2013.11.25 13:00 - Bridges At Once Built and Burnt

Ocean Mudra Samadhi (1242) 

Written at the Kannon-dori Kosho Horin Monastery on the twentieth day, the fourth month, the third year of the Ninji Era (1242), as translated in Beyond Thinking : A Guide to Zen Meditation (2004) edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi

• Buddhas and Ancestors continuously maintain ocean mudra samadhi. While swimming in this samadhi, they expound, realize, practice.

• The Buddha said, "Elements come together and form this body. At the time of appearing, elements appear. At the time of disappearing, elements disappear. When elements appear, I do not say "I" appear. When elements disappear, I do not say "I" disappear. Past moments and future moments do not arise in sequence. Past elements and future elements are not in alignment. This is the meaning of ocean mudra samadhi."
  Closely investigate these words by the Buddha. Attaining the way and entering realization does not necessarily require extensive learning or realization. Anyone can attain the way through a simple verse of four lines. Even scholars of extensive learning can enter realization through a one line verse.

• In the great way of going beyond, no endeavor is complete without being one with myriad things. This is ocean mudra samadhi.
  (wikipedia)
   

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zen :)
Zen Arado: Hi Eliza :)

Eliza Madrigal: How is your reading going...still with Dogen?
Zen Arado: yes and other book
Eliza Madrigal: what jumps out now?
Zen Arado: don't read so much nowadays
Eliza Madrigal: I've been listening to audio books...have missed the feeling of literature

Zen Arado: Dogen still incomprehensible
Zen Arado: other book very interesting
Eliza Madrigal: :)

Zen Arado: Hi Maude
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Eliza, Zen, and Maude!
Qt Core: Hi all!
Eliza Madrigal: Hello Marjorie! Hello Bruce!
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Qt!
DR42 Resident: Ɲձოձʂէε
Eliza Madrigal: Hello Qt :))
Zen Arado: Hi Qt

Bruce Mowbray LOVES the scenery!
Eliza Madrigal: I was just asking Zen if he had gleaned any further insights on Dogen
Eliza Madrigal: which would be fitting for this scene, actually! :)
Zen Arado: Hi Bruce

Eliza Madrigal: So today we'll take 5 minute pauses. Is there anything particular on minds-hearts?
Bruce Mowbray: May all in the big storm's path (eastern USA) be safe, and warm.
Eliza Madrigal: amen to that :)

Bruce Mowbray: more on Dogen?
Zen Arado: I read a nice doggie story
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Zen Arado: doggie not Dogen :)
Eliza Madrigal: OK
Eliza Madrigal giggles
Eliza Madrigal: mu

Zen Arado: a man was at a retreat and got angry at everyone shifting ad shuffling about
Zen Arado: so he went outside and sat instead
Bruce Mowbray: (heay, aggers.... Zen-ji is telling us a doggie story.)
Agatha Macbeth: Woof
Zen Arado: 'Not ten minutes after I sat down, however, a dog appeared. Panting heavily in the heat, she invited me to play with her by dropping a stick in my lap. I tried to ignore her, but she was persistent. Okay, I thought: this is what is happening  …   I surrender. So I threw the stick, and the dog retrieved it. I threw it again, and she brought it back again. Michaelson, Jay (2013-10-15). Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment (p. 168). North Atlantic Books. Kindle Edition. '
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Aggers :) let me know if you need a notecard
Agatha Macbeth wags her tail
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: surrendering to play ~ nice idea
Eliza Madrigal: "this is what's happening"
Zen Arado: I decided to sit still, no matter what. The dog was having none of it. She wanted to keep playing, and was not interested in my being a good meditator. She picked the stick up with her mouth and dropped it on my lap— over and over again. Maybe I didn’t understand how to play; maybe I needed a hint. In an instant, the frustration I had been experiencing earlier came into new perspective. Of course I wasn’t angry at the dog— she was doing what her conditioning (genetic, environmental, training, whatever) caused her to do. So why was I angry at my fellow yogis for what their conditioning caused them to do? And perhaps even more important, why be angry at myself for being frustrated? My conditioning, the world in which I had been living— all these causes and conditions were giving rise to their inevitable result, just like the dog and the yogis. Michaelson, Jay (2013-10-15). Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation .

Eliza Madrigal: :) nice story, Zen
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm... no preferences, no prejudices....
Bruce Mowbray: Beautiful story!
Eliza Madrigal: dogs do so embody playfulness
Agatha Macbeth nods
Zen Arado: funny how they get into that stick retreival thing
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Zen Arado: doges all over the world
Agatha Macbeth: Careful Brucie
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Zen Arado: dogs
Eliza Madrigal: haha
Zen Arado: retrieval

Eliza Madrigal: Okay.... we're heading toward the 5 minute pause

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: {ding}

Bruce Mowbray: For those who might be curious about the storm - http://www.wunderground.com/radar/mi...e=2x&type=loop
Agatha Macbeth: More storms?
Agatha Macbeth: Oh dear
Bruce Mowbray: oh yeah.
Agatha Macbeth: Where this time?
Bruce Mowbray: Moving into northeastern US.
Agatha Macbeth: :(
Eliza Madrigal: time to hunker down
Agatha Macbeth hunkers
Bruce Mowbray: oh yeah.
Bruce Mowbray: also hunkers.
Zen Arado: we'll get it a week later
Agatha Macbeth: Probably
Bruce Mowbray: We're all connected, Zen.
Eliza Madrigal: our storm season has passed, but this year we've had more rain than I remember in decades
Bruce Mowbray: (looks passionately for a "Hunker down" animation.)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Must be one
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: ooops. Not THAT one!

Eliza Madrigal: found a nice little poem ...

If someone asks
My abode I reply:
“The east edge of
The Milky Way.”

Like a drifting cloud,
Bound by nothing:
I just let go
Giving myself up
To the whim of the wind

Ryokan trans. John Stevens

Zen Arado: you use the expression' down on his hunkers'?
Eliza Madrigal: easy to read when storms are not approaching I guess :)
Zen Arado: nie Eliza
Bruce Mowbray: I don't use that expression, Zen.
Bruce Mowbray: and love the poem, Eliza.
Eliza Madrigal: hm, no have never heard that
Bruce Mowbray: I'd like to use it in our morning meditation group as a centering thought.
Eliza Madrigal: down on his/her haunches
Zen Arado: like when you sit on the balls of your feet
Eliza Madrigal: wonderful Bruce... you have been doing that practice for how many years now?
Zen Arado: like going down to bottom shelf in a library
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm... three, I think.
Bruce Mowbray: and all are welcome, of course!
Eliza Madrigal: years ago I did sit with the peacemakers
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, it's the same group, Eliza.
Eliza Madrigal: I think we mean the same thing, Zen, by haunches ^^
Bruce Mowbray: now called "Garden of Peace."
Zen Arado: ah yes
Bruce Mowbray: in Dark Diamond region.
Agatha Macbeth: Isn't peacemaker another name for the colt 45?
Zen Arado: who runs that?
Eliza Madrigal: "Dark Diamond Region" --- love the sound of that
Bruce Mowbray: I think it is Soroya.
Zen Arado: think I went to that
Eliza Madrigal: sounds like the deep unconscioius
Bruce Mowbray: I will give more info to those who wish it. Only let me know.
Zen Arado: no this was a woman run something similar in RL
Zen Arado: went into prisons etc
Bruce Mowbray: hmmmm.
Eliza Madrigal: for a while there was an overlap... a month long Tricycle sitting
Eliza Madrigal: associated with the prison sitting
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Agatha Macbeth: Must have been sore afterwards
Eliza Madrigal: hahahha
Eliza Madrigal: the person who coordinated that, did so in the same place Zen...
Eliza Madrigal: that later turned to the one Bruce sits at
Zen Arado: forget her name
Bruce Mowbray: It was called "Prison Mindfullness."
Eliza Madrigal: I met Eos there actually... he is a friend of Vivienne's
Bruce Mowbray: I am still involved with that group in RL.
Zen Arado: Peacemakers Institute
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Zen Arado: maybe different
Bruce Mowbray: Peacemakers, yes!
Bruce Mowbray: The same.
Bruce Mowbray: in RL.

Eliza Madrigal: yes... one thing has flowed into and become another
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Bruce Mowbray: I (sry, my typists) sends them books all the time.
Eliza Madrigal: fitting with topic of RL/SL bridges
Bruce Mowbray: ahhhh! "Building Bridges."
Eliza Madrigal: :)

Eliza Madrigal: have another little poem... sparked by "dark diamond" ....
Eliza Madrigal: then we can pause for 5 :))

Eliza Madrigal:

The jewel under
the black dragon's jaw
is not easily obtained

More difficult yet to find
a like-minded friend

Alone.

