tariki

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.

Ha ha! You've made me think of the Monty Python sketch, where the group all begin trying to outdo each other over the poverty of their childhood. Can't remember much, but it went from "we lived in a two up, two down" to one claiming to have lived in a matchbox! And Yorkshiremen..... The guy who takes his cat to the vet. "I'd like 'e to look at my cat" "Is it a tom?" " No, it's outside in t' car" 😊 (...then there was the lady from [H]uddersfield)

It was 1963 that I remember. My first year as a paperboy. Mum would often say things like "there's a foot of snow out there boy!" and upon going out there would be about 1 cm. On this sunday morning dear old mum said much the same, I smiled knowingly, and found 2ft! Literally. And it was still coming down! But it never occurred to me to turn around and get back in bed. We were made of sterner stuff in those days! It was a cold winter, the snow and ice hung around for about 8 weeks, turning to hard ice on the road edges, making cycling treacherous. But I survived - obviously - and the tips that year were good.

Oh, there is. But we all need to drop our baggage. Thomas Merton:- 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. Sincerely, all the best.

I simply meant in the context of "clarity" of expression, not anything else. Thanks

If you offered to buy the round you would be most welcome. 😀

Snow here in the UK and last night, as it began to fall, I feared for today. "Global Britain" can quite often grind to a halt at the merest hint of a snowflake. Our grandchildren were staying over, mum away on Care duty, and this morning we needed to get them to school (and picking them up later to take back to their own home, to "water and feed" until mum gets in about 10.30 pm) They were excited by the snow and (I think) rather hoping that school would be cancelled! However, I was anxious, wanting a normal day (whatever a normal day is......🙂) But I need not have worried. About two inches of snow, but the main roads already cleared early on. The taxi arrived on time (the buses here are unreliable) and we dropped the kiddies of at school. They immediately ran into the playground, where a snowman had already been constructed, and a few snowball fights were in progress.......I love children! Me, I am the packhorse, with rucksack and two rather heavy carrier bags full of assorted stuff to drop off at my daughter's home. Amid the assorted stuff, Dave the minion and Brownie the teddybear. Then a bus into town, now having a coffee in McDonalds, with shopping to get after. At 73, I thought I had retired long ago! But I would not have it any other way. After seeing that snow last night I did think that today might turn into a nightmare. My eyes being hindered by blind passions, I cannot perceive the light that grasps me; Yet the great compassion, without tiring, Illumines me always (Shinran, from "Hymns of the Pure Land Masters") Namu-amida-butsu! PS What did one snowman say to the other? " Can you smell carrots? "

Without seeking to be rude, I would suggest that you try to do much the same. You really need to drop a bit of baggage, if not all of it. From my perspective. Once again, I am a Pure Land Buddhist (if we must use labels) You obviously seek to engage in some sort of debate. I accept that this is a discussion forum, but really I seek no such thing. But I gave up seeking to "relate" to all the various sayings of Jesus long ago (I have in fact read the entire NT about 7 times, and also many commentaries by various theologians, academics etc etc) His sayings are, in my opinion, in the context of his life and his relationships, as recorded. Extracting them from such a context only leads to formulas and theologies, inquistions and conflict. You are welcome to engage in such debate and conversations, but not with me. Thank you.

I also said that I was speaking from a particular perspective, and that there are other perspectives. Regarding "therapy" I was simply saying that as far as I am concerned "therapy" is not any sort of "answer" as such. We all need to strive to see the entire context of any set of words. But obviously I have been unclear. These things could be sorted in double quick time over a pint of ale in a tavern. Which is a rather good context, although I am now teetotal. 🙂

Who is speaking of "therapy"? “So this holy life, bhikkhus, does not have gain, honour, and renown for its benefit, or the attainment of virtue for its benefit, or the attainment of concentration for its benefit, or knowledge and vision for its benefit. But it is this unshakeable deliverance of mind that is the goal of this holy life, its heartwood, and its end.” (Majjhima Nikaya 29:7) Or, "you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free"

