EVOLVING TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE WHITE PLAINS: VISION, CULTURE & PRACTICE

Access the text of my 12 January 2010 Keynote Speech

at the

White Plains Council of Neighborhood Associations'

STATE OF SUSTAINABILITY FORUM.

Life-and-Death by Uchiyama Roshi

Water isn't formed by being ladled into a bucket

Simply the water of the whole universe has been ladled into a bucket

The water does not disappear because it has been scattered over the ground

It is only that the water of the whole universe has been emptied into the whole universe

Life is not born because a person is born

The life of the whole universe has been ladled into the hardened "idea" called "I"

Life does not disappear because a person dies

Simply, the life of the whole universe has been poured out of this hardened "idea" of "I" back into the universe

Living in Geological Time, Here in these Headwaters

Like mountains that cast off

Boulders,

Boulders crashing into

Ravines,

Mountain shards,

Cracking & Splintering their way

Towards becoming sand,

deep in the ocean -

           

And soon enough, ages hence, becoming mountains of a different stone,  yet again.

We,

Each of us,

Live,

Act,

In geological time & space.

The water you drink was also consumed by your ancestors.

The water you cast away will be consumed by your descendants.

The gold you wear may have been worn by Cleopatra,

And the bullet casing in your gun may have once been a cannon on a Man-O-War.

The carbon that makes up your body has been millions of things before it,

briefly,

became part of you.

Your footsteps,

Where you just trod,

They eroded what was.

Now on its way to becoming something else.

SO,

Are you Mindful of YOUR Footprint

On this earth,

Here, in White Plains,

In the highland headwaters,

Of the Bronx & Mamaroneck River Watersheds,

Rolling down hill into the Long Island Sound Estuary,

One of the three mega-watersheds - (Hudson Valley, Newark Basin, Long Island Sound) - Here,

In the Meeting-of-Waters Bio-region -

Where the Appalachians and the Adirondacks

Meet the Atlantic?

Winter Winds

Winter winds
Test ancient oaks
Liberating once branches
Ready to become
Something else

Random Hafiz at local New Years 1/1/10

At Nowruz - The Persian New Year, (which has not been yet this year)

It is common for the chief celebrant to open a volume of the poetry of Hafiz,
randomly,
and to read the poem discovered.

Just now,
well, a few minutes ago,
on this other New Year,

I picked up a volume of Hafiz & discovered this:

A Still Cup

For God

To make love,

For the divine alchemy to work,

The Pitcher needs a still cup.

Why

Ask Hafiz

Anything more about

Your most

Vital

Requirement?