when the weather grew cold

when the weather grew cold

she came to me

trailing freshly 

fallen leaves 

crisp from morning frost 

with hot tea and 

warm bread 

the sunlight golden on her 

wind-blown head 

her eyes all bright with

new welcome and 

desire 

I clung to her like moss 

on a stone 

inseparably grown with 

ages of time

"you'll always be mine" 

she whispered 

and the trees bowed

in solemn witness

to her words 

and my heart bent 

with those ancient woods

toward her 

in the Fall

in the Fall

you fell 

like a majestic oak 

like Hadrian's Sycamore

you were cut by indifference 

to your majesty. 

it's not fair 

that fate refused to

spare me 

this awful day. 

but how can i complain 

when others feel 

more pain and 

loss? 

Fiddler's Green Monastery

Master: Wake up!

Student: I'm tired 

Master: You have yet to live a single day, how can you be tired? 

--

One day while walking along the green bank of the lake I asked my Master, why is it so hard to be enlightened?

He only smiled. 

--

One day during morning meal the Master watched us with eyes half closed. He didn't touch his food.

"Why aren't you eating Master?" asked a sister. 

"I was experiencing deep gratitude for this new day, and for this delicious food," he said.

The rest of us slowed our eating and bowed to him in thanks for the lesson. 

--

"There are 4 pillars of Being Meditation," the Master said.

"One is the awareness of Being itself, that is space/time, the fabric of Being. 

Two, is the ten thousand things, but especially living and sentient beings. 

Three, is consciousness. 

Four, is transience, the folding and unfolding of Being. These are the key to true meditation practice."

--

Once when walking through a nearby town we observed a man kicking a dog. Someone asked the Master, "Why does he kick the dog?" 

"There are many reasons why men harm others. Ultimately it is because he has forgotten the miraculous nature of existence. If he had remembered, he never would have harmed that other being."

Ego and Entitlement

I saw a woman today at the local coffee shop. She had a very large diamond ring on her finger and drove an expensive car. I held the door for her. She seemed nice. While we waited for our order she asked the employee if she could have hers faster because she had an appointment to get to. There were perhaps 5 of us waiting. The employee agreed to finish the woman's order first. When the drink was handed to her, she turned and stormed out saying, "It's not even a fucking grande like I asked, you fucking bitch." Then she stood in the parking lot on her phone for some time before driving away.

It is possible to have compassion for such a woman, without relinquishing the sense of injustice we all feel when hearing the story. Justice and compassion are not incompatible. 

I suspect that if she could practice even a little Being meditation her perspective might change, or at least her anger be tempered.

Many times such anger is habitual, having been reinforced by an unchecked expression of it many times before. 

Perhaps her ego felt entitled. Do all our egos not feel entitled?

Through Being meditation our ego slowly (but sometimes in a flash) realizes its place in the cosmos. What destruction will we cause until then?