Who is? Meanings are infinite. Here is Wei Wu Wei, the famous English gentleman racehorse owner, speaking of a saying from the Gospel of Thomas (no, not canonical, but who decided what is, or was, or will be?) It is interesting to note that in the recently discovered collection of sayings of Jesus there is one in which he formally adjured His disciples to divest themselves of all their 'garments'. It is understandable that such a statement should have been omitted by those later compilers who had no idea what such a requirement could mean. But to us it should be a commonplace. As far back as Chuang-tse we find the story of the old monk who, in despair of knowing enlightenment before he died, went to see Lao-tse. On arrival Lao-tse came out to meet him, welcomed him, but told him to leave his followers and his baggage outside the gate, for otherwise he would not be admitted. The old man had no followers, and no baggage, but he understood, went in and found his fulfilment. 🙂

Hi Jessie, I would say that you would fit in anywhere where any random group of human beings would congregate. But obviously, you are asking what particular Christian denomination would suit. Possibly a Universalist Church? But really, I doubt you will ever find a large group of totally like minded people who would agree with all your various opinions. Maybe then, a bit of give and take, living and learning. Acceptance of others irrespective of differences. No inquisitions, crusades or excommunications! But I would hope others might try an answer for you. All the best.

Just to say (as I am one of the few still here, for good or ill) that I'm not actually a PC. The then big chief here, Joseph, knowing that I was harmless (😄) allowed me to post wherever I wanted although the rules state that we must subscribe to the 8 points. Actually, I think I am still a moderator of the "Other Wisdom Traditions" section, but given the sheer lack of interest there, I'm not unduly troubled...😀

As a spin off from another conversation here, I would just like to speak of the Mental Health Forum that I participate on. Link:- https://www.mentalhealthforum.net/ If anyone at all wishes to tread the Bodhisattva Path (😄) of helping others, it is fertile ground. Myself, I think often we must recognise that we are "broken" ourselves before we try to help others, in the tradition of the Buddhist nun Pema Chodron:- Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognise our shared humanity. The thing is, there is no hiding place on the Forum. If anyone were to try the "go home and pull yourself together" spiel, or the "accept Jesus as your own personal savior" you would be told to put it where the sun doesn't shine. It is a busy forum and the stories there, the Introductions, can make the heart wither. I have to dig deep to try to offer anything reasonable, dredge the words up from the darkest recesses. Yet in doing so, I find that I can often help myself, and get to know myself better. "In protecting oneself one protects others In protecting others one protects oneself" (Buddhist Text) So the invitation is there. Just to say, my screen name there is Telegram Sam, my avatar a piccy of Marc Bolan of T-Rex. What's in a name.......etc etc etc (There is a debating section, very active, very interesting, and also places for lighter entertainment. It is a warm place, welcoming) Thank you

Hello again, yes, I can understand. Yet despite my words there, I am as "home" as I wish to be. The whole ramble was from a mental health perspective. Other perspectives, other rambles! Hopefully you can liven up the Forum. Keep posting. Thank you.

Hi David, I am a Pure Land Buddhist. Fundamentally a path of gratitude. I have delved into the Dharma (Theravada and Mahayana) for over 40 years and I might as well say that the Christian focus on "sin" as a significant feature of life makes it singularly unqualified to deal with issues that pertain to the development of greater joy. Obviously that is untrue, just as your own observation is untrue. The Buddha spoke of love as "the liberation of the heart". The spirit blows where it will. To be honest I have a good home now (as far as forums are concerned) on a mental health forum. The people there are almost exclusively supportive. Thanks.

Way back I read a question posed upon any work of literature. This was:- was the meaning of any passage restricted to the actual meaning and intent of the author. That question has always bubbled in my mind, along with many other bubbling things. Whatever the "answer" is, as I see it, the words are "out there" and WILL mean whatever anyone reads into them. A passage of literary criticism seems relevant to me, of a critic speaking of the works of T S Eliot:- ......Eliot feels no compunction in alluding to the Bhagavad Gita in one section of the poem and Dante's Paradiso in the next. He neither asserts the rightness nor wrongness of one set of doctrines in relation to the other, nor does he try to reconcile them. Instead, he claims that prior to the differentiation of various religious paths, there is a universal substratum called Word (logos) of which religions are concretions. This logos is an object both of belief and disbelief. It is an object of belief in that, without prior belief in the logos, any subsequent religious belief is incoherent. It is an object of disbelief in that belief in it is empty, the positive content of actual belief is fully invested in religious doctrine. Giving my own "allegiance" to significance, rather than to any thought that ultimately all existence is simply a "tale told by an idiot signifying nothing", I am one for the logos, the Tao, call it what you will. And literally everything is a concretion of such. All genuine diversification follows. Diversification prior to any allegiance to such will simply be disparate and part of the endless cycle of samsaric existence, leading nowhere.

Maybe some would look down on graphic novels, perhaps seeing then as a sign of the decline in educational standards. Picture books! But I've had a few chats with customers at Oxfam and there seems to be an avid readership who enjoy the quality of the graphics, even collecting books by a particular illustrator. I have a few on my Kindle and the ebook versions are remarkably good, being able to progress the story simply by tapping the image on screen, bringing up the next image in line. And each image can be enlarged by zooming in. Until recently the best I had was "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", the novel by Hunter S Thompson, illustrated and adapted by Troy Little. The graphics perfectly matched the hallucinogenic story of two guys chasing the "american dream". But a week or so ago I saw a graphic version of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" , a book I have always intended to read but have never got around to. One small section of the novel I was aware of was where a bombing raid during WW2 was described in reverse order, with the tragic dismemberment of human beings, blown to pieces, is transposed backwards - the people coming back together, the bombs reassembling, going back into the bomb bays, the bombers returning home, the crews returning to being new born babes, the weaponry being unassembled and every part returning to the ground from which it came, once more a part of nature. This passage had always stayed in my mind but as said, I had never read the whole book. When I saw the graphic edition on Kindle I downloaded a sample for free but balked at the asking price of £13.99. But scanning the sample again I saw "Purchase now at £0.79p". Error or not I tapped to purchase and sure enough was only charged 79p! I have been reading the book on and off for a few days now. Really excellent, the illustrations quite simple yet they very much complement the balloon bubbles of the text. The novel revolves around the terrible bombing of Dresden during WW2, when overnight 25,000 civilians died, burnt/blown to bits. The author, Kurt Vonnegut, was actually there, and survived. In the US army, he had been captured by the Germans in 1943 and eventually taken to Dresden where he, and others, were put to work in a slaughterhouse - the Slaughterhouse 5 of the title. Obviously he survived, along with others and four German guards. Coming out of the slaughterhouse (the irony.....) they found and witnessed the devastation around them. Reading between the lines, the experience defined Kurt Vonnegut's life and maybe writing the novel was a way of "coming to terms" with it - if such is possible. There is a dimension of "non-linear" time throughout the whole story - in line with the excerpt I mentioned before. All events are co-eternal, existing all at once. And yet, necessarily separated and put into sequence by our human experience of a "self". Much to remind me of Dogen, who speaks of firewood and ash, explaining in Dogenese that the ash is not the future of the firewood, nor does the firewood become the ash. Each has their own singular "dharma" moment which must be actualised. ("Genjokoan" - in Japanese, the "actualisation of reality" beyond concepts) Digressing even more, Dogen takes exception to the oft quoted "emptiness is form and form is emptiness" of Mahayana Buddhism. As Dogen saw it, such is simply conceptual. Reality is not "actualised". Dogen insisted that "form is form" and "emptiness is emptiness"- emptiness is there in form, form is there in emptiness. OK, all gobbledygook no doubt, yet "we are what we understand". But words are words - reality is reality. Actualised or not. Make of that what you will, but getting back to Slaughterhouse 5, I can certainly recommend the novel. Good graphics and in parts deeply moving - as people despoiled by events, corrupted, can be known in a totally true/real "dharma moment" as a new-born. As the Good Book says:- "And a little child shall lead them". I have faith that it can be so. May true Dharma continue. No blame. Be kind. Love everything.

Thanks for the conversation Rom.

