Zen and the Art of Landscape

Zen and the Art of Landscape

The Non-Way

Well versed in the Buddha way,
I go the non-Way
Without abandoning 
My ordinary person's affairs.


The conditioned
and name-and-form.
Are all flowers in the sky.

Nameless and formless,
I leave birth-and-death.

Layman P'ang (740-808)

"Aritotle" by Billy Collins

This is the beginning.

Almost anything can happen.

This is where you find

the creation of light, a fish wriggling onto land,

the first word of Paradise Lost on an empty page.

Think of an egg, the letter A,

a woman ironing on a bare stage

as the heavy curtain rises.

This is the very beginning...

 

 

Read the rest here.  It's really fine.

Let There Be Light!

Beautiful Magnum photos of illumination at Slate.  (Above, followers of the Dalai Lama await his visit in Taiwan.)

Reclining Buddha

 

The 16-foot image of the reclining Buddha was sculpted by Shinnyo-en's founder, Shinjo Ito, in 1957 and was first inspirited that year marking the beginning of Shinnyo-en as a spiritual community based on the last teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, as its central text. A second inspiriting ceremony was conducted in 1968 following additions and renovations to the head temple complex in Tachikawa, in western Tokyo prefecture. The most recent renovations and expansions of Oyasono were begun in February 2008. 

See a slideshow at the Huffpost site. Fascinating and beautiful! (I particularly like the smile on the Buddha.)

Serenity

If you wish to see the truth
Then hold no opinion for or against.
The struggle of what one likes
And what one dislikes
Is the disease of the mind. - Sosan

Quote of the Day

"There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence. "
Meister Eckhart

The Water

Spiritual Atheists and Thinking Believers

Over at Salon, physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, is participating in an interesting discussion about religion and science. His latest is worth a look:

...we should continue to oppose those practices of religion that do damage, we should continue to oppose irrational thinking on issues that require rational thinking and evidence. But, at the same time, I would argue that we should allow our existence to encompass some things that we cannot explain by rational argument and proof. We live in a highly polarized society. We need to try to understand each other in respectful ways. To that end, I believe that we should make room for both spiritual atheists and thinking believers.

I would agree. Even though I oppose the irrational and harmful aspects of organized religion (and they are legion!), I also think I can benefit from the teachings and experiences of thoughtful and thinking believers, especially when I can define spiritual in as wide and expansive a manner as possible. In fact, I think this division between believer and atheist is harmful and unnecessary. To me, the spiritual and the material are simply different ways of looking at the same thing, and, in the final analysis, are merely artificial terms which try (inadequately) to describe the same thing.

Mindfulness

David Nichtern has an interesting piece at Huffpost about mindfulness as a practice which recommends being present to the here and now, even when it has its unpleasant aspects. Thus, the mind attains and maintains a sharp edge instead of sliding into a dreamlike state where we cease to be aware.

...there is a regular and recurring invitation to bring our attention back to the present moment and relate to what is right in front of us. Practicing mindfulness is simply recognizing this invitation to be present, and being willing to accept the invitation when it comes.
     In the Buddhist tradition, one recommendation for practicing mindfulness is to lean into its sharp edge -- so that we're not seduced into going back to sleep, back into our daydream. It's like the movie "The Matrix" -- the red pill or the blue pill -- one will wake us up and the other will let us continue in the dream world. Do we want to go back into that daydream, or do we want to wake up? When we become aware it doesn't necessarily mean we're waking up into a paradise. 

Awakening is thus a process, a daily practice, that we consciously engage in. It takes effort, and it has its unpleasant aspects, but is definitely worthwhile. 

SHISENDO AUTUMN LEAVES

	Shisendo is a delughtful little temple in the northern part of the Higashi-yama mountains. It was built in 1641 by the poet Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672) as a moutain retreat for hermits. It now belongs to the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. The temple is famous for its Japanese azalea ("tsutsuji") garden and its tranquility

Cartoon of the Day

National Coming Out Day

Keep Calm...

"Keep Calm And Carry On" was one of three similar posters produced in 1939, but the first two were so unpopular that Keep Calm never made it into circulation. Maria Bustillos tells the story of its recent rise to fame: in 2000, Stuart Manley, the owner of Barter Books in Northumberland, found a folded poster at the bottom of a box of books he had purchased at auction. (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Zen and the Art of Landscape

Loneliness vs. Solitude

Paul Tillich wrote:

 Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

Being in solitude, going apart from the crowd and into oneself, is the only means to accessing that inner source where the authentic self can be found - awakening. What Benes, in the post on cell phone use I cite below, describes is the opposite: fleeing that inner journey. Of course, this can be a fearful and strangely wondrous voyage, full of monsters and joys, but it the only voyage. Here is where creativity can be found and cultivated, and where the authentic self, the true inner awakened self, connects to that higher power which can only be inaccurately described and never caught in a web of words - "Buddha Mind," the "Great Void," "God" etc. Cell phones and all modern technology are some a few of the means by which we avoid this journey and hide in the outward "history" of the ego. Meditation, prayer, study, creativity - all of which occur in solitude, are tools we use facilitate that journey. If we avoid them, we are soon drowned by waves of anxiety and alienation in our loneliness. I resolve to continue that journey inward, and ignore the shoals of fear and ignorance!

