Patrick Eastman

PEACE SUNDAY

2012-01-16T01:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Peace Sunday - a day of prayer and concern for world peace. During the day I was drawn to look once again at a book on my shelves that I hadn't looked at for several years. "The Road to Peace" edited by John Dear. It is a collection of material written by Henri Nouwen a Christian Contemplative Spiritual writer from last century. he is particularly known like Thomas Merton for making the abslute connection between spirituality and social justice. His own personal commitment is demonstrated by the fact that he went on the March on Selma for Black equality and civil liberties in 1965 and by attending the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. I opened the book at this piece which touched me deeply. Having heard about someone experiencing a real joy he wrote:

When I heard these words for the first time, I felt a deep jealousy. I wanted that joy so much for myself, but had not found it among the scholars, teachers and students with whom I have spent most of my time. I was suddenly struck by how sombre and sad my friends and I are. We have enough food and shelter and more than enough health care and education , but are we living joyful lives? Why are we so serious all the time, so intense, so preoccupied with the next thing to accomplish, so disappointed after a small setback, so apprehensive when we are not being noticed, so angry when we are rejected, and so deeply sad when life is not going as we had planned it? When we are entangled in many complex issues, sadness can indeed imprison us and further remove us from the joy we so much desire..... We need to say a joyful "yes" to life.

Meeting Fr. Bede on the Path

2011-12-21T00:24:00.000-08:00

I was a Benedictine Oblate of the Anglican community at Nashdom when in the mid 1960’s I was studying for the priesthood in the Anglican Church at St. Stephen’s House in Oxford so it was not unexpected that I was attracted to Fr. Bede Griffith’s book, The Golden String. I had visited Prinknash once before so I already knew the community and I found his commitment to Interreligious Dialogue extremely interesting. At about the same time I was reading the documents of the Second Vatican Council especially Nostra Aetate on the Catholic Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions. I was particularly taken with what was said about Buddhism. As I was endeavouring to live a life of contemplative prayer and spirituality I encouraged reading it saying “Buddhism in its various forms...proposes a way of life by which people can, with confidence and trust attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination.” Furthermore it authenticated my engagement in real dialogue with Buddhists when went on to say: The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions……The Church therefore urges its sons and daughters to enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions and to acknowledge the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians.
This desire to be open to enrichment from Zen Buddhism didn’t really come into its own for me until 1983 when, after spending 15 years as an Anglican priest, my wife and I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where I was accepted as a married Roman Catholic priest. It was my good fortune at that time to have Osage Monastery almost on the doorstep. Osage was a small community of Benedictine women religious established by Sister Pascaline Coff after she had spent a sabbatical year with Fr. Bede in Shantivanam. The monastery was built in a 50 acre forest in Osage Indian territory. Fr. Bede came from India to do a traditional blessing of the land and buildings thus establishing it as the first Benedictine Ashram in North America. In subsequent years Fr. Bede always came to visit Osage Monastery for a week or so during his visits to the United States. During those visits I was able to spend a good deal of time in conversation with him and received much encouragement. By concelebrating the Eucharist with him I was also able to learn how to preside at it in the Indian style which was most helpful when I acted as Chaplain to the Community from 1990 – 1995.
In my conversations with Fr. Bede we touched on my Zen practice. Fr. Bede was most encouraging, reminding me that Zen grew out of the Hindu tradition and it still had many close associations in its deepest roots. ( Here Fr. Bede used his familiar demonstration using his fingers and the palm of his hand to show that all the world religions come together at their deepest and most fundamental level.)
Although I had begun using my own style of Zen meditation inspired very much by the writings of Thomas Merton during the 1980’s it was at Osage Monastery that I was first introduced to a genuine Zen Roshi. Ruben Habito Roshi came to lead the Sisters in their annual retreat. Following my attendance at this retreat I was accepted as a serious Zen student by Ruben in 1990. This marked the time when my Zen practice developed more authentically. My priestly assignment in the Diocese at that time was to be Diocesan Director of Spiritual Formation. As part of my work under this rather grand title I had started some contemplative prayer groups. Although still called Contemplative prayer groups they developed into The Monos community who gradually under my direction became much like a Zen Sangha.
In 2001 I was due for a month long sabbatical time. A member of the Monos Community had offered to pay for me to travel to Japan to study at a Zen monastery there. I carefully considered this but I was eventually drawn to participate in the month long residency programme at Zen Mountain Monastery located in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. This monastery was regarded as one of the very best Zen training monasteries in the West. Daido Loori Roshi, the Abbot of the Monastery had trained with the Japanese Zen master Taizan Maezumi Roshi who came to Los Angeles in the 1950’s. The books by both Taizan Maezumi and Daido helped m a lot in my practice to I decided that I would spend the whole month of October at the monastery under the direction of Daido Roshi. The experience of this time was so powerful that with Ruben Habito’s agreement I became a formal student with Daido Roshi.
During all this time I was still connected with the work of Fr. Bede as I had transferred my stability as a Benedictine Oblate to the Camaldolese Benedictine Community at Big Sur, California. During my visits there for retreats and some solitary time in a hermitage I became really good friends with Fr. Cyprian Consiglio who is a member of that community. Fr. Cyprian has studied the writings of Fr. Bede and spent quite a lot of time at the ashram in Shantivanam. Like me he is really dedicated to the work of interreligious dialogue and spends quite a lot of time each year travelling all over the world to teach the message of Fr. Bede using words and music which he composes using words and melodies from many different world religions.
It will be no great surprise that when I retired from the work I was doing in Tulsa in 2004 and returned to live in England it was not long before I started a Zen sitting group in the Cotswolds. Since 2006 we have become The Wild Goose Zen Sangha which meets each Thursday evening at St. Lawrence’s Church at Chesterton in Cirencester. When I came back to England however I could no longer fulfil the requirements for being a student of Daido Loori Roshi. Because of my longstanding friendship with Fr. Robert Kennedy who is both a Jesuit priest and a Zen Roshi I asked him to accept me as a Zen student. He readily agreed and in 2009, with the agreement of Bishop Declan the Catholic Bishop of Clifton, he passed transmission to me and authorised me as a Zen Sensei (teacher) in the Zen White Plum Asanga Lineage which had been founded by Roshi Taizan Maezumi.
I was pleased to have my work further affirmed by the publication in 2010 of a teaching document from the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales named Meeting God in Friend and Stranger. In it they report that Pope Benedict, during his visit to Turkey in 2006, declared that Dialogue was not an option but a necessity. It seems to me that there can be no better way of responding to this than by using a practice of prayer drawn from another religious tradition which is also perfectly compatible with the Christian Faith. After all Yamada Roshi a Japanese Zen master used to say two things to Christians who came to study Zen practice with him; There is no difference between a Christian and a Zen Buddhist at prayer: they are both light sitting in light. Alternatively he would tell his Christian enquirers that: I am not trying to make you a Buddhist but to teach you to empty yourself as did your Lord Jesus Christ.
In my own life I have found that the Christian tradition is splendid on the theory and theology of contemplative prayer but lacking in given instruction on how to do it. For those who are drawn to a contemplative style of prayer beyond words and images Zen can be a positive and practical way of entering into a practice which puts one in touch with the truth of one’s own true self and the truth of all reality. Zen offers something very simple, very direct and is readily accessible to all.
If you are interested in exploring this further I have included the Wild Goose Zen Sangha programme for 2012. I suggest that newcomers to Zen would be advised to come as a taster to one of our Zazenkai (Zen days).
© Patrick Eastman

Wild Goose Zen Sangha 2012 schedule

January 28 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

February 24-26 Sesshin (residential) at Marian Centre Nympsfield
February 25 Zazenkai at Minster Abbey Thanet

March 24 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

April 13 – 15 Sesshin (residential) at Ladywell, Godalming, Surrey
April 28 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

May 12 Zazenkai with Fr. Jinsen Kennedy Roshi at Ladywell, Godalming, Surrey
May 26 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

June 23 Zazenkai at Minster Abbey
June 30 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

July 14 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

September 28 – 30 Sesshin (residential) at Barns Conference centre Toddington.

October 13 Zazenkai at Minster Abbey
October 20 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

November 9- 11 Sesshin (residential) at Turvey Abbey, Nr. Bedford
November 17 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

December 15 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

For further information or to register for any of these events
please contact Jenny Averbeck at avrc62@dsl.pipex.com
Telephone 01227 766734

Silence from RC Bishop of Aberdeen

2011-12-21T00:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We live in a noisy world. Our towns and cities are full of noise. There is noise in the skies and on the roads. There is noise in our homes, and even in our churches. And most of all there is noise in our minds and hearts.

The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard once wrote: ‘The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and I were asked for my advice, I should reply: “Create silence! Bring people to silence!” The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today. And even if it were trumpeted forth with all the panoply of noise so that it could be heard in the midst of all the other noise, then it would no longer be the Word of God. Therefore, create silence!’

‘Create silence!’ There’s a challenge here. Surely speaking is a good and healthy thing? Yes indeed. Surely there are bad kinds of silence? Yes again. But still Kierkegaard is on to something.

There is a simple truth at stake. There can be no real relationship with God, there can be no real meeting with God, without silence. Silence prepares for that meeting and silence follows it. An early Christian wrote, ‘To someone who has experienced Christ himself, silence is more precious than anything else.’ For us God has the first word, and our silence opens our hearts to hear him. Only then will our own words really be words, echoes of God’s, and not just more litter on the rubbish dump of noise.

‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.’ So the carol goes. For all the noise, rush and rowdiness of contemporary Christmasses, we all know there is a link between Advent and silence, Christmas and silence. Our cribs are silent places. Who can imagine Mary as a noisy person? In the Gospels, St Joseph never says a word; he simply obeys the words brought him by angels. And when John the Baptist later comes out with words of fire, it is after years of silence in the desert. Add to this the silence of our long northern nights, and the silence that follows the snow. Isn’t all this asking us to still ourselves?

A passage from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom describes the night of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt as a night full of silence. It is used by the liturgy of the night of Jesus’ birth:

‘When a deep silence covered all things and night was in the middle of its course, your all-powerful Word, O Lord, leapt from heaven’s royal throne’ (Wis 18:14-15).

‘Holy night, silent night!’ So we sing. The outward silence of Christmas night invites us to make silence within us. Then the Word can leap into us as well, as a wise man wrote: ‘If deep silence has a hold on what is inside us, then into us too the all-powerful Word will slip quietly from the Father’s throne.’

This is the Word who proceeds from the silence of the Father. He became an infant, and ‘infant’ means literally ‘one who doesn’t speak.’ The child Jesus would have cried – for air and drink and food – but he didn’t speak. ‘Let him who has ears to hear, hear what this loving and mysterious silence of the eternal Word says to us.’ We need to listen to this quietness of Jesus, and allow it to make its home in our minds and hearts.

‘Create silence!’ How much we need this! The world needs places, oases, sanctuaries, of silence.

And here comes a difficult question: what has happened to silence in our churches? Many people ask this. When the late Canon Duncan Stone, as a young priest in the 1940s, visited a parish in the Highlands, he was struck to often find thirty or forty people kneeling there in silent prayer. Now often there is talking up to the very beginning of Mass, and it starts again immediately afterwards. But what is a church for, and why do we go there? We go to meet the Lord and the Lord comes to meet us. ‘The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!’ said the prophet Habakkuk. Surely the silent sacramental presence of the Lord in the tabernacle should lead us to silence? We need to focus ourselves and put aside distractions before the Mass begins. We want to prepare to hear the word of the Lord in the readings and homily. Surely we need a quiet mind to connect to the great Eucharistic Prayer? And when we receive Holy Communion, surely we want to listen to what the Lord God has to say, ‘the voice that speaks of peace’? Being together in this way can make us one – the Body of Christ – quite as effectively as words.

A wise elderly priest of the diocese said recently, ‘Two people talking stop forty people praying.’

‘Create silence!’ I don’t want to be misunderstood. We all understand about babies. Nor are we meant to come and go from church as cold isolated individuals, uninterested in one another. We want our parishes to be warm and welcoming places. We want to meet and greet and speak with one another. There are arrangements to be made, items of news to be shared, messages to be passed. A good word is above the best gift, says the Bible. But it is a question of where and when. Better in the porch than at the back of the church. Better after the Mass in a hall or a room. There is a time and place for speaking and a time and place for silence. In the church itself, so far as possible, silence should prevail. It should be the norm before and after Mass, and at other times as well. When there is a real need to say something, let it be done as quietly as can be. At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries. And then the Mass, with its words and music and movement and its own moments of silence, will become more real. It will unite us at a deeper level, and those who visit our churches will sense the Holy One amongst us.

‘Create silence!’ It is an imperative. May the Word coming forth from silence find our silence waiting for him like a crib! ‘The devil’, said St Ambrose, ‘loves noise; Christ looks for silence.’

Yours sincerely in Him,
+ Hugh, O. S. B.

Random thoughts

2011-12-12T02:59:00.000-08:00

I have just been reading the latest issue of the Journal for the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies and have been reminded how important the work of Interfaith dilaogue is in our world today. The world religions have much to learbn from each other. For my part my Christian faith has been so enriched by my exposure to Zen Buddhism. we live in a pluralistic and post modern- world and although ...we are doing much better at the work on integration with people from other ethnic backgrounds abnd cultures and wish to see aourselves as accpting rather then being prejudiced we still have a long way to go on the work of listening to and dialogueing with people of other faiths. From my own tradition I wonder how many Roman Catholics have read and taken seriously the letter of the RC Bishops of England and Wales. " Meeting God in Friend and Stranger" They strongly state that Interfaith dialogue is NOT an optional extra but an essential part of one's faith.