Good morning Rom. Now bolstered with coffee in McDonalds. As said, we are what we understand. In a way, each to their own. I sought to explain -see above - that the "feeling" of being "one with the all (universe)" was not that which Dogen either experienced or taught. Much like Edwin Arnold's fine poem on the life of the Buddha, "The Light of Asia". Fine, and yet he ends with "the dewdrop slips into the shining sea". No, more the shining sea slips into the dewdrop. As Dogen would say, the realisation of non-duality within duality. Differences are not obliterated, rather become more authentic within the total mind/heart. Ànd such authentication is more a journey than any final resting place. Or as Dogen would say, "an ever greater intimacy", a movement toward Buddha. I did speak of final conclusions. I even think we agree on that. In the manner of the Buddha's parable of the raft, for crossing over, not for grasping. Letting go is as important as our assertions. Regarding your little quote:- When I look deep inside of myself I see the universe quietly staring back at me. Whoever said it, what I see according to my own understanding is simply "what you see is what you get." Which is a form of justice. As I see it. Thank you.

Dogen's actual thought is very difficult to grasp/understand/comprehend. Yet I do not think it involves "feeling" yourself to be the whole universe. Dōgen in fact has said:- “When one side is illumined, the other is darkened” which to me suggests that he emphasised total concentration on whatever one was doing in the present moment. Mindfulness. Or as Thich Nhat Hahn would say:- "When walking just walk". All this "one with the all" kind of stuff is more what I would see as "New Age" nonsense. As far as not trying to head anywhere, I have sought to say that this relates to not drawing final conclusions, not believing in final destinations, seeking not to let the past totally dictate the future. To think that "wherever is fine" (i.e. any present moment) is not a consequence. Maybe I have been unclear. Your little quote at the end, is that Nietzsche......? "When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. " I'm not sure what he meant by that.

Fair enough. We are what we understand. "Understanding" constantly evolves. Each to their own. Thank you

Just a few ramblings posted elsewhere, collected together. 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" 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. Randomly, 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, just to finish, Thich Nhat Hanh was once 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 sedate forum such as this.....

Bolstered by a stiff coffee, I'll soldier on. I think most have concepts of "justice", maybe some better than others. (Let's forget about defining "better" for the moment otherwise we shall be here until kingdom come......) Then there are those who maybe speak of "man's justice" (they are not often very PC!) and then move on to what is considered "God's justice", which - variously - is "inscrutable" or just maybe is as explained in a particular book considered "holy" as interpreted by a particular group. However, the commonality as I have found is the "promise" that the "law" (of justice and of all things) will/can be written upon the human heart and not upon tablets of stone. Obviously, such language draws upon the Christian tradition, yet I say "commonality" purposely. That truth is to be written on human hearts is found across the world of Faiths. I have faith that it can be so, yet there is no one path for all. But, whatever, Justice (and all things) would then simply be the "appropriate statement", the expression of the mind/heart of radical freedom. We may view reality as a collection of independent things or we may view it as one vast seamless whole. In philosophy this relates to the preference for internal rather than external relations, which has been mentioned elsewhere (see my post March 1st 2017, Dogen thread in Other Wisdom Traditions) (Obviously, Reality as a "seamless whole" includes ourselves. Which involves the justification of "faith" - but I won't push it!) Therefore seeking any answer/understanding for how an assumed independent thing - however defined - (i.e "Justice") relates to other independent things, how it can be applied to them, is to be immediately on the wrong foot, wandering from how Reality actually IS. The pursuit of any such "answer" will necessarily descend into the eternal conflict within reason that the Buddhist Madhyamika philosophy highlights and seeks to supercede (by the Middle Way) (Is this why there are such unending and inconclusive disputes such as determinism v free will, absolute v relative?) Dogen's thinking, which sees epistemology, ontology and soteriology as a unity is obviously the way to go, as far as my own path is concerned. I really am sorry if all this is gobbledygook to others. I do not seek to be obscure; in fact more often I write simply to clarify my own mind. .😃 <--- I can't seem to get rid of this!

Well, obviously what they are trying to say/suggest/explain is the bit following where your own quote cut off.........until we could at last find no illusion.