The Dharma by any other name: fun

well our first poetry pocket eve measured “very high” on the official fun-o-meter. after a half-hour of meditation we re-arranged the shrine room into a dharma café. some donned berets, though  – alas – there were no bongo drums in sight. 

robbie showed an animated video with voice over of former u.s. poet laureate, billy collins, reading the poem “dharma” about his one-pointed-mind doggie. what was its impact on us – how did it relate to our practice? did it make scents?  What do you think?

amy shared “cutting the cords” by gagi – about letting go. can we?  allegedly tarzan once said that the most important thing, as we are swinging through the jungle of our lives, is to know when to let go of the vine.

gardner shared the rousing “smokey the bear sutra” written in 1969 by gary snyder – a trumpeting call to vajra action. so easy to get overwhelmed, lose our sense of  humor, lose our oomph for action. why not lean on lineage, rouse sacred determination and by gosh, go stomp out the forest fires of greed?! Snyder, by the way, is kind a great uncle to our lineage – a friend and early dharma guide of kerouac and ginsberg….

we ended the eve with john reading tony hoagland’s “a color of the sky”.  a kind of stream of consciousness poem starting with a mundane self-conscious confession and ending in an overflowing celebration of spring, of life, of observation and observer. can we see things through magnifying lenses and mental dance steps – to crack open the mind freshly, as does hoagland?

to be continued… next month…