Wednesday, June 2, 2021

June 2, 2021

 

Am I my brother's keeper? 

Reflection and artwork by Kathleen Dickey



Our Saturday discussion 

about using anger skillfully 

made me want to share this collage 

I'm working on, 

"Am I my brother's keeper?"  

Translating some powerfully strong feelings 

into images  is letting me step back 

and see where 

I can be most helpful.





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Special bows for today: 

  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • John Witter, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who died on May 11, 2021
    • Shanti, Steven and Selora Lane's dog who died on May 2, 2021
    • Shirley Snell, Merrill Snell's mother, who died on April 23, 2021
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • Dainuri Rott who has been operated on for a brain tumor
    • Fritz Hartog, Sue Jensen's brother in law, who is recuperating
    • Les Kaye, who has begun another round of chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery from a stroke
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
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Monday, May 31, 2021

May 31, 2021

 

In honor of Memorial Day, 2021


May all sentient beings who have 
served in war,
died in war,
suffered in war
be honored on this day.

May all sentient beings who have
lost their families in war,
their homes  and livelihoods,
their place of birth and connection
be honored on this day.

May we remember and honor them, 
carrying them in our hearts 
throughout space and time.



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Special bows for today: 

  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • John Witter, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who died on May 11, 2021
    • Shanti, Steven and Selora Lane's dog who died on May 2, 2021
    • Shirley Snell, Merrill Snell's mother, who died on April 23, 2021
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • Dainuri Rott who has been operated on for a brain tumor
    • Fritz Hartog, Sue Jensen's brother in law, who is recuperating
    • Les Kaye, who has begun another round of chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery from a stroke
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
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Friday, May 14, 2021

May 14, 2021

 From Zen Master Dogen Zenji's Fukanzazengi  


Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from the flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, destiny like the dart of lightning - emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. 

Submitted by Sylvia Hawley




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Special bows for today: 

  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Shanti, Steven and Selora Lane's dog who died on May 2, 2021
    • Shirley Snell, Merrill Snell's mother, who died on April 23, 2021
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • Fritz Hartog, Sue Jensen's brother in law, who had surgery today and is in ICU
    • John Hass, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who has entered hospice
    • Les Kaye, who has begun another round of chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery from a stroke
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
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Sunday, May 9, 2021

May 9, 2021

Happy Mother's Day!

Buddhist tradition and folklore is full of divine maternal figures who offer compassion, loving care, and protection, from the radiant wisdom mother Prajnaparamita, to the Earth Mother goddess Prithvi, to Tara, the Mother of all Buddhas.

There's a Tibetan teaching that recognizes all beings as having been a mother in a previous lifetime.  The teaching also asks us to contemplate the kindness of our own mother or whomever it was that took care of us when we were young.  What would it look like to bring this wisdom into our lives today?

This Mother's Day, we're celebrating the sacred role of the mother in Buddhist teachings as well as the mother features in our own lives--however difficult or imperfect our relationships with them might be.  May we honor those who gave us life, knowing that there is no one right way to be a mother.

From Tricylce Magazine, submitted by Bill Clopton

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Special bows for today: 

  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Shanti, Steven and Selora Lane's dog who died on May 2, 2021
    • Shirley Snell, Merrill Snell's mother, who died on April 23, 2021
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • Fritz Hartog, Sue Jensen's brother in law, who had surgery today and is in ICU
    • John Hass, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who has entered hospice
    • Les Kaye, who has begun another round of chemotherapy
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery from a stroke
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
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Tuesday, May 4, 2021

May 4, 2021

Mahapajapati Opens the Door

Mahapajapati was the aunt and foster mother of the buddha and a queen of the Shakyas.  Many women turned to her for counsel when their husbands and sons left home to join the Buddha's order.  She was the first to ask the Buddha if women could also ordain.

The Buddha replied, "Don't set your heart on this."  She asked two more times and received the same answer.  She departed in tears.

Later Mahapajapati and five hundred other women cut off their hair, put on saffron-colored robes, and walked barefoot for hundreds of miles to where the Buddha was teaching.  Weeping, they stood outside the gates. Andanda saw them there and asked Mahapajapati, "Why are you crying/"

"Because the Buddha does not permit women to ordain."

Ananda went to the Buddha and said, "Your aunt is standing outside with swollen feet, covered with dust, crying because you do not permit women to ordain.  It would be good, Lord, if women had permission to ordain." 

The Buddha replied, "Enough, Ananda.  Don't set your heart on this." Ananda asked two more times to no avail.  Then he asked, "Are women able, Lord, to realize the full fruits of the the way, even arahantship?"

"Yes, Ananda, they are."