Cell Phone Angst

Louis Rene Beres at OUPblog has a fascinating meditation on the association between use of cell phones and the anxiety and alienation in modern American culture. I can see myself a bit here, and definitely some people I know. As he points out, the cell phone is just an electronic instrument, but certainly can magnify what's going on in the people who use it. Money quote:

Perhaps half of the American adult population is literally addicted to cell phones. For them, a cell, now also offering access to an expanding host of related social networks, offers much more than suitable business contact, personal safety, or even a merely prudent ability to “stay in touch.” For these anxious legions, conversing or messaging on a cell phone grants easily accessible personal therapy. It permits both the caller and the called to feel more important, more valuable, less anonymous, and (above all else) less alone. With “rugged individualism” now reduced to a convenient national myth, cellular communication in its many forms promises to provide almost everyone who is “linked in” a direct line to stature, inclusion and happiness.

And...

Although never widely recognized, the inner fear of loneliness expressed by cell phone addiction gives rise to another huge problem. Nothing important, in science or industry or art or music or literature or medicine or philosophy, can ever take place without some loneliness. To be able to exist apart from the mass – to be tolerably separated from what Freud called the “primal horde,” or what Nietzsche termed the “herd,” or Kierkegaard the “crowd” – is actually indispensable to exceptional intellectual development, and determinative creative evolution.

I recommend the entire article...

The Art of Steve Walker

Cartoon of the Day

For the life of me, I don't see how any decent person can vote Republican anymore.

Zen and the Art of Landscape

Not much to say about this. Take a look here for a brief introduction of Zen gardening in the person of Zen priest Shunmyo Masuno. I'd like to make this a continuing project of this blog, occasionally posting pictures of beautiful landscapes infused, consciously or not, with the Zen Buddhist sensibility.

Letting Go of the Past

A hard, but necessary, thing to do for awakening to occur. A story:

     Two Zen monks, Tanzan Ekido, who were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.
     The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn't restrain himself any longer. "Why did you carry that girl across the road?" he asked. "We monks are not supposed to do things like that."
     "I put the girl down hours ago," Tanzan replied." Are you still carrying her?"

This is akin to Buddha's comment, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." Why carry the burden of anger, judgement, resentment, fear, etc. around like the woman Ekido carried around in his mind long after Tanzan had put her down? I resolve to ferret out these burdens, these hot coals, and let them drop.

Hot Man of the Day

Palin

So the wicked witch of the north finally gave in to reality and declared her non-candidacy of prez. I think we really dodged a bullet here. What could have been worse than months of her narcissistic, extremist, whiny, bullshit? I can't recall anyone who was less qualified to be president (well, maybe Pat Robertson). Good riddance!

Recruitment?

A collection of suggestive recruitment posters from the past. Sure, they weren't consciously gay, but they certainly contain a real undertone that I'm sure was picked up by gays at the time. I'm reminded of E.M. Forster's discussion of this topic, where gays have a secret understanding of the world - both the surface and the hidden, gay sensibility.  Check it out.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

So it's a rainy day and I'm on a classic music kick. Here's a mash-up I came across on YouTube. Enjoy!

Rainy Day

So it's raining today? I love it! Look what stormy weather inspired:

Hot Man of the Day

Real Conservatism

David Cameron, Tory (Conservative) Prime Minister of Britain, just gave a speech to his party conference which, to put it frankly, astounds me. Why? -

"I once stood before a Conservative conference and said it shouldn't matter whether commitment was between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and another man. You applauded me for that. Five years on, we're consulting on legalising gay marriage. And to anyone who has reservations, I say: Yes, it's about equality, but it's also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I'm a Conservative."

So different from the wingnut, fundamentalist, extremism that masquerades as conservatism in this country. Sometimes I really wish I lived in Europe, that my Swedish grandmother had stayed put. 

Cartoon of the Day

Pain and suffering, a graphic representation indeed. I found this attached to a discussion of pain at the Wisdom Quarterly website. Interesting in its relations to Dukka, or the First Noble Truth.

"Occupy Wall Street" Group Meditation

At Huffpost Wendi L. Adamek has an interesting article on the flashmob group meditation at the Wall Street protest. She writes,

Yet in these struggling bodies that fall so short of our imaginings, we can sit down and connect with what can't be grasped by imagination. Meditation brings together -- mind and body, simplicity and complexity, self and other. The flashmob meditators mobilized as a group, and words can be said about what they were doing. But meditation also resists enclosure into a single idea. Meditators sit down and cease feeding the cycles of fear, anger and desire. Instead, they sit quietly with fear, anger and desire. They sit with all beings, each other, the Wall Street bankers, the protester, and the moment.

Hot Man of the Day

Cartoon of the Day

Tibetan Buddhist Mandalas

Over at Huffpost, a great slideshow of Tibetan Buddhist mandalas shows the variations of these beautiful and transient works of religious art.

HuffPost blogger Matteo Pistono explains:

Central to the bestowing of the Kalachakra initiation is the creation of a mandala. "Mandala" literally means "center and circumference" and in the tantric context connotes a circular diagram symbolizing a universe with a deity in the center of his or her palace complete with entourage, gatekeepers, and a surrounding environment. Mandalas are painted on cloth and temple walls, created from colored sand, or fashioned from wood, stone or colored threads.