Archive
“Breakfast with Buddha” – A Book Review
I mentioned this book in my post yesterday as a sign of alignment of my path with the Plan of the Universe. It was a delightful Christmas gift and I raced through the book anticipating each new scene and experience: a good laugh, a shed tear, an unfolding story well told. Here is my short review:
I had not read anything by Roland Murello before I received this book. And I haven’t read a good “road-trip” story in a long time. Both encounters have been very rewarding. And perhaps the rewards have been deeper because I could so easily identify with all of the characters!
You don’t have to identify with any of the characters, however, to enjoy the book. If you are interested in a story of the movement of a fairly typical upper middleclass, middle aged American guy moving through early spiritual awakenings, then I highly recommend this well written book.
Otto Ringling is the main character. He grew up as a Lutheran in the Midwest (North Dakota) on a wheat farm. (I grew up as a Lutheran on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.) He is comfortable in his life: loving wife, two teenage kids whom he adores, great job publishing food books (he loves to eat fine food accompanied by great wine); all is going really well for him. But he has these nagging little discomforts with all of this; small inner tremors that begin to shake things up a bit.
Otto has a sister, Cecelia (mine is a sister-in-law). He calls her Seese (I call mine Cees). He claims his Seese is “as flaky as a good spanakopita crust.” (I won’t say anything here about my Cees, except that I love her!). Otto’s journey truly begins with the sudden death of their parents, the bigger tremor that really begins to shake his foundation.
Otto’s gradual awakening is guided by a Rinpoche, a “friend” of Cecelia. The story unfolds as a road-trip (just Otto and the Rinpoche) from Cecelia’s home in New Jersey to their parents’ farm in North Dakota. There are hilarious scenes through the whole trip, well described, often involving the search for the perfect meal along the meandering journey, as Otto serves Rinpoche a dose of true Americana and Rinpoche serves Otto a dose of the true way to awakening.
The book is light, fun, poignant, silly, profound and just plain enjoyable as a spiritual awakening travelogue. Perhaps I enjoyed it so much because it rang so true for me. But I think anyone who is beginning to get in touch with the truth and their own spiritual awakening will also enjoy the book.
And the best news for me is there is now a sequel: Lunch with Buddha. I can hardly wait to get my copy; and I’ve got a B&N gift card to spend!
Dreaming BIG!!! – Richard’s Commentary
How are you doing with those New Year’s Resolutions? Did you make a few, a lot? If you are anyone like me you have given up on trying to change your life that way. No, I made no resolutions, but that doesn’t mean I have no big dreams!
The Divine Feminine are spot on when they address this issue of resolutions, dreams, transformation and how to manifest the changes you want to see:
Where are you looking for your resources? Are you waiting to win the lottery? If so, are you buying tickets? Are you using the word ‘someday’ in your vocabulary of dreams, always placing that dream in the far distant future? Do you know what you actually need to take a step in the direction of your dreams?
You need Clarity, Commitment and Consciousness.
For me, clarity means “clear intention.” If we are muddled in our thinking, unsure of what it is we want to change, hesitant about reaching for the big goal, then the Universe can’t support us. Clear intention lets the Universe know our direction and can then offer the resources to help us realize our goals. This is the first component of manifestation.
Over the past few months I have become very clear in the direction I want the rest of my life to take. And the Universe is responding! Just as a trivial example of this, I received a book as a gift from a dear friend; it is Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. My friend had no idea when she picked this up for me that I have moved firmly back onto my Buddhist path. She had no idea that I am planning my own journey this year to return to my roots. Merullo’s novel and his characters have so much in common with my own life that it’s almost silly. My friend was moved by the Universe to place this book in my hands! (I’ll have more to say on Breakfast with Buddha in a future post.)
Now, I have studied, practiced, sat Zazen, read and explored in most ways possible this notion of Buddhism for many years. But I have never really committed to this path. This is the second component of manifestation. The Universe needs to know we are serious about our clear intentions. All of my past studies and practices, while I took them very seriously, were not true commitments to the path. They were exploratory, forays into the fascinating world, but with no real committed intention of remaining there.
This has changed. I am committed. My living habits are changing to support the commitment: diet, drink, sleep, dream-time, meditation are all much more focused, real, and supporting my commitment. Again, the Universe is responding to my commitment with the resources I need to continue.
