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 8 May 2005 @ 11:01
Many a time I have wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believed.
---Walter Lippmann
Regardless of how long you sit, the Buddha Dharma never appears because it is already here! Reveal it! Do not cover it up!
---Maezumi Roshi
If on earth there be
a Paradise of Bliss,
It is this,
It is this,
It is this.
---Firdausi
In 1975 Gary Snyder won the Pulitzer Prize For Poetry with a book entitled Turtle Island. My favorite poem in the whole world is in there, and last evening at dusk and by lanternlight I had the opportunity to read it aloud to friends and family down by our creek. This morning I found it online and have reproduced it here---with a link so you can buy the book. I hope Gary wouldn't mind.
He's 75 today. Two years ago I wrote about him, included a few poems, and sent it to him. I was thrilled when he replied. [link] Maybe I'll see if I can find him again today. More >
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 24 Apr 2005 @ 10:29
A humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than a deep search after learning.
---Thomas A Kempis
Chuang-Tzu: The true sage pays no heed to mundane affairs....He adheres, without questioning, to the Tao. Without speaking, he can speak; and he can speak and yet say nothing. And so he roams beyond the limits of this dusty world.
Confucius: These are wild words.
The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning. For by doubting we come to inquiry and by inquiry we arrive at the truth.
---Peter Abelard
My online friend Tom Bombadil blogged this item the other day...and I just had to leave a comment (reflecting my ancient radio and comic book days of superhero involvement)~~~
[link]
The thing about Bibleman, of course---and here's the real site in case you have trouble getting into that one~~
[link] ---
and shelling out $7 a month to have "Video devotions from Bibleman...delivered straight to your child's e-mail in-box Monday-Friday" is that while it all looks like good clean fun, there are very serious motives going on.
So it is in the shadow of sword, mask, armor and cape of Bibleman that I prepare myself for Justice Sunday today. My former college roommate Paul Quintanilla brought me back from oblivion to alert me it's happening. In case you've been dreaming too, allow me to wake you up with friendly greetings from our old friends at Focus On The Family~~~
[link] More >
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 29 Jan 2005 @ 22:01
A permanent state of transition is man's most noble condition.
---Juan Ramon Jimenez
Any fool can be fussy and rid himself of energy all over the place, but a man has to have something in him before he can settle down and do nothing.
---J.B. Priestley
Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the soul.
---Nicolas De Malebranche
Toward The Sunlight (1910)
Paul Dougherty
Thank you for reading this far, but let me warn you: despite the lovely title this piece is going to be about cancer. Like an increasing number of men my age, I was diagnosed with the prostate kind after a biopsy almost a year ago. Initially I started writing online about this in case I dropped off the Internet for a while to let people know what had happened. The response surprised me. People thanked me for being honest and asked to know more. Cancer is very scary and, like most people, I never wanted to think about it until I was forced to come to terms with it. Once one identifies himself, people start doing likewise with you...and soon you're sharing in a lot of personal stories. It's as if there's a Cancer Anonymous, only without any program or meetings. There probably are support groups somewhere---and certainly there are some interesting computer sites---but I suppose most of us settle for charting out a lonely course of treatment and life readjustment. Thank God for loved ones, and people who get closer now and really mean it. More >
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 4 Nov 2004 @ 10:02
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
---The Book of Common Prayer
I wish that I could just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one of you individually all across this nation.
---Senator John Kerry to his supporters, November 3, 2004
Don't drink by the water's edge.
Throw yourself in. Become the water.
Only then will your thirst end.
---Jeanette Berson
Max Ernst: Pieta or Revolution by Night, 1923
Few memories are more outstanding in one's life than the moment in your swimming lessons when you first jump into the deep end of the pool. For me it was at the Jamestown, New York, YMCA with a bunch of friends my own age, at the direction of our teacher. Maybe we were aged 7 or 8. Brownie was a great barrel of a man, and it helped that we all liked and looked up to him. He was a leader we'd follow anywhere. The water was 12 feet deep, but Brownie assured us we'd go to the bottom, push off and bob back up. The question "What if I don't?" delayed my volunteering to be first. Nobody wanted to be the puny whiner who would be last, so quickly one at a time in we went...and survived, and learned to love doing it. More >
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 25 Aug 2004 @ 12:42
If we were not already Buddha, we could not bow to the Buddha. When the Buddha receives our bow, we become one with him. At that very moment the practice of the bow is actualized. The Buddha does not force the practice of the bow upon us, but that which has been offered is brought back to us.
---Dainin Katagiri
Silence is as deep as Eternity; speech as shallow as Time.
---Thomas Carlyle
Those who believe they have plenty of time get ready only at the time of death. Then they are ravaged by regret. But isn't it far too late?
---Padmasambhava
For over 40 years I have honored my teacher, mentor, and friend, John Tagliabue. More recently he has retired from work at Bates College in Maine, relocated with his lovely wife Grace to Rhode Island, and encouraged me to distribute his recent poems on the Internet. He doesn't use computers himself, and a couple years ago wrote an elegy to his manual typewriter. When we returned from Canada yesterday, a small envelope of poems were waiting. I think I'd better get them to you right away.
The photo is of John last year at Bates with 2 students who just won the first John Tagliabue Prize For Creative Writing. [link] More >
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