my brother and sister-in-law's doggies today

playfully serious out of tonight’s meditation— how the sense of “this is me” and “here I am” is an altered state and how awakening has to do with an appreciative awareness of how experience works — the mechanics of it — including an appreciative awareness of how appreciative awareness works

1\6 thread of tonight's sunset from my road this evening, outside Asheville ... first a little panorama movie clip (15 sec)

another neighbor, I don't know their name :)

my neighbor Pearl, coming down to get some chopped apple

a silver-spotted skipper butterfly on the Butterfly Bush today

the Four O'clocks on my road continue to amaze :)

Tiger swallowtail on the Butterfly Bush across the street from my house this evening. (Outside Asheville.)

beautiful and for me these days there's a growing appreciation for how the bare, matter-of-fact mechanics of experiencing anything at all — it's something genuinely and humblingly miraculous

ru 🪷@rae-dahl.bsky.social · 5d ago

i sense and feel Buddha nature everywhere especially in our gardens and the wildlife here it just is it manifests with or without a witness and when i return home and i lie down on the ground the dharma is being shared 🪷

The Buddha-dharma "no self" teaching needs nuance. It can mean, for instance, our sense of self "comes from somewhere" (I sometimes meditate in dreamless sleep => the waking "self" isn't the starting point). And it means that we are *events* and *processes* more than static substances. So be kind.

Dan Arel | Radical Buddhism@danarel.com · 7d ago

At temple tonight, at a class on Metta meditation, a man tried to argue with the practitioner that our temple was contradicting Buddhist teachings by claiming there is “no self” but then also participating in “identify politics” by marching in the Pride parade…

How we moderns, esp in the West, conceive of "religion" has a history. Particularly since the Reformation many of us now presume religion means (1) espousing unprovable beliefs & (2) following authoritative commandments. Mahayana Buddhadharma is about (1) wisdom & (2) compassion. A key is the "how."

doggy-sitting for my brother's Toy Australian Shepherd puppy, "Papi" ... who's obviously casting spells 😍

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville (we had a storm front move through a little while ago, but the heaviest weather, coming down from the north, divided and passed on either side of us, east and west)

I had some news this weekend that brought a bit of heartbreak. And in tonight's meditation it was like I let whatever's most original, whatever's most alive, do what it most simply & fundamentally is— so rather than "be quiet & let it be what it is," it was like, "be quiet & let it do what it is."

When Buddha-dharma came to China, the word the Chinese used for "emptiness" was the same that they used for "sky." There are of discussions of emptiness in Buddhism, of course, but to me it's a form of *honest presence*— always already here before we start making stuff up.

Tashi@dualnondual.bsky.social · last wk.

A commentary that is the open sky

Looking through my window this cloudy morning I wasn't sure what I was seeing at first — here in the center of this first photo — and then realized it's the back end of a squirrel who's watching a neighborhood doggy walk down the road. 🐕‍🦺 🐿️ 🙂

The word "contemplate" has the word "temple" in it — the term was connected originally with going to a sacred place to see signs of the divine.

Pipa💙@pipapipia.bsky.social · 2w ago

CONTEMPLATE To contemplate is look carefully Contemplating means being attentive and focusing our attention on what interests us. Sitting on the bank of the river and watching the water flow is wonderful. I like to contemplate Nature. BON DIA ♥️ AMICS MEUS

good morning ... glories :)

in tonight's meditation— Our minds thirst to make sense of experience. At a very basic level we're primed to make models, concepts & names for what's experienced. And we forget we make it up. Contemplative practice (meditation) isn't to get rid of our ideas as much as to see that they're created.

Pearl and Sally coming down for their evening snack (chopped apple)

A legendary story says that when the Buddha was approaching awakening, and the forces of distraction and delusion demanded to know from him by what authority he presumed to become awakened — he reached down and touched the earth.

You are a shadow in love with the sun. The sun comes.... ~ Rumi (Mathnawi 3.4623)

Gerrit@gerrit82.bsky.social · 2w ago

Look at a candle flame in bright noon sunlight. If you put cotton next to it, the cotton will burn, but its light has become completely mixed with the sun. That candlelight you can't find is what’s left of a dervish. 2/2 #poetry 🖋️ Rumi, Rough Metaphors

I've been reminded how tragically sweet it can be that our thoughts and frames to keep us from feeling our feelings are in their way trying to take care of us. That's a reason as a therapist my approach has been, if you want to support someone's wish to change and grow— love them the way they are.

bunny in the mist, near my home a couple weeks ago

Robin Reed@robinreed.bsky.social · 2w ago

Normalize protecting your nervous system by filling your feed with animal videos. 🙏🏻

1 of 2 My neighbors' appropriately named "Butterfly Bush" (Buddleja davidii) has begun to bloom, and has a pair of visitors today. 1- a male Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor)...

Complex topic I don't fully understand—but in tonight's meditation the phrase "enlightenment is through the body" made additional sense. There are different kinds of knowing. Waking cognition is one. But our "body" also knows how to sleep and dream—enlightenment is adjacent to that kind of knowing.

sunset tonight, after a storm, outside Asheville (1) with a neighbor's mailbox (2) with my mailbox

Met my brother and his wife's new puppy for the first time about 4 minutes ago — and this is my shoe now. I think we're going to get along. His name is Papi. They tell me he's a toy Australian shepherd.

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville

Pearl coming to greet me ... and my carrots ... and as you can see, donkey's are famously, um, sure-footed 🙂