"Strictly speaking, every unenlightened practitioner is mixing their own convictions and belief systems with Buddhism. There is no way around it.
"We need to acknowledge that in ourselves and understand that our perception of reality is clouded by many things, some of which are ideologies and beliefs."
—This salient practice point courtesy of an astute sanghamate in Reddit group r/Buddhism/.
(Photo of torii gate [a Shinto symbol that's been widely embraced by Japanese Zen] at Mosteiro Zem Budista, Ibiraçu, Brazil, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)
(Another rivetting instalment in the saga of the wayfaring poke [Phytolacca americana] that's mysteriously turned up in the neighbourhood, thousands of miles from its native range. Here you see its ripe, deep-purple berries, whose poisonous juice was once used as ink in settler communities far from mine.
Invasive, but fascinating.)
Appearing also on My Corner of the World.
"Having children takes talent, like any creative thing."
Maurice Sendak
(Photo courtesy of Seth Anderson and Wikimedia Commons.)
Let us walk alone together, comrade sojourner.
We will be like pebbles in a bag, polishing each other bright.
(Ship's dogs, ca. 1920, courtesy of the US Navy and Rawpixel.com.)
(Malus fusca. Native to the North Coast, in my home county it's a common understory tree, flourishing on the margins and in clearings of mature forests.
Though M. fusca's apples are only bean-sized, given the number available, they're a staple of local indigenous cuisines. Like all crabapples they're barely palatable raw, but a brilliant upgrade to other fruits, contributing depth, tartness, pectin, and rosy perfume to evergreen huckleberries, apple pie and cider, rose hips, blackberries and a great many others.
The wood is dense and hard, verging on flinty, and so good for such things as tool handles, stakes, digging sticks, and hard-duty walking sticks.)
Appearing also on My Corner of the World.
"Dying is easy. Practice is hard."
(My monastic riff on a hallowed show biz pun.)
(Photo of Chàn ancestor Hanshan Deqing's mummy courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)
(Appearing also on My Corner of the World.)
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