The BeZine Blog

Posted in General Interest, Jamie Dedes

WHILE I WAS GONE …

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

“And it occurred to me that there is no such thing as blogging. There is no such thing as a blogger. Blogging is just writing — writing using a particularly efficient type of publishing technology.” Simon Dumenco, writer/blogger with Advertising Age

BACK TO THE BLOG

by

Jamie Dedes

Well, I’m back and with me my partners, Ann and Rob, and all of the wonderful writers and poets who have contributed and will continue to contribute to the richness of this blog. (Thank you!) Short story: I’ve been “occupying” or at least boycotting my former Internet Service Provider for poor customer service and for billing for services not rendered. This isn’t done in the spirit of meanness or revenge, but in the search for honesty and ethic and justice, though I will go to war if need be to get the billing corrected.  Meanwhile, after much research, I found new provider that has – according to online reviews and polling of friends – a better ethic and more reliability. One can only hope …

Most immediately, I plan to catch-up with our readers. I look forward to finding out what I missed in your blogs – your lives, your wisdom and joy, your art – over the past month. There is always the richness of spiritual practice, family, friends, books, music, and shows. Still, a vacuum was created during the month I was off-line. For your concerned email notes and for your comments here: thank you!

I have many fine submissions to organize for publication. Some require work before they can be published. I’m not sure how fast they’ll go up, but you won’t be disappointed when they do. Stay tuned …

 See you in the Blogosphere!

and, from all of us to each of you, thank you for reading and commenting here.

Jamie

Posted in Uncategorized

TAKING TIME OUT . . .

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

TO

SMELL

THE

FLOWERS

Back soon!

Photo credit ~ 2012, Jamie Dedes

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

TRAFFICKING IN DREAMS.

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

Oh love and summer,  you are in the dreams and in me…Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

·

TRAFFICKING IN DREAMS

by

Jamie Dedes

·

Sitting on the worn stone steps of summer

on salty Brooklyn nights in Dyker Heights

with our senior year pending like a threat.

Jamming sessions.

Sharing hugs.

Sipping cokes.

I sang you, my first song. You played me,

honeyed melodies in B on a new guitar.

·

Stan on his Irish frame*. Jim on horn.

Your sassy sister chorine** sprinkling

silver star-dust. We trafficked in dreams.

But faith betrayed, a rusted rudder;

your future a rose-bright moon

falling sadly into a turquoise sea.

·

You’d drive me home at dawn

in your dad’s blue Nova, into a

violet sunrise, deep purple maples

standing guard by mom’s place.

Now gone, you and the old roost.

·

No more of your music. No old friends.

Just meandering the strangest streets

mumbling something off-key, strumming

the memory of you, a new guitar, and

the summer we trafficked in dreams.

·

© 2010-2012 poem, Jamie Dedes, all rights reserved

Photo credit ~ Petr Kratochvil, Public Domain Pictures.net

* a bodhrán drum.

** 1920s American term for a chorus girl.

Posted in Guest Writer, Poems/Poetry

SHRED THE SOCIAL SAFETY NETS

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

shred the social safety nets

by

Marilynn Mair (Celebrating a Year)

Into the Bardo Contributing Writer 

shred the social safety nets
we cannot afford fairness
this is as good as it gets

for the future don’t make bets
poverty powerlessness
shred the social safety nets

any lingering regrets
are pointless though it’s a mess
this is as good as it gets

what ill mechanism lets
governments pleading blameless
shred the social safety nets

as the rich hide their assets
pretending with false distress
this is as good as it gets

and our silence aids abets
while willful lies egregious
shred the social safety nets

is this as good as it gets

© 2012 photograph and poem, Maryilynn Mair All rights reserved

Marilynn Mair – author, world renown mandolinist, and blogger – wrote this beautiful sympathetic villanelle in response to Charles W. Elliot’s piece HERE, “Mindful Steps to the End of Hunger.”

Posted in Essay, Jamie Dedes, Writing

THE HAPPY HOBBYIST: Personal Blogging Explored

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

PERSONAL BLOGGING HAPPINESS

by

Jamie Dedes

THE GREAT JOY OF THE BLOGGING HOBBY: IT COMBINES CREATIVITY WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SELF-EDUCATION. The operative word in that statement is “joy.” I should know. I enjoy blogging so much that I have five personal blogs and one collaborative blog (this one), and they are all for fun, not money. (Ads are WordPress ads, not mine or ours.)