Savoring the flavor of leisure
White haired I face
the green mountain
Jakushitsu trans. Arthur Braverman

Agatha Macbeth read that as 'sparkled'

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: This is an organization in Dayton, Ohio that I helped to initiate - and I worked in their group home on Salem Avenue (Dayton) for four years... errr, I should have said, "My typist did that." http://www.bbyouth.org/

Eliza Madrigal: {ding}
Agatha Macbeth: Dong
Eliza Madrigal: hope you aren't too cold in the cool mossy environment, Zon ^.^
Bruce Mowbray: A graciously-good-greet to you, Zon! (Are you cold?!)
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Agatha Macbeth: Hello Zon
Bruce Mowbray: (snaperoo!)
Zon Kwan: heya
Eliza Madrigal: seems a worthy project, Bruce
Zen Arado: Hi Zon

Bruce Mowbray: Well, we began the group home in January of 1979...
Bruce Mowbray: and more than a few "lost boys" found shelter and caring there, for the first time in their lives.
Eliza Madrigal: how were those helped chosen, Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: They were the boys (and girls) who were falling through all of the other safety nets.
Bruce Mowbray: These kids would have certainly gone to state institutions if we had not intervened and convinced juvinile court judges to send them to us, instead.
Eliza Madrigal: great
Bruce Mowbray: It has been a worthwhile project for over thirty years.
Bruce Mowbray: and the group home still exists.
Eliza Madrigal: do you know if such places are thriving in these times, Bruce.. now that prisons are such big business?
Eliza Madrigal: oh, that is good to hear
Bruce Mowbray: This one still seems to be thriving.
Bruce Mowbray: I still receive mailings from the organization,
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Bruce Mowbray: although no one that I knew back then is still active -- most of us are either retired or dead!

Eliza Madrigal: I was definitely an "at risk" youth
Bruce Mowbray: Please say, more, Eliza!
Bruce Mowbray: if you wish.
Eliza Madrigal: not too much to say, but many people would be very surprised if they could peek back in time at my typist around 16 yo
Eliza Madrigal: ran away, etc
Bruce Mowbray: oh yes.
Bruce Mowbray: and I shall simply say,
Bruce Mowbray: good for you...." and bad for that culture that did not provide alternatives for your 16-year-old self.
Eliza Madrigal: there were a few nets... but few that followed through
Zen Arado: wonder if it has changed much
Bruce Mowbray ponders, Sometimes one must run away.
Eliza Madrigal: there are a lot of places that begin to help
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Bruce Mowbray: but where to run?

Zen Arado: adolescence is a hard time
Bruce Mowbray: o yes, will do a backflip for what Zen just said.
Eliza Madrigal nods...for most I think, regardless of priveleges
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Boing

Zen Arado: at least you coud start work at 15 when I was young
Eliza Madrigal: true... work was a wonderful outlet for me
Zen Arado: grounded you a bit
Eliza Madrigal: indeed... the pleasure of responsibility
Bruce Mowbray: The name of the organization was (and STILL is) "Building Bridges."
Zen Arado: now thay go to school forever
Agatha Macbeth: Good name
Bruce Mowbray: work can also build bridges.
Eliza Madrigal: yes

Agatha Macbeth: Beats burning them
Bruce Mowbray: although some bridges really DO need to be burned, no?
Bruce Mowbray: another 5-min drop coing up.
Eliza Madrigal: the thing is, "at risk" youth often don't know their options and have not been exposed to others with different situations
Agatha Macbeth: London Bridge did I think

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: thanks, Bruce :) yes.... let's answer your question afterward
Eliza Madrigal:

The sounds of the streams
splash out the Buddha's sermon

Don't say that the deepest meaning
comes only from one's mouth

Day and night
eighty thousand poems arise
one after the other

and in fact
not a single word
has ever been spoken
Muso Soseki trans. Merwin and Shigematsu

Bruce Mowbray: Eliza, TY for that poem, and were you referring to this question: [13:44] Bruce Mowbray: although some bridges really DO need to be burned, no?
Eliza Madrigal: yes, Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Well, I'd only offer that every "drop" is also a sort of bridge burning.
Eliza Madrigal: to me it seems that bridges are never burnt... memory of them/thought of them lingers
Bruce Mowbray: ah yes.
Bruce Mowbray: and there's the rub!
Agatha Macbeth: They usually get rebuilt
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Bruce Mowbray: indeed they do!
Agatha Macbeth: With extra lanes and more traffic
Eliza Madrigal smiles
Bruce Mowbray: reinforcements!
Eliza Madrigal: there are bridges that 'seem' burnt
Eliza Madrigal: surely I can think of people I no longer seem to have in my life
Agatha Macbeth: I'm sure we all can
Eliza Madrigal: but their ghosts are stronger from having been such dramatic losses

