curate

Most people know more as they get older:
I give all that the cold shoulder.

I spent my second quarter-century
Losing what I had learnt at university

And refusing to take in what had happened since.
Now I know none of the names in the public prints,

And am starting to give offence by forgetting faces
And swearing I’ve never been in certain places.

It will be worth it, if in the end I manage
To blank out whatever it is that is doing the damage.

Then there will be nothing I know
My mind will fold into itself, like fields, like snow.

My own lil’ hypothesis, if I might even attempt to assert a point of view, is “Buddhism” in the US, in its mainstream presentation, seems to be more concerned with meditation as only a relax and bliss out experience as opposed to doing the deep and dirty work of confronting selfishness and unexamined, unmindful habits. Transformation at the base, says Thay. Transformation is the ultimate offering, adds Rinpoche. (This description of Buddhism in the US is of course not the only expression of dharma practice in the United States. There are genuine communities of practice for sure, taking refuge and practicing to experience the fruit of inner and outer freedom.)

Sometimes, the spiritual marketplace of the US represents Zen, Yoga, Buddhism, Tantra, Meditation as an exotic escape, a retreat, a getaway from everyday life’s stresses versus actually confronting the causes and mind states within and without that perpetuate moments of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. All of this to say that I think the body of Dharma teachings that I like (or more accurately, NEED) is the one that fearlessly calls things out and asserts TRUTH & CLARITY moment to moment. The dharma that bites!