technologically dependent

This one is kind of dated, ha ha ha...... wrote it in 1996

damn, my modem’s not responding,

how am I going to get my e-mail?

last week it was the hard drive

on my computer that caused the anxiety.

and when I lost my pager

I had to change the link to the

zen center voice mail,

my personal voice mail,

my business voice mail

and my automatic fax notification

not to mention the business cards

and printed matter.

what if someone’s trying to page me on the old number?

when I forgot my electronic organizer

on my last business trip I couldn’t call anyone.

as I leave the zen center

to go to work this morning,

there is a single rose blooming

on the bush by the front door.

delicately white, the edges are

faintly trimmed in scarlet.

bending over, the fragrance is overpowering.

of course......that’s it.

the front lawn is vibrant green

with new growth from the recent rains.

the air is crisp this morning,

breathing out

the warm air condenses

and the vapor slowly dissipates.

January 8, 1996

Hae An Soen Won

zen master fortune cookie

Image via Wikipedia

Christmas Eve party, conversation with a monk

about a koan interview I had

with a teacher from another zen tradition.

“he gave up his center

  and asked me to teach him.”

surprised by the monk’s response,

“this is a great man!” hyon mun said to me.

pretending like I also understood, I smiled.

today, at lunch, after eating ma-po tofu—

the fortune cookie read;

“yours is the role of host wherever you may go.”

I had to laugh out loud!

it finally struck me.

host and guest are not important,

one is not better than the other.

to ask a visiting zen student to teach you,

when there is something to be learned—

is the mark of a great man.

how blind I am—stumbling about this way and that.

how lucky I am—to have a teacher like this.

outside the restaurant the air is warm,

a good friend is smiling.

we have managed to escape

the drudgery of work—once again.

how lucky I am to be so blind.

December 28, 1995

La Habra, CA

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.