Buddhism is really about awakening from the illusion about ourselves and the world, and realizing reality—who we are and what is real and how things are interconnected through karma and causation and so on. In a Dzogchen text it says, “From the beginning we are all Buddhas by nature, we only have to realize that fact.” So in Dzogchen the whole practice of what we call the view, meditation, and action is about awakening to—not just our momentary personality—“self” with a small s—but our true Buddha nature, our original nature.

Christmas letter

2011-12-12T02:54:00.000-08:00

Ho! Ho! Ho! and a very happy Christmas to you and all your loved ones.
Yes it is that time again! We can hardly believe that we are already in Advent and Christmas is just around the corner. Does that mean there is some truth in the saying, “Time flies when you are having fun”? Well we will let you decide that for yourselves but here are some of the things that have happened to us over the past year.
As you may remember last year Patrick was having quite a lot of tests at the hospital and eventually they discovered he had some hormonal problems with his blood which were fixed rather easily which made him feel quite a lot better. However he still suffered with quite a lot of pain in his back and his right leg. After exhaustive testing in June they finally decided that the root cause was deterioration of the spine from wear and tear and arthritis. This meant that they could lonely offer some physiotherapy and to keep taking the pain-killers. Since then he has had a course of acupuncture from the hospital and he seems to have got a certain amount of relief although nothing will cure the problem.
Because of these health issues Bishop Declan of Clifton in whose diocese we live decided that it would be best he Patrick retired from looking after Tetbury Parish. He did this right after Easter this year but knowing Patrick you will realise that this didn’t mean that he was going to sit at home and do nothing! Not having the parish to look after he has put a lot of his energy into work for the Wild Goose Zen Sangha which he began in 2006. It has grown in strength now to the point where it could be incorporated as an organisation capable of registering as a charity for tax exemption. The legal and administrative hoops to be jumped through to achieve this are, as you can imagine, have been immense. Now it all seems to be falling into place and he has led them into having a really full programme based in Cirencester and Canterbury for 2012. Knowing his limitations he has also identified two potential teachers who will be trained to assist him in the work of teaching Zen to those who come to their retreats.
Patrick is a Zen teacher (sensei) in the White Plum lineage and to mark this the sangha came to a planting of a White Plum Blossom tree in our garden in September. A bronze coloured stone statue of a Buddha was placed near it and this autumn (Fall) it looked like this:
Maureen has been keeping in good health for the most part although she did have some return of diverticulitis earlier in the year which was eventually dealt with satisfactorily. It was good to learn from all the tests that there was nothing ‘sinister’ though. She still continues to work with a blind lady in Swindon on transcriptions of ordinary texts into Braille. This has had some difficulties recently. With all the austerity measures and the drastic government cut- backs many o the charities who were her main clients have had serious limitations to their work. Certainly we are being warned that we have still some years when there will be something of an economic crisis. We have heard today that the 180,000 charitable organisations (not for profit) that serve so many of the disadvantaged have had to lay off 10,000 members of staff in the last 2 months. These are tough times so it seems!
As a result of all this our daughter who is a counsellor who worked in the public sector for schools and mentally sick carers has lost her job as the organisations existed on government funding which was cut as part of a cut back in government spending. Fortunately she does have a few private clients who still are able to come to her though. Sarah their eldest child works for Santander bank and their son David is at University studying law.
Our two sons Mark and Christopher are both in computer technology so their jobs are not really affected at the moment. Their wives and children too are all doing OK and are all in work except for Clare, Mark and Lynn’s daughter who is still in Gateshead college doing Business Studies.
We won’t bore you with anymore family news but simply ask you to join us in celebrating the gift of life itself. Christmas celebrates the Incarnation when the Divine Creator took up our physical nature and shared with us in this utterly incomprehensible force that we call life. It surely is most wondrous and yet it remains an utter mystery. Absolutely all of us share in it yet it came to us unbidden and unearned. Yet day by day we awaken to find that we are alive and we have the chance to do with it whatever we will.
So we wish you a most wonderful Christmas and a very blessed 2012. May all the love you give to others, including to us, be repaid to you a thousand fold.
Much love
The Eastman’s, 30, North Wall, Cricklade, Wiltshire SN6 6DU. UK.

Zen Chant Service

2011-12-12T02:51:00.000-08:00

The Zen Sesshins held by the Wild Goose Sangha are in no way an attempt to combine Christianity or any other faith with Zen which, in itself, is not a religion but simply a meditation practice that can be helpfully used by those of any faith. Their aim is to purely engage in Zen practice in its own right. As Thomas Merton points out: It is perfectly possible to be capable of playing tennis at one time or doing mathematics at some other time; they are not incompatible. Patrick Kundo Sensei, as a Catholic priest and a Zen teacher therefore exercises his Christian priesthood in a Christian context but, when in a Zen context, he will teach Zen practice as a member of the White Plum Asangha.
Each Zen sesshin is designed to present an intensive opportunity for deepening our Zen practice. This practice is based on an awareness of our own true nature and the true nature of all reality. The tools we employ or “the gates” we use are first and foremost the practice of Zazen (silent sitting), Kin Hin (walking meditation), a Teisho or Dharma talk from the teacher, Dokusan or Daisan (which is a private and personal meeting with the teacher), chanting and silence. So chanting is but one of the essential and integral elements of the whole practice of Zen.
In the chant service we use we chant the three central sutras. First we chant the Heart Sutra which, in somewhat poetic terms, endeavours to express the true nature of all reality of which we are a part. So it is, if you like an attempt to express the inexpressible. The second chant is about the identity of the Relative and the Absolute demonstrating the relationship between the absolute oneness of all creation in its essence and the division and differences in the phenomenological world. The third and final sutra calls us to exercise compassion in every aspect of our life. It teaches us the nature of this compassion which can only spring from the wisdom or experiential knowledge of the first two sutras chanted.
The dedication after each sutra chanted is unlike any Christian or other faith prayer in as much as they are not prayers to a Supreme Being or God to help us in our difficulties. They serve as a dedication of ourselves to put into practice the wisdom of the sutras and the resulting compassion. In other words in the chant service together we actualise our true nature both in wisdom and in compassion.
© Patrick Kundo Sensei

International Day for Nonviolence

2011-09-28T01:46:00.001-07:00

I have been very lax in writing this blog but how about this for a new start

This Teisho is provoked by the fact that this coming Sunday October 2 is the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday which is celebrated now as the International day of nonviolence.
So this is an important opportunity to reflect as Zen students on what this means to us personally and what this means in terms of Buddhist teaching in the Precepts.
My own position is influenced partly by Fr. Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk from Prinknash, who went to India and established a Christian Ashram along the lines of Gandhi in order to dialogue with the great Hindu tradition. This was reinforced by listening to and meeting Gandhi’s grandson about 15 years ago.
We are into a real area of interfaith dialogue here. It may surprise you to know that Gandhi first learned about nonviolence from Christian sources. It was reading the New Testament account of Jesus’ nonviolence during his life that sent Gandhi back to his Indian Hindu scriptures to discover it there as well. You might want to ask the question here about finding nonviolence in the Christian scriptures when the evidence of much of history seems to indicate that the Christian church, for the most part, has, since the emperor Constantine been quite ready to go to war. There have been some churches however like the Quakers, Mennonites, and the Brethren who have constantly proclaimed a gospel of nonviolence.
Out of this exploration he developed the Sanskrit word Satyagraha which can be best translated as ‘soul truth’ or ‘True Nature’ or ‘Inner Truth’
“Satyagraha has an end namely Ultimate truth. It is a moral force, firmly rooted in truth and love that puts itself at the service of justice and peace. Satyagraha, which opposes evil with serious and positive, though nonviolent, resistance in order to overcome it with good, must be distinguished from what Gandhi called ‘the nonviolence of the weak’ which simply submits to evil without resistance. It was a fundamental principle of Gandhi that evil must always be resisted, but in ways and by methods of action that are nonviolent.”
Within Satyagraha is discovered Ahisma – a Sanskrit word that means ‘non injury.’ To spell it out more fully it is the efficacious concern to do no harm, physically or psychologically to another person or indeed to any creature or even to any part of the natural world. At first hearing Ahisma may seem to express an attitude that is negative, yet in actual fact it designates something very positive; namely that I have a concern, a love, a spirit of good will toward another person that makes it impossible for me to inflict injury on that person or creature or part of the world. Gandhi originally taught that God is Truth, just as Christians say that God is Love, but later he decided that Truth is God, too. Reality is spiritual. (remember Merton once remarked that either all of our life is spiritual or none of it is.) All people are interconnected and everyone has a share of divine goodness within. (You may recall Thich Nhat Hahn’s teaching that we need to water the seeds of goodness, peace and love that are within us.) So Gandhi teaches that to harm anyone is to harm God and to serve others is to serve God. God was not a person to Gandhi but an “indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything.”
The Zen or Buddhist understanding of all reality takes us back to the Four Great Wisdoms which are said to derive from the experience of Shakyamuni Buddha. First he points out that all Life means suffering and that this follows from the delusion that we are an entirely separate being each with our own attachments. The Buddha‘s experience was that there is no such thing as a totally separated self, unconnected with the rest of reality. Contemporary science, of course, will wholeheartedly agree with this. But all is not lost as it is possible to break the cause of suffering; to overcome our delusion of a subject /object divide. The fourth truth therefore is that through the skilful means of silent wordless and imageless meditation this delusion is overcome. (It is worth noting that this awareness of nonduality is also to be experienced through the Christian tradition of apophatic (meaning without word or images) contemplative prayer.
With this as a background we can turn now to the Buddhist Precepts. These precepts need to be understood clearly as they are not a set of rules or commandments to be obeyed. They are an orientation towards a life that is lived with compassion and reverence for all creation to which we are intimately connected. We indicate in the Gatha of repentance the failure that derives from our greed, hatred or ignorance to do no harm. We certainly miss the greatness of the Precepts if we see them as a set of external do’s and don’ts. They are meant to liberate not to bind. The Precepts have a vitality that functions deeply in one’s life, taking account of the intricacies and subtleties of conditions encountered in the existential circumstances of our personal life.
It is worth noting that in Zen Master Dogen’s time there emerged tow different schools of thought concerning the Precepts in the Kamakura period. One advocated the observance of the Precepts as primary in Buddhism, whereas the other repudiated this, or at best regarded observance of the precepts as secondary to the supremacy of faith. Roughly speaking, the former school of thought was associated with Zen Buddhism. Needless to say Dogen belonged to this tradition and he was eager to restore unremitting observance of the Precepts. As a matter of fact, the hallmark of Kamakura Zen was the advocacy of the primacy of the precepts and for Dogen it was the fundamental point of Zen Buddhism. A prime characteristic of Dogen’s thought lay in his passionate search for the translation of the Bodhisattva vows into concrete and routine daily behaviours and activities. In the Zendo scrupulous instructions with respect to rules and behaviour were not codes that bound just the outward movements but were ritualised expressions and activities of Buddha-nature and emptiness. To put it simply in the words of Daido Loori Roshi the liturgy in the Zendo is a way of making the invisible visible much like a Christian sacrament.
The Precepts then are there to guide us in how to live in harmony with all creation right from the start; we should not think we have to wait until we have got enlightenment or something before we practice them. In this, from an interfaith perspective, it is noteworthy that the Buddhist precepts have a remarkable coincidence with the moral teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in St. Matthew’s gospel. So we practice the precepts. We practice them in the way that we practice sitting Zazen. To practice of course is to “do “something so we “do” the precepts. We are to be aware of the precepts not necessarily in all their detail but in their whole orientation of “doing no harm.” Once we aware of them we become sensitive to the occasions when we break them. Then, when you are aware of the break, you acknowledge it and take responsibility for it then you simply return to the precepts once again. It is just like when you work with your breath in Zazen. When you begin to sit Zazen after just a few breaths you often find that your mind has gone elsewhere. When that happens you notice it, then simply, gently yet firmly return to the breath. That is how you practice the precepts. That is how you practice your life. To practice in such a way is itself enlightenment.
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Latest news etc.

2011-06-15T01:34:00.000-07:00

Well life is going on at quite a pace really. Since my retirement from Tetbury at the Bishop's suggestion because of my health problems I have been able to put more attention to my work as a Zen teacher and leader of the Wild Goose Sangha. As a result we are spreading our wings and hopefully not going on a Wild Goose Chase! We are planning a series of Zen sesshins for 2012 where 2 will be on the west side of the counrty at locations close to the M5 motorway and two will be over on the east side going up the M1 and down as far as Canterbury. Canterbury with Marcus and Jennie Averback are really a satelite of the WGS. Also as part of the changes for the WGS I have made Jeremy Woodcock and Marcus Averback as Dharma Holders so they will be associate teachers with me. We are also in the process and getting ourselves registered as a charity for tax purposes. One futher point is that we have moved our Thursday meetings to St. Lawrence church in Cirencester whcih is better premises for us and more convenient for parking etc.

With regard to my pain in the hip and the back - its certainly no better yet and still quite severe at times. I see the specialist at the hospital tomorrow and hopefully after all the tests and MRI's that I've had they will be able to tell me what can be done for me to without the constant pain.

