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I Had a Good Teacher
Les Kaye is a Zen priest who came to that work and practice in the midst of a career at IBM as an engineer, salesperson, and senior manager. He lived in Silicon Valley, and continued to work there throughout his formative years in Zen training. Then Shunryu Suzuki Roshi ordained him.
We reviewed Kaye’s book Joyously through the Days back in 2011. That book had a foreword by Huston Smith, and like Huston Smith, Les Kaye writes and teaches in ways that reach far beyond his religious/spiritual community.
This book is about all that Kaye learned from Suzuki Roshi (1905-71). Born the son of a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest, and a direct spiritual descendant of the great thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen, Suzuki Roshi became a monk at 13 and arrived in California at 54, when he founded the San Francisco Zen Center. He was the most important teacher who brought Zen to America in the twentieth century. He is also the author of what is perhaps the most important publication in American Zen: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
This book begins with a foreword by Norman Fischer (another priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki), followed by an editor’s Introduction by Giuseppe M. Prisco, then twenty-one short dharma talks (Part One), ten personal teachings stories (Part Two), and a few closing chapters.
Topics and teachings include the subjects of happiness and its pursuit, finding a rhythm in one’s life, the meaning and purpose of activity, being nice, and what it means to love without attachment. This is essential Zen at its succinct best.
Reminders of the difference a good teacher can make.
Flow
“The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.”
— Henry Beston in The Outermost House
Flow, a likely nominee for Academy Awards in the Best Animated Film and Best International Feature Film categories, is a 2024 animated adventure fantasy film from Latvia. Starring a group of animals, it has no human characters, no voiceovers from humans, only realistic sounding animal vocalizations like a cat’s cry or meow.
The animation is multi-layered and dreamlike, evoking both a deep sense of presence and mystery. How some shapes – stories-high animal heads, tapered towers, strange rock formations – came to be is not explained. The animated scenes flow into each other from darkness to light, from misty to clear. The underwater scenes are especially noteworthy; they give real meaning to the word immersive.
Cat, a black cat with saucer-like golden eyes, is being chased by a pack of dogs when a stampede of deer crosses his path, followed by huge waves of a tsunami. Cat manages to climb out of the flood waters to the top of a large cat sculpture. Just when he reaches the highest point, he falls into a sailboat. Aboard is a Capybara, a large lump of an animal who spends a lot of his time sleeping.
Soon other animals join them. They pick up a ring-tailed Lemur who has been collecting shiny junk in the ruined buildings. One of his favorite pieces is a large ball, which is a total delight to a Labrador Retriever, a recent addition to the boat.
A large white Secretarybird appears first as a threat and then as a helper. He grabs the Cat and carries him away. But when a whole flock of the birds arrive, Secretarybird defends Cat. His wing is hurt in the fight and, unable to fly away, he joins the group on the sailboat.
Flow provides lessons in how to create a community. Although strangers at first, these animals become friends, willing to support each other in the flooded world. When they pass a building where the dogs from the early scenes are stranded, they offer hospitality, sailing close enough to take them in.
Cat, who initially is very fearful (his ears are pressed close to his head), gradually comes to see the other animals as welcome companions. He dives into the water and catches fish of all sizes and colors, depositing his finds in a pile where the other animals can eat them. This kind practice of generosity earns him the trust of the others. Although their adventure takes them into some scary areas, the animals do enjoy playing with the ball and other trinkets.
One theme permeates this story, and although it certainly fits with the animals’ behavior, we can also universalize it to human activities. As time passes and the world once again changes around him, we realize that Cat is yearning for one thing: belonging. How he finds it is an example for us all.
A remarkable animated adventure story about a group of animals discovering how they belong to each other in a devastated world.
A Step Along the Way
Stephen J. Pope is a professor in the Theology Department of Boston College and the author of several books. He defines Christian service as a sign of faith, humility, and hope. He then adds this insight by the late Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, Michigan:
“It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.”