As I write this, WordPress.com alone hosts 72,467,611 sites with over 351 million people viewing more than 2.5 billion pages each month. WordPress.com users produce about 500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on an average day. While not all of these are personal (hobbyist) blogs, it’s probably safe to guess that most are.  [Those stats found HERE.]

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

professional view:

the study that inspired this post

Hobbyist Bloggers Are Us:  Personal blogging is a mostly American phenomenon, but it’s a recreational pastime that is gaining participation across the globe.

Cumulatively we are such a big chunk of humanity producing so much work and using computers for so many hours that we are the subject of disdain and admiration, debates and studies. One study by Computers in Human Behavior published in Science Direct is: Who Blogs? Personality Predictors of Bloggers*.

Using five measures of the NEO Personality Inventory, two sociological studies of American bloggers determined that individual differences based on the Big Five factors [neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness] can predict who among us is likely to blog. It may not surprise you to learn that “openness to new experience” is a trait those of us who gravitate to blogging are likely to have. It might dismay you to learn that “high in neuroticism” is also one of our traits.

NONPROFESSIONAL OPINION

this would be me: I beg to differ

My best nonprofessional (I’m not a social scientist) and totally biased opinion about who blogs and why: My perception is that it is an outlet for the creative impulse, sharing information, and networking with people who have the same interests. This is an admittedly narrow view: My focus is writers and poets, amateur and professional. I don’t generally read mommy blogs or web journals or other such.

As an inveterate reader of blogs, bloggers seem to be as rich with family and friends and spiritual support as any other group with which I’m involved, but they are often solitary when it comes to an interest in poetry, reading, photography or art and so on. Even when they live in a densely populated area, there may be no access to poetry groups, writers’ groups, or book clubs. Blogs then become a meeting place for these shared interests. While we could share our poems, essays, or fiction with family and friends, this sharing may not be well-received and anyway – why?  The idea of constantly pulling out our poems or other creative efforts to show at every gathering doesn’t necessarily appeal. It feels rather like the creative version of multilevel marketing wherein you display whatever you’re selling, corner your best friends, and impose on them to buy.

It is also clear that some bloggers are using their blogs to practice their English skills, hone their writing skills, and get feedback on their work. For writers (amateur or professional) there is no better discipline than forcing oneself to produce consistently and on schedule.  Blogging provides a good structure for this. It is also an excellent place to test our more creative experiments.

VALUE ADDED

whole world living

Bloggers often engage in whole-world living. With a growing international base, what an education to visit the sites of people around the world who are just regular folks – like neighbors – and not personalities, politicians, or commercial interests. The perspective from the ground is refreshing, informative, and sometimes inspiring. There are heroes everywhere.

HONOR AMONG BLOGGERS

to paraphrase John Locke, access is not license

Just my opinion ~ Personal pride and honor as well as respect for the original creative works of others – often born of long hard hours – dictates courtesy when reblogging or otherwise introducing a work: acknowledgement, link backs, by lines, and copyrights protections are always in order regardless of circumstance.

I am proud of our blogging community where, except in very rare cases, you will find refined moral compass, personal dignity, and the rights and concerns of others are respected. Professionalism (used here in the sense of competence and conduct, not occupation) is always in order for personal bloggers like us as well as the pro-bloggers.

BALANCE

Close you computer and go for a stroll:

advice for writers from Garrison Keillor

BLOG ON – HAPPY BLOGGERS!

* Guadagno, R. E. et al., Who blogs? Personality predictors of blogging, Computers in Human Behavior (2007), doi:10.1016/j.chb.2007.09.001

·

Illustration courtesy of morgueFile.

Video uploaded to YouTube by .

Posted in General Interest

OUR DISPOSTIONS …

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

Martha Washington (American, 1731-1802)

The first First Lady of the United States

Wife of George Washington, first president of the United States

I’ve learned from experience 

that the greater part of our happiness or misery

depends on our dispositions

and not on our circumstances.


Photograph ~ via Wikipedia and in the U.S. Public Domain.

Sincere thanks to gratefulness.org for sharing this quote with us. J.D.

Posted in Art, Buddhism, Spiritual Practice

BRIGHTEN THE PATH

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

IF YOU LIGHT A LAMP

FOR SOMEONE,

IT WILL BRIGHTEN

YOUR OWN PATH.