Maureen and I have had the joy of going to a couple of concerts in Cirencester for the Cotswold Early English Music festival. One was of a group of musicians using the old traditional instruments for maily 15th & 16th cnetury music - the group was clalled The York Waits - Waits were nighwatchmen who used to come together to pass the time playing music. It was excellant and great fun as well. Not a great number of people there though and all were "people with bus passes!" Last night wewent to "Midsummer Mozart" in the same series this time with the Correlli Orchestra

Here are some Zen thoughts:

The Zen Sesshins held by the Wild Goose Sangha are in no way an attempt to combine Christianity or any other faith with Zen which, in itself, is not a religion but simply a meditation practice that can be helpfully used by those of any faith. Their aim is to purely engage in Zen practice in its own right. As Thomas Merton points out: It is perfectly possible to be capable of playing tennis at one time or doing mathematics at some other time; they are not incompatible. Patrick Sensei, as a Catholic priest and a Zen teacher will therefore exercise his Christian priesthood in a Christian context but, when in a Zen context, he will teach Zen as a member of the White Plum Asangha.
Each Zen sesshin is designed to present an intensive opportunity for deepening our Zen practice. This practice is based on an awareness of our own true nature and the true nature of all reality. The tools we employ or “the gates” we use are first and foremost the practice of Zazen (silent sitting), Kin Hin (walking meditation), a Teisho from the teacher, Daisan (which is a private and personal meeting with the teacher), chanting and silence. So chanting is an essential and integral element of the whole practice of Zen.
In the chant service we chant the three central sutras. First we chant the Heart Sutra which, in somewhat poetic terms, endeavours to express the true nature of all reality of which we are a part. So it is, if you like an attempt to express the inexpressible. The second chant is about the identity of the Relative and the Absolute demonstrating the relationship between the absolute oneness of all creation in its essence and the division and differences in the phenomenological world. The third and final sutra calls us to exercise compassion in every aspect of our life. It teaches us the nature of this compassion which can only spring from the wisdom or experiential knowledge of the first two sutras chanted.
The dedication after each sutra chanted is unlike any Christian or other faith prayer in as much as they are not prayers to a Supreme Being or God to help us in our difficulties. They serve as a dedication of ourselves to put into practice the wisdom of the sutras and the resulting compassion. In other words in the chant service together we actualise our true nature both in wisdom and in compassion.

EASTER UPDATE

2011-05-02T02:44:00.000-07:00

Well we are now well into the Easter Season and this may be a good time to update readers on my health situation. First it was finally discovered that I had a hormone imbalance and although an MRI on my pituitary gland and hypothalamus proved that there was no cancer I now do periodically have to get a hormone injection. The serious pain in my hip and right leg though is still with me and I have to have an MRI on my spine and hips as they think that the neurological damage in my leg and hip stems from a problem in my back. The MRI is on May 17 so sometime after that I should get to know the prognosis on that. These health problems have forced me to resign my position as Parish priest of Tetbury however so my final mass was last Saturday evening. It was a very moving and beautiful celebration and it it is with mixed feelings I end my time there. I had some excellent support from the people and it was a great experience. Although I will help our in a parish when needed and if I am well enough most of my energies will now go into my Zen work with both the group that meets regularly in Cirencester and with the retreats in various parts of the UK. I am also booked to lead a Zen retreat in Alaska in August. For my various retreats etc. can be found on my website www.wildgoosesangha.org.uk

Lent/Spring Ango

2011-03-26T03:20:00.000-07:00

It has been ages since I last wrote here. Why? Well my health has been poor and I've spent a lot of time on various tests. Also there has been a lot happening what with the lenten series of instruction on the liturgy at Mass for the people of Tetbury and the work of the Wild Goose Sangha. We had a woderful Zazenkai in February at Ammwerdown which went well and last weekend there was a brilliant sesshin held at Minster Abbey near Canterbury which was well organised by Marcus and Jenny Averbeck both students of the Wild Goose Sangha. The team who ran the sesshin were made up of Marcus, Jeremy and Jane all of whom did a great job which made it a good experience for the 15 people present. It was great that there were 4 married couples there together!
Spring Ango has been largely been taken over by the tragic events in the world most notably the situation in Libyia and the earthquake in Japan. The earthquake in Japan has affected so many of our Zen Buddhist friends in Japan so that is particularly painful for us - and it still continues with the nuclear disaster still out of control. Last week we offered a Zen chant service which we dedicted to the people of Japan. For the Spring Ango we are using one of Dogen's fascicles "Bodaisatta Shishibo" which describes the 4 elements of social relations. 1. Free Giving 2. kind speech 3. helpful conduct 4. co-operation. We need to ground these in our lives as a reult of our dedication to our practice of Zazen. The circumatanses internationally, nationally and locally really put our atttention to these elements to the test. How about you?

I will not get into the violence in Libyia now but as a member of Pax Christi I get very nervous when we resort to violence. "When will we ebver learn?" Perhaps we could start by refusing to be invloved in the sale of arms. But its too costly some say but what does our invlovement cost us in the loss of life and the destruction of people, places and beauty?

Happy new Year 2011

2011-01-04T03:45:00.000-08:00

Well here we are now entered fully into a New Year with all the holiday festivities over. Perhaps you have already made some resolutions as you carefully looked at your life as we enter this New Year with a new decade. Maybe like me you can remember the Communist regions in the past at least outlining “five year plans.” So maybe this is a good time even now if you haven’t done it already to look carefully at the direction of your life. These days everybody seems to be under great pressure of time. A Roman Catholic bishop in England recently passed comment on this and suggested that it was unrealistic to expect that people should be at church every Sunday. My point is to ask each of us to look once again at our allocation of time that we can set some realistic priorities. In doing this we are inevitably forced to consider carefully what place our spiritual practice has in our lives. Fundamentally we consider whether we think that any spiritual practice maybe good when we have the time after all the business of living is taken care of or whether we know that it is absolutely essential in providing the ground from which we orientate our life.
With regard to the Wild Goose sangha we have begun to make some strong commitments ourselves to providing the necessary opportunities to help people grow and consolidate their practice. Most of us find that much of the time our sitting Zazen is done on our own so we often need to come together with others to give a boost to our practice. Such meetings can be for a day or for a weekend. Many of our programmes you will see are provided at the Ammerdown Centre. You can fine the year’s programme for those listed in the Flyer or in the Ammerdown Centre programme. The most immediate one is the Zazenkai at Ammerdown on February 26th. A Zazenkai is a day of Zen practice which gives us an opportunity to have some solid sitting Zazen together with a time of teaching and an opportunity to meet for a personal interview with the teacher. You will also see that there is a weekend Zen Sesshin to be held at Minster Abbey near Canterbury March 18 – 20. This again is a great opportunity to deepen one’s practice and to get encouragement. You can see details of how to register for these events on our calendar of events section. As it usually gets booked up very quickly you may want to consider registering for the weeklong sesshin with myself and Fr. Kennedy Roshi May 27 – June 2.
So will all my best wishes for a good year of silent sitting and personal peace.

Rohatsu December 2010 Although the normal day for the celebration of the awakening of Siddhartha Buddha is usually on December 8 the Wild Goose sangha at Cirencester kept the celebration on Thursday December 9. It was a very lovely celebration where we sat zazen, chanted some of the sutras, listened to a Teisho by Patrick Sensei and then feasted around a tree lit decorated with fairy lights on angel cake and tea.
We found the teisho very interesting so here it is for you all to read.
Bodhi Day or The Buddha's Enlightenment is celebrated by Mahayana Buddhists on 8th December each year or on other dates in some parts of the world. Among Mahayana Buddhists, this holiday celebrates the Buddha's attainment of understanding of the truth of existence, freeing him from all human suffering, and finding perfect happiness. The date, 8th December, is based on the Japanese Buddhist calendar.
Tradition tells us that the prince, Siddhartha Gautama, left his home and family and all his possessions behind at the age of 29 to discover the meaning of life, particularly its hardships. After six years of rigorous discipline and ascetic lifestyles under the guidance of a number of spiritual teachers, he still hadn't found what he was looking for.
Eventually then after trying many spiritual paths about 2,500 years ago, the young prince of Northern India Siddhartha Gautama sat beneath a fig tree and declared, “Even though the flesh falls from my bones and the bones themselves crack, I will not get up from this seat until I have attained supreme and perfect enlightenment!” This determined young man then faced down all of his inner demons, defying and finally taming all of the temptations and distractions of greed, anger, restlessness, laziness and self-doubt. He finally attained a state of calm awareness. His mind had become like a clear and still pool which could perfectly reflect all things within it. During the early evening, Siddhartha reflected on all of his former thoughts, words and deeds. He perceived within himself all of the many things that he had done and experienced in both the present lifetime and in all of the innumerable past lifetimes which became known to him in this state of clear calm awareness. He saw that he himself had created the destiny which had brought him to the point where he could sit beneath that tree at that time and to seek the answers to the great question of birth and death. During the middle of the night, his awareness expanded to include the lives of all sentient beings. He saw that his life was indivisibly involved in the lives of all other beings. He saw how his life affected the lives of all others and how their lives affected his. Furthermore, he perceived that they too were the creators of their own destinies through the consequences of their own actions. As the morning approached, Siddhartha contemplated the vast network of cause and effect itself. He saw how all beings were intimately connected to one another in this vast network of mutual influence and creation. Like a vast net of jewels reflecting each others' light and beauty he saw how all beings arose as part of an unending process of mutual creation. He also saw how ignorance of the true nature of reality was the cause of all the selfish craving which led to suffering, and he saw that this suffering could be ended through a life based upon the truth, the Wonderful Dharma.As the morning star appeared in the sky, Siddhartha’s contemplations were fully realized in the fullness of the living moment in which the Wonderful Dharma is expressed. In that moment Siddhartha became the Buddha, the fully awakened one who realized and could share with others the true nature of reality which could end suffering and open the eyes of all people to the selfless beauty which he had seen and now manifested in his own life. Like Siddhartha, we too, should find time to calm our hearts and minds and allow ourselves to clearly reflect the true nature of life. We too, should reflect upon our actions and their consequences, so we can humbly take responsibility for our lives. We too, should reflect upon the lessons that the lives of others hold for us, so that we can learn from their mistakes and receive inspiration from their successes. We too, should reflect upon the vast and marvellous workings of the Dharma which pervades our lives and in fact is our life. Above all, however, we should realize that the Dharma, the true nature of reality which is so difficult to perceive and understand, has been given to us by Shakyamuni Buddha. In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha stated, “For many hundreds of thousands of billions of countless eons, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] perfect and complete enlightenment. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you.”
For Shakyamuni Buddha’s efforts and determination, his great generosity and compassion, and most importantly for his gift of the Dharma which he realized beneath that fig tree 2,500 years ago, we come together today in celebration.

Zen and Verbum Domini
This is designated as a “Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI on the Word of God in the Life and mission of the Catholic Church. It was released late in 2010 following a meeting of the bishops to discuss the use of the Christian Bible in the life of a Christian Community today. Although written clearly for those who are members of the Roman Catholic Church my attention was taken by the fact that it addresses the place the Bible has within the context of Interreligious dialogue. The section begins by saying that the “encounter, dialogue and cooperation with all people of good will, particularly with the followers of the different religious traditions of humanity” is an essential part of communicating the Christian message. Obviously studying the sacred texts of any religious tradition is an essential part in coming to engage in serious dialogue with them. Pope Benedict’s text goes on to point out the fact that the various religions make their own specific contribution to the common good. With regard to the Jewish tradition there is of course clearly a considerable sense of common ground in the use of much of the same biblical material. To a certain extent it points out that this is also true of the dialogue between Christians and Muslims. It begins a section on such dialogue by saying, “the church looks with respect to Muslims who adore the one God.” As followers of Abraham they “above all worship God through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.” More importantly for me as and ordained Catholic priest whose personal commitment to interreligious dialogue is with members of the Zen Buddhist community is the positive assessment given to this area of dialogue. Pope Benedict writes “I wish to voice the church’s respect for the ancient religions and spiritual traditions on the various continents. These contain values which can greatly advance understanding between individuals and people. Frequently we note a consonance with values expressed also in their religious books.” He then goes on to say specifically of Buddhism that we can learn from their “respect for life, contemplation, silence and simplicity” In my own case and for many I have found that a great many people are searching for the deeper personal experience of God in their lives that can only come precisely through the practice of meditation or contemplation, silence and simplicity. It is because of this that I personally want to share my own experience of the riches of Zen in giving a way of practice hinted at but not explained or reinforced for the ordinary person in the Christian tradition. Because Zen in its essence is not a belief system with a theology it is perfectly suitable for a Christian to use its practice as a way of experiencing what all the great Christian theologians down through the ages have written about so eloquently. This for me is a blessing and a truly practical demonstration of interreligious dialogue.

Book Reviews
Zen practitioners of whatever faith tradition or none do well to read any of the material by Eithei Dogen the great Japanese Zen teacher from the thirteenth century. His Shobogenzo is lies right at the heart of Zen practice and is rated as one of the most outstanding spiritual and literary works ever written. Having said that most of us need some help to penetrate his text and get help from the riches to be found there. To this end I have two books that I thoroughly recommend.
Francis Dojun Cook. How to Raise an Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2002.

The Forward to this book is written by Taizan Maezumi Roshi the founder of the White Plum Asangha which is the lineage to which we belong. He writes in his forward “Dogen’s expression is like an inexhaustible stream that gushes out of the ground naturally and without impediment.” With those few words he reliably informs the reader on the greatness of Dogen who wrote ninety five chapters in the Shobogenzo. Cook has worked through these chapters himself and out of his own experience of sitting Zazen has chosen ten chapters to translate. He has found that these chapters most particularly express the fact that the “Zen of Dogen is the Zen of practice.” As an introduction to the chapters Cook provides six essays that help the practitioner to make the best use on Dogen in their own practice. To my mind this is one of the best and concise introductions to Dogen’s Zen. I personally have benefitted much from the essays and from the following clear translations. I commend the book as a really good place to start on reaping the riches of Dogen and as an encouragement to your own practice.