Christians are fortunate to have a large number of exemplars of the faith who have given their time and talent to serve others. Pope has chosen six of them and linked them with qualities or virtues that are worthy of emulation:
Dorothy Stang ( Stewardship)
Dorothy Day (Hospitality)
Mother Teresa (Compassion)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Advocacy)
Oscar Romero (Solidarity)
Pierre Claverie (Witness)
Readers are sure to resonate with Stang’s stewardship of the good Earth and those who take care of it; with Day’s full and rounded espousal of hospitality as a form of spiritual practice sorely needed in our times; with Mother Teresa’s reverence for those whom society has rejected; with King’s advocacy on behalf of those oppressed by racial discrimination, violence, and injustice; of Romero’s solidarity with the poor; and with Claverie’s "witness to God’s love of all humanity."
Compassionate service lies at the heart of Jesus's ministry and therefore is a core principle in the living out of the Gospel. Although the emphasis in this paperback is on the individual efforts of these six spiritual heroes, Pope makes it clear that service is a co-operative enterprise. He concludes with this thought:
"Love is the heart of service and the measure of all that is valuable about being human."
Edifying profiles of six spiritual exemplars of the Christian faith.
Robert Frager, The Wisdom of Islam
My Sufi master used to teach that the best way to express gratitude for a gift is to use it well. For example, if someone were to give you an automobile, it would be extremely ungrateful to let that car sit and rust in the garage, or to drive it without maintaining it until it broke down. To be grateful for the gift of a car means to use it well and maintain it conscientiously.
To be grateful for the gift of intelligence is to develop your intelligence by ongoing study, to use your intelligence to help others, and to seek to understand God's creation and God's Truth. To be grateful for the gift of material abundance is to share your wealth with those in need.
Be generous with your other gifts as well. For example, you have been given the gift of time; be generous and spend time with the lonely. You have been given a heart; give compassion to the heartbroken. Make a list of all you have to be grateful for, and then make a second list of all the ways you can express your gratitude.
The best way to express gratitude for a gift
Birthday of Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was born on this day in 1912 in Sweden. During World War II, Sweden remained officially neutral. Wallenberg was sent as a special envoy to Budapest Germany in 1944. While there this Lutheran undertook the dangerous humanitarian mission of issuing protective passports and offering shelter to Jews. He is credited with saving 100,000 lives, one-eighth of Hungary's Jewish population. This is more people than were rescued by any other individual or institution in Europe.
On January 17, 1945, Wallenberg was taken into custody by Soviet soldiers. He disappeared into the Soviet prison system. Although his fate is unknown, his legacy is secure. On the way to the Holocaust Museum on the western outskirts of Jerusalem is an avenue of trees commemorating "Righteous Gentiles" who risked their lives to save Jews. One of them is the Raoul Wallenberg tree. A medal with each name contains a Talmudic inscription: "Whoever saves a single soul, it is as if he saved the whole world."
Films
To celebrate Raoul Wallenberg's birthday, take four hours to watch Wallenberg: A Hero's Story. This 1985 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain as Wallenberg won four Emmy Awards.
Personal Explorations
Raoul Wallenberg was a hero of compassion. He exhibited that "quivering of the heart in response to the suffering of others." Who are your heroes of compassion? What has recently aroused your compassion and what are you going to do about it?
Websites & Organizations
In honor of Raoul Wallenberg, give your support to the Charter for Compassion, a document that transcends religious, ideological, and national differences. Supported by leading thinkers from many traditions, the Charter activates the Golden Rule around the world.
Honoring the risky, selfless courage of Raoul Wallenberg who saved the lives of more than 100,000 Jews during the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
Letting Go
Our consumer culture teaches that getting more stuff and holding on to it is the way to riches. Our ego-driven society encourages us to seek power and enjoy being the center of attention.
But the spiritual life emphasizes other things. Teachers tell us to give up the spotlight, loosen our grip, get out of the way, renounce, relinquish, and surrender. Freedom, the wisdom traditions all say, comes from letting go. By giving, releasing, and clearing out things, we open up new pathways for the Divine energies to enter and transform us.
It takes practice to change our habitual ways and to go against the conventional assumptions of society. Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks to break a habit or establish a new practice. So this program consists of 21 daily emails with nuggets of spiritual wisdom and related exercises to help you practice letting go.
(3 CEHs for Chaplains available.)
Teachings from the wisdom traditions to help you experience the freedom of releasing things.
The Crescent and I
By Abdullah Sayed for KidSpirit's Education issue.
Though I live in the middle of the multicultural metropolis of the world, Queens, I find it hard to imagine that any of my non-Muslim friends are truly familiar with the faith to which I attribute so much of my personal development.
I do not blame any of them, though. How can I? In the 21st century, Islamic radicalism is the bogeyman that captivates the public’s imagination. As such, it seems every mention of Islam in the public space that is not Islamophobic is instead about how Islam is a religion of peace. Well-intentioned though they may be, everyone is so concerned about disassociating Islam from violence that no one actually knows what Islam is about. Americans should not just identify Islam as a religion of peace, but also as a doctrine of humility and discipline.
By Abdullah Sayed for KidSpirit's Education issue.
Though I live in the middle of the multicultural metropolis of the world, Queens, I find it hard to imagine that any of my non-Muslim friends are truly familiar with the faith to which I attribute so much of my personal development.
I do not blame any of them, though. How can I? In the 21st century, Islamic radicalism is the bogeyman that captivates the public’s imagination. As such, it seems every mention of Islam in the public space that is not Islamophobic is instead about how Islam is a religion of peace. Well-intentioned though they may be, everyone is so concerned about disassociating Islam from violence that no one actually knows what Islam is about. Americans should not just identify Islam as a religion of peace, but also as a doctrine of humility and discipline.
Locate the Hidden Strengths Within
If you had to name your personal strengths, what terms would you come up with? In The Strengths Book: Be Confident, Be Successful, and Enjoy Better Relationships by Realising the Best of You, authors Alex Linley, Janet Willars, and Robert Biswas-Diener (2010) identify sixty unique strengths that you can use to create a better life and improve relationships. They include such wide-ranging strengths as action, adventure, authenticity, compassion, connection, courage, detail, humility, innovation, listening, persistence, planning, self-awareness, service, and work ethic. In addition to those fifteen strengths, let's add an equal number that aren't in the book: being accepting, accessible, charismatic, collaborative, contemplative, energetic, faithful, generous, hospitable, loyal, passionate, playful, practical, questioning, and spiritual. Use this list of thirty strengths as a starting point. (I hope that gratitude or gratefulness makes your list!) Start now. . . .
1. Get a sheet of paper and write "My Strengths" at the top. Give yourself five minutes to write down as many of your strengths as you can name. As you make your list, keep in mind that this is not a time for humility (even if that is one of your strengths)! Remember that pride is also a strength. That's because it pushes you to strive for the best, in addition to improving the quality of all that you do. Be generous and honest (another possible strength) as you consider what to include on your list.
2. Think about the strengths of friends, and see if you don't also possess these qualities.
3. When you think you have hit a wall and can't come up with any more strengths, set a goal of adding five new ones.
When you're done, give yourself an A+ just for trying this exercise.
Identify six unique personal strengths.
The Last Night of Ramadan
Maissa Hamed is an Egyptian American and a former staff member of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), with 13 years experience in program and policy development focusing on child labor and education for developing countries. In the preface to this children's book she and illustrator Mohamed El Wakil state:
"This work was born out of the desire to contribute to the advancement of knowledge, peace, tolerance, and understanding within the global community. The Last Night of Ramadan is produced for children and their families who wish to understand and learn about Islam and Muslim culture through an examination of the significance of Islamic celebrations observed by Muslims throughout the year."
