Category Archives: religion

Lots Of Capitals…

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For the last five days I had been sitting with a friend who was on his deathbed. He died peacefully Saturday night. It was an honor and a privilege to be in his company; to watch and be with someone whose spiritual life and outlook informed his final days (informed, as in map and guidebook) was a great teaching and example.

Yesterday at the temple we included him in the Sunday service and then our monk and several lay trainees went to sit with the body and offer scriptures, incense and meditation. A fine day.

I am ever more grateful for all the opportunities in my life to learn. The man who died was a committed Catholic and yet helped, and practised with, our Buddhist Sangha for about 45 years. He helped our founder find a foothold when she came to the Bay area after nine years of monastic training at a Zen temple in Japan. One aspect of true teaching is to embody it and show it in one’s actions and way of life. Our friend never had a conflict between Catholocism and Buddhism. He concentrated on the teachings of love and compassion in both religions and tried to implement them into his daily life. The epitome of a life well lived. May you be at complete peace wherever you are Larry Donovan; Bodhisattva.

I am spending the Holy Days rather quietly. Going through the process of experiencing them alone, going through so many “firsts”.  It is just fine.

I am blessed with so many good friends and my heart is full of thanks and open to whatever unfolds.

A Heart at complete rest and stillness

Comes from Somewhere.

Has journeyed from afar and

Goes, Still, Farther; to No

Thing.  Set it in Motion

Originally through being

That Which Is.

The Eternal. Now!

At rest. Now! Moving.

(A)t one ment…

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There’s a small Buddha statue in the front garden of the temple. The Buddha is golden and there is a small cup of water and a pot of flowers on the little raised platform the Buddha sits on.

Two crows live in the tree above the Buddha. They like the water bowl and knock it around pretty good when squabbling over the drinking pecking order, but often they just sit there next to the Buddha and look around. Chillin’.

There are two schools on the next block, so lots of kids walking by and an astounding number of them acknowledge or refer to the statue and sometimes the two dragons over the gate to the back parking area and yard. I like to think that at some point in a future those kids will be grown and having dinner with some friends and they are exchanging stories of the wonders of childhood (then just a dim memory), and one will relate how they loved to walk to school and catch a glimpse of the Buddha and/or the dragons; and how it all felt somewhat magical, mysterious and, somehow, right.

The crows I imagine are just happy to have fresh water offered every day  under their tree, yet also sense there is more going on. Just what, though?

These two ways, that seem different, are also ways that we all approach the unknown, the mysterious. That Which Is. We glimpse, we sense, we wonder and we refresh ourselves and grow up and still we know there is more; but what is it?

We had a classic Buddhist ceremony today, the oldest one in Buddhism; and a pot luck lunch in the back yard. I went and picked up an aging and infirm, yet very Bright and Aware elderly Sangha member at his home and had the joy of hearing his spiritual and life reminiscence and we drove to and from his house. An old sick person who was at ease and peace with his deterioration and not too distant death. He was aware and grateful that he had done his best to open his heart and be as honorable as he could manage in his life and that was good enough for him. Sufficiency.

Perhaps as a child he saw some crows playing in a fountain at the feet of St. Francis.

(a)gog….

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I look at the modest little yard at the temple I’m living in and can’t help but smile at the abundance in modern life,  in California in particular. We have two lemon trees, a cherry tree, a plum-tree, a fig tree and an apple tree. Figs and apples in the salad with lunch. California, for sure.

Another aspect of living here is the tortuous path political correctness can create syntactically (is THAT even a word?). I go to some AA meetings and when there is reading to be shared from the AA literature (most of it written in the 30’s 40’s and 50’s), and almost all gender references are male with a lot of “God” as “Him”: it often sends the readers scrambling to replace and insert gender-neutral or gender-equal terms. The impulse is pure, but it sure makes for stilted reading and listening and is sometimes quite amusing.
The steady schedule of meditation and activity within the temple is doing its work on me and I seem to be regaining some lost (and much-needed), perspective; kind of like turning the Queen Mary in mid-Atlantic. Very wide turn..
I’ll be here for a while longer, some things may be in the offing as to future choices but nothing that need any attention as yet or in short-term, so I can buckle down a bit and let go of my opinions, judgements and all those pesky fears, doubts and worries that are the handmaidens of the opinionated and judgemental mind.

