by this and said:- "That is so important". Shades of Bodhidharma when telling the Emperor of China that he had earned no merit at all from his good deeds. All genuine ethics are selfless, by-products of "wisdom". Or something like that. A poem comes to mind, "Heaven Haven" by Gerald Manley Hopkins:- I have desired to go Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail, And a few lilies blow. And I have asked to be Where no storms come, Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, And out of the swing of the sea. Perhaps not the best of desires at times, but nevertheless..... Anyway, back to Merton if I might be so bold and nobody is offended. One of his books is a series of essays on zen, "Zen and the Birds of Appetite". After the essays comes a second section, a dialogue between himself and D.T.Suzuki, "Wisdom in Emptiness". A goldmine of insight and mutual understanding; at least I find it so. On one point, however, these two worthies deviate, this on the subject of "eschatology", or the "last things". Suzuki speaks of "an eschatology of the present moment" in which we become once again "the Tom's, Dick's or Harry's we have always been." Thomas Merton seems not satisfied with such and speaks of further things beyond our ken, some form of new creation. You never know in Merton's published books whether or not he says things purely for the sake of the censor. Who knows. But I am with Suzuki. Coming back to the present moment, yet perhaps with the caveat as found in a book on the zen master Dogen:- "To teach students the power of the present moment as the only moment is a skillful teaching of buddha ancestors. But this doesn’t mean that there is no future result from practice." (Dogen's teacher in China to Dogen) I find in "Zen and the Birds of Appetite" some of Merton's finest writings, matched only by his essay "A Study of Chuang Tzu" which serves as the introduction to his set of (rather loose!) translations of Chuang Tzu, which I have mentioned before somewhere. This essay I have read several times and for me expresses wisdom that transcends all differences between the various Faith traditions, philosophies and religions. Which reminds me of another book I have mentioned before, "Tariki: Embracing Despair,Discovering Peace" by Hiroyuki Itsuki. Mr Itsuki had known very hard times, as I mentioned, and therefore his own trust/faith was not born of good fortune or superficiality. He writes:- The Other Power (Tariki) derives from the true and full acceptance of the reality that is within us and surrounds us. It is not a philosophy of passivity or iresponsibility, but one of radical spiritual activity, of personal, existential revolution. Its essence is the spontaneous wondrous force that gives us the will to act, to "do what man can do and then wait for heaven's will." Importantly, Other Power is a power that flows from the fundamental realization that, in the lives we live, we are already enlightened. This enlightenment does not come easily. It is born of the unwelcome understanding that, despite our protestations, we are insignificant, imperfect beings, born to a hell of suffering that defines human existence. But in this hell, we sometimes excounter small joys, friendship, the kind acts of strangers, and the miracle of love. We experience moments when we are filled with courage, when the world sparkles with hopes and dreams. There are even times when we are deeply grateful to have been born. These moments are paradise. But paradise is not another realm; it is here, in the very midst of the hell of this world. Other Power, a power that transcends theological distinctions, avails us of these moments. In the endless uncertainties of contemporary life, Other Power confers upon us a flexibility of spirit, an energy to feel joy, and the respite of peace. "Transcending distinctions". Yes. Though we all walk our own path. Merton wrote to all sorts and his letters have been published in 5 volumes. In the introduction to Volume 1, "The Hidden Ground of Love" you find:- (Merton) wrote about Allah, Anglicanism, Asia, the Bible, the Blessed Virgin, Buddhism, China, Christ, Christendom, Church, conscience, contemplation, and the cold war; about Eckhart, ecumenism, God, happiness, his hermitage, and his hospital interludes; about illusions, Islam, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Koran, Latin America, liturgy, the love of God, poetry, political tyranny, precursors of Christ, prophets, psalms, silence, solitude, and sobornost; about technology, Trinity, unity, the will of God, his own writings. In one episode in the volume devoted to his "personal friends" he had written to the young daughter of one of his older correspondants. In reply the little girl sent him a picture of a house. Merton wrote back, thanking her, and saying how nice the house looked, but that unfortunately it had no path to the door. Very soon he received a new picture from the little girl, the same house but with a path up to the door. Merton then wrote back about "the road to joy that is mysteriously revealed to us without our exactly realising it." Maybe such exchanges have connections with my own Pure Land leanings, of hakarai, "no calculation" where "things are made to become so of themselves." Anyway, moving on, an excerpt from another letter. I have posted this before on an Interfaith Forum and one responder spoke of "a beautiful paradox". This letter of Merton's was written to E.D.Andrews, an expert on the life and beliefs of the Shakers (or the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing). Andrews had sent Merton a copy of his book, Shaker Furniture, and Merton was responding to the gift. (Sadly, though written in 1961, the words "in our day" remain appropriate) This wordless simplicity, in which the works of quiet and holy people speak humbly for themselves. How important that is in our day, when we are flooded with a tidal wave of meaningless words: and worse still when in the void of those words the sinister power of hatred and destruction is at work. The Shakers remain as witnesses to the fact that only humility keeps man in communion with truth, and first of all with his own inner truth. This one must know without knowing it, as they did. For as soon as a man becomes aware of "his truth" he lets go of it and embraces an illusion. I find that "paradox" is at the heart of many things, if not everything. Getting back to "joy", and the road to it, and relating it to dukkha, very early in my immersion in the Dharma I was questioning what "the end of suffering" would/could actually be. Once I posted a section from a book by a renegade Buddhist (!) who spoke of not wishing to stay involved with pursuing a "pseudo evolved transcendence of personal