Qt Core: i need to go, bye all
Eliza Madrigal: okay Qt :) bfn
Agatha Macbeth: Ciao QT
Bruce Mowbray: kk, Bye for now, Qt!
Zen Arado: bye Qt

Bruce Mowbray: Powerful statement, Eliza: but their ghosts are stronger from having been such dramatic losses
Zon Kwan: bye qt
Eliza Madrigal: seems true to me... also in the lives of people I've known
Agatha Macbeth: Are you speaking of people you miss or don't miss Liz?
Bruce Mowbray: perhaps all the more important for us to let their ghosts "go" with compassion....
Eliza Madrigal: both :) I can't think of anyone I've cared for that I don't miss
Agatha Macbeth: Hm
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, indeed, Eliza.
Bruce Mowbray: I still love everyone whom I've ever loved.
Eliza Madrigal: in some way... which doesn't mean I'd want to get back on various roller coasters again ^^
Bruce Mowbray: for sure!
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Eliza Madrigal smiles

Eliza Madrigal: hhaha Bruce..that animation is so funny
Bruce Mowbray: I will see if I can give you a copy.
Bruce Mowbray: just sec, please.
Agatha Macbeth: Will go well with weeeeeeeeeeeee
Eliza Madrigal: we'll be like jumping beans..er, beings
Eliza Madrigal: ty!
Bruce Mowbray: ha ha!

Zen Arado: to miss someone you have to keep thinking about them
Agatha Macbeth: Merci Brucie
Zen Arado: is that healthy?
Eliza Madrigal: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Agatha Macbeth: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Eliza Madrigal: not sure... what do you think, Zen. You still talk about your doggie.. and miss them
Eliza Madrigal: but it is a sweet missing
Bruce Mowbray: du rien.
Agatha Macbeth: Synchronised yippees
Eliza Madrigal: seems healthy to me

Bruce Mowbray: like on the count of three!?
Bruce Mowbray: one.
Bruce Mowbray: two.
Bruce Mowbray: three!
Eliza Madrigal: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Agatha Macbeth: yippieeee
Eliza Madrigal: haha...
Bruce Mowbray dies from laughing....
Eliza Madrigal: well... like a wave
Agatha Macbeth: Uh oh
Agatha Macbeth: Ah
Zen Arado: yippieeee
Agatha Macbeth dies from laughing....
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Eliza Madrigal: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee
Bruce Mowbray: yippieeee

Zon Kwan: bye all, waves
Agatha Macbeth: Bye Zon
Bruce Mowbray: Bye for now, Zon!
Agatha Macbeth: onigokko
Eliza Madrigal: eep
Eliza Madrigal: bye Zon
Zen Arado: bye Zon
Eliza Madrigal: caught again without my oni
Bruce Mowbray: onigokko
Bruce Mowbray: This always drives Blub nuts!
Eliza Madrigal: onigokko
Agatha Macbeth watches Blub oni
Eliza Madrigal: does blub run out of breath?
Bruce Mowbray: You won't bruise your ankles if you "stand."
Agatha Macbeth: Only under water
Eliza Madrigal: :)

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: need a bowl on a string
Eliza Madrigal: stop
Bruce Mowbray: How many do we have going at once?
Agatha Macbeth: ooer
Agatha Macbeth: stop
Agatha Macbeth: stop
Agatha Macbeth: STOP!!!
Eliza Madrigal: hahaha poor aggers
Eliza Madrigal: stop
Agatha Macbeth: Jeez
Bruce Mowbray: poooooor aggers!
Eliza Madrigal: louise
Agatha Macbeth: Louise?
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Love that name

Bruce Mowbray: whew, this drop came just in time!