The Buddha

·

Photo credit ~ Thai Buddha, large stone, 15th – 17th Century courtesy of the curator of The Buddha Gallery.

Posted in Essay, Guest Writer, Spiritual Practice

KAREN ARMSTRONG – A CHARTER FOR COMPASSION GROWS

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

KAREN ARMSTRONG (b. 1944), British Author, Commentator, Academic

Charter for Compassion

“Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who left the convent to study literature, becoming one of the most provocative and original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world, and a leading international authority on faiths, religious fundamentalism and monotheism.

Her poignant and captivating talks have sparked worldwide debate and healthy discussion. Her bestselling books, including Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life and A History of God, examine the differences and the profound similarities between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and their impact on world events.

In 2008, she was awarded the TED Prize in recognition and support of her call for a council of religious and spiritual leaders to draw up a “Charter for Compassion” that applies shared moral priorities to foster greater global understanding based on the principles of justice and respect. The project has grown to a considerable international following, and a network of Compassionate Cities is emerging that endorse the Charter and find ways to implement it practically, realistically and creatively.

As a speaker and writer, she asserts that all major religions embrace the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule, and also emphasizes that many of today’s religions bear similar strains of fundamentalism borne of frustration with contemporary life and current events.”     ( –  Official Biography of Karen Armstrong.)

KAREN ARMSTRONG – A CHARTER FOR COMPASSION GROWS

by

Amy Nora Doyle (souldipper)

Contribution Writer, Into the Bardo

On our tiny island, a group recently finished its study of Karen’s book,“Twelve Steps to A Compassionate Life”.  The same group seized an opportunity, on March 22, to share a live video of Ms. Armstrong accepting a prestigious award from the Simon  Fraser University in Vancouver.  In recognition of her exceptional work with Compassion, Vancouver dedicated 12 days in which to dialogue about compassion, in a variety of ways, throughout the city.

The Charter for Compassion begins:

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

(The complete Charter is available here.)

.

Karen Armstrong – Simon Fraser University – March 22, 2012

.

Those of us who watched Ms. Armstrong’s acceptance of the SFU award, discussed, at its completion, how we envisioned enhancing compassion in our community.   Though time may provide a more profound conclusion, most of us agreed that Compassion is an inner condition through which each of us may filter our actions and exchanges throughout the community.  In support of this commitment, the local book club, one of 500 worldwide, will again offer a study of Karen’s 12 steps to compassion.

Our group may have been influenced by the Rev. Alisdair Smith, Deacon and Business Chaplain for Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver.  As he introduced Karen, he shared a phenomenal story about a dear friend – a woman who suffers from severe bouts of depression.  She gave Alisdair permission to share her story with us.

In my words:

The depression became severe enough that the woman knew she had to go to the hospital.  With all the courage, will and determination she could muster, she called an ambulance.

A male attendant rode quietly beside her in the back of the ambulance.  As the vehicle wound its way through traffic, the man remained silent, but dutifully attended to any concern for comfort or safety.

After some time, he turned to face her.  He held her hand and looked into her eyes.  He said, “We are almost at the hospital. I want to tell you that while I have been in your presence, I have discerned that you are a very creative, kind  and intelligent woman.

Therefore, when we arrive, I will step out of this ambulance and wait for you to take my hand so you may step down on your own.  We will walk together to Emergency and you will hold your head high with the dignity that is yours to claim.  There is no reason or need to be or feel embarrassed.

Are you willing?”

The woman did exactly as he suggested.  Her life was transformed.

Though she is still plagued with depression, it only takes a moment to reflect on this incredible act of compassion, performed by a stranger, that dispelled and diminished the degree of debilitating power that depression would otherwise demand.

I watched Karen Armstrong’s Ted Talk in 2008.  I became a member of the Charter for Compassion in 2009.  I committed to being a compassionate person.

Big deal, I thought.  That’s not doing much for the Charter.

I found out it is.

Especially if we each do our best with every opportunity that inevitably comes our way.

I keep forgetting about the hummingbird and the forest fire.

© 2012, essay – Amy Nora Doyle, All rights reserved

© photos ~ courtesy of A Charter for Compassion, all rights reserved, used here under fair use

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

If you have the time for this 22 minute video, you might find it gratifying to hear Ms. Armstrong’s TED award acceptance. J.D.

