1971

Tags

1971, 2010, death, haiku, life, light, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, time, windows, years

 

 

 

                                           1971

                                                          Suzuki Roshi
                                glanced the shaft of light working
                                     slow across his room

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

1971 wormhole: tag cloud poem I – numbers
death wormhole: ambling around / the garden centre
haiku(esque) wormhole: Exceat to Cuckmere Haven
life wormhole: truly invisible
light wormhole: library: start where you are IV // all the distance I have travelled!
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi wormhole: thinking wide enough
time & windows wormhole: Bodiam Castle
years wormhole: 1963

 

thinking wide enough

Tags

2013, chatter, discussion, Have, letting go, life, progress, settling, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, sitting, society, state, talking to myself, thinking, true nature

 

 

 

                OK

                making
some progress seeing just how pervasive and absorbing is
                this chatter
sitting or not sitting, makes no difference

                and

                Roshi’s comment
that we are all just perfect as we are
                just that
we could all do with a little improvement

                but

                having difficulty
amid all the cacophonous statement and Have
                to find
the voice to join the discussion I thought was there to have

                whether

                privately
or professionally, makes no difference but then
                maybe
I am just not thinking wide enough

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

Have wormhole: we’re born // to die
letting go & thinking wormhole: whirlpool
life wormhole: cloud
settling & talking to myself wormhole: scattered
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi wormhole: Professionalism … in teaching
sitting wormhole: reversing the polarity
society wormhole: a known from without the unknown

 

Professionalism … in teaching

Tags

communication, giving, managerialism, OFSTED, performance management, professional development, professionalism, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, stress, teaching craft, workload

Teaching is giving (giving is professionalism).   When I teach I give.   When I present I give vision, I give focus.   When I differentiate, I give a bridge.   When I resource, I give tools.   When I mark work, I give ‘eye contact’ through that work.   When I set targets, I build a shared vision.   When I report, I recognise, I applaud or I care.   When I monitor, I remember.   When I plan, I give a whole world.   When I include, I give patience, I entrust faith.   When I tutor, I give the fence (zen wisdom would say: ‘to control your cow, put her in a large field’; Shunryu Suzuki Roshi).

Professionalism in teaching is not primarily getting reports in on time, it is not getting to lessons on time, it is not getting a certain percentage of my class a higher grade pass, it is not meeting OFSTED criteria.   All of these are effects of my professionalism, not measures to make my professionalism better (as a colleague keeps on saying ‘your pig won’t get fat simply because you keep on weighing it).   When you demand of my professionalism you are doing so outside of the educational interaction that is my day to day practice, and if I have to respond to your demands, my educational interaction is compromised and I am under pressure measured by criteria which are not necessarily requisite to my teaching.

I can only throw together an occasional good homework, inspired and serendipitous, while setting homeworks every week.   I can only inspire one child with a vision for their work while teaching 340 others.   I can only throw un-thought-through medium-term plans out when I am teaching 22 out of 25 periods a week.   I can only think about my teaching with wistfulness and regret when I have to Plan, Differentiate, Assess, Report-on, set Targets, Mark, Monitor, be Inclusive, ensure Equal-opportunity etc.   Take the above as an acronym: PARTIMMED!!!

We cannot do anything well because we can only devote ‘part’ of our ‘time’ to it because we have too much to service on top of teaching.   The experience of this is stress.

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

communication & giving wormhole: Assessment for Learning: the Prologue
managerialism wormhole: Structural Time
performance management wormhole: compromised
professionalism & workload wormhole: the Hothousing of Teaching
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi wormhole: don’t move
teaching craft wormhole: Resource

 

don’t move

Tags

2012, being, death, identity, letting go, settling, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, sitting, talking to myself

 

 

 

                           I try to write – no one notices
                           I try to heal education – no one listens
                                   so many times
                           I must embrace the space
                           left by my attempts to be
                                   and just be

                           more and more I find
                           the only thing I can naturally do well
                           the only thing I can naturally do
                                   is just sit

                           with no ambition or great plan
                           aware of the ambition and great plans
                           but letting them go
                                   lovingly
                           a thousand times

                                   “don’t move
                           just die over and over
                                   don’t anticipate
                           nothing can save you now because
                                   this is your last moment
                           not even enlightenment
                                   will help you now
                           because you have
                                   no other moments
                           with no future be true to yourself
                                   and don’t move”

                           all of the endeavour of a lifetime
                                   let it all go
                           all of the creation of a lifetime
                                   let it all go
                           even the wise words I say to myself
                           the lessons I collate from others
                                   let them all go

                                   let them all go
                           because they will not gain ground
                                   no one will notice
                                   no one will listen
                           and because they are let-go-able
                                   they must
                                   be let go

                           don’t move
                                   in whatever posture I put myself in
                           just die over and over
                                   from the phantoms and the spectres
                                   of a hundred plans and dramas

                           be true to yourself
                                   in the posture I have put myself in
                           and don’t move

 

Not Always So – “Shunryu Suzuki Roshi”

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being wormhole: little thrills
death wormhole: chores to do – diptych
identity & settling wormhole: ashramas
letting go wormhole: to live with
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi wormhole: 1971
sitting wormhole: exercise
talking to myself wormhole: “so …”

 

1971

Tags

1971, 2010, 5*, death, haiku, light, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, sun, windows, years

 

 

 

                                                     1971

                                                                     Suzuki Roshi
                                           glanced the shaft of light working
                                                slow across his room

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

1971 wormhole: brave new world?
death wormhole: Sylvia
haiku(esque) wormhole: two writing haikwo
light wormhole: morning / cloud pass
Shunryu Suzuki wormhole: a few reflections on / keeping your cow / in a large meadow / while walking round / the streets of Horsham
sun wormhole: London
windows & years wormhole: 1977

 

a few reflections on / keeping your cow / in a large meadow / while walking round / the streets of Horsham

Tags

'scape, 2013, 5*, abdomen, being, breathing, eyes, glasses, Horsham, looking, movement, seeing, settling, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, sitting, streets, thinking, walking

 

 

 

                                                   a few reflections on
                                                   keeping your cow
                                                   in a large meadow
                                                   while walking round
                                                   the streets of Horsham

                           don’t stare off to think
                           like Plato in a wonder
                           stare at the things about you
                           sufficient through which to see

                           don’t look through my (varifocal) glasses
                           for the finest point (which everyone else missed)
                           look instead through my eyes
                           to see what I am thinking

                           don’t close your eyes when sitting
                           to concentrate with less distraction
                           open them to include each thought
                           within every breath I take

                           don’t walk along the street
                           flexing your abdomen to be upright
                           and deft lift them all instead
                           poised so that movement flows
                           through them
                                     playfully
                           like a visceral grate

 

“To give your sheep or cow a large spacious meadow is the way to control him.” Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

abdomen wormhole: when I sit I am the posture
being wormhole: ‘I can write …’
breathing & settling wormhole: … thank you
eyes wormhole: poets do neither report nor / walk around enrapt in transport but / ’tis when in writing their worlds are wrought
glasses wormhole: looking
looking wormhole: gully
Shunryu Suzuki wormhole: “don’t move / just die / over and over … / be true to / yourself / and don’t move” / – Suzuki Roshi
seeing & thinking wormhole: ‘I wanted to write a poem’
sitting wormhole: accumulation of wisdom
streets & walking wormhole: A206 / Plumstead Road: / perched on a wall

 

“don’t move / just die / over and over … / be true to / yourself / and don’t move” / – Suzuki Roshi

Tags

2012, 7*, awareness, being, death, doing, posture, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, silence, sitting, smile

 

 

 

                                “don’t move
                                  just die
                                  over and over …
                                  be true to
                                  yourself
                                  and don’t move”

                                  – Suzuki Roshi

                      when I sit I sit
                      in a formal posture
                      in a natural posture
                                only
                      completely still
                      completely still
                                so still that
                      the slightest movement
                      will be seen
                      and smiled at
                      without smiling
                      and in the smiling
                      it will die
                      again and again

                      when I get up from
                                sitting
                      I will do something
                      I will do anything
                      in a formal posture
                      in a natural posture
                      completely doing it
                      completely doing
                                so involved that
                      the slightest pause
                      the slightest spin-off
                      will be seen
                      and included
                      without involvement

                      and ‘in’ the ‘clusion…’
                      it will die
                      again and again

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

awareness wormhole: realisation
being wormhole: lobby
death wormhole: obituary
doing wormhole: so lonely
posture wormhole: ”please be very kind / with your practice’ …’
Shunryu Suzuki wormhole: Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
silence wormhole: the path / no echo
sitting wormhole: OK
smile wormhole: an event

 

”please be very kind / with your practice’ …’

Tags

2012, 4*, awareness, blue, growth, mauve, mist, posture, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, sitting

 

 

 

                ‘please be very kind
                with your practice’

                so I sit in a coat-hanger posture
                and my left leg goes to sleep

                but there is a blue-mauve pastel mist
                slightly above and behind my head

                like a full-bodied head of hair

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

awareness wormhole: becoming old
blue wormhole: the Joker’s face
mauve & mist wormhole: William Carlos Williams
posture wormhole: ‘when sitting I am just sitting maybe …’
sitting wormhole: sitting

 

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

Tags

2011, 4*, being, giving, identity, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, sitting, zazen

 

 

 

                                Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

                     when we sit we resume
                     our fundamental activity
                     of creation when we sit
                     we are nothing when we
                     stand up we are there
                     everything else is there
                     created all at once
                     from nothing then act

                     but if you forget the nothing
                     from which it came the
                     creation will mean nothing
                     the action will mean
                     nothing

                     any moment can be zazen
                     there is just what I am doing or
                     there is just what accrues and en-shells
                     while I am doing it
                     either way there just is

                     when I arise from that zazen      finish
                     then ‘I’ and ‘rest of the world’ appear
                     spontaneously and fresh
                                but that is all
                                the next zazen

                     and from this comes fresh
                     spontaneity      giving with
                     no sticky after effects

 

 

 

the first two stanzas use Shunryu Suzuki’s words from Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind p. 53 – hence the title

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–
part of … oh
being & sitting wormhole: actually
giving wormhole: ‘let everything go …’
identity wormhole: actually
Shunryu Suzuki wormhole: Shunryu / Suzuki / Roshi
zazen wormhole: just

 

not always so

Tags

2010, 4*, acceptance, growth, identity, living, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

 

 

 

                                   there is no justice in the world
                                              to seize to define
                                              oneself with
                                   things and people happen
                                              for their own reasons
                                              neither right nor wrong
                                   I am not justified or defeated
                                              by the warp or the weft
                                              there are just two words
                                   to grasp the meaning of life
                                              not always so

 

 

 

huzza-huzza-huzza.   Man walks into a zendo.   Says, ‘I’d like your best advice on selflessness, please’.   ‘I’m sorry, sir, we’ve just run out’.   O’oh, let me hear you – b’dmm psssh

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–
acceptance wormhole: journaling-ing
identity wormhole: this whale
living wormhole: history