"Since women are able to realize perfection, and Mahapajapati was so kind to you--caring for you and suckling you at her own breast--surely it would be good if women were allowed to ordain." The Buddha relented, and the sangha of women was born.

From "The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty Five Centuries of Awakened Women" (Edited by Florence Caplow and Susan Moon)

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Special bows for today: 

  • Please offer bows in honor of:
    • Shanti, Steven and Selora Lane's dog who died on May 2, 2021
    • Shirley Snell, Merrill Snell's mother, who died on April 23, 2021
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • Marya Shahinian, who has had two outpatient surgeries and is recovering
    • Fritz Hartog, Sue Jensen's brother in law, who had surgery today and is in ICU
    • John Hass, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who has entered hospice
    • Les Kaye, who has begun another round of chemotherapy
    • Flip Dibner, dharma brother and friend, who is recovering after finishing a successful round of chemotherapy...his tumors are gone!  
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery from a stroke
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
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Monday, April 26, 2021

April 26, 2021

Bodhisattva Ceremony 

on the April 'Super Moon'


Thus on this Full Moon evening 

We offer the merit of the Bodhisattva Way

Through all world systems

To the unborn nature of all being.





__

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Special bows for today: 

  • Please offer bows in honor of:
    • Shirley Snell, Merrill Snell's mother, who died on April 23, 2021
  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • Fritz Hartog, Sue Jensen's brother in law, who had surgery today and is in ICU
    • John Hass, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who has entered hospice
    • Les Kaye, who will need to undergo another round of chemotherapy
    • Flip Dibner, dharma brother and friend, who is continuing  chemotherapy treatments  
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
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Wednesday, April 21, 2021

April 21, 2021

Inspiration

(From a lecture by Agnes Martin at Cornell University, January 1972)

    I want to talk to you about “the work”, artwork. I will speak of inspiration, the studio, viewing artwork, friends of art, and artists’ temperaments. But your interest and mine is really “the work” - works of art.  Artwork is very important in the way that I will try to show when I speak about inspiration.

I have sometimes put myself ahead of my work in my mind and have suffered in consequence. I thought me, me; and I suffered. I thought I was important. I was taught to think that. I was taught: “You are important; people are important beyond anything else.”But thinking that, I suffered very much. I thought that I was big and “the work” was small. It is not possible to go on that way. To think I am big is the work as big. The position of pride is not possible either. And to think I am small and the work is small, the position of modesty, is not possible.

I will go on to inspiration and perhaps you will see what is possible.  As I describe inspiration I do not want you to think I am speaking of religion. That which takes us by surprise - moments of happiness - that is inspiration. Inspiration which is different from daily care. Many people as adults are so startled by inspiration which is different from daily care that they think they are unique in having had it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Inspiration is there all the time. For everyone whose mind is not clouded over with thoughts whether they realize it or not. Most people have no realization whatever of the moments in which they are inspired. Inspiration is pervasive but not a power. It’s a peaceful thing. It is a consolation even to plants and animals. Do not think that it is unique. If it were unique no one would be able to respond to your work. Do not think it is reserved for a few or anything like that. It is an untroubled mind.

Of course we know that an untroubled state of mind cannot last. So we say that inspiration comes and goes but really it is there all the time waiting for us to be untroubled again. We can therefore say that it is pervasive. Young children are more untroubled than adults and have many more inspirations. All the moments of inspiration added together make what we call sensibility. The development of sensibility is the most important thing for children and adults but is much more possible in children. In adults it would be more accurate to say that the awakening to their sensibility is the most important thing. Some parents put the development of social mores ahead of aesthetic development. Small children are taken to the park for social play; sent to nursery school and Head Start. But the little child sitting alone, perhaps even neglected and forgotten, is the one open to inspiration and the development of sensibility.

(submitted by Kathleen Dickey/artwork by Misha)

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Special bows for today: 

  • Please continue to offer bows in honor of:
    • Kenny Merrill, Misha's cousin, who died from ALS on March 20, 2021
    • Lally Hass, Kathleen Dickey's aunt, who died 3/7/2021  
    • Jesse Schouboe, dear friend of GJ Scove, who died on 2/27/21 in a car crash
  • Please continue to offer bows of well-being for: 
    • John Hass, Kathleen Dickey's uncle who has entered hospice
    • Les Kaye, who will need to undergo another round of chemotherapy
    • Flip Dibner, dharma brother and friend, who is continuing  chemotherapy treatments  
    • David Shaw, who is continuing the process of recovery
__________________________________________________________________________


Wonderful links/recommendations shared by sangha members and friends:
_____________________________________________________________________
Posted by at No comments:
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