Quotes, quotes, quotes...

Such wonderful quotes... both found on the same day:

• God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.
  - Paul Valery
• There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.
  - Martin Gardner

A Catholic Reflects on Buddhism...

A thoughtful piece by Sister Joan Chittister on interfaith relations, the view on Buddhism on the part of some of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the witness of compassionate living. It ran on the National Catholic Reporter website. Perhaps no more than a week after 9/11 I heard her speak at a national convention for Call to Action. A stirring speaker, quite a gifted preacher. Maybe a little heavy handed in this piece, but the nexus between Catholicism and Buddhism is a very important one to me.

Emptiness....

In a stunning lesson in emptyness, I went to my blog on Zen this afternoon, and... poof!... it was gone. This could be the price of using a free service, or it might just be a stronger lesson than that. Whichever, I am setting up in a new space, and wondering if I shouldn't maybe be on the mat instead...

Permanence is Delusion...

Where has my blog gone?....

Quote of the Day...

"The whole point of this life is the healing of the heart's eye through which God is seen." -- St. Augustine

What do you want?

I want to awaken.

When is a bike seat like a zafu?

A recent piece in the New York Times on the dangers of bicycle seats (especially for men...) was the most forwarded article, according to the Times' website. And no surprise.

Not to be coy about it, the problem discussed in the piece, in the words of Dr. Steven Schrader, a reproductive health expert who studies cycling at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is that bike seats can kill your love life.

It was no longer a question of 'whether or not bicycle riding on a saddle causes erectile dysfunction.' Instead, [Schrader] said in an interview, 'The question is, What are we going to do about it?'

Ouch.

I'll spare you the details (it involves a sevenfold increase in pressure on the perineum, and that's enough for a blog entry!) but here's the practice-related question: Sitting on a zafu, based on first-hand experience, can cause the same symptoms. Oxygen is not getting to an important part of your anatomy, which goes numb. As Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a Boston-based urologist, notes, "Numbness is your body telling you something is wrong." (This is the same doctor who notes, "there are only two kinds of male cyclists - those who are impotent and those who will be impotent.")

Obviously, there's a better way to sit on the cushion, but how many people are not even considering the issue? (Leaving aside, for a moment, the question of detachment...)

When bikers first began hearing of the possible problems, Dr. Goldstein explains, they became angry and defensive. "They said cycling is healthy and could not possibly hurt you. Sure you can get numb. But impotent? No way."

Yes, way.

I've switched to a seiza bench because the pain in the knees -- both operated on, neither with much catiledge left -- was too much. Who knew?

A P.S. ---

"The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower." -- Robert Pirsig

Confessions of a Zen Democrat....

One of the most articulate Democrats I know gives a speech entitled, "Confessions of a Zen Democrat."

OK, in the spirit of full disclosure, Bill Curry is my cousin. But don't hold that against him...

As I was saying......

Six months seems a nice round number to have been silent. In the interim: $6 billion a month on the war in Iraq, thousands more dead (with civilians, probably tens of thousands), not one but two storms of the century, the largest migration to the North since the mid 20th Century – in about a month, and a general sense of growing darkness and anarchy.

As Yogi Berra Roshi said, "This is like deja vu all over again."

Or, coincidentally enough, to be sitting with Mumonkan case 14. Nanchuan's Cat.

The case: Nanchuan saw the monks of the eastern and western halls fighting over a cat. Seizing the cat, he told the monks: "If any of you can say a word of Zen, you will save the cat." No one answered. Nanchuan cut the cat in two. That evening Zhaozhou returned to the monastery and Nanchuan told him what had happened. Zhaozhou removed his sandals, placed them on his head, and walked out. Nanchuan said: "If you had been there, you would have saved the cat."

My friend Mr. Sam Sarrah says, “The cat is dead. How can you kill the cat?”

Dan Rather Koans

Tonight's the last night for Mr. Rather. Things to ponder with Big Mind:

[Collected Sayings, compiled by John Maynard, of the Washington Post]

November 2000: "We've lived by the crystal ball and learned to eat so much broken glass tonight that we're in critical condition."

November 2004: "We don't know what to do. We don't know whether to wind a watch or bark at the moon."

Quote of the Day...

"Of course there is no formula for success, except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings." -- Arthur Rubinstein

Whither Catholic Zen?...

Ann Arbor, MI's St. Blase Church's Illumination Lenten Peace Series hosts a talk by a practitioner of the Zen Buddhist Temple, and as I read about the talk, I think of a recent piece a friend shared that challenges the assumption that there might be a fruitful exchange between Roman Catholicism and Buddhism. (Full disclosure: I write this with a background of 15 years of Catholic education...) Reading this piece provides a very illuminating moment of ignorance. I can only experience the need to disagree and admit that I lack the scholarly background -- or subtly of insight -- to challenge the co-authors on their own terms. The Jesuit priest and author they quote, Robert Kennedy, S.J. -- Kennedy Roshi -- led the first sesshin I attended and is the teacher of my teacher. The sesshins I have attended since have been full of Catholics. I have no idea what it "means," but it is.

The Jesuit grad in me can't end this without citing sources. At the time of Kennedy Roshi installation of Kevin Hunt Sensei, a Trappist monk from St. Joseph's Abbey, in Spencer, MA (very near my alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross), as a Dharma successor, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., wrote:

Because of the long preparation and training required to become a master of the demanding Zen training, Fr. Hunt's achievement is one that we can all celebrate in thanksgiving to God ... Jesuits and other Christians have found Zen to be a valuable instrument for progressing in the spiritual life. ... By coming to focus on the present moment through the practice of the techniques of Zen meditation, the Christian can become aware of God's immediate loving presence.

I believe it was in Kennedy Roshi's book Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit: The Place of Zen in Christian Life that he quotes something Yamada Roshi said to him:

I am not trying to make you a Buddhist, but to empty you in imitation of your Lord, Jesus Christ.

Born in the USA....

A nice overview piece that looks at the growth of an American Zen, ranging from Manhattan's Village Zendo to such, implicit, koans as does hardcore rap have a place in the dharma, with stops in Springsteenville along the way.

While the 1960s saw Zen emerge in the United States as a countercultural religion under the guidance of Japanese teachers, today American Zen practitioners are a growing influence in religious life. Although no hard numbers exist, many Zen centers report seeing their membership increase substantially in the last decade, and new centers are popping up across the country. Much different from the male-dominated, hierarchical and highly monastic zendos in Japan, these centers have blended elements like lay participation, female leadership and social activism to create an American form of an ancient practice.

Will the lotus take root upon the rock?