Sa Bhuma
I spent the autumn and winter very happily each morning with a cup of strong coffee and a tablet that helped me concentrate going through a book called Dreamtime by John Moriarty. It was a great pleasure for me to do this, the only time I think I’ve ever really looked forward to work. Something about the world that John seduced me into and my own temperament seemed to fit.
I don’t know if the notes that I took are of any use to anyone else but I will show you a section of them here today. There are no direct quotes here from the book unless specifically mentioned but my work isn’t really original. It’s a series of reactions to Johns writing. Today’s piece was written while reading a section called Watching with Jesus.
One of the beautiful questions that John asked was
‘can we follow Christ out of Christianity?’ meaning maybe that the path that Jesus pioneered is larger, wilder and more natural and ordinary than the religion we have built around it.
In a sense all definitions are a reduction. An attempt to reduce experience to language but let me just say, so that you know where I’m not coming from, that the way that I have committed to is that of Soto Zen Buddhism.
My hope is that even without John’s book to hand that what I’ve written is at least follow-able.
You should check him out. He is The Great Oak of Irish theology, poetry, storytelling and philosophy.
He spent many years working as a gardener.
Sa Bhuma
-and he saith unto them
‘my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me’
Did Jesus show us that the path existed
What path?
Good question
Why do we need a path?
A way then. A way of not suffering
Like Buddha?
Yeah
Was Jesus a Buddhist?
Pointless question. Defining things doesn’t help. In fact it’s a hindrance.
William S Burroughs saying that ‘language is a virus’. Meaning maybe that the constant monologue of the mind, the word first way of thinking, is actually a disease. It has very little to do with communication and more to do with controlling, defining and reducing experience to that with which we are momentarily comfortable.
How much happier we would be without words.