Does the Buddha Smile in Hell?

Does the Buddha smile in hell?
Many devoted practitioners would probably say
“Yes, of course, he is the Buddha after all”

Equanimity
Detachment
Vast knowledge of the chain of cause and effect

Would he smile as he watched Sam Ybarra
Leading the battle cry while wearing a necklace of human ears
He sliced off from his Vietnamese victims?

Mark Chmiel is Made of Non-Mark Chmiel Elements

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches out of the Buddhist tradition:
There is no separate self capable of existing on its own
One thing is connected to so much else

The sheet of paper is made of non-paper elements
Like the tree, sunshine, rain, and soil
Like the logger, the logger’s parents, the wheat that fed the logger

If you look deeply, he says
You can see an ordinary sheet of paper is marvelous
It contains the universe!

In our culture we have such a strong sense of the “I”
The independent, unto itself “I”
The “I” who alone wins the academic or athletic prizes

Conquering my Qualms with Starbucks

Yesterday I went to Starbucks to work on some homework.

I wanted to go to Hartford or maybe back to Mokabe’s where I had been earlier

Really just something more “local”

With free-range, pesticide free eggs for sale

And mismatched mugs rather than paper, logo-filled cups.

But I went because last time I was there I ran out crying

And I felt like I needed to conquer that

And somehow prove that I can be happy in places that aren’t really “me”.

I also wanted to be with my friend

Because I only have a few weeks left here

And even though I’ve become so comfortable with solitude, I really love company.

So as I’m sitting at Starbucks, sipping my coffee

Trying not to think about how it cost me a whole $1 more than the 2 cups of coffee I had earlier.

Writing my paper “The Sustainability of Global Urban Farming”

Learning about food justice, depleting tax bases, malnutrition in Ghana, and the leftist policies in Venezuela that recognize the strength of the campesinos.

People are rushing in and out, wearing their business suits and heels

But there’s also college students

And a homeless man

Who just wants some water and a warm place to rest, safe from the cold rain outside.

But they told him he can’t have any tap water because he’s not a paying customer

And he says he understands. And I know he does because I know he’s probably heard that same phrase plenty of times before.

So I’m sitting inside. And I’m cold.

And he’s outside where I’m sure it’s much colder.

So I went out there and asked him if he’d like something warm to drink.

And at first he just stared at me, raising one eyebrow.

Maybe questioning his faith in humanity?

Maybe he was just so intrigued by the way the streetlights reflected in the water?

Maybe no one had started a conversation with him in awhile?

So he came inside and got a large coffee.

And the girl behind the counter just stared.

His name was Jerry, he said he almost forgot because no one really asks him his name anymore.

I told him about my paper. He wished me good luck. Then he settled into his chair by the window, watching the cars go by.

A smile on his face.

I know in social work they always teach us we can’t just do things for people, we have to teach them how to do it themselves.

Handouts don’t solve deep-rooted problems.

Ms. Stewart taught me at Kingdom House…

“You gotta teach the people how to fish, not just throw them a fish or even a pole.”

And I believe that, I truly do.

But the reality is, Jerry knows how to order a coffee.

He knows what size he wants. He knows he doesn’t need room for cream or sugar.

He knows how to carry on a conversation.

He knows how to smile and how to express gratitude.

I didn’t need to teach him anything.

And I didn’t give him a hand out either.

I bought him a cup of coffee because it was cold, and no one deserves to sit outside in the rain.

He never asked for it, didn’t even hint at it.

I did it. Just because it felt right.

And I don’t want a pat on the back or praise for doing something so simple.

I just want people to understand that injustice exists.

That some people can easily turn their heads and see what they want to see.

And we so frequently put in our headphones, stare at our phones or computers, sip our coffee... without recognizing the people beside us.

Who maybe just need a warm cup of coffee, or a smile, or a friend. 

To be reminded that they matter

and that they have a name that shouldn't be forgotten. 

The Last Days of the Reagan Era: Passing through Boca Raton and Joining the Buddhist Sangha for an Evening

This Jewish-looking Buddhist
Serenely sitting seven feet away from me
Her long braided kinky black hair a mindful marvel and work of art
Her half-smile that could make Thich Nhat Hanh himself weak in the knees
Her eyes that could disarm the Burmese junta
While I’m thinking about her
She’s concentrating like Shantideva moving full steam ahead toward samadhi

I won’t say a word to her tonight
I won’t join my palms in greeting
I won’t curse my shyness
I won’t will to change
I won’t wish for another chance
Face it:
I’ll never see her again

Two weeks later I’m sitting on the front porch drenched in sunshine
And the mailman hands me a Chagall postcard from Bella Levenshtein

–from the novel-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris

Questions about the War Dead

When the statisticians in the Armed Services
Tally up the war dead-
Most recently
In Iraq and Afghanistan-
Do they include
The veterans who commit suicide
In country or back at home?

How long in meters
Would another black granite memorial wall have to be
To carry the names of all the Vietnam veterans
Who took their lives
Whether in 1976
1983 or
 2002?

How many decades would it take
To raise the money
To erect such a memorial?

How many official papers

On the monthly suicide totals

Of Iraq war veterans
Will find their place
In the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Memorial?

What You Won’t Read in USA Today

Yesterday I noticed a headline from USA Today:
“In Israel, staying alert for terror is a way of life”

The article was one in a series
On the Boston Marathon explosions

Don’t expect anytime soon
Or go looking in the archives for

USA Today articles
With titles like these:

“In Gaza, staying alert for Israeli war crimes
Is a way of life”

“In the West Bank, staying alert for IDF home demolitions and collective punishment
Is a way of life”

“In Hebron, staying alert for vicious harassment by Israeli settlers
Is a way of life for Palestinian school children”

“All over the Palestinian territories, staying alert for Israeli assassinations, administrative detention arrests, bone-breaking, Apache Helicopter gunship fire, collateral damage and torture
Is a way of life”

“Staying alert for the on-going Nakba
Has been the Palestinians’ way of life since 1948”

Rafah, Gaza; November, 2003

Connecting the Dots by Jerry King

My friend Jerry King shared this letter to the editor of the Post-Dispatch with me and gave me permission to post it here.

I was struck in the past week with the juxtaposition of three events that are heartbreaking in their connectedness. First, the crowd at a Blues game chanted “USA, USA” at the announcement that the younger Tsarnaev brother had been captured. Second, a Senate Committee convened by Illinois Senator Durbin posited that our drone attacks are creating more enemies than they are eliminating due to the killing of innocent people, including children. And third, Vice President Biden in mourning with the family of the slain MIT police officer, proclaimed that no parent should have to deal with the premature death of their child.

The crowd outburst at the hockey game was a response that transcended mere relief from fear—after all, this was a one scared, isolated 19 year old kid pursued by a massive force of FBI and local police. The quasi-patriotic flavor of the response showed an outrage that the killing of innocents in Boston could happen in our country, especially perpetrated by “outsiders”. And yet, on a weekly basis, as the Durbin hearings remind us, we are perpetrating far worse killing of innocents in Pakistan and Afghanistan and in other parts of the globe.

Mr. Biden was right. No parent should have to endure the loss of a child, particularly through an act of violence. No parent, not American, not Afghani, not Pakastani. These children who are dying from drone attacks are as beautiful and innocent as the 8 year old who died in Boston. They are as deeply mourned as the young man killed at MIT. And we have the power to stop it, not after the fact as we did with the capture of young Tsarnaev, but before the fact with an immediate cessation of drone attacks and their “collateral damage”. Please, Mr. Obama, for the sake of children in these countries, and for all our sakes, no more.

What Should Be Boldly Engraved in Stone at the New George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas

A Mighty Fortress

Is Our Lie

Miss Lonely & Napoleon in Rags

Dear Shimmelstoy

Whew! 

I’ve never done anything

Like what we did tonight

I can’t believe you actually just showed up

(Do you go on excursions like this with everyone?)

IT HAD NEVER OCCURRED TO ME

TO GO OUT DRIVING AT MIDNIGHT

AND LISTEN TO ALL OF

Bringing it All Back Home

Highway 61Revisited

Blonde on Blonde

Back to back

People in Minsk and Haifa don’t do things like this

I can barely speak now

Did we really scream our way

Through the whole of Like a Rolling Stone?

“HOW DOES IT FEEL?” 

Did we disturb the sleep of those cows

Off the side of Interstate 64? 

Thanks for stopping at Dairy Queen

For helping me forget all my stress

For sharing my love of Robert Zimmerman

(Another crazy Russian)

For making me laugh so hard

This is the best medicine I’ve had in a long time

Yulia

Right down to the Bone

They had to be college graduates
Upwardly mobile
If you’ve got a problem

They’ll find the solution
That’s their business
Overcoming obstacles

Given our implacable enemies
There’s no lollygagging
This is serious business

A U.S. pilot commented on them back in the 1960s
“We sure are pleased with those backroom boys
At Dow [Chemical Company]

The original product [napalm] wasn’t so hot -
If the gooks were quick
They could scrape it off

So the boys started adding polystyrene -
Now it sticks like shit to a blanket
But then if the gooks jumped under water

It stopped burning
So they started adding Willie Peter
(WP - white phosphorous)

So’s to make it burn better
It’ll even burn under water now
And just one drop is enough

It’ll keep on burning
Right down to the bone
So they die anyway from phosphorous poisoning"

The “gooks”
Were Vietnamese men
Women and children

Depending on your mood
What you had for breakfast
This might make you wonder-

What kind of sick mind
Would come up with
Something like that?

“Right down to the bone”



Source: Philip Jones Griffiths, Vietnam, Inc.

The Better Guru

T.S. Eliot quoted Sanskrit in his famous poem
“Om shanti shanti shanti”

Meister Eckhart preached
“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing”

T.S. Eliot needed a better guru than Ezra Pound
Someone to arouse his bhakti

Someone like a nobody peddler from the East End of London
With a name like Henry Herzfeld

Yeah, imagine T.S. Eliot becoming a devotee of Henry Herzfeld
“Oh shema shema shema”

--from work-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris