ZENDO

Wednesday

8.5.2020

4 p.m.

New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care

119 West 23rd Street

Manhattan, N.Y.

 Main Altar

Kuan Yin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin?fbclid=IwAR109s0o40DINqLSQhxPrY-T76ko52y7-ioACN6qz7zjxsrS_sTpB3B_z4M

 Right Altar

 Left Altar

 Another View

Working Monks

 Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

 5 p.m.

Front Window View

 Looking West

Me

~*~

GONE AWHILE

Though my travel anxiety is at high pitch, I've got a ticket in hand and packed a reasonable bag. The train leaves at 2 p.m. and dear friends expect me in Massachusetts at 5:30 p.m.  Some future time perhaps I'll write an essay about the difficulty of leaving my comfort zone. Better yet, maybe it will simply dissolve and become irrelevant.

At the Zendo last Night

Meanwhile, I'll be without the internet resting weary eyes and busy, bouncing brain cells until late August.

~*~

I wish you all ease and joy. 

UPTURN

The long-living Turtle carrying a baby on it's back resting in this disembodied open hand has been decorated by a bracelet meant to symbolize all the gifts, calls, cards, kind words, caring and generous giving of many friends over my recent month + of illness. It signifies an upturn in my health. Although I'm not entirely out of the woods, I am most definitely up out of the dark ditch and standing.
Thank you

~*~

I'm avoiding wheat and found Rice Pasta to make this Mac and Cheese - not bad.

Good choice - Blood Orange for juicing

Not so good choice - Oreo cookie

I returned to my Writing Group Monday and It was productive.
~*~

Tuesday I registered with the 'Stein Senior Center two blocks away. They had an after lunch program of Broadway songs ending with a sing-a-long

"There's No Business Like Show Business"

Lunch Volunteers

 Food Cost $2
Mostly nothing I can eat partly due to my dietary restrictions, partly personal choice and a strong preference for organic, but others were glad to accept what I did not eat. The task of feeding so many on a daily basis is amazing when you think about it, and community is a big part of the process. Too many seniors are isolated. I saw several people I've known casually from the neighborhood for decades. Here, food is served with love by mostly volunteer assistants to the paid, hard working professional staff. A fifteen minute Dancercize session before lunch was fun, and good for all who chose to participate. Easy music and easy steps. Energizing. There are other services and benefits offered as well (see LINK), including $2 theater and concert tickets.
~*~

Media Scored This Week
Audio Book $1 at Stein's Sale table
"When journalist Maureen Paschal begins the research for a new book, she has no idea that she is stepping into an ancient mystery so secret, so revolutionary, that thousands of people have killed and died for it. Two thousand years ago, Mary Magdalene hid a set of scrolls in the French Pyrenees: the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, her version of the life of Jesus and the events of the New Testament. To search for the scrolls, she must unravel clues that link history’s great artistic masters, dynasties, and scientific minds. Ultimately, she comes face-to-face with Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and a love triangle that changed the course of history in a deeply moving and powerful new gospel."

 Video $1 at Goodwill Thrift next door to the center

"K-Pax is a 2001 American science fiction-mystery film based on Gene Brewer's 1995 novel of the same name, directed by Iain Softley, starring Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack and Alfre Woodard. The film is about a psychiatric patient who claims to be an alien from the planet K-PAX. During his treatment, the patient demonstrates an outlook on life that ultimately proves inspirational for his fellow patients and especially for his psychiatrist."  I viewed this and it is quite brilliant.

~*~

Good Advice

~*~

Gramercy Park blooming beautifully.

Spring
An Eastern Redbud in the distance.

~*~ 

Wednesday I returned to the New York Zen Center

 and spent some time in the library there

 before the sitting.

Today it's cold again and rainy.
 ~*~

LINKS

Stein Senior Center
http://steinseniorcenter.org/

K-Pax
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-PAX_(film)

Kathleen McGowan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_McGowan

Eastern Redbud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercis_canadensis 

NYZen Center
http://zencare.org/

CHANGE

New York Zen
Center for Contemplative Care
12.31.2015

Some wise words from Koshin and Chodo, a reading from Thomas Merton, Koshin strikes the bowl (bell) 108 times, followed by each of us striking it once again.  Then refreshments.

On The Walk Home
Kewpie in a toy store window

Rose O'Neill, a Midwest native who had worked as a writer and illustrator in New York City, initially conceptualized the Kewpie as a cartoon intended for a comic strip in 1909. According to O'Neill, the idea for the Kewpies came to her in a dream. The comic, featuring the cherub-faced characters, was first printed in Ladies' Home Journal in the December 1909 issue. O'Neill described the characters as "a sort of little round fairy whose one idea is to teach people to be merry and kind at the same time."

Kewpie with a Gumby Clock

9:30 New Years Eve

 

Tibet House

1.1.2016

Chanting the Hanuman Chalisa 108 times began at 8AM and ended at 8PM  with various Singers and Musicians

The  event was live-streamed and is still available for viewing

 

https://youtu.be/QP1CKes1ps0

Part 2

 

https://youtu.be/X1khxblr6l4

Intentions

Be kind

Be courageous

Be cheerful

Take it easy

Information

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumby

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman_Chalisa

STARTING HERE

You Reading This, Be Ready

by William Stafford

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life.

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

~*~

 

Boundless Way

The Art of Max Gimblett

~*~

In Memoriam

We honor the life and passing of beloved community member Judith Kalina. Judith died peacefully at home. We will miss her soft gaze and warm heart.

- See more at: http://zencare.org/nl2/2014-11.html#sthash.sXx6gohi.dpuf

In Memoriam

"We honor the life and passing of beloved community member Judith Kalina.

Judith died peacefully at home.  We will miss her soft gaze and warm heart."

~*~

In Memoriam

We honor the life and passing of beloved community member Judith Kalina. Judith died peacefully at home. We will miss her soft gaze and warm heart.

- See more at: http://zencare.org/nl2/2014-11.html#sthash.sXx6gohi.dpuf

ON WORDS

“Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us: We taste only sacredness.”

-Rumi-

Perfectly good food discarded when 'neighbors' fled to destinations unknown

Some view anything deemed sacred as belonging to 'god', and resist using the word for that reason. 

A woman selling her art on West 23rd street, NYC

Others embrace the word for the same reason.

 Priced at three for twenty dollars

I use the word 'sacred' to denote something or some one worthy of honor.  Consequently, to my understanding, everything and every one is sacred.  Then, what about good and evil, pain and pleasure, suffering and liberation?   

Pictures on an alter at New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care

 

More words with which to indicate an attitude toward something or some one.  Sacred's just a six letter word after all, and all words are mere signifiers, both real and illusory--ultimately inadequate to the tasks of living and dying.

Symbolic blade to sever illusions

Still, we humans struggle to find the right words to describe what's seen and felt.  That's how stories are born.  A 'Beautiful' story is not complete without the darker elements of that story, nor are the darker parts any less 'beautiful'.  

'Liberty' in New York's harbor-2009

Given enough longing and light, having devoured it's own substance, story emerges like a butterfly-unique and brief.

~*~