This weekend we will be setting up a little booth at an event called The Solano Stroll, which is a 15 to 20 block-long street-fair on Solano Ave. which is just a block away from us. Solano Ave. is half in Berkeley and half in Albany and they expect an attendance of almost 250,000 people. So, a big event. Our little booth will be put in a section where they are clumping together all the religious spiritual groups that will have booths, and right across from us is the booth for the Atheists. Buddhism doesn’t actually take any position as to whether there is or isn’t a “God”, but we are taught that all beliefs require respect, and that would of course, also include active non-belief. To make the whole thing a little more amusing is the fact that all these groups are clumped together in the area of Solano Ave. where all the various therapists and counselors have their offices, and since this is California there’s a bunch of those too.

The cultural contrasts abound abound. The surface differences between Bay Area California and the eastern side of Washington State seem many but they pale in comparison to the wonderful humanity shared by all these diverse groups. We really are all doing our very best to live sanely; and that is hard to do no matter which area of the cultural or social spectrum one one identifies most closely with.

We all yearn for a slightly

different Good Old Days;

None of which ever existed

Except in imagination. Is

That true of the present

Too? Makes you wonder…

(a)float

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Soon I’ll have bit of a routine that I’ll get used to and just settle in more at the temple and just do the practice. I’ve made some good new friends and re-established some old friendships and have a growing confidence that I will learn what I need to learn from my sojurn to this part of the world and that the next step(s) will unfold and become apparent in due course.

I’m a little behind in keeping in touch with friends from Tekoa and other parts of country because I’ve felt a little like a traveller for the last six months or so, and so I have been of course, but there hasn’t really been a destination and that has been unsettling until I realized I’m not travelling as much as being in transit, from where to where is still not clear, but there certainly has been movement.

I’m learning some new things internally that have to do with accepting me as I am, moment to moment, and to drop my preconditions as to what constitutes an acceptable world, one suitable for The Great One, and all his(my) complex  wishes and wants.

Note to self:

Must drop dream of personal past;

Present description of self, and the

Future as it should be outcoming

For this wish and demand riddled,

Foolishly inclined and hope filled

Returner to the eternal Now. Where

Dreams and wishes become a puff

Of Golden smoke that wafts through

The air in This direction, and then That. 

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Finally pulled out of Tekoa at 3:30 this afternoon. Some things left undone but mostly everything is finally in motion.

I had terrific experience of being the pleasantly surprised victim of a surprise going away gathering at local coffee shop “Eclairs”. So many kind people that have become friends in my time there. I was really moved. The word community has taken on a much deeper meaning in the last 5 or 6 weeks. More is being revealed. I’m so happy to be 66 years old and still discovering new depth and experience about people and life. True joy.

I did make the first leg of my journey, only four hours and I’m in Boardman on the Oregon side of the Columbia River in very nice, reasonably priced hotel with a good restaurant and great view of the setting sun on river. The first time in my life I just sat and enjoyed a setting without thinking about journey. I’m on one and have no worries, a very good friend is living in my house and taking care of it and my dog and cat. I have opportunity to practice full and complete trust. My life is so rich, good friends and on my way to reconnect with the sangha in Bay area and deepen my Buddhist training while not having any outcome in front of me. Yes, there are some things I would like to happen but I’m really tired of wanting outcomes, so I think I am finally ready to accept what is brought into my life. I’ll accept. I’ll allow, I won’t preclude or exclude. I want to help and to be helped. I bow in gratitude.