pain". Leaving that aside, in some ways I have found that having certain/fixed ideas of what "the end of suffering" would be can be counter-productive. Another quote of Father Louis: We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen I thought then of the zen koan, "A clearly enlightened person falls into the well. How is this so?" Maybe enlightenment is not all its cracked up to be! Much like the guy in the lotus position who is heard to say:- "I'd read so much about it beforehand that now I'm actually enlightened I'm just a little bit disappointed." Anyway, I do think that plotting a forward path of study with various anticipations of "greater insight" can be the polar opposite of "being a lamp unto ourselves". One thing said of Thomas Merton, and I have noticed this also, is that often he would exclaim that he had "found what (he) was looking for". It seems that he was often "finding" and yet, apparently it was never quite "it" and the journey continued. One incident when he "found what he was looking for" was on his Asian Pilgrimage. Merton was in an area in Sri Lanka known as Polonnaruwa which contains many statues of the Buddha and his disciples. This is what is to be found in his Journal:- The vicar general, shying away from "paganism," hangs back and sits under a tree reading the guidebook. I am able to approach the Buddhas barefoot and undisturbed, my feet in wet grass, wet sand. Then the silence of the extraordinary faces. The great smiles. Huge and yet subtle. Filled with every possibility, questioning nothing, knowing everything, rejecting nothing, the peace not of emotional resignation but of Madhyamika, of sunyata, that has seen through every question without trying to discredit anyone or anything - without refutation - without establishing some other argument. For the doctrinaire, the mind that needs well-established positions, such peace, such silence, can be frightening. I was knocked over with a rush of relief and thankfulness at the obvious clarity of the figures.................looking (at them) I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean out of the habitual, half-tied vision of things, and an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious. The queer evidence of the reclining figure, the smile, the sad smile of Ananda standing with arms folded.....The thing about all this is that there is no puzzle, no problem, and really no "mystery". All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear. The rock, all matter, all life, is charged with dharmakaya.....everything is emptiness and everything is compassion. I remember way back posting some of this on another Forum and an ardent Christian said to me: " You do realise that he was looking at rocks" , obviously implying idolatry. I think I spoke about William Blake, of seeing through the eye, not with the eye, but the distinction was lost on him. Well, as said, that was one of Merton's eureka moments. Some advise not to become attached to such, let them go, do not identify. I think good advice. Further on for Merton, on his last pilgrimage, meeting with many Buddhists, he gave a talk just hours before his untimely death. He spoke of "true communication"..... True communication on the deepest level is more than a simple sharing of ideas, conceptual knowledge, or formulated truth...............And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless, it is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are. (I have added "and sisters" to spare Merton's blushes) Yes, true communication. There is a book by a Pure Land Buddhist, "Tariki: Embracing Despair,Discovering Peace" by Hiroyuki Itsuki. In it he speaks of the actual transmission of "truths/dharma" as being, ideally, face to face. I keep forgetting the Japanese word for it, it might be menji but I am not sure. Hiroyuki Itsuki had a disturbing childhood, a few years as a refugee. He spoke of times, waking up, finding the one next to you had died in the night, and feeling glad.......you could take his clothes and other possessions. Itsuki spoke of his father, a man who was constantly seeking to better himself, never satisfied. Itsuki spoke of when his father came home in the evening, sat down with a deep sigh on the bed and took off his boots. "I learnt more from my father's sigh than from all the books of philosophy I have read". "Menji" or, communion. Learning together. Beyond any separate "self". Another thing from Merton's words is the "what we have to be is what we are". This has echoes for me of the Mahayana teaching of Original Enlightenment, that everything of true value is a realisation and not truly an attainment. It is a gift. Given. Not earned in spite of the effort we often put into practice. Dogen was troubled by the Mahayana doctrine, and wondered what was the point of practice, why the masters of old poured over the sutras and practiced so assiduously. He had to find his own answer, as maybe we all need to do. Dogen eventually found his own path, time and place. We must find ours. They are, paradoxically, the same yet different. In some Pure Land imagery the individual is seen as the lotus flower, while the undifferentiated nature of enlightenment is of gold. The Pure Land is one of infinite golden lotus flowers. So, communion. And it can be "now". Much religion is - as I see it - a betrayal of this world for some imagined "other". It need not be so. By the way, Thich Nhat Hanh was actually a visitor to Merton's hermitage, built in the woods around his monastery. Merton met all sorts there. Joan Baez once (with whom he planned some sort of midnight escapade when engaged in his dalliance with a young female nurse - but that is more one for the tabloid press rather than a forum such as this.....

Stephen Batchelor:- Dharma practice requires the courage to confront what it means to be human. All the pictures we entertain of heaven and hell or cycles of rebirth serve to replace the unknown with an image of what is already known. To cling to the idea of rebirth can deaden questioning. Failure to summon forth the courage to risk a nondogmatic and nonevasive stance on such crucial existential matters can blur our ethical vision. If our actions in the world are to stem from an encounter with what is central in life, they must be unclouded by either dogma or prevarication. Agnosticism is no excuse for indecision. If anything, it is a catalyst for action; for in shifting concern away from a future life and back to the present, it demands an ethics of empathy rather than a metaphysics of hope and fear.

Rom, Hope all is as well as can be with Mrs Rom. Always good to be reminded just how a lot of responses here are squeezed in between various states of unrest and activity! Hope today is better.