WW: Alien visitor

(This gold dust day gecko [Phelsuma laticauda] was spotted on a deck on Orcas Island, just over the Canada-US border. He's far from home [Madagascar], but I doubt he got here under his own steam.

Gold dust day geckos are popular pets, and also famous climbers, able to scale even plate glass. Though they've become a problem in the South Pacific, Orcas is likely in little danger, given its climate. Still, this little guy would be better off if someone could wrangle him and provide more appropriate living conditions.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Keeping Up

We're catching a lot of reality these days.

First a plague swept the planet, laying waste to technocratic pretentions of invulnerability.

And now, the global stampede to busted old right-wing pipe dreams has metastacised in the States into an actual overthrow of constitutional governance, complete with federal troops moving on citizens.

It's not just the National Guard (which would be dystopian enough). We're talking the straight-up foreign-country-occupying US Army. Which has already put boots on the ground to occupy its own.

To me, the most telling point in all of this is the fact that the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on it.

Some of those men might have had reservations. One hopes that at least one heart under that oppressive weight of medals was deeply conflicted.

But not enough.

Even Communist China has produced one general who wouldn't march, under identical circumstances, against the civilians he'd sworn to protect.

“I’d rather be beheaded," he said, "than be a criminal in the eyes of history."

And yet the Americans, who love a uniformed sound-bite as much as anybody, have yet to present such an officer.

At times like this, I'm always taken aback by my own disappointment. I like to think I'm over the human race. I've witnessed so much empty posturing, so much crass and conspicuous hypocrisy, that I cannot, in good faith, pretend to have any faith in my species.

And yet.

The fact is, these things go deep. The beliefs you were taught as a small child, the history your elders spun into your bones, are pernicious. You can outlearn them, but you can't unlearn them. Not at the endocrinal level.

In such moments, I meditate on the words of Lily Tomlin:

"No matter how cynical I get, I can't keep up."

The call to activism is one I don't feel qualified to discuss; I'm torn between two valid positions on that. However, on another point I rest solid.

When we sin, human beings tell each other "such is the way of the world".

That's a lie. The world is faultless. Such is the way of people, who remain in full possession of their moral autonomy and the necessity of applying it.

We're not like other animals. We're not mindless slaves to nature or instinct, and therefore each of us is empowered to "be another way" at any time.

Which is the flywheel of karma.

As we enter this era of radical – if ironic – unmasking, I would ask the Sangha to consider the following suggestions:

Live in the light of things as they are, as they really are, now and for the rest of your life, and refuse all stories.

Look deeply – and courageously – with every breath.

Remember what you see, permanently, after everyone else has moved on.

This is what you owe yourself.


(Photo courtesy of Vasil Šelechaŭ and Wikimedia Commons.)

WW: Western skunk cabbage

(The photo I shared two months ago, of Lysichiton americanus in flower, was taken in this same swamp. Now the flowers are gone, but the leaves remain. To put it mildly; the walking stick on the right is chest-high.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Practice Kyôsaku

"Zen is not found in the understanding, it's found in the doing of it."

Gil Fronsdal

(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)

WW: Rhododendron country

Good Video: In the Footsteps of Wonhyo

Three weeks ago I wrote about the tendency in Western Zen to downplay the ongoing role of Korea in the development and direction of our religion. In that indictment I cited particularly the seminal importance, and extra-goryeonic obscurity, of Zen Ancestor Wonhyo – a Korean national hero who is only now receiving sustained Western attention.

And now I discover this video. Documenting a Wonhyo-themed pilgrimage through rural Korea by Tony MacGregor - Canadian writer for Seoul's English-language Korea Times - it's saturated with the kind of breathtaking imagery we often see in connexion with Japanese topics, but rarely Korean ones. Just the celebration of that nation's own spiritually-imbued landscape is worth the click, and makes for a very meditative visit.

The commentary is a little unfocused, and can get a bit precious in that way we Westerners have when we talk about Buddhism. But in some ways, that very wandering – mirroring Macgregor's literal ramble – is another reward, offering a wider vista on the subject. Particularly welcome is a brief account of tae guk kwon, that muscular Korean take on tai chi chuan that figured so highly in a memorable scene from Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring.

Toward the film's end, another meander takes us to an impromptu teisho by Sudoksa Bangjang Seol Jong Sunim, which is simultaneously predictably conservative (his topic is finding a teacher) and, from a Confucian perspective, revolutionary. Since the same could be said of Wonhyo, MacGregor seems to be underscoring his hero's continuing influence on Sôn, or Korean Zen.

In any event, I greatly enjoyed this documentary and suspect others will as well. As a lesson on an important Ancestor; an exposition of Korea's too-long ignored Zen heritage; and a tranquil tour of its compelling countryside, it's time well-spent.

WW: COVID country

(Baseballs at my old high school, abandoned in the batting cage two months ago and left where they lay.)