Shohaku Okumura. Realizing Genjokoan: The Key to Dogen’s Shobogenzo Wisdom Publications, Boston. 2010.

This book was recommended to me by Dave Keizan Scott Sensei the resident teacher of the Stonewater Zen Sangha in Liverpool. Genjokoan is one of the most important chapters in Dogen’s Shobogenzo and probably the one that has been most translated. Okumura with his excellent translation not only gives us a translation of the text but a most insightful commentary that is particularly helpful to Zen practitioners. The author has obviously not only spent much time in reflecting on the text out of his own experience but has also spent many hours sitting on the mat breathing it. Taigen Dan Leighton in his forward a great Dogen scholar in his own right in his forward to the book writes” I have been considering Genjokoan for thirty five years, and still enjoyed the many helpful revelations in the book.” I have only been studying Dogen for a few months now and this book is challenging me deeply in a most rewarding way. But like all reading material on Zen I always ask myself, ‘Is this merely stimulating my intellect or is it deepening my practice?’ With is book I find that it does both and would encourage serious Zen students to use it as part of their own Zen study.

Things happening

2010-11-17T03:46:00.000-08:00

Wild Goose Sangha Action
At recent meetings of the Sangha at the Ashcroft Centre and at the recent weekend sesshin at the Ammerdown Centre we begun to realise that we are now well enough established with some good all round support from many people so we can now begin to look at ways in which we can further our commitment to helping people discover the value of Zen practice whatever their faith belief. As a result these are some of decisions that have been made.
1. The Flyer rather than being an occasional newsletter will from this issue become quarterly with an issue each November, February, May and August.
2. We are hoping to apply for charitable status registration which will mean that it will be possible for any donations to be gift aided. The board will be made up of those members who regularly attend the meetings at the Ashcroft centre plus maybe some others. We have yet to find however someone who will act as treasurer.
3. We intend to produce a tri-fold brochure detailing the aims and activities of the sangha. We will use this and other means to advertise the Sangha and its objectives.
4. We are planning to have a “Zen Taster day” somewhere in Swindon sometime in the New Year. Please let us know if you and anyone you know might be interested.
5. We are going to appeal for financial donations either large or small towards our work by those who are willing to become “Friends of the Wild Goose Sangha.” Readers can already start to make contributions either by cheque or by direct debit. For further information call 01793 759452 or email Patrick@northwall.plus.com

Readers may have other suggestions so please feel free to contact us on anything you think would be helpful.

Just recently for my annual retreat which is required as a Catholic priest I attended a week-long sesshin with the Stonewater Zen sangha at Crosby Hall, Liverpool. It was a wonderful experience and it gave me some welcome time for some solid sitting and reflection without having to hold a position of responsibility. I was especially helped by their teacher Keizan Sensei and one of the sehior students Ron Bell. They have even since spent some time helping me by email and I am hoping that a group from Stonewater will be able to come to one of our Zazenkai or Sessins at the Ammerdown Centre.

During my time at the sesshin I spent some of the time in deepening my study of the great thirteenth century Japanese Zen master Eithei Dogen. His Shobogenzo is rated as being amongst some of the best religious writings ever. He has so much depth that even a short piece can give much food for thought and can be deeply challenging. (I have especially been helped by a book by Francis Dojun Cook "How to raise an Ox" - people who saw me reading it thought I was taking up farming but it's an outline of Zen practice at taught by Master Dogen in his Shobogenzo - I recommend it to you as well if you are interested in Dogen or Zen practice.) This study though did make me stop and ask myself though why on earth should I as a Catholic priest of many years want to spend time studying a thirteenth century Buddhist writer. It was surely because if the Vatican II document on other faiths was serious in saying that we should accept and learn from “all that is good and true” in other faith traditions then it would surely be found in the writings of some of their greatest teachers. My study soon began to challenge me about my role as a Catholic priest. After all the whole of Christian orientation in the west seems to be orientated towards “Salvation” which simply put is the awareness of human sinfulness and the fact that “Jesus Christ died upon the Cross in order to save us from our sins.” Buddhism however is primarily orientated towards the liberation that comes from awakening to one’s own true inner nature which in turn is an awareness of the Oneness of all reality which incidentally equates well with the teaching of the Christian scriptures of all being one with God in Christ. The question however was still whether these two objectives were able to be reconciled in some way. My thoughts first went to the writings of some great modern women theologians like Mary Grey in England and Rosemary Radford Ruether who examine the whole concept of salvation starting with the fact that the word itself means “healing or “making whole.” In this way it is very close to the idea of liberation or setting free – in the case of Buddhism it is a freedom from the false idea of a totally separate self that causes us to be self centred and lacking compassion. Further reflection brought me to realise that the central teaching in the Eastern traditions in Christianity that tend more towards the Incarnation rather than the crucifixion. It is also worth noting that most of Jesus teaching was about how to live life. This seems much like the Zen masters who teach that “Zen is about life.” For Christians then our identity is made clear by the Incarnation and ratified in our baptism. The death of Christ and the resurrection are the positive assurances that nothing can annihilate who we truly are. In this way we are set free/liberated/saved from any need to achieve an identity but to live a life of compassion. I was able now to relax confidently not only into the Zen of Dogen which is the “Zen of practice” or the “Zen of Life” but into the practice of the early Christian Apophatic tradition of prayer. I was able in this way to enter fully, without question, into my Zazen and, like so many Catholics, Jews and Sufis as described by Kennedy Roshi; I found it not just a way of deepening my prayer life but of sitting in contemplation with people of other beliefs.

Right after I returned from this sesshin I lead a weekend Sesshin at The Ammerdown Centre for 20 people. It was a mixture of beginners and those who had been before. It was a solid time of practice and it seems to have done a lot to give The Wild Goose Sangha a real sense of identity and solidarity. It's true that there were some wjho found it very challenging though whcih made me remeber the difficulties that I had to start with way back in 1990 with Dr. Ruben Habito Roshi - and now I am a Sensei (teacher) myself!

Today I have my good friend Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, a Camaldolese Benedictiine Monk from Big Sur CA ( where I am an Oblate) to visit for a couple of days. He is a great admirer of Fr Bede Griffiths so I will take him to Prinknash Abbey tomorrow to visit where Fr. Bede began his monastic life before setting up his Ashram in India. Then in the evening he will do an evening of music, meditation and teaching at my church in Tetbury under the title "The Universal Call to Contemplation."

Here's something I got from Friends of Silence recently: When you think of the concept of "time" what comes to mind? Usually it is schedules and deadlines and rushing around! But there's another perspective...think of mountains, oceans rivers, ancient trees, those things of this world that suggest words like "eternal" and "everlasting". For we know that the concept of time is our idea, not our Creator's and there's no such artificial construct in eternity. Even if we have to schedule it by this world's idea of time, we can step into that stream of eternity by going within, entering the Great Silence. There we become part of it, and while we are there time no longer exists. Turning inward, becoming part of no-time, being just present to THIS MOMENT , refreshes us and often colours our perceptions so that when we return to this world of deadlines and time constraints, we are more able to "go with the flow" and view our world with new vision.

Michaelfest

2010-10-02T02:51:00.000-07:00

Life has been very hectic in the parish and in my life. We have just finished our second annual Michaelfest at Tetbury Catholic Church. We had a good musical recital on Friday evening (September 24) but the attendance was sparse and the art exhibition was on Saturday with Tetbury Art Society contributing much of the artwork. In church we had an exhibition of the wonderful art of a parishioner Pat Sampson. The festive masses went well with Fr. Paul Lyons from the seminary at Wonersh preaching his theme was on the discipleship that stems from our baptism. The conclusion was an ecumenical Vesper service which included all the churches in Tetbury including St. Mary's Anglican church choir that contributed a psalm and an anthem. Fr. John Wright the vicar preached and without any previous consultation he also preached on discipleship and our common baptism which unites us all. I feel that my Zen work has taken a bit of a back burner with all the time I put in preparing for and at Tetbury for the Festival. My health doesn't seem to have been too good either what with sciatica and the a very heavy cold. But life goes on relentlessly. The Pope's visit went much better than expected and he did well to play to the crowds. However I personally still feel somewhat concerned that there is still the lack of implementation of the Vatican II teaching on collegiality and the power structure of the church to the diminishment of the authority of local bishops. I still feel that the Pope and the bishops have not really taken responsibility for their share in the child abuse scandal or done enough to help the victims. I also feel for all those theologians who have been so censured by the Curia without due process. There still seems so much injustice when we are supposed to be the champions of justice.

OUR DAILY BREAD

2010-09-14T01:48:00.000-07:00

Here is something Iwrote for the monthly magazine that goes to all the 4100 homes in Tetbury. I thought you might enjoy? it.

This is the season when we customarily celebrate our harvest thanksgiving. This year perhaps important than ever I am so conscious of the great gifts we receive from all those who work hard to provide us with our food. From my youth I remember that in our village church in rural north Devon we always had some sheaves of corn and a large loaf of bread fashioned in the shape of a sheaf of corn. Bread is such a basic part of food the world over and this year I am especially concerned for those many countries and regions in the world where the food crops have either been destroyed or at least diminished by either droughts or floods or, as in the case of Niger, both. So many people throughout the world simply do not have the necessary food to sustain life and the malnutrition is simply horrendous. It is these people that have come to my mind each time I say those words in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” For Christians in those counties that are suffering food shortages this must be particularly poignant with a heartfelt plea that their lives will have enough to sustain them and their children. This has been the case of course right from those earliest biblical days when the prayer was written in the Gospels. But for those early Christians the mention of “Bread” also carried the meaning of the bread that they would receive in Holy Communion at the Eucharist. This gives a fuller meaning of course to the phrase “We become what we eat.” For them and for us “Bread” not only means their food but all that sustains our life. We realise that our all the elements of our lives, including the spiritual dimension, are nourished not only by the food we eat but in so many other ways as well.
An acute awareness of this intimate connection between the physical and the spiritual surely engenders a sense of compassion for those who are suffering any way. Just as receiving the Bread in Holy Communion demonstrates our oneness in Christ so we are at one with those who suffer. We are indeed also one with them and we too suffer with those who are suffering from the lack of the bread in both the physical and the spiritual sense. As we pray the Lord’s prayer we can particularly hold them in our hearts as at this is a time we can give thanks for all of that is truly nourishing enabling us to live the fullness of life. A few years ago I came across an interesting poem called “Bread” by the Irish poet Brendan Keneally which will perhaps point us in the right direction.
Bread
Someone else cut off my head
In a golden field.
Now I am re-created
By her fingers. This
Moulding is more delicate
Than a first kiss,
More deliberate than her own
Rising up
And lying down.
Even at my weakest, I am
Finer than anything
In this legendary garden.
Yet I am nothing till
She runs her fingers through me
And shapes me with her skill.
New & Selected Poems 1960-2004, Bloodaxe Books 2004

September Already

2010-09-02T01:59:00.000-07:00

Yes I can hardly believe that it is September already and for me it has brought a rather unpleasant "S" as well. I am suffering with a rather painful bout of sciatica which is quite de-energising!

Recently I watched an old film " The Man for All Seasons" - the story of St. Thomas More. I was particularly struck by the way that he remained faithful in his allegiance to the Catholic Church while at the same time so critical of many of the details of the institution. I guess that It where so many people are today particularly those who like me are committed to the central teachings of the Second Vatican Council which appear to be being undermined. I am especially speaking about the nature of the church and most notably the real implementation of collegiality with the Bishops really given authority to lead their own diocese rather than being controlled by out of touch figures in the Vatican curia. My dear friend Cardinal Hume had many a tussle with them and i take him as a model with his understanding of the church as "Communion" This is particularly evidenced today in the Vatican's control of local churches and their liturgy. I think the Bishops need to just simply say as a Body we are not going to do this. I think that there is a little precedent on this with the Catholic Bishops in Canada who decided to use the Catholic version of the NRSV translation for their liturgy. It was approved by the Cngregation for worship in the Vatican so they went ahead only to be told later by the CDF that they were not to use it as it had doctrinal flaws! The bishops simply said well they have the books all printed and they are using it already so they weren't going to stop! i think the Bishop's conferences should all take a similar line and just make their own decisions as that is what their ordinations define that they are capable of doing!

I am also finding Cynthia Bourgeault's book "The Wisdom Jesus" quite fascinating. it looks at Jesus in the Scriptures through a contemplative lens which is very powerful It is much like the last couple of books by Fr. Richard Rohr and also fits well with the work of Fr. Bruno Barnhart. The book is summed up well in words by Jim Marion " She invites us to follow Jesus's path of self-emptying love and she describes wisdom (contemplative) practices that we Christians can use every day to transform (Awaken) our own minds so that we too can see with the eyes of Christ" _ that seems to me to be a good description of what we who are Christians do when we practice Zen.

So what we should do now is quit reading this and sit in some form of contemplative silence for 25 minutes - RIGHT NOW!

