A warming brew

Been participating in a 'tea swap' - an outgrowth of another online community called PaperBackSwap.  There is something...delicious.. about sharing a spot of tea!  Won a prize for submitting a description of myself as a tea.
The prize is the tea bag holder.  The cup is my current favorite (and yes, that is the Dewey classification number for tea).  The winning description follows!

Me as a tea?

There’s the tea I am
And the tea I would be.

The tea that I am is Fidgit-tea.
Flash frozen then freeze dried,
quickly steeped and fragrant,
a burst of flavor - bergamot, cinnamon, ginger, chai,
warmed by the kinetic energy of a busy life.
Zip, zoom, whizz, wheee - yes that would be me as a tea.


But then there’s the tea I would be.

A drink drunk deep,
strong, sharp, subtly sweet.
One sip and the eyes open
Two sips and the mind expands
Three sips and all can see:
You and me - all the same - over a cup of tea.



Filling your cup, you fill mine.
With this simple act, we are divine.


There’s the tea I am
And the tea I would be.
They are really the same...
Tea of a single flavor,
that’s me as a tea

Friday's clouds

Fast clouds 

dapple sun through closed lids 

sending packets of scent

spring damp earth.

Eyes open 

I lose the scent, 

but delight in

the sun drenched circus.

Genjo Koan (Day 3) - Is everything in zen mu?

...all one boisterous cry of "Just this!"  "leaping free of the many and the one..." is to envelop it all at the same time.  No getting away from any of it; but always accessible is the realization that there is nothing to get away from.

Ach, zen-speak!

Here is me-speak:  My son is back home.  He is the same.  And he is changing moment to moment.  With equanimity (fleeting, but reoccuring), I stand in the midst of our lives, the past and future flow cold over my ankles.  My own boisterous cry is "Just this!" Then I see what needs doing....

No preference?

Started this post on Monday:  There's a lot to do this month.  Heck, there's a great deal loaded into this week. The practice of the week is to show up, do what is needed, and notice where the preference and aversion arises.

Lets start with having to get 'dressed' for work.

Now it is Tuesday.  Whoa.  Were I to list all of yesterday's preferences and aversions, I'd lose an hour.  From preferring more time at home to not wanting to take another call while in the car, to wishing my sad son were less sad and I less frustrated with him, to noting my deep impatience as folks in meetings slowly come to conclusions we'd made a year ago and staff held their anger in truly pointless paranoid defiance to reason.

But today is what I've got.  Started Stephen Levin's "A Year to Live" - something I'd wanted to read and seemingly good prep for the ZCCC interview.  Just the first chapter makes me wonder how to do today differently.

Today's found treasure

To Waiting

You spend so much of your time

expecting to become

someone else

always someone

who will be different

someone to whom a moment

whatever moment it may be

at last has come

and who has been

met and transformed

into no longer being you

and so has forgotten you

meanwhile in your life

you hardly notice the world around you lights changing

sirens dying along the buildings

your eyes intent

on a sight you do not see yet

not yet there

as long as you

are only yourself

with whom as you

recall you were

never happy

to be left alone for long

             

  —W.S. MERWIN

From a newsletter of the Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

Garuda

Clearing off my half-read pile this month, so have gone back to The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. (I think I have been going through this so slowly because I keep scurrying off to look things up.) I'd heard of garudas before, but not the Tibetan significance: Because they are born fully grown, they represent our primordial nature, which is already completely perfect. Wing feathers are fully developed in the egg. but it cannot fly until it hatches. The garuda is mentioned in the context of the bardos, so in this case it is pointing to the opportunity for liberation at death, i.e., once the body is discarded, the qualities of buddhahood will be 'radiantly' displayed.

I haven't yet figured out how to post a properly sized image in this software yet, but here's a great one: from the site linked above - http://www.fodian.net/world/garuda/garuda2.jpg. These look a lot like gryphons to me!

From Wikipedia: In Buddhist mythology, the garuḍas (Pāli: garuḷā) are enormous predatory birds with intelligence and social organization. Another name for the garuḍa is suparṇa (Pāli: supaṇṇa), meaning "well-winged, having good wings". Like the Nāgas, they combine the characteristics of animals and divine beings, and may be considered to be among the lowest devas.

Alright world..... watch out for my beak.

First post

Here's the intent: To support a practice of seeing clearly in thought, word, and deed.

A friend shared a poem by Hafiz on his blog as a portent for the year, which is what inspired me to finally practice my own Network Zen. Here's the poem:

For God
to make love
For the divine alchemy to work,

The Pitcher needs a still cup.

Why
Ask Hafiz
Anything more about

Your most
Vital
Requirement.

(Thank's Bice.) Here's to the still cup, and the chance to see clear, right down to the bottom.