My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

– Mary Oliver

No matter what challenges face us, no matter how surprising, unsettling, or difficult they may be, may we all take the time each day to remember and savor those mysterious things that live forever.

A warm-hearted monk (whose name escapes me) began the dharma talk by telling us that he had just returned from Korea, where August 15th is recognized as a very significant day, as “Liberation Day.” On this day, in 1945, the Japanese surrendered in WW II. This marked the end of decades of Japanese colonization of Korea. The monk spoke of meeting an old Japanese Zen master who, in his youth, had been trained to be a kamikaze pilot in the Japanese air force. His mission was scheduled for 2pm on August 15th, 1945… but because the Japanese emperor surrendered on noon of that day, his mission was canceled. Instead of feeling relief, the pilot felt immensely distraught. Why was he spared, when so many of his friends, who’d already flown their fatal missions in service of their country, were not? The question burrowed deeply into him, and multiplied. “Why do I exist?” “What is the purpose of a human life?” “What can I do that is truly of value and significance with my life?” Questions of this nature ultimately led him to deeply immerse himself in Zen practice, where he became more and more intimate with these fundamental questions.

Skipping ahead, to a point later in the dharma talk, Zen Master Bon Soeng followed up on the monk’s story with this comment:

“A good situation is a bad situation.
A bad situation is a good situation.”

We all hunger for heavenly experiences, but in the Buddhist understanding, the problem with being in heaven is that while we are there, we consume our accumulated good karma, as flame consumes a candle. Another problem with heavenly experience is that naturally, we yearn to remain there, which sets us in opposition to impermanence. As we all know, all things are impermanent, and attachment to the illusion of permanence is the cause of suffering. And so, when attachment, clinging, and resistance to change arises, heavenly experiences quickly crumble into bad situations. The good news is that this isn’t bad news… because “a bad situation is a good situation.” What a potent catalyst for change a bad situation can be! The unimaginably bad situation of the would-be kamikaze pilot, in which the entire meaning of his life was reduced to acting as a human bomb, blew away all the trivial concerns and fixations of his life, which keep many of us lost in a fog of vague, drowsy contentedness. It invoked a radicalness of awareness that culminated in the precious form of a Zen master. And so, the bad situation became a good situation.

The focus isn’t on getting from one to the other, from a bad situation to good one. Rather, it’s about working with what you’ve got, with what you’re given, with what arises, and meeting with openness and intimacy. Even the process of naming situations “good” or “bad” creates confusion and distance from what arises. The point, in my limited understanding, is to pull our experience close, whatever it is, however it shows up – good, bad, or neutral – and to become intimate with it. So intimate that whatever ideas we have about what “it” is are allowed to fall away. So intimate that, ultimately, all that remains is the great mystery… where descriptions no longer apply, where understanding dissolves, where words and thoughts echo into silence…

In addition to Empty Gate’s website, they can also be found online on their Facebook page and their Twitter feed.

May we all find ourselves in perfect waves like this (actual, virtual, or metaphorical) and ride them as skillfully.

This question may have helped Herzog & de Meuron – the architects who designed the Beijing National Stadium (dubbed “The Bird’s Nest” at the 2008 Summer Olympics), and closer to home, the bold de Young Museum in San Francisco – develop the wildly innovative design for Le Project Triangle. This is the first skyscraper to be built in Paris for three decades; the French waited to do the job in style. It’s scheduled to be completed in 2014, and as Gizmodo writes, this is “one of those buildings that make us think that we may actually drive flying cars one day.” But this will be science fact, not science fiction.

The design took my breath away. Here’s a render of how the completed building will look, viewed straight-on:

And here’s an edge-on view:

In addition to being beautiful, it’s also going to generate its own electricity using solar and wind generators. Bright idea!

With all of these innovative builds, Herzog & de Meuron are quickly climbing up my list of favorite architects.

It’s easy to get lost in this piece. At some point, you’ll have to blink and stop clicking deeper in and pull out. Just remember that going in. Click the image below to get started. [It'll take a while to load (and you'll have to click down a popup ad), but it's worth it.]

There’s certainly no shortage of beauty on this planet of ours!

Not only is there no line on the horizon, there’s no text on this cover; you’re looking at the actual CD cover. This is a powerful tribute to the minimalist power of Sugimoto’s work.

I find little correspondence between Sugimoto’s art and the music on this release, however. Don’t look for any spacious ballads or introspective serenades on this release. This is Bono crooning and The Edge strumming with all their might from start to finish.

To see more of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s beautiful work, click on the image below: