10-23-05 - A Comment From: Reuven BenYuhmin
Subject: THE  WHOLLY WORDS

Reuven's cuke page

[Clearly Reuven must be institutionalized. But till then let's just humor him along till we can get him close enough to put the net over his head. But it will take some doing because he's still in Taiwan where he's been for a couple of decades or so - teaching at a University and wearing Indian sari or something like that. It was Reuven (who used to be Roovane who was born Robert Front) who got us to do the Suzuki Roshi 100 year birthday bash. Good to hear from you Reuven. And now, dear reader, try to grok Reuven's submission. And by all means check out Reuven's cuke.com interview. - DC

Hi David, 

Long time no talk. Just finished this & thought I'd send this along, perhaps suitable for your web site. Just a way to share my MIND with old dharma friends. The calligraphy & the illumination. All best blessings, reuven 

=================================== 

THE WHOLLY MIND
click thumbnail to enlarge

WHOLLY which is less than "wholly" (as the "W" is disjointed), so stops the reader & thus emphasizes "wholeness" of body, heart, & mind in all it's various spellings: holly holie hooly etc. 

"IN,"  of course, short for "inside," & the synchronous smear of the ink at the top of the "N" that points inwards toward that empty place, the plenum of the empty heart-mind. Uncanny how Universal Mind works through the wise scribe, to bring de-LIGHT. 

& then the magical unexpected "THE" where "H," with both hands raised in that universal sacred gesture of prayer & reverence to higher consciousness, senses oneness & completeness as they point through the "IN" to the "O," literally reaching up to the "O" of "HOOLY" in order to bring it down. Or at least that is what appears in the after-Mind. 

"MIND" here always points to the BIG mind rather than the our small thinking mind whose focus is upon gain, fame, pleasant sensations, & happiness, those things which inevitably turn into their opposite as each contains the very seed for its opposite. These roots of human suffering arising in "small mind." The way out of human suffering is to attain, as my teacher  Suzuki Roshi always said, BIG MIND. Took a lifetime of "WHOLLY" "Introspective, meditative searching to REALIZE rather than just intellectually "know" that. 

The "VERES" could be these poetic "verses" could be many things that begin with "V," the "verities," the big truth, or a very, very small virus. 

"VIRUS" is the word plaguing the minds of billions of people all over the world.  & the shadow of fear it casts: fear of the unknown, fear of an "uncontrollable" even hostile "nature," & our penultimate fear, the fear of death, of extinction. "Virus" succinctly wraps up all these fears in this invisible & thus even more highly feared foe, as it stirs our most hideous & awesome fears spawned in the squalid depths of a demonic & deluded imagination. 

& the "LONINE" & it doesn't take much for the mind, which at first stumbles, but then suddenly guesses this one: the "LONELINESS" which we all suffer from in one form or another. Our sense of loss & separation from our inner spiritual being, our separation from nature, & from that delightfully happy & contented sense of "wholeness" & "oneness" that we as human beings rarely, if ever, experience anymore as they scurry to & fro in this busy, restless world, hardly ever experiencing even one truly quiet meditative moment of peace & contentment. 

"AND ALL THE REST" we "KNOW."  The "REST" points to the countless human mental afflictions & especially those generated by "small mind," clouded as it is by a primordial ignorance that blinds us to the the truth of ANICCA or impermanence, & by that grand delusion of a separate, eternal, ongoing "self." Small mind spins a deluded entangling web of suffering suffused with greed & envy & fear & illusion & loneliness & on & on, "ALL THE REST." Which also obliquely turns the mind toward the "REST," which we so desperately need & yearn for: the body-mind drenched, filled, & irradiated with "SUKHA," the happiness born of detachment & filled with equanimity. Comes when we realize that even beyond our fondest most inspiring rituals & practices (for me writing & meditation ) there is ultimately nothing to do, no where to go, & most notably, no one to be. 

& so the prayer & wish: just as a mother protects her only child with her very life so with a boundless heart may we cherish all beings visible or invisible, who walk the earth, who fly in the sky, who swim in the waters, all beings gone beyond or yet to come, MAY ALL LIVE WITH EASE HAPPY PEACEFUL & FREE.

Wow, what a world that would be.

Reuven sent another email:

Subj: Zen Aluminati

Interesting, don't you think, just sent you something and then Sangha-e! arrives & your article. It's a wonderful though ambitious idea & of course I encourage you to pursue it & wish you the best. If there is someone who reads email, old dhamma friends, I'd be glad to correspond with them as I am not lazy about that,

Again, all best in this compassionate endeavor,

Reuven

Reuven BenYuhmin <robert@mgt.ncu.edu.tw>