Thomas Merton, 1915 - 1968

Just now in trying to say something profound about the fact that 90 years ago today Thomas Merton was born I hit the wrong key and deleted all I had written.

So perfect! I'm so lucky: The artifice disappears -- in just one key-stroke! Now, we can begin.

Let's be grateful tonight for all the writing. My god, how could anyone have accomplished it! So few hours each week, and such an outpouring. I know for me and many, many practitioners Merton's writing planted important seeds of inquiry. He pointed toward the moon for so many of us. For a long time, I would pray directly to him, and, as my practice moved more and more into silence, he remained.

There's a controversy (a minor one) brewing, but that's for tomorrow. For now, there are only a few minutes left of his birthday. Happy Birthday, Father Louis.

Van Gogh as Buddhist?...

I sort of have the same feeling as when I learned that Jesus was actually Irish Catholic, but an interesting piece from BeliefNet.com. While everything is flawed, "the crack is where the light comes through."

Book Report

I'd love to hear from anyone who has read An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World by Pankaj Mishra. A recent review. Thanks! (Hit "View my complete profile" and then click "email me.")

Common Ground

It probably shouldn't be surprising, though it is sobering. William Raspberry writes in the Washington Post that a major threat to the "American tradition of working things out are issues closely tied to religious faith: abortion, homosexual marriage, the teaching of evolution." He cites recent findings of the opinion research organization Public Agenda, which

has just published the results of a survey that serves to make the point. Support for compromise on issues that involve religious principles is diminishing among all Americans. It is diminishing most rapidly among the most religious of us -- self-described evangelicals, for instance, and people who attend religious services every week.

When shown the statement Even elected officials who are deeply religious sometimes have to make compromises and set their convictions aside to get results while in government the percentage of those surveyed who agreed with the statement fell 10 percentage points, to 74 percent, from the results of a 2000 survey. Further,

evangelicals and weekly service-goers, the support for compromise was down to 63 percent. This represents a decline in just four years of 16 points for evangelicals and 19 points for regular worshipers.

On specific issues: The willingness to support compromise among weekly service-goers (numbers for the general public are in parentheses) was down 19 points since 2000 (-six) on abortion, minus 18 points (-six) on gay rights and down 10 points (-five) on the death penalty. The pattern for Catholics was close to that of all respondents who regularly attend church.

The numbers certainly appear to bear out the pervasive atmostphere of rancour and the unyeilding quality of what goes for discourse these days. My first reaction is to ask , "Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?" But that ultimately is not attempting to establish an open dialogue. What are we all so afriad of?

What?? No "Groundhog Day"???!!!

Just in case you plan on being in San Francisco between now and February 13, you can take in the International Buddhist Film Festival. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Michael Wenger, of the San Francisco Zen Center, notes that:

"There is a saying in Buddhism, 'pecking in and pecking out,' and in a certain way this is happening in film," says Wenger. Pecking in and pecking out is a koan about a mother bird pecking from the outside of an egg and a baby bird pecking from the inside. Each is pecking away, trying to get rid of the eggshell, an image that reflects how a teacher and a student each work in their own way on the barriers to wisdom.

"We have a visiting Tibetan teacher who is now doing full-length films, and there are other western Buddhists who are now using film. Many of us who have studied film find it is a very good way to talk -- it is a good expression of Buddhism because it is a series of flashing stills, which in some ways is what life is like. Suzuki-roshi once said the most important thing about film is the empty screen because it can accommodate anything."

The films featured include rare footage of Suzuki Roshi, and

Among film highlights are a Fresh Look presentation of Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" (starring Johnny Depp, with a soundtrack by Neil Young); the San Francisco premiere of a little-known Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso") classic, "A Pure Formality" (starring Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu); the U.S. premiere of "Beyond the Mountain," by Korean director Chung Ji-young; the San Francisco premiere of "Hi! Dharma," by Korean director Kwan Park; and the U.S. premiere of a Thai feature, "Angulimala," by Suthed Tunnirat.

But, here's the thing, the greatest Buddhist film is Groundhog Day. No debate. And if you don't believe me, here's a bit more the consider. Or here. It's just a suggestion.....

Encouraging Lives....

Part of the reason I started this blog was reading articles about practitioners in the news. I found it heartening and encouraging to see how lives were being led around me. Here's a story about Myosen Marcia Olsen, who has founded the Joshu Zen Center. She notes, "Right now, we're starting humbly." Wise words for me.

American Zen (Verse)

Took a chance ran to
My cabin through lightening -- odds
Against satori.

That's a selection from Bill Heyen's poem "Sake Gold," part of a new anthology, American Zen. Here's an update from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I think the first intimation of what Zen might be came to me in the Beach Park branch of the Tampa Public Library, when I picked up a copy of One Hundred Poems From the Japanese, translated by Kenneth Rexroth. I still have the copy I bought a few days later. It's somewhere in my younger daughter's room. A few days ago, she asked me for some interesting books of poetry to read, and the Rexroth was among the titles I gave her. The words move onward.

At Hell's Gate

Here's a short piece on author Claude Anshin Thomas, author of a very compelling book, At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Story. A student of Thich Nhat Hanh and Bernie Glassman, Roshi, Thomas writes of the devastating effects of his time as a soldier in Vietnam and the slow, painful reordering of his life. Now a Buddhist monk and teacher, Thomas lives on pilgrimage and works as an advocate for peace. A powerful testimony.

More on the Plastic Brain

Here's another take on the story concerning the University of Wisconsin studies on the changes in high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony of Tibetan monks, this time in the Washington Post. Specifically, there's more gamma wave activity in "pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex as a brain region associated with happiness and positive thoughts." There is definitely a difference between the trained and the untrained mind.

"In previous studies, mental activities such as focus, memory, learning and consciousness were associated with the kind of enhanced neural coordination found in the monks. The intense gamma waves found in the monks have also been associated with knitting together disparate brain circuits, and so are connected to higher mental activity and heightened awareness, as well."

This seems to me a finding full of hope. The world, so bleak looking, the result of all our actions, and, perhaps, a way to affect the root of all our actions.

The Fruits of Sitting

I like to think that the time on the cushion affects changes -- no, wait! Forget that. No goals; no results. Anyway, regardless of the changes or non-changes of zen, I don't want to be part of this study. "One aspect of the two-year study will involve followers of both religious and secular beliefs being burnt to see if they can handle more pain than others." Ouch.

Does a Planet Have the Buddha Nature?....

A few days ago, I saw a piece on Scienticamerica.com that described how the surface of the Earth affected by serious drought has doubled in the last three decades. Findings presented at the recent meeting of the American Meteorological Society argued that "the fraction of global land characterized as 'very dry' has increased from 10 to 15 percent in the 1970s to nearly 30 percent in 2002." Large regions of Canada, Europe, and Asia are much drier; the U.S. has become wetter over the past 50 years. The result, perhaps more droughts and floods, more death, more suffering. A bit of a stretch perhaps, but I think of Mumonkan and the first Koan. A monk once asked Master Joshu, "Does a dog have Buddha Nature or not?" Joshu said, "Mu!" Does the planet have Buddha Nature?