Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas trees for religious harmony

Jogye Order Administrative Leader Jaseung, right rear, and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea Kim Young-joo, second right rear, look around Jogye Temple with monks and children from the temple’s care facility for disabled children after lighting Christmas trees in front of Iljumun, the One Pillar Gate, on Dec. 20.
This marks the first time that Christmas trees were lit in the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, which symbolizes reconciliation and harmony between Buddhism and Protestant Christianity in South Korea.
(Photo by Shin So-young)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, December 13, 2010

Kathy's Song


Kathy Daul (1957-2008) at a vigil for her fallen son Andrew, an Iraqi Vet who gave his life for our freedom.



I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls


And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England where my heart lies


My mind's distracted and defused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day


And this song I was writing is left undone
I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe
With words that tear and strain to rhyme


And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you


And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I


I used to sing this to Kathy when it was cold and rainy out and we were sitting in her station wagon coming back from lunch.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Israel "IZ" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwo Somewhere Over the Rainbow


I heard this song on my commute this week to work on NPR and was surprised I had never heard this beautiful version before, so for those not familar with Israel IZ I post this to share a unique discovery. Please enjoy and seek out more from this man with the bless'd voice.

Israel "IZ" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻ; May 20, 1959 – June 26, 1997) was a Hawaiian musician. He became famous outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993. His medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" was subsequently featured in several films, television programs, and commercials. Through his ukulele playing and incorporation of other genres (such as jazz and reggae), Kamakawiwoʻole remains one of the major influences in Hawaiian music over the last 15 years.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Rumi - Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Stolen Child (An Linbh goidte)

William Butler Yeats
Poem performed by The Waterboys
WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.

Church Not Made With Hands



Eaglais made Gan Le Lámha

bye bye shadowlands
the term is over
and all the holidays have begun
now she walks on fresh fields
her tracks are on the land
she is everywhere and noplace
when its dark and evening falls
she moves among men
they would seek to have her
as a prize
but she is in the shadows
ocean and the sand
she is everywhere and noplace
her church not made with hands
not contained by man
she dancing high as clouds
faster than the arrow
straight as any crow that flies
across great seas she travels
up through rising lands
she is everywhere and noplace
her church not made with hands
isn't that a pretty sun
setting in a pretty sky?
will we stay and watch it darken
the church not made with hands
not contained by man
that precious place
unmade
by man

Saturday, October 16, 2010

for p’arang iii


you and I are
just breath-breathing human beings,
lowering our heads
below the plane
occupied by our feet,
upside down
and topsy-turvy are
the realm of opening and life.
the sacred unfolds
within your shining eyes tonight.
reflection is within
the ticking of the clock on the wall.
love–
is a manifestation of our
ability to just let go,
letting go–
is a demonstration of
our will to be free.
I–
 which has never existed,
loves you–
that I will never know,
within this appearance,
I can only aspire
to touch your heart
and kiss your forehead
and know
we have never
ever
been
apart..........