The Wayless Way
“Within each of us is a divine treasure, and if we hope to discover it we need to go deep into the heart of who we are.” – Meister Eckhart
Readers of Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness and Light: Meditations on the Path of the Wayless Way (Hampton Roads), by Mark S. Burrows and Jon M. Sweeney, will no doubt appreciate these lucid translations in poetic form, taken from the “treatises” of Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-1328). The writings of the controversial priest point to a “wayless way” toward inclusive love. “There is a light within you, in your soul, uncreated and uncreateable; it simply is,” Eckhart wrote. “What Coleman Barks has done for Rumi, Sweeney and Burrows have done for Eckhart — making his insight accessible and his wisdom sing,” observed Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart.
Poetry of Presence
This hefty anthology (252 pages) collects some of the best work of contemporary poets, including Ellen Bass, Billy Collins, Jane Hirshfield, Derek Walcott, Li-Young Lee, Tich Nhat Hanh, Alice Walker, and Joy Harjo, along with ancient poets such as Li-Po, Hafiz, and Rumi. A treasure trove of poems from diverse voices, it reminds us that mindfulness is accessible in the midst of everyday activities. Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, Grayson Books, edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson. (Poetry of Presence II is due in May, 2023.)
Poetry of Awakening
This volume collects 78 poems, written mainly by Buddhist and Daoist poets from across the first millennium. Translated by Joe Lamport, the poems in The Poetry of Awakening: An Anthology of Spiritual Chinese Poetry (Fomite) express a sense of liberation through language. A later poem by Su Shui illustrates this paradoxical practice:*
“The bubbling stream is his voice,
the mountains his vast body.
The night bird sings sutras of wisdom —
how can I possibly convey this to others?”
*version by jg
Mountains and Rivers Mind
“The mind is no other than mountains and rivers, the great wide earth, the sun, the moon, the stars.”
– Dogen
Author and Zen Roshi Ruben Habito tells the story of his teacher Yamada Koun Roshi, who was riding on a train from Tokyo to Kamakura many years ago. He was reading from a book by the 13th century founder of Soto Zen, Eihei Dogen, when he came across the above line that stirred something deep in him. He began laughing, trying hard not to make a spectacle of himself. But lying in bed that night, the line returned with a vengeance. With a “loud burst of laughter,” he realized clearly what it was pointing to — that mountains and rivers, all things of the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, indeed all people everywhere were “no other than me,” that “they are me and I am them.” Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion, by Ruben L. Habito, Orbis Books; Mountains and Waters Sutra (Sansuiko), translated by Shohaku Okumura with an introduction by Gary Snyder, Wisdom Publications.
Jerome Gagnon Blog 