Eliza Madrigal: a closing for the session:

Eliza Madrigal:

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked elipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

DR42 Resident: Time to vanish.
Bruce Mowbray: Bye for now, Maude!
Eliza Madrigal: bye Marjorie (so quiet today..thought she was afk)

Eliza Madrigal: yippieeee

Agatha Macbeth: Are we still paused?
Eliza Madrigal: onigokko
Agatha Macbeth: Ah
Eliza Madrigal: stop
Agatha Macbeth: Seems not
Eliza Madrigal: haha
Eliza Madrigal: sorry... now I'm all stirred up
Zen Arado: who was the poet Eliza?
Agatha Macbeth: Ready for the oven
Eliza Madrigal: Shakespeare
Zen Arado: ah ok
Agatha Macbeth: 2B or not 2B
Eliza Madrigal: there is this wonderful recording of Shakespeare excerpts...done by RADA many years ago... I've played it so often that my children moan when they hear certain voices...
Bruce Mowbray: ahhhh!
Eliza Madrigal: but some true gems...
Agatha Macbeth: Bet Larry is there
Bruce Mowbray: last night my typist watched "Much Ado About Nothing" for the umpteenth time.
Agatha Macbeth: Forsooth

Eliza Madrigal: like...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Osse7w9fs

Eliza Madrigal: ohh, nice Bruce, which version?
Bruce Mowbray: Kenneth Branagh.,
Bruce Mowbray: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boNnrv0CGzU
Eliza Madrigal: ah, yes and with Emma
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Old Ken
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, Emma Tompkins.

Zen Arado: wow Pink Floyd
Eliza Madrigal: isn't this amazing?
Bruce Mowbray: or was it Tompson?
Eliza Madrigal: Tompson
Agatha Macbeth: Pink Floyd and Shakespeare?
Bruce Mowbray: ty!
Eliza Madrigal: they were lovers..or married, at some point...Ken and Emma
Agatha Macbeth: Married
Eliza Madrigal: ah

Zen Arado: think of him more as a guitarist
Zen Arado: but nice voice
Eliza Madrigal: mhm

Agatha Macbeth: Her father did the Magic Roundabout
Eliza Madrigal: Oh? what was that?
Bruce Mowbray: and her mother was also a fine actress.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh you didn't have it there?
Eliza Madrigal: I don't know...doesn't ring a bell
Agatha Macbeth: Florence and Dougal and Zebedee?
 

The Magic Roundabout (known in the original French as Le Manège enchanté) is a French-British children's television programme created in France in 1963 by Serge Danot, with the help of Ivor Wood^[1] and Wood's French wife, Josiane.^[2] The series was originally broadcast between 1964 and 1971 on ORTF,^[1] originally in black-and-white.^[2]

Having originally rejected the series as "charming... but difficult to dub into English",^[1] the BBC later produced a version of the series using the original stop motion animation footage with new English-language scripts, written and performed by Eric Thompson, which bore little relation to the original storylines. This version, broadcast in 441 five-minute-long episodes from 18 October 1965 to 25 January 1977, was a great success and attained cult status,^[1] and when in 1967 it was moved from the slot just before the evening news to an earlier children's viewing time, adult viewers complained to the BBC.^[1]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Roundabout)

Agatha Macbeth: 'Time for bed'
Bruce Mowbray: g'night dear aggers!
Agatha Macbeth: Not me, Zebedee
Eliza Madrigal giggles
Bruce Mowbray: oh, sry.
Zen Arado: nite Aggers
Agatha Macbeth: I'm still here...
Bruce Mowbray: Indeed, you are, my dear.

Bruce Mowbray: but where is Wol!?
Zen Arado: sorry
Bruce Mowbray: I've not seen her for days, now.
Eliza Madrigal: traveling...sigh
Bruce Mowbray: kk.
Zen Arado: just followed Bruce blindly
Eliza Madrigal: :) and spending time with family
Agatha Macbeth: Oh heading back to Toronto probably
Eliza Madrigal: haha Zen
Bruce Mowbray: oh ,k in Canada.

Eliza Madrigal: I do that all the time... say hi based on someone else's hi
Agatha Macbeth: Hi hi hi
Zen Arado: ___ doing conference call
Eliza Madrigal: ^.^
Zen Arado: sigh
Bruce Mowbray: it's a way of building bridges, Eliza.
Agatha Macbeth: I know <sigh>
Eliza Madrigal: hadn't looked :)
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: happy with my chickadees here

Bruce Mowbray: My typist says he's getting hungry now.
Agatha Macbeth: Wish FS would still let you colour IMs different

Zen Arado: I didn't look either it came up on screen
Bruce Mowbray: np...
Bruce Mowbray: so, I shall bid thee all a bonny evening.
Eliza Madrigal: have a nice meal, Bruce
Zen Arado: fare thee well Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Thank you, good Eliza.
Agatha Macbeth: Bonny evening Brucie, scrape well
Eliza Madrigal: and night to you two Aggers and Zen
Zen Arado: byee

Eliza Madrigal: http://vimeo.com/12937480

Agatha Macbeth: Tatty bye