August 17 Stuff

2010-08-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

Well the 26th Aniversary of my ordination as a Roman catholic priest on August 14, 1984 has come and gone! What a lot has gone on since that date. A remarkable 21 years in USA where ther was a vast enrichment of my life and ministry largely from the wonderfulk people that I encountered there and worked with. The members of the Monos Community deserve a special mention and its wonderful that after I handed over the leadership to Regina Decker it has gone from strength to strength. Osage Monastery also played a big part in it too by bringing me into contact with Bede Griffiths and through him to the Camalodese Benedictines at Big Sur where I am still an oblate. My 6 week hermitage experience under the guidance of Fr Bruno was really rather special and of course O+M also introduced me to Ruben Habito my first Zen teacher. In fact it was during last week that I went back to Ruben's book "Healing Breath" last week in my search to come to terms with all my feelings concerning the terrible human disasters occuring in our world at this time. It was of great help; so much so that my dharma talk to my Zen Sangha here in Cirencester used some thoughts I found there to enable me to give voice to my struggle as a Zen practitioner. Here are some notes from it:
Zen Master Hakuin's Song of Zazen ends with "This very body, the body of the Buddha" expresses powerfully the massge of Zen that "we need not look outside ourselves, what we seek is right here" "this is my Body" is used as a term in Christianity as well so we reognise that "This very body includes all that is in the entire universe!" The dropping off of Body and Mind called for by Master Dogen callls for a direct awareness that breaks through the Subject?object barrer created by the illusion arising from our ego- centred consciousness that makes a sharp distinction between all that is in this "skin-bag" and that which is outside. This is particlarly reeinforced by our Western culture stemming from Descartes and so many others. In the Christian tradition the whole 19th century suggestion that the natural world was there for humans to dominate also has produced an ego centricism that has clearly been extremely destructive. The findings aod modern science has undermined all of this of course and points us in the same direction of Hakuin's "This very body" A ancient Zen story recounts how we do not see a flower as it really is but only as it appears as an object. As Anais Nin wrote we only see things as WE are not as THEY are . The Zen meaning of compassion is as the word says "to suffer with" To recognise that we are ALL one body and that what happens in the universe is not seperate from us but it happens to us as well. We are to awaken from the unreality fo a dream world of the illusion that we are not all One in this very body of the great wide universe.

Sundry items of updating

2010-08-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

I am sorry that I haven't been terribly reliable in writing up this blog on a regular basis. There are 2 main reasons really, one is that my life has been quite full with demand sboth from the parish that I am in charge of and also the fulfilment of my role as a Zen teacher. Aotner reason has been my doubt about whether anyone actually reads the blog. I have recently recived a couple of positive comments which have encouraged me to make the time to send a little more frequently.

A couple of months ago I wrote a simple introduction to Zen practice and a couple in the Wild Goose sangha set it up as a little booklet with the Title Let the Dragon Roar. In it I set our some very simple requirements for those who wished to be as admiited as a serious Zen student of the Wild Goose sangha. It was great that there were 9 who responded to this so we had a very moving admission ceremony to admit them on July 8th. These were all members who meet regularly at the Ashcroft Centre in Cirencester every Thursday evening. Hopefully there will be others who wish to make that more formal comittment but evrybody is welcome to join with us in our oractice and there is no need necessarily to take on the formal role of a student. However this does give some form and definition to those who wish to engage very seriously as a student.

the Catholic church in the UK is now energetically preparing for the Pope's visit. It seems to be a very costly affair with massive security as it is a State visit rather than purely a pastioral one. I must say that I ask to myself the question; "What would Jesus the Carpenter - the one who istructed Peter to put away his sword - say about all that?"

Three books ahve been brought to my attention recently and I think that you may be interested in checking them out especially f you are interested in Contemplative prayer /Zen practice.

The Essence of Zen - the teachings of Harada This is an excellant overview of Zen practice given by a great Japanese Zen Maser from the talks he gave to Western students on his trips to Europe & the USA.

The Flowing Bridge - Guidance on beginning Zen Koans This collection from Sister Elaine MacInnes is a most valuable help for those engaged in Zen practice. Studying Zeb koans of course needs to be done in conjunction with an authentic Zen teacher of course but this is helpful from an experienced Zen Master who is also a Christian Religious Sirts now in her 80's who was one of the first Christain to receive transmission. She is part of the SanboKyodan lineage.

The Wisdom Jesus Cynthia Bourgeault is an Episcopal priest who darws on th Wisdom tradition of a few different religions to look once again at the teachings of Jesus in Scripture to see it in the light of the great wisdom tradition.

I have a Zazenkai (A day of Zen practice) coming up on september 4 at the Ammerdown Centre
and then we have our big weekend Michaelfest at the Parish in Tetbury on September 24 - 26 with a music recital, an art exhibition and our usual masses with Fr. Paul Lyons from St. John's seminary Wonersh as our special homilist. We end with an Ecumenical Vesper service on the Sunday evening led by the choir of St. Mary's Anglican church.

I have a Zen Taster Day in Canterbury on October 9 organised by one of my students Marcus Averback.

From October 25 - 29 I shall be away on my annual retreat with The Stonewater Zen Sangha in Liverpool.

On November 5 7 I have a short Zen Sesshin also at the Ammerdown centre.

Well that's enough of my doings etc. but PLEASE will you send me a note by email to tell me if you've read this so I know if its worth doing it patrick@northwall.plus.com

ZEN GIIFTS TO CHRISTIANS SESSHIN 2010

2010-06-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

It was a remarkable joy to have our first week-long sesshin at the Ammerdown Centre from May 21-27. Father Robert Kennedy Roshi came form the United States to help lead the sesshin with Fr. Patrick Sensei. We were doubly blessed though to have another Sensei from the USA in Ellen Birx. There were 40 people who came for the start but 10 were only able to stay for the weekend. They were all very committed to the practice which was quite obvious right from the beginning on the Friday evening. Jeremy Woodcock quickly established himself as a most competent head monk and throughout the week ran the zendo with a gentle firmness that encouraged everyone participating. Indeed Wild Goose Sangha members from the Ashcroft Centre in Cirencester fulfilled all the service roles for the sesshin. They were all exemplary and they all contributed to the whole success of the sesshin. We owe a debt of gratitude to Edmund and Helen, Jane, Paul, and Marcus for serving in this way. It was certainly good to also have the assistance of Elia who came with Roshi from New Jersey to help lead us in our chanting.
Because we had three teachers with us it was decided that instead of just one long and quite formal Teisho each day that we would have a shorter encouraging talk from each of the teachers present. Roshi Kennedy began each day at 6.45 am. Using one of the beautiful drawings by Amy Yee coupled with his own calligraphy he stated us off with a theme for the day’s practice. Among the most memorable themes were the nature of the searching, what is pure gift? And not knowing.
After the breakfast Ellen Sensei gave her talks which were all of the highest calibre well representing her many years of practice and teaching. Each talk was powerfully illustrated with real life experiences from her many years in the nursing profession. She encouraged participants further in the themes set by Roshi and they were all particularly memorable because of the powerful presentation of some amazing stories.
It was interesting to have another voice and slightly different slant on those same themes from Patrick who spoke when we restarted after lunch and rest at 3pm each day. Each teacher used poetry as something like the “capping verse” at the end of Koans which gave a memorable few words to take into the practice of sitting in Zazen.
On Monday afternoon there was lovely recital of Japanese flute music given by Stephanie Hiller who lives near Ammerdown at Wells. It was the most beautiful and haunting music as traditionally used by a group of Zen monks in Japan. Stephanie had studied this for many years having discovered the practice when a young classical flautist studying at Dartington Hall. She joined with us for an hours sitting Zazen after her recital and talk on the nature of what is termed “Blowing Zen.” It was a powerful experience of a book by the Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan on the Mysticism of Music.
Having three teachers present meant that everyone who wished had a chance to go at one of the four periods of Daisan each day to one or other of the teachers. This is a very important part of Zen practice as it enables the practitioner to address the particular issues that arise in their own sitting. The teacher will then be able to provide the necessary particular help that they require to deepen their experience. This proved to be a real blessing.
After the day’s Zen practice which very powerfully fulfilled the title of the sesshin bringing us many of the gifts that Zen brings to those of the Christian faith who have a particular attraction to the most ancient but often forgotten Apophatic Contemplative we ended the day with a celebration of a Eucharist in the Zendo for all those who wished to attend. It was a lovely way to end the day and it really affirmed the whole time together as an authentic experience of interfaith dialogue.
One cannot have such an intense immersion into Zen practice without some reasonable physical conditions for the body. The Ammerdown Centre more that adequately provided all that we needed in that area. The beds and rooms were comfortable, the food was of the most excellent quality and every need was well catered for by the warm and friendly staff. In the absolutely beautiful weather we had for the whole week the grounds and gardens were simply splendid and a feast for the eyes.
As the participants left there was a deep rooted sense of well-being and a real sense of value. These few days of quite intense Zen practice had given us all quite different approach to life. We stepped out with hope and courage ready to accept and engage in whatever we experienced in our day to day living. We were awakened to a real sense of awareness of each moment.
We left then having written May 27 to June 2 2011 in our diaries to reserve it for next year’s seshin.

2010-05-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

Having had the little break I am now looking forward to the Zen Seshin with Robert Kennedy at Ammerdon towards the end of May. My studies are taking me to the teaching document of the English Catholic bishops on interreligious dialogue which on the whole is quite positive, the writings the the theological giant of the 6th Century Maximus the Confessor and the writings of samual Beckett especially his monologue "The unnameable" These last 2 items have some deep significance for a Zen practitioner. Maximus is a profound and exhaustive teacher on the early church's theology of apophatic prayer and in a similar fashion the beckett material also shows the limitations of language to express the deepest down things of life.

REFLECTIONS

2010-04-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

Well we have just returned from 5 days visiting two of our children and their four children in the Newcastle-0n -Tyne area. It was a really good and interesting experience. We hadn't been there for almost 5 years but it was nearly 40 years ago that we actually lived there. What a change since then! First is the very noticeable amount of cars and in spit of all the many roads that have been built as express ways and by passes there is still jams in places but then in the cities they did all those years ago as well. In the environment though it was noticeable that the shipbuilding, coal mining and heavy industry has all gone now. Thus the rivers Tyne and Ear have far less pollution and the riverbanks are now easier on the eye and the natural world is more visible. Perhaps it is no great loss that the terribly demanding and dangerous work involved in those heavy industries is no longer there and in its place there seems to be an upsurge in places of recreation and entertainment. Is life easier? Are residents happier? Are they better off financially and in all other ways? It's hard to judge but it certainly is very different.

We had a delightful trip with our Son Mark and his wife to Edinburgh. he took a scenic route through the Northumberland countryside through moorland with magnificent views and past Keilder with its Dam the largest human-made body of water in Europe set in the largest human-made forest in Europe. The shoreline of the lake is now 27.5 miles long and it was built from 1975 - 1982 when it was opened by the queen. Interestingly our youngest son Christopher did some work on the electrics there in the latter part on the construction. But the village around the remote farms and the remote shepherd's dwellings made it all very spectacular. The moors were covered in sheep with their newly born lambs and the wild life was left undisturbed in their natural habitat. How splendid! We had lunch in the ancient town of Jedburgh so connected historically with Mary Queen of Scots and we ate lunch in the shadow of the ruins of its ancient abbey church. The end of the journey was at the campus of Herriot Watt University on the outskirts of Edinburgh where we saw our grandson Peter who is in his second year as a student there. It was a lovely campus and it was goo to see Peter. He seemed very happy now after a difficult first year and we were pleased that he had found a good partner in Dax (Alan) that was clearly a real blessing for him. It was so good to see him and to know that he is faring well.

A trip to the North Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby came next day. It is an ancient fishing town that we have always enjoyed yet now it mostly relies on tourism for its economy. The last time I was there many years ago it was the weekend of a the annual folk music festival. This time was the annual "Goth" gathering. Goths are people who dress in a particular style involving mainly black with some red and a lot of metal accessories with chains,studs and spikes etc. They are an amazing sight to behold and although many would I am sure be horrified they seemed to be well accepted in Whitby and it was fun to see them there enjoying their time showing off their costumes and meeting others who shared their interest. It was interesting to see the wide age range of those clearly recognisable as "Goths" There were some well into the age of "Senior Citizens" often dressed in what seemed Victorian dress and really quite smart right down to teenagers. and the age difference didn't seem to matter to them at all. It was fun and a cause of great amusement to us as we looked at them, the harbour and the boats. We had lunch in the legendary "Magpie" a fish restaurant which has been highly commended nationally which one usualy has to queue for a long time to get in. The menu was vast and the portions "Yorkshire style large" I had monk fish for the first time and it was delicious! The coat drew us next day to Seahouses and the Northumberland coastline which has its own particular attractiveness. It was a trip down memory lane for sure and there we saw few changes really after all these years. There was a brief visit to the magnificent city of Durham with its splendid Norman Cathedral where I was ordained as an Anglican priest over 40 years ago now. Barely any change there with either the streets the Castle or the Cathedral. It just gave me a warm inner glow and a instant memory of that event and all that has happened since then. What a life I have had! What experiences, changes and great people have been an influence and encouragement to me. I have been richly blessed for sure. And now having see Clare with her artistic talent, Sarah with her love of literature and books as well as David now set on his studies to be a lawyer all I can hope and pray is that they get as much out of life as I have done so far.

April 19,2010

2010-04-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

This is delayed as the time to set down all my thoughts has been taken up with things that need to be done with regard to my parish at Tetbury, my Zen group, my Merton interest and my family. Yes there's been a lot of "stuff." So let me take in time sequence

Easter - I spent quite a lot of time preparing for the Paschal Triduum liturgies in my parish. As it was first year for me there I wanted to prepare carefully and get the liturgy done in the best possible way with good wording and music as well as good arrangement for the various actions. The end result I must say was wonderful. there was a tremendous response from the people and it all flowed really well. Unfortunately the weather took its toll especially on the Easter Vigil so we couldn't light an Easter fire outside but we did mange as best we could in the circumstances.