Posted in Buddhism, General Interest, Guest Writer

MINDFUL STEPS TO THE END OF HUNGER

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

Charles W. Elliot

By Charles W. Elliot

Posted here with the permission of Buddhist Global Relief

 The simplest act of eating a piece of fruit is inevitably embedded in a complex web of systems: economic, agricultural, financial, and environmental. In attending mindfully to this act, we can discern myriad interdependent phenomena: the beginningless origins of its seeds, the earth from which the fruit grew, the laboring hands that brought the food to our table. The same mindfulness will show how our own lives depend upon the efforts of others, the essential kindness of countless strangers. And in recalling this kindness, we should be ready to take steps to repay it. One such way is to carefully consider the needs of others, and where we find that basic human needs remain unmet because of injustice, we should be motivated to act.

The Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition states that “society today already possesses sufficient resources, organisational ability and technology and hence the competence to [eradicate hunger].” While food supplies are abundant, access to that food is not. In 2010, 925 million people suffered from chronic hunger, representing one in seven of a global population approaching 7 billion.

Access to adequate food, as indispensable to basic human survival, is a matter of social justice. One of the earliest pronouncements of global governance on fundamental human rights was the U.N. General Assembly’s simple declaration: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food[.]” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, paragraph 1, 1948.) If food has been recognized as a human right since the end of World War II, and if society has the resources and competence to end hunger, we should ask ourselves: why are so many millions still hungry?

Of course, there is no single answer to that question. Like all other phenomena, the persistence and spread of human hunger is a complex dependent-arising involving many interwoven causes.  Two disturbing factors are financial speculation, which drove commodity prices sky-high in 2007-2008, and the increasing diversion of crops from food production to biofuel production. Thus, the portion of U.S. corn grown to produce corn-based ethanol rose from 15% in 2006 to an estimated 40% in 2011. Other factors include catastrophic weather conditions such as droughts and floods, and global climate change, which has an adverse impact on water supplies and land, especially in the developing world. At the same time, urban sprawl reduces available farmland, while the urban middle class consumes more meat and processed food, which in turn demands more land, water, and energy.

While resources for food dwindle, governmental policies, particularly in the West, have become increasingly hostile to the poor. The shredding of social safety nets puts at risk an ever-larger number of people who need help in the face of poor economic conditions. Last year, about 25% of the House of Representatives voted to eliminate foreign food aid. Such policies appeal to the notion that the world is a zero-sum game, that any help we offer another family will mean that we get less and that we cannot afford fairness. Here in the U.S. help for the poor is in jeopardy. In my home state of Pennsylvania, food stamp use has risen 50% from 1.2 million people in 2008 to 1.8 million today. Despite the increasing need driven by the Great Recession, the current governor proposes to disqualify anyone with assets of more than $5,500—for example, a bank account or a second car—from food stamp eligibility. As a result, it is estimated that 4,023 Pennsylvania households will lose their food stamp benefits on May 1 of this year.

Battling institutional and entrenched social injustice helps alleviate hunger because poverty is at the root of hunger, and the root cause of poverty is powerlessness: the “powerlessness of those who lack resources such as land and water to grow food, jobs to earn money to buy food, an adequate food safety net and food reserves, and adequate nutrition.” (The Downward Spiral of Hunger: Causes & Solutions)

There are many small steps we can take to end hunger, but we must be prepared to respond to the call of conscience to help others and to restore social justice.  A key step is to rebuild and enhance small-scale local food systems and turn away from globally concentrated control of food production and distribution. Ultimately, we should reject the domination of agriculture by large corporate agribusiness, and confront corporate attempts to control the very seeds of life with their patented genetically-modified “single generation” seeds.

At the neighborhood scale here in the U.S., community food gardens are springing up even in major cities like New York City and Detroit. Food waste and post-harvest losses could be remedied to make more food available to those in need. Greater investment in small-scale agriculture in rural areas and urban agriculture in the cities would empower the poor and hungry.

At Buddhist Global Relief, we are taking our own small steps. For example, we provide village-scale training in intensified rice cultivation to rural farmers in Cambodia and Vietnam, helping to build their capacity and confidence in applying sustainable agriculture techniques. These techniques dramatically boost yields without expensive external inputs. BGR funds tools and seeds to impoverished families in Cambodia to grow cash crops and home vegetable gardens. Following each harvest, each family then gives the same amount of seed they received to another local family, thus establishing a community of mutual support. BGR helps train villagers in Kenya and Malawi in small-scale agricultural techniques that nurture healthy soil fertility, produce high yields, conserve resources, and meet the basic need of people to independently feed themselves.