Muhammad lives with his parents and older brother in a small house surrounded by sand dunes and palm trees. One night he has a vivid dream of a great celebration where everyone is beaming with joy. He tells his mother about it and learns from her that it is the last day of the Holy Month of Ramadan during which Muslims all over the world fast from dawn to sundown. During this time, his mother tells him, believers read the Qur'an, increase their prayers and good deeds, and strive to constantly remember Allah in their hearts.
Muhammad helps his mother make cookies to share with everyone in the village. Later in the day, the family goes to watch for new crescent moon marking the end of Ramadan. The next day is one of prayers, visits to relatives, and the exchange of gifts. Muhammad's mother explains what she has gained from observing Ramadan:
"We are joyful because we obeyed Allah by fasting the Holy month of Ramadan. We are grateful, because Allah gave us strength to fast for one month. We are content, for we are now more appreciative of the food we get from Allah every day. By fasting, we felt the hunger of the poor, who often have no money to buy food. So we remember that we must always be generous to the poor."
The Last Night of Ramadan is a fine resource, very accessible for children, that can serve as a sturdy introduction to Islamic rituals and practices during this annual celebration. The book's illustrations are wonderful pictures of village life, full of little details that are fun to talk about.
An informative children's book about Muslim celebrations during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Hymns to an Unknown God
"Only a fool or a futurist would predict the shape of a possible but improbable compassionate world order. It seems likely that we will increasingly be pushed up against the great alternative — either learn to care for each other beyond the old lines of nation, class, and religion, or self-destruct in the economic-military warfare of each against each. Yet there is no way to anticipate what dynamics might unfold if a majority of citizens became committed to the practice of political compassion.
"Without knowing whether such a shift can be accomplished, we can point to some of the radical changes in our fundamental values and principles of political action that we would have to undergo to move toward the creation of a compassionate political order.
"If there is to be a compassionate community it will arise from:
"a shift from the myth of progress to a myth of sustainable growth
"a shift in identity from the ego-centric individual to the communally rooted person
"a shift from the game of nations and the politics of the balance of power to the world game and eco-centric politics
"a shift from the myth of competition to economic cooperation
"a shift from the myth of just wars and sanctified violence to peaceful means of conflict resolution
"a shift from population explosion to zero population growth
"a shift from nationalism, the principle of sovereignty, and ethnic conflict to an effective world federation
"a shift from a secular view of nature as raw material to the resacralization of nature
"a shift from a world divided between the poor and the rich to a more just distribution of wealth
"a shift from compulsive production of more complex technologies to production of appropriate, sustainable technologies
"a shift from habitually passive consumption of value and myths prepackaged by the entertainment media in the service of advertisers to an interactive relationship to media
"All this sounds extremely radical and utopian. It assumes nothing less than an effort to found a society based on the principle of generosity. As unlikely as this sounds, it is not without historical precedent. Many tribal societies were based on the exchange of gifts rather than the trading of commodities, on the ideal of generosity rather than equality. The hunter gives meat, the shaman gives visions, the mothers give children, the old women give knowledge of healing herbs, the old men give wisdom of governance. Even today in those parts of the world where the market has not yet become the organizing principle of life, gift-exchange is the major force creating community. Western travelers to the Himalayan countries are frequently amazed by the hospitality and generosity they encounter.
"What we are discovering lately in American society is that we can't build a good society on the principles of self-interest and entitlement alone. Without generosity, there can be no community. Without the kindness of strangers, a society is turned into an armed camp. Without the selfless giving of fathers and mothers, children become alienated and uncivil adults. Without tenderness between son-father-grandfather, daughter-mother-grandmother, the continuity between the generations is ruptured and wisdom lost. . . .
"It is crucial that we hold our dream for a more compassionate order before our eyes without assuming either that the dream is impossible or that it can be actualized by any five-year plan. Speaking about the human plight, Reinhold Niebuhr once remarked that 'nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a single lifetime.' To avoid despair, to be animated by hope, it is not necessary to know that our dreams for a just and compassionate order will come to pass in short order. It is necessary only to follow a vocation that leads us in the right direction."
Back to reading a full review of this book.
Sam Keen on what is needed for a shift to a compassionate culture.