Merton - as soon a Easter was over there was a day's gap and then Tony Bannon came to stay with us for couple of days . Tony is the Director of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. It is a most prestigious place with the largest archive in private hands in the world. Tony is a most competent director and much of its success is due to his directorship. He is a great intellect with an encyclopedic knowledge of literature, film and technology. A truly Renaissance man! he was such enjoyable company and it was good to show him something of the Cotswolds and to engage in conversation with him. He was giving a workshop at the Merton Conference and I was to do the concluding Eucharist liturgy with a homily so we were both working on our material.

Here is my eventual text.

Merton Conference 2010 Mass homily
You can
Die for it
An idea
on the world. People

have done so
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar fabric of dawn, I thought

of China
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
Ever and ever
For all of us? Call it

Whatever you want, it is
Happiness, it is another one
Of the ways to enter
Fire

This poem written by Mary Oliver seems to capture not only something of the theme found in The night Spirit and the dawn air but also the words of today’s readings from our liturgy. As we look around the world in which we live just outside our front door or through the magic of television to so many areas of the world we see an immense amount of brokenness, pain violence, poverty exploitation and abuse. It is all the issues that Merton saw from outside the door of Gethsemani. And Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander is really a collection of personal reflections on those contemporary issues. Our gospel today talks about ‘seeing’ - a word that goes right to the heart of contemplative practice! As the great Zen teachers often say “we look but we do not see.” For this seeing is not merely about physical vision but to see into the true nature of all reality. Jesus challenge when he says “Blessed are those who have not seen” is to those who haven’t seen in a physical sense nor in it's fuller sense with what is sometimes described as the ‘third’ or ‘contemplative eye’ that sees into a deeper truth. So what we may ask is this deeper truth I believe that the answer is to be found in the words of John on the Book of Revelation when he states clearly that he is one with those people for whom he is writing. He shares in their sufferings with them. In the words of a Buddhist he sees with the eye of compassion – that he is all part of the one reality with them. Merton has this precise experience as he describes the ‘opening of his eye’ on the corner of Fourth and Walnut as it was then! He writes “It was like waking from a dream………the whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream.” Right at the end of this section of Conjectures Merton also movingly describes his experience during the night watch when he looks into the novice’s scriptorium and seems to have deep experience of his solidarity and love for all the novices. He feels at one with them in a way that seems to transcend the fact that he was their novice master. Clearly Merton was well aware of the need to “see” in this way. Yet we cannot achieve this for ourselves we can only prepare ourselves to be able to recognise it when our own eyes are opened. Remember that going to the top of the hill in the early morning doesn’t make the sun rise but we have to do that if we wish to see it when it does. So how may we come to see in this way? Well it certainly isn’t acquired by rushing into all sorts of good works! Again hear some cautionary words from Merton:
“A great deal of virtue and piety is simply the easy price to pay in order to justify a life that is essentially trifling.”
He carries on:
“There is then, a great deal of busy-ness as people invent things to do when in fact there is very little to be done. Yet we are overwhelmed with jobs, duties, tasks, assignments, ‘missions’ of every kind. At every moment we are sent north, south, east and west….to the four corners of the universe to decide something, to sign something….. we fly in all directions to sell ourselves, thus justifying the absolute nothingness of our lives”

Earlier he had written on the Ox Mountain parable of Mencius of the importance of the night spirit and the dawn breath in restoring to life the forest that had been cut down. For he points out that “without the night spirit and the dawn breath, silence passivity, rest, man’s (sic) nature cannot be itself” Is this not the same breath that Jesus breathed on his disciples that we heard about in the gospel? It is in silence and stillness that we begin to see into our own true nature and the true nature of all reality. We awaken from the illusory dream of a wholly separate existence.

To take this one step further Merton tells of his reading of the wonderful 14th century Dame Julian of Norwich. He rightly draws attention to her phrase that “all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well” These are no pollyannish trivial or sentimental words of a naive optimist but a deep seeing into a secret that is the reality of the whole significance of the paschal mystery which Easter celebrates. It is a message of hope and endurance that enables Merton to write:

To have a wise heart it seems to me is to live centred on this dynamism and this secret hope. It is the key to our life…..the wise heart remains in hope and in contradiction, in sorrow and in joy……the wise heart lives in Christ.

Opening Prayer:

God of life each year when we celebrate the feast of Easter you enliven the faith of your holy people. Open our hearts today to the Spirit Jesus breathes on us that we may be filled with the power of compassion and love. Send us out to greet the world with the Easter word of peace and to share with all the hope that is promised by the resurrection. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Closing Prayer:

Most loving God we have celebrated to gift of the Paschal mysteries and we ask that you will continue to open our eyes that we may see the many life-giving ways your spirit is at work in the world and be true sources of encouragement to all who are without hope. We ask this as the body of Christ and in Jesus name.

Tony's workshop which I chaired went well also.

Maximus the Confessor
It was enjoyable to meet another friend of Tony's from the USA. Roger Lipsey. A write and scholar with an interest in merton and in contemplative prayer. The three of us with another friend Paul Lyons met in the early morning during the conference for an hour's silent sitting which was good with all the words we were bombarded with at the talks and discussions. I discovered that Roger was also interested i St. Maximus the Confessor so we agreed to share our explorations into his writings etc. I began as soon as I returned when at the regular meeting of our Wild Goose Sangha for sitting Zazen I spoke with Janet Williams who is a member of the Sangha and a good patristic scholar so I got some leads from her and she also sent me some papers she had written on Maximus which are really interesting. If anybody reading this have any thoughts on this subject I would love to hear from you. Maximus was a great member of the early Christian apophatic contemplative tradition of prayer. Last week Friday we went to Hay-on-Wye and visited many of the second hand book store there. I manged to get a copy of a book by Aidan Nichols on Maximus called "Byzantine Gospel - Maximus the Confessor in Modern Scholarship" It came highly recommended to me so I look forward to reading that. I got a couple of Zen books as well. An early book by Roshi Philip Kapleau "Zen Dawn in the West" and a little anthology of Zen quotations : here is one

"When I begin to sit with the dawn in solitude, I begin the really live.
It makes me treasure every single moment of life"

Abuse Scandals

Naturally I am troubled by all that we read, hear and see in the media! I find it hard though to put all my thoughts and feelings into words. I am deeply ashamed as a Christan and as a catholic at not only the abuse itself which is unspeakably bad but that there has been deliberate cover up by the authorities is just the most terrible sin and crime. the Church in Ireland seems to have opened up a whole world of corruption not only there but in other countries as well. Even the Pope himself is accused by mishandling the situation in his home diocese and while Head of the CDF. Some of the stories seem to be wrong or distorted and the whole affair is deeply wounding for those abused and for those wrongly accused. What are the real facts. perhaps we will never truly know but there does seem to be division and corruption at the centre of the Vatican and the whole thing is just nauseating! BUT these people no matter who they are are NOT the whole of the church. There are those who so easily say "the church" as if it was some group or official body out there. The truth is WE are the church along with countless of wonderfully faithful and innocent people who struggle to live lives that are life giving and wholesome. As I See it the real problem will never be addressed until we implement the teaching of Vatican II on collegiality fully and get rid of the power systems and secrecy that lies at the centre of church life. Meanwhile the faithful people carry on with their wonderful lives of service and goodness. I saw the beautiful work done by Catholic Charities in Tulsa, the work with the prisons, the homeless and the deep prayer of spirituality of people like those in the Monos Community, those at Morning Star Zendo and those who come to the Zen retreats at Ammerdown and those in the Wild Goose Sangha. THEY are the church that we need to remember and They are by far and away the majority. I will not leave them or the Catholic church and that they are not stigmatised I will do all I can to bring those who have brought shame on the church to take ownership of their failings and seek ways to set in place systems that prevent such things happening again.

Some feed back please What say you?

A Bullfrog singing OM in the creek

2010-03-24T03:29:00.005-07:00

Strange title but it is a little quote from the beginning of Thomas Merton's "The Night Spirit and the Dawn Air" in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. I am re-reading it in preparation for the Merton conference on the weekend after Easter at Oakham School. But this is just one of the items that I have on the table at the moment. You will see from this blog that my mind is so full of stuff - is it all rubbish? Who knows but it makes me feel I have a mind awhirl like a blender!

Today is the 30th. anniversary of the murder of Oscar Romero the great archbishop of El Salvador. he was shot while saying Mass by the military for his support of the poor. He was an interesting man who was somewhat relucatantly made Archbishop and at the time was very conservative supporting the status quo. However his exposure to the plight of the poor made him a courageous supporter and those who were marginalised and exploited. He was fearless in opposition to the oppressors and saw clearly the connection of faith and justice in the Christian Gospels. he was an apostolic giant thinking in many ways just like Thomas Merton. I must say that this connection has been the foundation of my own spirituality. It is best summarised by Romero "The beautiful but harsh truth that our Christian faith does not separate us from the world but immerses us in it." To parody a saying from St. Irenaeus in Ancient times he goes on to say "The glory of God is the poor fully alive." I sat Zazen today in my own poverty of Spirit in solidarity with all the poor and exploited of the world.

I have been very distressed about the child abuse and more especially about the secrecy and cover-up. I find annoying so much of the rubbish that is spoken about the role of homosexuality and celibacy as well. Of course I am opposed to an enforced celibacy and it can only be a chosen path it seems to me by those who have that charism. Our sexual preference tool is something biological and comes with us from the womb.

An enormous amount of time has been put into my preparation for the Paschal Triduum and Easter liturgies. It is such an important time and in my arrogance perhaps I work at trying to arrive at what I view is perfection. Am I to caught up in the superficial and trivial? I know that at Zen Mountain Monastery I learnt the importance of liturgy done right and that resonates with my own passion to the liturgy of which I preside being done right! Of course I am also concerned to provide really excellent homilies or do I do this just for self aggrandisement?

Now back to Merton there are such a lot of wonderful quotes in this "Night Spirit" Here's a few that caught my attention.

Here is an unspeakable secret: paradise is all around us and we do not understand. It is wide open. The sword is taken away, but we do not know it.

Our attitude toward nature is simply an extension of our attitude toward ourselves, and toward one another. We are free to be at peace with ourselves and others, and also with nature.

God is asking me the unworthy, to forget my unworthiness and that of all my brothers [and sisters] and dare to advance in the love which has redeemed and renewed us all in God's likeness. And to laugh, after all, at all the preposterous ideas of "worthiness".

Here is one that is very Zen like it seems to me!

Life is, or should be nothing but a struggle to seek truth:yet what we seek is really the truth that we already possess. Truth is mine in the reality of life as it is given to me to live: yet to take life thoughtlessly, passively as it comes , is to renounce the struggle and purification which are necessary. One cannot simply open [one's]eyes and see.

Well I think that is more than enough for now. So back to my own thoughts and await yours too!

BOOK GALORE

2010-02-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Hay-on-Wye - you may have heard of it as it is the second-hand book capital of the world. The whole town is given over to the sale of books. It was established like that in 1962 by Richard Booth who I think now owns the Castle and has declared himself the King of Hay-on-Wye. There are 22 dedicated book shops each one with tens of thosands of book usually over 3 or 4 floors so that it really is a book-lovers delight. It is set within some beautiful Welsh coutryside so I had a lovely 2 hour drive there through some lovely scenery. The book shops cater to just about every subject and taste. I spent the day mainly just browsing among the cheap paperbacks and giving lustful galnces at the rare first editions and aniquarian books. They say that books really are a great investment which pleases me no end as I have managed to collect 32 collectable books of my own over the last 50 years. They give me a lot of joy and I am not likely to sell them or realise a profit on them! I must say I marvelled at the amount of books printed in the English language many of them on some really erudite subjects but I also recalled TS Eliot's words "Where is the Wisdom we have lost in knowledge?" In these days of the information highway though it doesn't seem as if books have lost their appeal, They certainly haven't for me! There is nothing like holding a good qaulity book in my hands. Just a few days ago before I went by chance I was looking at a book on the poems of RS Thomas and noticed that I purchased it in the "Poetry bookshop" at Hay in August 2001 whcih was the last time I was there. It was when our whole family over 4 generations gathered together and rented an old farmhouse in Wales for a holiday together - happy memories! This time I also bought a book from the same shop - A collection of some poems by Seamus Heany. I also purchased a copy of Red Pine's translation of The Platform Sutra which is one of the three great Buddhist Sutras. I had Red Pine's translation of the other two so this was a welcome addition. Both books were reasonably priced so I manged to spent less than £20.

Spring Ango

2010-02-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday evening at the weekly meeting of the Wild Goose sangha for Zazen we ended with our celebration for the beginning of this time of extra attention to our Zen practice. It was a lovely evening and we had the names of the 15 people who had indicted that they would participate in the Ango solemnly read out from a scroll which was then placed on the altar where it will reside during our Sitting over the next 6 weeks. We ended the evening with a tea ceremony which really did give a good conclusion to the whole evening especially as the weather outside was pretty nasty with snow, rain and fog!