And it’s really all about changing our mind, isn’t it? One of Rosemary’s expressions I’m fond of is: If you want to change your life, change your mind. Reality is after all nothing more than consciousness, the third component of transformation. We all encounter blocks along our way. Most of these stumbling blocks, scattered across our paths, are mental blocks, maybe old beliefs planted in us from childhood. Much like the main character in Merullo’s book, Otto Ringling, I was raised as a Lutheran in the Midwest. “Lutherans don’t become Buddhists!” We don’t even think about Buddhists, unless they are setting themselves on fire in Viet Nam when we are burning our draft cards at a safe distance at the University! I’ve been changing my mind about a lot of things over the past 60 years; it’s time for this once-upon-a-time Lutheran to admit his true colors. Through many cycles of birth, old age, sickness and death, I’ve traveled the road as a Buddhist! I think I’ll finish this one the same way!
The Divine Feminine conclude: Dream BIG!!! With Clarity, Commitment and Consciousness you can live that dream!
And I do have Big Dreams for 2014. I hope you do too!
MONDAY’S POEM: Patience
Patience has been a life-long lesson for me. I have committed to learn it, probably not finally but fully, this year. My “word for the year” is Patience. And with that announcement and commitment, my first poem of they year is just that!
Patience
Always rushing, always late.
Bly: “It’s already too late.”
What’s the hurry, why the haste?
Are we afraid death will win the race?
Ignore the signs, sharp curve ahead.
The moon is waxing, move briskly ahead.
But after the waxing, the moon will wane.
All that briskness; All in vain?
Waiting, always waiting, never enough.
Patience, learning patience, more than enough!
Where is the action, why just sit?
Are we afraid Death won’t fit?
Rushing or waiting, all the same.
Waxing and waning, cycles the same.
Let life catch up; it has its flow.
Be as patient as death; keep it slow.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
I CHING GUA FOR THE NEW MOON IN CAPRICORN
We not only rang in a New Year at midnight on January 1, we also experienced a New Moon at 7:14 AM Eastern time on the First. Lots of new energy to begin the year!
As one of my practices I cast an I Ching Gua (a hexagram of yin and yang lines) on each new moon to “read” the energies that are coming in for us. The I Ching or “book of change” can be used as a divination tool, not so much to predict what is coming but to get a sense of the energies of change that may be coming up through the month. This is another of the many “intuitive tools” that are available to us to help us sense beyond the usual three-dimensional ways through our five senses.
To help with the interpretation of the Gua I rely on a book by Taoist Master Alfred Huang: The Complete I Ching. I find his translation to be thorough, detailed and clear. Of course there is plenty of room for my own reading of the Gua because the words and meanings of the I Ching can be open and obscure.
For January the Gua I cast using a 50-yarrow stalk method generated this hexagram:
The “x” and circles through the 3rd, 4th and 6th lines indicate they are “changing lines.” Master Huang recommends reading only the middle changing line when there are three. So, only the 4th line is used to generate a new, changed Gua as pictured below.
But first we need to understand “Hindrance.” This Gua is made up of two trigrams, Earth is the lower one and Heaven is the upper. This is not a particularly auspicious Gua because Heaven is above and drawing away from the Earth. There is a block here against progress. It is the opposite of “Advance” which is the preceding Gua in the I Ching sequence. But this is a natural flow: after advancing there comes hindrance. And, naturally, after a time of hindrance there can be further advance.
For me the energy here is to pause, for a short time. The Hindrance-Energy is on the way out with 2013. (Note the volatility of this initial Gua with three changing line.) Yet, there is no need to leap into anything big early in the New Year.
Using only the middle line, the 4th, as the changing line yields this Gua:
The Guan here is the same word as in Guan Yin the Goddess of Compassion. The literal meaning of her name is “Watching Sound.” In this sense Guan means meditating or concentrating.
The message for me is to meditate on any actions for the month and proceed with caution. In all things be an example. Watch yourself and also remember you are being watched by others. Contemplate before action. This Gua is approached from Hindrance. While the energy barriers are lifting and Hindrance is shifting there is no need for haste. Be considerate.
A further way to interpret a Gua is to form a new one from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines as the lower trigram and the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines as the upper trigram. This yields the “mutual gua” – in this case Bo, Falling away. This too holds a sense of warning energy. Conserve what you have. This New Moon will wax to fullness and then wane again. Proceed with caution during the waning moon.
Hindrance quickly yields to Watching early in the month. Meditate on all action. As the Chinese say about Pi: pi ji tai lai, which means: “Out of the depths of misfortune comes bliss. At the end of Hindrance appears Advance.”
Enjoy this moon-cycle and the start of this fabulous New Year however you wish to interpret the energies captured by the I Ching!
PS: My friend and astrologer, Gloria Hesseloff, had this to say about this Capricorn New Moon: “2014 invites us to continue ‘planting the seeds’ for the next 26,000 years, or at least the next few generations.” Planting seeds for generations certainly requires thoughtful patience!
Reflections from 2013 = Guidance for 2014 – Richard’s Commentary
As my commentary on Rosemary’s important post from yesterday I simply want to trace the development of the reflections leading to the guidance for the new year and note why these thoughts and development are so important to our growth in consciousness.
Each of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to others to learn how to live in community with the people around us. Evolution in conscious returns us to community. I say “returns us” here because as the human race was developing a few thousand years ago, we did so only in community. The “rugged individualism” of the so-called modern west had yet to arise. Humans depended on other humans, living together in social structures in which everyone had a role to play, a dependent and cooperative role. We need to return to that level of consciousness.
Reach out beyond what you can see to the possibilities that are there. Always reach higher. We are never finished with development. “After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” There is no limit, no goal that can be achieved and sustained without reaching higher.
A crystalized belief feels like an energy block. Examine all beliefs; The Divine Feminine during the Winter Solstice message channeled by Rosemary, said our beliefs will be challenged in 2014. We will be called to defend them. Are you prepared to defend all of your beliefs? Are you prepared to release the ones that are holding you back?
When you find yourself stuck in a rut, or not sure what your next step is, remind yourself that you are always at a point of choice in your life. We are always at choice. This can be either exhilarating or daunting. Choose the freedom and exhilaration this requires and make the best choices you can with the information you have in the moment. If it turns out to be the right choice, celebrate your brilliance. If it turns out there may have been a better choice, forgive yourself, learn the lesson and move on!
It’s okay to consider yourself and your own needs. It’s not “selfish” to take care of yourself. You cannot serve from an empty container. You first have to love yourself in order to be able to love your neighbor, and your enemy!
When you put your attention on being instead of doing, your energy flows into being the you you were meant to be. We are humanbeings. Find the way to be, in the moment, in the present, right here, right now. Now is the only reality. If you find the way to be then you will have the energy and the motivation to do.
When you demand control of your environment, you limit the ways in which the Universe answers your requests. This is excellent advice for the western mind. We are all about control; we want things just so, the way we planned them, the way we expect them, the way they “should” be! But what if the Universe has something better in store? What if we pause, be in the present and listen? Letting go of that false sense of control not only opens the doors to possibility greater than we can imagine, it also relieves an incredible load of stress!
and
This message is from The Divine Feminine for us:
“Dear Ones,
The flames are licking at the Doors of Change. Those who fear change are trying to engulf the opportunities in flames so that you and others will not walk through them. Do not let these fear-mongers paralyze you.
Change and Opportunity are two sides of the same coin, of the same door.”
Choose change and you choose opportunity.
Community, possibility, examined beliefs, choice, self-care, presence, flow and fearlessness open the doors of opportunity. The change you find there will be of your own making! And it will make for a wonderful 2014!
PS: The Divine Feminine, as channeled by Rosemary on the Winter Solstice, offered amazing advice for 2014. Expect more change! The transformation continues! Their message is available as an MP3 recording for a modest price; check out the details here: Winter Solstice Mesage
MONDAY’S POEM: The Most Popular from 2013: Karma
For the end of 2013 I did a scan of poems I published here on Mondays and discovered the most popular one, by the number of “likes” was Karma. Here it is again; and thanks to all for your following and reading through the year!
Karma
There’s always more to burn:
Fuel to feed the great fire.
Travels through life in the mire
Lead to more lessons to learn.
Brothers of three generations
Differ in extraordinary ways.
Their life-paths twist through a maze;
Destinies driven by their limitations.
Karma is complex to unwind;
The source is a tangle of lives.
The weaving together of so many tribes
Forms a patchwork, one of a kind.
When love is the thread for the stitches,
The patterns emerge in fine hues.
The patchwork of reds, purples, blues
Renders a tapestry depicting life’s riches.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
And, have a safe, wonderful, happy and prosperous 2014!
PS: Next year will be wonderful! How do I know? Because I listened to a message from The Divine Feminine channeled by Rosemary on the Winter Solstice; and they offered guidance and advice on what we might expect in 2014 and how to approach the year’s upcoming energy. Expect more change! The transformation continues! If you missed the message it is now available as an MP3 recording for a modest price; check out the details here: Winter Solstice Message
Reflections on 2013
We have reached the last weekend of 2013! I hope yours has been as adventurous as mine has. I have experienced some significant ups and downs; this is the way of life. The ups remind us of how high we can fly! And the downs come along to teach us our lessons so we can fly higher still!
So, whatever happened through the year, reflect on the gains and the lessons (which are also gains). And carry the changes, the newness, your transformed self into 2014 with confidence, character and that sense of adventure that keeps life grand.
I want to conclude this short note today with a huge Thank You to all of you who follow this blog and frequently “like” my writings, especially the poems. Do know that I visit your blogs too and appreciate your efforts, even if I don’t always click through. I’ll work harder to make my appreciation known going forward.
Finally, I would like to let you know about a major project I am beginning to plan for 2014. I will share the details as I work through them and I will share the process as it unfolds. I am excited; I hope you will follow my progress with enthusiastic support!
Blessings and love as you wind down 2013 and look ahead to a fantastically transformational 2014!
PS: Next year will be wonderful! How do I know? Because I listened to a message from The Divine Feminine channeled by Rosemary on the Winter Solstice; and they offered guidance and advice on what we might expect in 2014 and how to approach the year’s upcoming energy. Expect more change! The transformation continues! If you missed the message it is now available as an MP3 recording for a modest price; check out the details here: Winter Solstice Mesage
You Are the Best Holiday Gift – Richard’s Commentary
Well, it’s all over! Or, is it? Yes, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice and Christmas are behind us. But we have the Gregorian New Year, Epiphany, the Lunar New Year, and a whole new year of holiday’s coming up. And we have today, December 26. Many people are out returning or exchanging the gifts they received. They are back in the hustle/bustle of shopping for the post-holiday bargains; maybe some are even getting ready for next Christmas, buying up trimmings and paper and lights and party goods for the holidays of 2014!
However, if you carried the meaning of yesterday message from Rosemary with you, then your gifts to others, those gifts of yourself – a smile, a kind word, a hug at the right moment, and even an attitude of cheer through the day, those “gifts of yourself” cannot be exchanged, they can’t be taken back; but of course, they might be returned!
Every Christmas for I don’t know how many years now, my brothers and their families put on a Christmas dinner for those in my tiny home town that don’t have family, might not be able to purchase a fancy dinner with all the trimmings, or are just feeling the need to be with others at Christmas. Yesterday they went through two big turkeys and a giant ham, serving over 70 people with great food, warm cheer and smiles all around. When I talked to my older brother around 7:30 last evening he was already dozing off, beat from the hard day’s work; but he was so upbeat we gabbed for almost an hour. He gave the gift of himself and received so much more. His cheer was infectious!
So, hear Rosemary’s advice in your heart: Think outside the box of your own feelings. It doesn’t matter whether you are smiling all the time or crying all the time. There is more in you than just those feelings. And there is more around you than just what you are feeling today. Today is a holiday too; every day is a holy-day if we are present to every moment and present to how we are a present to the world!
And: Stay upbeat, if you can. Smile if you feel like it. Ask for help if you need it. Find someone with whom you can let your hair down and be yourself and share your feelings without judging yourself. Then find someone who might need a helping hand and offer that hand, outstretched because giving is great and receiving is, too. Be the gift that keeps on giving; and enjoy the gifts of a smile, a hug, a cheerful greeting you receive from others. And take these gifts into 2014, because that way it will be a wonderful New Year!
PS: Next year will be wonderful! How do I know? Because I listened to a message from The Divine Feminine channeled by Rosemary on the Winter Solstice; and they offered guidance and advice on what we might expect in 2014 and how to approach the year’s upcoming energy. Expect more change! The transformation continues! If you missed the message it is now available as an MP3 recording for a modest price; check out the details here: Winter Solstice Mesage
MONDAY’S POEM: Homecoming
I found this poem in a notebook stored from another time. I had written it for our daughter for Christmas exactly 20 years ago . She was coming home from school; and I remembered some of my own homecomings from when I would return from college.
And here it is Christmas again. Many will be coming home; perhaps there will be some resonance with this:
Homecoming
Sitting in the car
Outside the door
Emotions racing
I hesitated.
I knew all would
Be the same.
Nothing changed.
Not all was good;
Not all was bad.
Mixed – like life
I faced my future,
Opened my door,
Stepped out,
Breathed the fresh,
Unchanged country air.
I glanced around,
Saw the familiar
Scene remembered
For so long now,
Beyond remembering.
Time mingled with
Space – things froze.
I broke the spell
With a shake; stepped
Forward toward
The door with the
Weathered knob
And turned it open.
The threshold seemed
A barrier, not an entry.
A gateless gate from now
To the past; to the future?
I needed to know!
So I crossed over;
Inhaled the sameness;
Devoured the love waiting –
I was back home.
©1993 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Have a very happy “homecoming”!
My Authentic Buddhist Self
I’m not very fond of labels. Maybe it’s because I prefer to go through life flexibly, avoiding being “type-cast” in any particular role. Perhaps this keeps me in flow, ready for change, evolving through the lives I have lived, even in this one life-time! Or does it keep me from commitment?
I grew up in a so called Christian home. We didn’t so much think of ourselves as Christian at that time; everyone was one so there was no need to distinguish ourselves with the label. When filling out forms and the “religion question” was asked I checked the “Christian” box; this was automatic but I’m not so sure how authentic it was.
The University, Peace Corps and life experiences, not the least of which was initiation into Transcendental Meditation in 1969, moved me smartly beyond the Christian label. I wasn’t anti-Christian; I had just moved beyond the dogma and form I had grown up with.
I was ordained in December 2000 as an “Interfaith Minister” through Pebble Hill Interfaith Community Church in Pennsylvania. Yes, this is a label but it seemed broad enough to fit my approach to “stay loose.” And my ordination wasn’t so much to earn a title as to continue the search for an identity. My course of studies helped me along that path but I did not conclude anything other than to continue the search.
What am I searching for? Certainly not a label. But I am looking for an authentic identity. Don’t we all want to know who we are?
Rosemary and I have written a lot about this subject, “Purpose.” It really does come down to this in the end. Don’t we all long to know “why”?
It has come to this: in these days when we have written about authenticity it is time to go inside and seek the clear answer to the question. I have studied, practiced, remembered, sat for hours, been in silence, bowed to statues and other iconic art, chanted, risen in the dark before dawn to the call of the Han, considered the vows, all the while feeling the familiarity of it. And I have resisted. It is time now to embrace who I truly am.
For much of my life now I have been a practicing Zen Buddhist without taking the full vows and without the label. But I’m not a Zen Buddhist. What I have been truly resisting, or perhaps more accurately not fully realizing and embracing, is the call to study and practice Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrayana, The Diamond Path.
Why the resistance? In part I’ve thought of the Vajrayana as ornate, overly ceremonial and complex; I like the simple, clear Zen-way of things. In part I have resisted Tantra as a practice overly foreign and strange; I prefer the straightforward, easily comprehended approach to practice. And, in part, I have walked the Vajra Path in previous lives; I’ve done that, don’t need to do that, learn that again in this life.
Then I began to receive visions in my meditations; visions of the very ornate and overly ceremonial practices and technologies of Trantra. I began, again, to read the Kalachakra Tranta Rite of Initiation, this time with clarity and excitement. I researched when His Holiness is conferring the initiation again: 2014 in Ladakh! And I began having visions of doing this!
It has taken me my whole life to return, again, to something familiar, something genuine, something that has been calling to me to come back. I’ve known I’m a Buddhist at heart. And now I am embracing the truth that I am a follower of the Trantric Path. Perhaps in some mysterious way this is my ultimate label.
You will be reading more about this journey I’m setting off on in the coming weeks and months. It is a journey home to my authentic self!
Men and The Goddess 