ONGOING UNKNOWN

Sunday

I am embedded within the ongoing unknown.

Though living seems actual, though there are other beings everywhere and we are never really alone, though this was always so, now that it's manifest, it feels deeply isolating.

The Buddha taught that every thing is impermanent, fleeting and that nothing has a lasting form. Dreams, once we've woken up, are also fleeting, formless and intangible.

*

"For all we know, we may never meet again"

https://youtu.be/8ZkOOsm7O3Y

~*~

Monday

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”

(from 'The Tempest' by Shakespeare)
~*~


Tuesday
Two photographs shot during a brief walk about late Monday evening. I stayed off the Web and puttered about in between naps all day.

Almost all the newer residents in my building have left town and the silence is both wonderful and disturbing. Even my Zendo is closed for the duration and we do not know what that duration will be.
'Months' is the newest projection.

Such a perfect storm of disrupted events:
our elections, the census and the collapsing economic scene.
~*~


Wednesday
Daffodils bloom in tree wells around Gramercy Park,
sheltering in place in the dark

~*~

AFTERMATH

To Every one grieving, angry, or fearful,
l offer understanding.
To Every one rejoicing, relieved or hopeful,

I offer understanding.

~*~

(The Daily News decides on this full page gut-grabbing Headline)

Don't be caught by crass attempts to manipulate your emotions. Some disappointed folks are wading in the muck of what looks to them to be the worst disaster of all ages, forgetting in the passion of this moment the massacre of indigenous peoples at the start of the enterprise we call America, forgetting the lives sacrificed during our War for 'Independence', the Civil War that turned neighbor against neighbor and left farms and plantations with rows of mutilated corpses instead of crops, even neglecting to recall that, although abolition of slavery was a part of it, States rights was the major issue of contention. They've forgotten the bloodbath that was the First World War, as well as the unfinished business left over from World War ll, the displaced millions of innocent victims even though Germany was defeated. What I'm pointing to is that this election is not necessarily the worst thing that's ever happened, and I'm suggesting this same set of reminders for all those who feel they've won the day. Some simple facts and by no means the whole story, nonetheless worthy of a moments pause; nothing material lasts forever, not humans or creatures, plants or planets, and certainly not political systems, governments, parties, or policies. I take comfort in that knowledge so the prompt for me is "stay aware and informed, keep events in perspective, and be kind whenever possible". The same prompt might be useful to 'winners' and 'losers' alike.
~*~

("Gems of Wisdom", Firehouse Buddha, Bird Goddess)
  
I met Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda briefly while spending time at Ananda Ashram upstate in the nineties, and this little book 'Gems of Wisdom' was a gift from her: "Many people say this is the Kaali yuga, the age of darkness. But the yugas are a mode of perception...we choose to live in the Saatwa Yuga, the age of truth."  We can choose how we respond to whatever system or place we find ourselves in at any point. The situation we find ourselves in today is intense and grave, even dangerous no doubt about it.
~*~

 (Roses at the Zendo tonight)

One of my Zen teachers says his response is to dig deeper in to his practice.  Another yogi friend is running for local office to see what she can do to improve things for others.  Another is helping with efforts to elect candidates more in line with her values. Every thought and every gesture matters. Doing something positive is 'being' what you want to have happen. May we be that.
~*~