A couple of days ago I was sent the URL of a video made by Ruben Habito in dallas who was my first Zen teacher. It is very goo and called "the three fruits of Zen" Check it out friends

http://bdyoutube.com/video/o-LhjW3jY7M/The-Fruits-of-Zen-Practice.html

ASH WEDNESDAY

2010-02-17T02:49:00.000-08:00

Today in Catholic churches all over the world and in many Anglican's as well people will be marked on their foreheads with the words "Remember that you are dust and to dust your will return" This may seem a very depressing way to begin the lenten season; many will feel it is saaying that they are a load of rubbish and lack dignity and value.. But this is not really the case. It is a reminder of our mortality. Death is something we all have to face as it is part of the whole mystery of life. For Christians it is a reminder that we all participate in the Paschal mystery which includes life, death and resurrection not just as some future reality but something we experience in our lives day by day.

In the Buddhist tradition we hear the words of the Evening Gatha " Let me respectfully remind you that life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken..." Again we are challenged to face reality. Psychologists tell us that we all have the underlying fear of anihilation and in order to eliminate the toxic effects that this fear has in our lives we have to face the whole mystery of life which includes the dying. This can only happen I think when we spend time in silence so that we are able to be in touch with our deeper level of consciousness where we experience for ourselves what is the fullness of truth.

So many words!!!

2010-02-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well there are so many things on my mind these days and a lot that takes one's attention. For instance i have just finished writing an article for the Easter edition of the Merton Journal. I looked at 2 books that challenged me to evaluate my relationship with the Jewish people and faith. I used the hebrew word "teshuva" in my title and article which means an openess to change. I have certainly been changed by my personal contact with a lovely Jewish lady who is also a Zen teacher and with the book on Merton and Judaism. But I still have much to learn. It has at this moment made me very sensitive to the way we present the Jewish faith in Christian churches especially during Lent and Easter. I will pass on the official writings of the Catholic church on this matter in my ministry as Parish priest of Tetbury ( in America we only use one word for this role namely "pastor" and that's easier and a much better description!)

Having known Richard Rohr over many years i am interested that he is coming to the UK in August apart from other talks he will be at Swanick Conference Centre August 31 - September 2 talking on "The heart of the Emerging Church" He sees a whole new Christianity emerging which transcends denominations and is essentially contemplative and more suited to a post modern approach to the spiritual dimension of life. I wonder what the reaction will be in the Uk where a large majority believe in God but few attend regular church services. Perhaps Diarmuid O' Muchu will go to his talks - they seem to be on the same line.

I have a Zazenkai (Zen Day ) at Ammerdown this weekend - tomorrow in fact and I will be focusing on our Spring Ango which draws on Buddhsit monastic practice and fits well into Lent. I will ask them in the Wild Goose Sangha to reflect on 3 of their relationships 1. with their teacher 2 with their practice and 3 with their Sangha. I am inclined to want to get all of us to really see what we want and to give real dedication to our practice of Zen which is really just the practice of our life. addressing the really big questions of Whom am I? What is reality? What is true? What is death? What is life and What on earth is all this about ? So where do you sit on all this?

Is there anyone out there?

2010-01-30T03:54:00.000-08:00

I have just come back from 4 days vacation time at Charlestown in Cornwall. It gave me more time to consider what is going on and the things that are of concern for me.

I am very concerned as a Catholic priest about the seemingly systematic demolition of the initial spirit of Vatican II so that collegiality seems to be no longer be operative and this is no-where more apparent than in the work of Interfaiuth dialogue which is of particular concern for me and in our liturgy. The language version for the new English translation of the Missal is abominable. In its effort to be faithful to the latin text it has destroyed all meaning and it not only sounds ugly but it is atrocious English. The Bishops seem to be unable to use their voice to overpower the nonsense of the Vatican curial offices! I was somewhat encouraged though by the launch of the support for the Vatican II Council. I hope this cuts some ice!

I am writing a paper on 2 books The Jewish Dharma by Brenda Shoshanna and the book on Thomas Merton and Judaism Both have had a great deal of influence on me awakening for the first time in my life a proper appreciation of the Judaic faith. That is a terrible admission after over 40 years as a priest. - the passage below comes from my Jewish friend Brenda who is a psychotherapist and Zen teacher in New York City.

There is so much in the Merton book but I am particularly taken with his friendship with Rabbi Abraham Herschel a couple of whose books I have on my shelf but never really read. I am now encouraged to do so. In fact there are so many lines that I would like to follow up but where is the time to do all these interesting things.

Steppingstones To Love: (Exercises for Everyday Life)
Nourishing Self And Others
1) Favorite Food
What is your favorite food in relationships? What is it you hunger for daily? How do you get fed? Does someone else feed you? Do you feed yourself? Is there some other way you could get this particular nourishment? Take a little while and find out.
2) Emotional Indigestion
What kind of food are you now absorbing in your relationships that you cannot digest? Why do you keep eating it? What do you want from it? Is there some other food that could substitute?
3) Offerings
What are the offerings you bring to life? What are you willing to give unconditionally? Spend time considering what it is that you can truly offer that will nourish and gladden others and yourself as well. When a large part of our lives consist in making these kind of offerings, we fall in love with life itself.

I had a message today from my friend Dom Sebastian Moore a monk of Downside and over 90 but still one of the most radical prophets of of age that I know.

he reminds me in his note:-

"For me as you know Eckhart Tolle has opened the inner door, of which Jesus speaks, into the kingdom of love and wonder. Remember how the door opened for him: he said " I cannot live any longer live with myself" and then something in him said 'that's a funny thing to be thinking. Are there two of me, I and the self I cannot live with' Than the voice said 'maybe only on of them is real' - "

PLEASE give me your feedback so I know I am not just wasting my time writing all this stuff down with nobody listening!!! Please snd here or email you comments and additions

Natural Disasters!

2010-01-19T02:42:00.001-08:00

The terrible earthquake in Haiti has I am sure left all of us stunned and feeling just terrible for all those whose lives have been devastated. We must do everything we can to support them to allevaite their plight.

Having said that I find that I still react to the use of the phrase "natural disasters " for things like this. I remember I was giving a weekend retreat in Tulsa many years ago titled "The music of the Cosmos" I used this phrase "natrual disasters" and a Native American participant immediately took me to task saying that for the natural world these were not disasters but part of what is very necessary for the natural world. They are only disasters for us because we have closen to ignore the workings of the natural world. We hear much these days about our effect on the climate and our abuse of the environment. We find an occurance of an earthquake a disaster for us because we have failed to take account of the natural movements of the earth in order for it to survive, The ultimate lesson is that we really do need to listen to the natural world more carefully and work in conjunction with its natural workings rather than against them.

What do you think?

Thought for the day/week

2010-01-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

A few days ago a correspondent who is interested in Zen asked me : "Why is art important in Zen? How does it fit into a Zen practice?" Now I didn't really answer the question except to give some pointers. First to say that by 'art' we mean simply a 'creative' practice. This includes the visual arts of photography, painting, drawing, clay modelling and sculpture but it can also include Ikabana (flower arranging) calligraphy , poetry and music.

During my month's residency at Zen Mountain Monastery we also were required to participate in 'art practice' as this was seen as one of the 8 Gates of Zen. This was an extremely daunting task for me as I always said I was no 'artist' but the monks there helped me to find my own creativity. You see Zen is about life and it is life. To be human is to be creative, maybe not as a great artist, musician or poet but we are all creative - that is what it means to human , alive. Zen teaches us not to judge as did Jesus of course. Just let it be and accept that everything belongs and don't let some pseudo-critics judge it; which includes yourself.

Again my experience at ZMM taught me that art is not just reproducing objects but getting behind that. For instance the great Japanese Zen teacher, Dogen writes: " When you paint Spring do not paint willows, plums,peaches, or apricots but just paint Spring" When I participated in Roshi Daido Loori's photographic course our assignments were to photograph. Love, Elseness and Suchness. Quite a challenge so what do you make of it? With poetry too words are not purely descriptive but used as 'pointers'

T'ient'ung Ju-ching writes

Bright and bright, clear and clear
Do not seek only within the shadow of plum blossoms.
Rain is created and clouds are formed
throughout past and present
Past and present,solitary and silent
Where does it end?

So what say you? Where do you find yourself?

The addiction to busyness

2010-01-09T03:36:00.000-08:00

Thomas Merton once wrote these words on violence almost 50 years ago but I think they are even more relevant today. It is interesting that Fr. Timothy Radcliffe quoted these words in an address he gave to the clergy of the Archdiocese of Dublin after the report on the horrific sexual abuse perpetrated there recently.

"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence."

Start again

2010-01-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

It's been such a long time since I sent anything but I thought I would start again today -it's not a New Year's resolution!

My attention has jst been drawn to a good book whcih I commenD:

Without Buddha I could not be a Christian by Paul F. Knitter published by One World Publications.

As you may know I am now also the parish priest of Tetbury in Gloucester (Weekend Masses are Saturday 5.30 pm and Sunday 9.30 am) I am also now installed as a Zen teacher (Sensei) in the White Plum Asangha with the Dharma name of "Kundo"

We still meet each Thursday night from 8 pm - 9.30 pm for Zazen in the Ashcroft centre in Cirencester. You are welcome.

From Hildegard of Bingen

2008-03-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

The earth is at the same time mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humanity, but also
the substance of Incarnation.

Second Sunday of Easter

2008-03-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

+ It was fear caused disciples
to abandon Jesus at the crucial time

Fear still gripped them

+ Jesus comes through the close door of their fear
No recriminations ‘Peace be with you’

+ Each of us knows what it is like to be crippled by fear
- Gerald May and the bear

Fear of death basic underlying
Fear of failure – looking foolish
Fear of not having done enough

+ Jesus liberates us from our fear
- To live fully and joyfully in freedom

“By your cross and resurrection you have set us free”

Liberating Christ
Your break the bonds
Of our enslaving fear
That we may be free
To dance in the Spirit
Of your breathing life
That gives us a sure hope
And is the cause of a great joy
In the fullness of life.

Some quotes for you today

2008-03-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

I have just started to look once again at a wonderful writer/poet called Angelus Silesius. He was born Johann Scheffler in 1624 to Protestant parents in the Silesian capital of Breslau. At the age of 29 after graduating from Padua University he became a Roman catholic and took the name Angelus. These excerts come from his collection of poems entitled " The Cherubinic Wanderer" Some sound a bit like Japanese Haiku to me! Do you like them? What is your reaction to them?

God is the purest naught, untouched by time and space.
The more you reach for him, the more he will escape.

God far exceeds all words that we can here express
In silence he is heard, in silence worshipped best

One knows not what God is. Not spirit and not light,
Not one, truth, unity, not what we call divine.
Not reason and not wisdom, not goodness, love or will,
No thing, no nothing either, not being or concern.
He is what I or you, or any other creature
Has never come to know before we were created.

THOUGHTS WHILE [NOT] SHAVING!

2008-02-18T02:39:00.000-08:00

LITURGY

Pope Benedict's desire to reinstate the old Tridentine rite for Mass has been well known for years apparently and this desire was finally turned into a command last summer. But maybe it is yet to go a stage further. Apparently as pointed out in this week's issue of the Tablet there is a letter from Benedict when he was just a Cardinal which reads,' You are asking me to act for a broader availablity of the old Roman Rite. Actually you know I have no deaf ears towards such a request. My work on behalf of this cause is generally known....One would have to reckon with considerable resistance on the part of many bishops against a general admission...I believe though that in the long term the Roman Church must again have a single Roman rite...The Roman Rite of the future should be a single rite, celebrated in the latin or the vernacular, but standing completely in the tradition of the rite that has been handed down.'

Such a move in my opinion would be a great tragedy. I consider the rite of which he speaks to be an example of the most decadent time in the history of Christian liturgy. The liturghical scholars working so carefully after the Second Vatican Council have wonderfully rediscovered and brought into use something of our most ancient tradition in a form that enables the celebration to in touch with people's lives rather than in a nostalgic leap into a spiritualised never-never land. In an earlier issue of the Tablet Professor Nicholas Lash demonstrates the real dangers of the Pope's attitude to the liturgy as does his lovely book on the Eucharist written soon after the Council. Furthermore we have the scandal now of the Prayer for the Jews in the old rite which even in its new form is an insult to Jews and is certainly contrary to the view of our relatonship with the Jews as in St. Paul's letters see especially Romans 9-11. This sets back our relationship with outr Jewish Brothers and sisters by 40 years.

LENT

Having complained about the above I must say I was pleased to read that Pope benedict said that Lent 'could be a good time to fast from words and images that constantly bombard us.' adding 'We need a bit of silence and a bit of space.'

Indeed this is true, as Master Dogen the 12th century Zen master says we need to take a backward step... but NOT to just to be silent for a bit of peace and quite but in order to come home to our own true nature prior to all our frenetic activity. We need to step back from the words and images, the thoughts and ideas in our heads simply to be in touch with what is truely real namely life itself just as it is.

PEACE

I was pleased to read an article on the 80th birthday of a good friend from the past, Bruce Kent who in a prophetic way resigned from his active ministry as a priest in order to dedicate his own life to working for the Peace of the World. My memory of him was reawakened when I read after some mention was made about minimum wage, ' Does the Church ever talk about maximum wages? It's incredible that we can draw minimum wages. Isn't there a moral issue in that? There jolly well ought to be.'

MICELLANEOUS MUSINGS

2008-02-11T02:04:00.000-08:00

It is simply ages since I last wrote in this blog and there has been a lot happening in my life and in the world.

ZAZENKAI

On february 2nd. I led a Zen practice day at the Ammerdown Centre near Bath and there were 30 participants. It was a good day with plenty of sitting Zazen and Kinhin [walking meditation]. I gave a Dharma talk and spent the afternoon in Daisan [one on one teaching] while the others continued with their sitting Zazen. There was a really good response and a very positive evaluation from those who attended. If you are interested in knowing more or wishing to attend anything in the future then please see my website [www.northwall.plus.com] or see the website for the Ammerdown Centre. The next event will be a weekend sesshin with my Zen teacher from the USA Fr. Robert Kennedy Roshi on May 30 - June 1.

