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A good question which can lead to various conclusions. Is there ever a "point" explained in any of the various books attributed to such a God? When Job starts asking questions of this God or objecting to his treatment he is told in effect to shut up. So is there a point? What would we gain if...

Whatever I like......... Speaking of a lightweight Alan Watts and having to reconsider, I am reading through his Collected Letters. I have always loved letters - much like biographies of the poets and philosophers, but in a different way, they put real flesh and life onto ideas. There is a...

Sometimes I have felt cheated by exponents of western zen, at least as expressed on Forums. My own thought is that so many in the west are on the run from certain expressions of Christianity that the slightest allusion to "faith", or of reliance upon texts, sends them running to obscure...

As I was enjoying my burger and coffee in McDonald's I once more read the OP and then turned to the words (found in "Eihei Dogen: Mystical Realist" by Hee-Jin Kim) that precede the quote already given. It involves the relationship between the "symbol" and the "symbolised", and Dogen - as always...

Well, I'm all against any form of dualism - absolute or not. My own way of Pure Land Buddhism is (ideally) very egalitarian. Sincere trust seeks to make no distinctions. Esotericism as any form of distinct/secret teaching for some sort of "higher" group of people certainly for me leads away from...

Not really sure exactly where to post this, but here will do. Early on in my own rather stumbling "path" I had a brief fling with Alan Watts (literary, not physical.....) and then cast him aside as some sort of New Agey lightweight. However, a few years ago I dipped once more into a couple of...

True seeing received at birth Seeking the Way Amid the deepest mountain paths, The retreat I find None other than My primordial home A "way" that is no way at all, and as Thomas Merton once wrote...... "least of all a way out"! Our "original face". Dogen's question that haunted his...

It was simply a story. In part a rejection of doom and gloom, at least from my own perspective. But no conclusions. The page keeps turning.

Ah ha.... the rich in spirit? Tame? The crack of doom and the Rapture? Who knows the next page? :)

Is that in the spirit of Kris Kristofferson's The Pilgrim, that the "going up was worth the coming down"......? :)

Thank you. I've bookmarked this.

The "Books" section is the closest I could find for mention of my Blooks! Blooks are a cross between a Blog and a Book. My hobby began when I wished to print off my Google Blog. I looked up companies who offered the service and found one in France, Blookup. The finished product was excellent...

A short story that I wrote a couple of years ago. I chose the hymn sung by the Gospel group in honour of an old Aussie flame who whenever any mention of religion was made would laugh and sing out "bringing in the sheaves", clapping her hands. It always made me laugh, and still does to remember...

I realise that Alan Watts is often dismissed as some sort of "New Age" superficial sort of guy (I once did myself) but eventually I have found that he is deeper. One book worth a look is "Beyond Theology: The Art of Godmanship". It's general thesis keeps popping into my head, offering clarity.

From Saichi's Journals:- Not knowing why! Not knowing why! That is my support, not knowing why! That is the Namu-amida-butsu! Meister Eckhart:- "Love has no why"

This poem seems to speak of Original Face. In spring, the cherry blossoms, In summer, the cuckoo’s song, In autumn, the moon, shining, In winter, the frozen snow: How pure and clear are the seasons! As the zens say, we must find our original face before we were born. Some may see...

Sitting in Oxfam, my 4 hr stint on the tills, few customers to disturb my reverie. Listening to T-Rex Gold, realising that I was perhaps born to boogie. Is it too late? Another Dogen poem written, according to Steven Heine, as expositions of Mahayana teaching. Petals of the peach blossom...

Back into the world today after a few days under the weather. Although I like the image of being a bohemian drifter, blowing in the wind (!) in fact I know that I am a creature of habit. Routine is therapeutic. That is partly the meaning of the meeting of Dogen with an old cook who was seeking...

Hi, I have a few, but the one specifically on the poetry of Dogen is "The Zen Poetry of Dogen" sub-titled "Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace", by Steven Heine. This contains a complete translation of Dogen’s collection of thirty-one-syllable Japanese poetry, or waka, along with a...

A few quotes (as A.A.Milne once said - and I quote - "A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business") First Thomas Merton, on the self (in his view false and true) The false he sees as a derivative of Descartes, that has...