Such small steps, taken collectively by Buddhist Global Relief and countless others, are helping to empower the poor, reduce poverty, and alleviate the suffering of hunger. Neither the complexity of the manifold causes of hunger nor the daunting statistics of global poverty should deter us from acting out of compassion and generosity. In the Buddhist tradition, the embodiment of compassion, Avalokiteshvara – Guanyin – Kwannon, is often depicted not just with a thousand eyes to gaze upon the suffering in the world, but with a thousand hands to aid those who suffer. Of course, not even a thousand arms are enough to help the billion people who suffer from hunger. But if we recognize each motivated human heart as the eyes and hands of Avalokiteshvara, each of us acting in our own way, in our own communities, might yet help to end hunger in our generation.

Charles W. Ellliott, a member of the Board of Directors of Buddhist Global Relief, is  a lawyer practicing environmental, land use, and human rights law.

© 2012, photo and essay, Buddhist Global Relief, All rights reserved

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

A MEMORIAL FOR OUR FRIEND …

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

“We’re all just walking each other home.” Ram Dass

For Trekker …

Ann, Rob, and I attend his memorial today.

·

WALKING HOME

by

Jamie Dedes

·

his leathered skin a shroud, crinkled

furrowed from his wild mind and dry

explorations under our California sun

where he wondered with his students

·

and friends, the outdoorsmen stand

by him as he rests dying by an oak

table, a jelly glass, childhood fave

sits with his preferred gin, taking it

·

by the spoonful from the kind hand of

a hospice nurse until he rests, sleeps

then walks on, in the doleful blue of

of our tears: a soft fairwell dear friend

·

© 2012 poem, Jamie Dedes All rights reserved

Photo credit ~ Vera Kratochvil, Public Domain Pictures.net

Posted in Essay, Jamie Dedes, Spiritual Practice

COMPASSION AT THE CORE

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines


1st Row: Christian Cross, Jewish Star of David, Hindu Aumkar

2nd Row: Islamic Star and crescent, Buddhist Wheel of Dharma, Shinto Torii

3rd Row: Sikh Khanda, Bahá’í star, Jain Ahimsa Symbol

COMPASSION AT THE CORE

by

Jamie Dedes

“Compassion is the pillar of world peace.” H.H. 14th Dalai Lama, A Human Approach to World Peace

The peaceful path of compassion is at the core of all the wisdom traditions, the conduits by which grace flows into our lives. If our species is to overcome current conflicts and truly be at peace with ourselves, we must tread the compassionate path and we must do it with bone and muscle as well as heart and mind. It must be a path where service and meditation converge.

In the Summa Theologiae, the great work of St. Thomas Aquinas, he suggests just that. He defines mercy (a virtue) as “the compassion in our hearts for another person’s misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him.” He describes mercy as having two aspects “affective” – or emotional – and “effective,” which is positive action.

We all have something to teach. We all have something to learn ~

People from varied traditions come to Buddhism – not to convert – but to learn the meditative skills that Buddhism teaches. Buddhists also have lessons to learn from other religions:

“…many Buddhists are interested in learning social service from Christianity. Many Christian traditions emphasize that their monks and nuns be involved in teaching, in hospital work, caring for the elderly, for orphans, and so on . . .  Buddhists can learn social service from the Christians.” H.H. 14th Dalai Lama, The Buddhist View toward Other Religions

Meditative practice is central to Buddhism. Along with devotions (prayers and religious observance), action (good works) is central to Christianity and the other Abrahamic traditions, which is not to imply that there are no meditative practices or that inward practice is more important than outward action. Rather, each has its place and they are complementary. Our meditative practices enhance tranquility, ensuring that our good works are appropriate and done in the right spirit.

A compassionate heart is moved to embrace and not to judge. A compassionate hand is moved to work and to sacrifice for the greater good. Selflessness, well-seated in compassion, implies action that both materially and spiritually benefits others. The Dalai Lama and Thích Nhất Hạnh, social activists as well as spiritual leaders, are the very breath of compassion and they and the people in the organizations they lead endlessly provide selfless service and share spiritual solace with all.

Buddhism in the West is a relatively new practice. To my knowledge it is only recently that American Buddhists have organized for relief efforts with Buddhist Global Relief (BGR), which in its short life has implemented quite a number of effective projects. The main mission of BGR is hunger, not simply addressing it in its immediacy but also advocating for changes within our global food systems that will ensure social justice and ecological sustainability. BGR was started by American Buddhist monk and scholar, the Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, calling attention to the “narrowly inward focus of American Buddhism” and its neglect of social engagement. Moslems, Jews, and Christians have long-standing organizations for global relief and social activism.

It is healing grace when social services are delivered on a nonsectarian basis and without the expectation of conversion. The Koran admonishes (2:257): “Let there be no compulsion in religion.”

We’re each born into a path or choose (or forego) one. Our devotion to one religion shouldn’t prevent respect for the others. Abū al-Muġīṭ Husayn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ (Mansur Al-Hallaj, 858-922), the Persian Sufi teacher and poet wrote from his own perspective:

“My heart has opened into every form. It is a pasture for gazelles, a cloister for Christian monks, a temple for idols, the Ka’ba of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah and the book for Koran. I practice the religion of Love. In whatever directions its caravans advance, the religion of Love shall be my religion and my faith.”

Maybe we humans will come as close to peace and perfection as we can when we combine the “specialties” of Buddhism and the Abrahamic traditions ~

Compassion without meditation can result in cruelty and confusion. Compassion without action is insufficient to address concerns of the human condition.

Orthodox Christianity offers us guidelines for corporal (material) works of mercy:

  • feed the hungry
  • give drink to the thirsty
  • clothe the naked
  • house the homeless
  • visit the sick
  • engage in conscientious activism
  • bury the dead

The guidelines for spiritual works of mercy are:

  • share insight with the spiritually curious
  • counsel the fearful
  • provide brotherly support for those who live unwisely
  • bear wrongs patiently
  • forgive offenses willingly
  • comfort those who are suffering
  • pray (unify with the Ineffable) for the welfare of the living and the dead

In the ideal, these guidelines are not simply implemented in the privacy of our own prayers and meditations or with detachment in supporting civic and religious charities, but one-to-one in our everyday lives and in a spirit of unity. Mystical Judaism teaches us that: “Kindness gives to another. Compassion knows no other.”

There are 114 chapters in the Islamic scriptures, the Koran. Each begins with the principled: Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim (In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate). This reminds me of the classical Christian ideal expressed in the Koinḗ Greek agápē, the love of Christ or God for humankind. I suspect it is also – like agápē – a call to action: to live in harmony with the Divine and all creation, that is to live with grace and mercy.

Charity, self-control, and compassion are the central virtues of Hinduism. Ahimsa (do no harm) is part of the Hindu ideal of compassion. This implies action, not just abstinence.

Perhaps this wisdom from an unknown saint or bodhisattva provides us the best advice for our own peace of heart and our species’ survival ~

“The true happiness that man has searched for since the dawn of time, that inner gold that awaits any person who holds compassionately the key of generosity: Do something for your fellow-man … and you shall truly have the gold.”

Gratitude is compassion’s fulcrum ~

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” H.H. 14th Dalai Lama

Gratitude is also the emotion that compels us to give back by caring compassionately for our fellow humans and providing responsible and loving stewardship of the animals who are our companions in nature and this mother earth that sustains us. This does, of course, preclude war which is a danger to all living things.

Expressing gratitude in some way to those who are kind and caring is what nurtures their gift of compassion so that the giver can continue to give and also learn to receive. The natural law of balance is then honored.

May our compassionate paths be fully human and traveled quietly, without pronouncement, conceit, sectarianism, or self-righteousness. May our compassion be a thing of the heart and mind -yes! – but also bolstered with bone and muscle and seasoned with gratitude. May all sentient beings find peace.

© 2012, essay, Jamie Dedes All rights reserved

 Illustration ~ religious symbols by Rusus via Wikipedia and released into the public domain

Posted in Buddhism, Guest Writer
Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

Ashok Zamon is a spiritual explorer and freelance writer living in Shanghai who, in this detailed post, brings us a view of the ancient practice of Buddhism as it is rekindled in modern China. For those readers who are not entirely familiar with Buddhist concepts, this well-written feature incidentally provides excellent definition of mindfulness. The post includes stunning and evocative photographs by Mr. Zamon’s partner, Anya.

The blog is just three months old and already contains a wealth of information and insight. I’m grateful to have “Into the Bardo” as a means to provide an introduction to “The Beyond Within” and it’s very excellent writer. J.D.

ashok z's avatarThe Beyond Within

I was going to blog from the temple, but of course it ended up panning out differently. It was a wonderful weekend and it’s great to see how things are progressing there. The last couple of days I’ve been putting together the piece for Vantage Magazine, and here is the draft that I’m turning in. It’s a bit of a rewrite of the Emergent Buddhism piece for a more public audience. We’ll see what the editing process will do to it. I had to take a knife to it myself and cut about 500 words, always a hard thing to do. Hopefully Vantage will just tidy it up a bit and help it flow. It’s obviously for a more mainstream audience, so there were many aspects that I could only really allude to rather than express directly, and plenty of details that I had to leave out all together, but hopefully…

View original post 1,673 more words

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

BECAUSE

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

BECAUSE

 

by

 

Jamie Dedes

·

wind came through like an old bruja* one night

taking her broom to my cloud, scattering the seeds

of my hording to all the four corners and the center

below where I do my shopping for earthly things

down I went to try to gather them up only to

·

meet a philosopher peach who set me on my ear

with his questions on mind, matter, and meaning

wanting to know why he couldn’t taste himself

and how was it that I had a mouth that wouldn’t

·

in any trance, no matter the depth of it, be a

peach, pointing out to me how we needed one

another to get the job done and – Why?, he asked

and what could I say, having lived my life in the

·

clouds, drinking the vapors of trust and basic

instinct, and knowing tomorrow is today and

this day is perfect, and no matter the whys and

the wherefores, there’s a rightness to it all, so

·

on frail rimy breath, like the child I once was,

I… answered him simply: because

·

* bruja, Sp. – witch

© 2012, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

Photo credit ~ mohan p, Public Domain Pictures.net

Posted in Ann Emerson, Buddhism, General Interest

A LITTLE GIFT FROM ANN …

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

SMILE!

It’s good for your spirit.

Ann found this photograph on CatalystYogi.

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

LOVE UNDER THE SHADOWS

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” Kahlil Gibran

LOVE UNDER THE SHADOWS

by

Jamie Dedes

nothing moves, not even the reluctant beat

of your heart, which once danced with mine

and made rough sense of life, now so like

·

summer noon when all is still, even bees

and your gray eyes that happily feasted

on mine and shared my lamentations

·

death too grieves at the sorry circumstance

of such fools whose trivial discontents and

untoward presumptions fade into nothing

·

tears that we embraced the world and the

flesh and neglected the shadows that rode our

backs where angel wings more rightly rest

·

© 2012 poem, Jamie Dedes All rights reserved

Photo credit ~ Michael Drummond, Public Domain Pictures.net

Posted in Uncategorized
Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

This post by the Dutch artist and craftsperson, Paula Kuitenbrouwer, puts me in mind of our recent discusions about not forgetting the importance of touch over technology in human relations, however beneficial technology may be.  J.D.

Link to the rest of Paula post by clicking on the “Reblogged from Mindful Drawing.”

Posted in Jamie Dedes, Poems/Poetry

CRACKING COSMIC EGGS

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

The Orphic Egg

The egg was an important symbol in early mythologies. It was believed that the Universe evolved from a great egg, each half corresponding to heaven and earth. I fancy that – reflecting the greater Universe from which we evolve – we each have a store of creativity and productivity, our personal “cosmic eggs.” 

·

CRACKING COSMIC EGGS

by

Jamie Dedes

careless spill of our treasured store,

our divine inheritance of cosmic eggs,

cracking them, betraying our truth,

or feeding them to the great poverty

of media trickery, more refuse than

mortal mind or heart can ever hope

to process in such rot ripe days of

political theatre and celebrity gossip

·

© 2011, 2012 poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

Posted in Guest Writer
Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

A bit of inspiration from Pat Cegan with which to begin the weekend.

Pat Cegan's avatarSource of Inspiration

One-by-one, my days unfold
like petals of the finest rose,
blooming into the Flower of Life,
sacred moments of ordinary acts
made Divine when done with
loving intent.

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