MEETING PLACE

At the end of last year our little Zen sitting group here named the Wild Goose Sangha had to move from our meeting place in Fairford so we are now meeting at the Ashcroft Centre in Cirencester. There are just 7 of us at the moment and we meet on a Thursday evening from 7.30 -9.00pm. We welcome newcomers interested in Zen practice so why not come anmd join us?

ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS

The press and the media have really laid into Rowan's suggestion that certain aspects of Islamic law could/should be included in our national law. They seem to have seriously got hold of the wrong end of the stick. He wasn't suggesting a parallel legal system but rather like already exists for people of faith already. eg. Seiks do not have to wear crash helmets on motr cycles, there are special courts available for jewish people who wish to use them on marrige and civil cases and Roman Catholic drs. and nurses can opt out of any dealings with abortion. So what is the problem? Did the furore bring out into the open a residual prejudice against muslims? Here in Swindon we had a case of a petrol bomb being thrown into the home of a muslim family of a housing estate! I think that Rowan has challenge us as a nation to look at the ways in whcih we can make our laws considerate and tolerant towrds people of faith. The Cardianla Archbishop of Westmnister seems to agree that this is really needed in our legal system if we are to be seen as a tloerant and inclusive society.

LENT

Here are just a few rambling thoughts on our lenten pratice this year. The gospel reading for the First Sunday of lent in the Common Lectionary speaks of Jesus being driven into the desert by the Spirit. That word'desert' brought to mind the recent 'Extreme Dreams' programme with ben Fogle taking a small group on an expedition in the Sahara desert in Libyia. The horrendously challenging environment was desolate, and totally merciless to those who enetred it. The desert also in the time of writing the gospels was in mediterranean culture see as the place of the evil spirits and Jesus was snt by the good spirit into that formidable territory to be tested [that is what the Greek word means]. So Jesus is to be tested three times challenging his attachment to possessions, power and prestige. These are the thre archetypical attachments of the ego or false, superficial materialistic self that overlays our own true nature. Jesus like a good Bodhisattva in the Buddhist tradition is driven by the spirit to engage in a spiritual encounter that he might discover his [original face before his parents were born as the Buddhists say] or in our terms his true nature that was spoken by the Spirit at his Baptism just before entering the Desert. That which he heard from 'outside' he had to discover and embrace out of his own 'inner' self - his own true nature. St Anthony's entry into the desert as described by Athanasius is to engage in the same test and again he wages the battle secribed ina most graphic way but it really is a profound spiritual and psychological struggle to touch and own his 'own true nature.' One further image that came to me was that od seeing in India the pilgrimages of penitents who came naked and totally covered in ash to the Hindu temple. [No small mark of ash like our Ash Wednesday - this was the full treatment!!]. The threefold pillars of the Judeo-Christian prayer life of prayer, fasting, giving then seems to be a spiritual stripping naked - like the Indians - to let go of the accretions that we 'think' is our indentity to discover our own true nature. The ash reminds us of our true physical nature as nothing but 'star-dust.' This lent then is an engagement in an intense desert-like spiritual practice that will uncover our true nature so let us not trivialise it in any way at all but really enter into it with confidence, courage and joy [that was something I also learnt from the Indian penitents - their faces were all lit up with the loveliest of smiles!].

Monday December 24, 2007 Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T02:31:00.000-08:00

This year my mind has been taken with the words "GOD IS WITH US" These 4 words seemed to jump out of the page when I read then in the nativity narrative in Matthew's Gospel. I immediately also remembered the end of the gospel with Jesus' assurance 'to be with you until the end of the age' So the Gospel of Jesus' earthly life is enfolded in this presence and the whole of his gospel is an affirmation of the presence of God in all that is. Now it isn't that it started with the incarnation but that is more like a sacrament that makes visible that which is invisible and brings alive God's intimate presence. God becomes accessible and vulnerable and is alongside us and not over against us as a strict judge and taskmaster. It is this intimate, loving and totally giving God that we can discover in our hearts as we enter a stillness and silence of contemplative prayer.

On Saturday I had a great time at the 90th birthday of a dear friend, Dom Sebastian Moore a monk of Downside Abbey. We began with mass at noon at which I concelebrated with Seb. Here i are the few words he said at homily time.

God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. A question we don't think of asking is: what does 'so' mean? Does it mean what all assume, 'so much', or does it mean 'in this way' and then go on to explain what 'this way is: sending his Son. Love is an act. God loves us by sending his Son. God loved the world this way, he sent his Son. This is how God loved the world: he sent his Son. I labour the point, it's so important. No one has ever seen God, John explains. God is inaccessible. So God becomes accessible in his Son. Accessible? And how! Accessible, available with a vengeance, vulnerable and able to be killed by us so that he could be manifest beyond the power of death in all his divine reality, in the whole truth of him as his glorious body of which we are members. God the inaccessible becomes God the vulnerable, and when Jesus shows himself his disciples adore, and the Holy spirit rearranges the furniture of the mind to see that Christ had to suffer and so - that little word 'so' again! - come into his glory at the sight of which the heart burns, as we learn from the story of the walk to Emmaus.

How disarmingly simple John is. It's a simplicity that evades busy pious souls. God loved us by becoming vulnerable to us, so that, arrested - in a revelatory film-still - at the act of murder by which, unknowingly, we run the world, we are exposed to the blinding light of his love.

The party afterwards was filled with countless numbers of family and friends and the English public (Exclusively private) school accents were much in evidence. It was a jolly affair with many there whose acquaintance I knew only by seeing their names in the papers, books and magazines.

Here's another of Seb's sayings: "Evil is the desperate being exploited by the unscrupulous"

He also reminded us the the search for God can only be found in the ordinariness of our lives amongst the love of family and friends.

ENGLISH INFO:

Ex prime minister Tony Blair became a Roman Catholic on Saturday evening. It is interesting that while Bishops in the USA excommunicate politicians who are not anti abortion that the cardinal Archbishop of Westminster receives one who as actively worked for many moral issues that are contrary to current catholic teaching!

BOOKS

My enforced extra day in Tulsa due to the ice storm gave me time to read O'Murchu's book @Catching up to Jesus' I found the first half a good summary of current biblical scholarship on the Jesus story that contained many challenging thoughts. The second half where he tells the story as if it were Jesus setting the record straight I found less satisfactory.

As part of my study I have been carefully reading Taigan Dan Leighton's Faces of Compassion where he looks at classic Bodhisattva archetypes and their modern expression. The book begins with a general orientation of Buddhist history and practice of which the portion on practice is particularly helpful. he then goes on to describe the characteristics of the Bodhisattva with their wisdom and compassion. Without much difficulty one can easily apply what he says to the Christan contemplative or Zen practitioner. It would be worth reading!

I WISH YOU ALL A MOST JOY FILLED CHRISTMAS

Finally here's a tip for a long life; just keep breathing !!!

AMAZING DISCOVERY December 21,2007

2007-12-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

PHOTOS OF CLIFTON CATHEDRAL

Today when I opened my emails I found the following sent from someone in the USA. I thought that you would like to see how one cannot remain hiddn in the depths of the Cotswolds for long

As you see by this email, my name is Donald Conroy. I am writing you because I bought a book on the internet and it has your name on the frontespiece. The book is A Second Collection, by B.Lonergan. I was curious that you were reading this, and I decided to try to contact you. In the process, I learned that you had his complete writings at one time. I found this email address thru the Diocese of Tulsa. I hope it reaches the right person.

I don't want to spend a lot of time describing my interest in this email, I will just say that I was ordained in 1955, spent 12 years in the active life,10 as a Newman Chaplain at the Univ. of MN, Mpls, married and PHD and license as a psychologist, and now retired. I continued to read religious studies (I have an MA in religious studies from the U of Iowa) and mysticism and on to Lonergan. I have not read a lot, nor do I claim to really understand him ( I have Insight but have not been able to get far), but The Second Collection is another story. I am getting a lot out of this and hope it will open Insight for me.

What I am curious about is what a priest today does with Lonergan. It seems to me that he represents a corrective to the institution as I experience it. So that is why I wanted to contact you. I was told that you were a parish priest and not a professor, which also raised questions for me. How did you get along with the other priests in Tulsa? They were not reding this kind of thing were they? I have stayed in touch with the church these years. My older brother is ordained, was a theology prof at our local college and now retired. I talk with him at times.

Thet's enough for now. I hope this reaches you in England and that you are well and will enjoy the Christmas season. Peace, Don Conroy

CLIFTON CATHEDRAL GETS AN AWARD AS THE BUILDING OF THE MONTH

December 2007
Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral, Bristol, by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership, 1966-73
Text and images by Robert Proctor

Set amongst the leafy stone terraces of Clifton, the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul happily ignores its neighbours, concealing itself in a closed sheath of purple aggregate panels, a concrete spire emerging from inside, and a bridge extending almost reluctantly over its car park to pick up pedestrians from the street. Inside, if it were not for the stacking chairs, visitors would probably look up to the light-filled acoustic-sculptural lantern over the sanctuary before making their over-hasty and predictable judgements of ugliness. The building came about despite the economic disasters of late 1960s and early 1970s Britain. It was designed in 1966 by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership before rampant inflation and the devaluation of the pound put the scheme in danger; it was begun in 1970, and opened in the year of the oil crisis. Only an anonymous donation from a local businessman, insistent that the Diocese could not use the money on anything else, convinced a dubious clergy it should go ahead. The Liturgical Movement was, of course, well established by the time of Clifton’s design, and the post-Vatican II New Order of Mass was in use almost everywhere in the Catholic Church by the time it was opened. So it may not be surprising that this building should have been a mature realisation of Liturgical Movement aims. What is surprising is that such an approach finally came about in a cathedral design, where the acute sense of a civic duty and the need to create a visual statement felt by those involved in other cathedrals was replaced by a more unassuming modesty. Clifton is more like a big parish church. British cathedral architects had been given a hard time by architectural critics. Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral was derided as an irrelevant neo-Gothic artwork. Frederick Gibberd at Liverpool tried out the circle in a nod to the Liturgical Movement, and was roundly condemned for over-literal symbolism and naivety. Nobody bothered very much with Guildford (which was, in any case, a pre-war design). At Clifton, in contrast to both Coventry and Liverpool, where competitions were held, the architects announced their intention from the start to work closely with their priestly clients. And so they did, preparing complex diagrams of circulation routes and ceremonies, discussing and carefully noting their meanings. Even the fan-shaped nave was not imposed, but decided by a clergy committee after a range of plan types had been intelligently discussed. The baptistry was located near the entrance so that its symbolic meanings of initiation were clear, and plan drawings of how baptism was carried out were used to decide its form and position. Even the way people queued in chairs for confession was examined (how did they move along when they were at the end of a row?). Organisational bubble-diagrams like those pioneered by RMJM were used alongside sketches of sections and plans. Volume, light and artistic commissions (the Stations of the Cross to William Mitchell, who had worked at Liverpool; the windows to Henry Haig) turned the plan into a dynamic and meaningful building. Clifton Cathedral has recently been accused of ‘relativist’ and people-centred space, but the experience of the building rebuffs such charges as unfounded – its nave is focused on the sanctuary, and subsidiary spaces fixed in liturgically and symbolically appropriate places; ritual movement is woven into its architectural fabric; light and height give glimpses of transcendence and a clear sense of hierarchy. Liverpool Cathedral is something of an architectural precedent for Clifton, especially in the treatment of the podium (Weeks had entered the competition). Inside, the concrete trusses (actually a star beam) over the sanctuary recall the cut-out beams at S. Maria dei Poveri in Milan; and the informal hexagonal geometry is typical of its period. But there is not much point looking for visual precedents with a building so clearly founded on a careful analysis of liturgical function. If the suspicion remains that Clifton Cathedral is not quite as beautiful or exciting as it could have been, it is undeniably intelligent and valuable. Its owners seem to have changed very little in the building in thirty-four years. Only the wooden doors have gone, replaced with glass, so that the original hierarchical contrasts of light and dark are lost.
Dr Robert Proctor is Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He is currently researching post-war Roman Catholic church architecture.

2007-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

December 20,2007

2007-12-20T02:54:00.000-08:00

Well I have succumbed to having a blogspot. In the past I have always thought it excessively arrogant to post the meanderings of one's mind on the interenet for all to see. But perhaps it can be of some value in helping people to be encouraged. My own particular interest, of course, is prayer, meditation and Zen practice. So here I am as we swiftly run up to Christmas with all the rush and same old trotted out moans and whines! It this any way to really be grateful for the very gift of life? This gift is really a deep mystery - not that we can't explain it but that it is 'more than meets the eye' It is always more than we can ever comprehend. Surely the fact that our life is one that the divine creator could become a very real part of indicates the magnificence of just life. The scripture readings for this upcoming Sunday includes 'God is with us' meaning the incarnation but what does it mean that God is with us? Was there ever a time when God wasn't? Perhaps the incarnation is a visable manifestation of the fact that God has been, is now and always will be with us and life should be lived in this awareness. However to do that joyfully we have to be liberated from all the distorted images of God as the one who watches all our failures and is such a harsh judge. I am preaching at tall the masses at St. Peter's Cirencester this weekend and I hope I can get across that this life is so precious and that our ordinary life is the place of our spirtual practice and God's presence in every bit of it is that of an encouraging, benevolent creator.