Khen Rinpoche in Maine

Finished
Dan Brown's "Lost Symbol". Not giving away any of the secrets but some
things I will take away: Thoughts have mass; multiple minds working in
unison magnify a thoughts effect - exponentially; focusing the mind has
power. My teacher is here from India this week. His teachings say the
same. Check out his site and schedule. http://www.siddharthaschool.org

Spiritual Considerations at End of Life

On September 30, 2009 I will represent the Buddhist perspective on a panel at Maine Hospice Education Day in Waterville, Maine. We hope the panel discussion will stimulate thoughts and ideas about various beliefs and tenets of the major spiritual traditions: Roman Catholic; Protestant; Buddhist; Jewish and Islam.
There will be workshops addressing issues such as dementia care, ALS, masculine grief, pediatric end of life, and Dr Thomas Keating's workshop on preparing for approaching death. Dr Keating is the Director of Palliative Care at the Maine Center for Cancer Medicine in Brunswick, Maine.
For more information and to register please go to: http://hvwa.org/hospiceday/course-description.pdf.

Hospice Retreat at Sugarloaf

The Maine Hospice Council and End of Life Care Retreat will be held at Sugarloaf USA on October30, 31 and November 1, 2009. The theme this year is Behind the Veil: Shining Light on Sensitive Matters. I will be presenting a workshop on Childrens Grief on Saturday in the morning and in the afternoon. Please go to http://www.mainehospicecouncil.org for further information and for registration. The retreat is appropriate for all health care professionals, hospice volunteers and social workers.

New Dream Group Forming

New Dream Group forming in Sopo

Third Monday evening of each month.

6:00 to 8:00

Beginning September 21, 2009

Facilitated by Deborah Pfeffer. Dreamwork will be based on the methods of Jeremy Taylor with whom Deborah has studied and also on the work of Carl Jung. If interested, we may look at the nature of the mind itself using Tibetan Dream Yoga and the phenomenology of imagination.

For more information email pipersails@gwi.net

Return of the Red Dragon

Five or so years ago I had a business with my friend Allison. It was called Bliss. I built this wooden garden sculpture and wrote a story to accompany it. It never sold and for that I am today grateful. It has returned home to me and to my garden.
I called it the Temple of the Red Dragon and here is the story I wrote for it.

Zen tradition tells us there are dragon veins, deep invisible energies, running through all objects in the material world. In the very center of the earth lived Crimson Dragon breathing fires of destruction all about. His energy was reaching all the 10,000 things and causing havoc, chaos and change. On the day of the 9th sun, White Tiger arrived to admonish Dragon, "Crimson Dragon you have been given power to transform energy. You have been given terrifying beauty and your color is a spectacle for all living creatures to worship. Yet you choose only to destroy. What do you say of this?"
"I am Dragon. It is my nature to breathe fire. I am being as I was created to be. How can you, White Tiger, question my natural force?"
And Tiger replied," It is my nature to be the equalizer. I am given the task of bringing the 10,000 things to harmony. So for now, I ordain that your power and beauty will remain unseen in the world. Your energy will remain hidden and appear only as solid stone. You will stand in mere existence, removed from thinking or feeling any sense of self. But anyone who, sensing your power, responds to a desire to honor the stone will be given the gift of knowing. They will understand you and the value of silence. The will know you and the way of compassion made through suffering and loss. They will understand your essential nature to burn and destroy but will also have knowledge of what your visible sign, the stone, symbolizes. They will have knowledge that even though unseen, some things can never be lost or dissolved. The fire of the Dragon is the energy of the stone. Harmony requires balance.

Now I must wonder why it is back and just what I have to learn from it.

Maine oranges

Testing the new camera. It is good to have five oranges growing inside while just outside snow resists melting.

Meaning

"We had the experience but missed the meaning." T S Eliot



Here at Temple Four at Tikal we sat high above the canopy, looked west and watched the sun set. Just at twilight, the jungle came alive, howler monkeys began to call, many species of bird composing on the spot. We watched in silence and tried to imagine the Mayan people and their lives here.

Writing

Spending so much time alone and writing it sometimes occurs to me that this writing life is too full of ego. But then I listen to Sam Keen: " You have got to own your days and name them, every one of them or the years go right by and none of them belong to you." I want to belong to my days.And, for me, belonging means taking notes.