today's topic here at communitas dies
(that's Dee - ayss)
HAPPENS TO BE GARDENS
somehow i think it wise that a discussion
for any sort of community start with the idea of
the garden
the first question perhaps should be
"are we going to have a garden?"
or
"do i crave a return to the garden of eden?"
or
"if the heavenly banquet is a given don't we need to presume
that a garden is in the picture somewhere?"
or
"just what does the earth know anyway?"
i love gardens but i also love the places where
water washes out of the mountains the places where
rivers start and i love rivers
gardens require water and sunlight and love i would guess
what happens to food when we dissociate the human concept of love
from the garden
i recently encountered a woman and i won't say her name
but she has written a book and and the book's title
well if i say that then then i give away the name don't i
let's just say i'm mulling it over
i'm letting it mulch in my soul
anyway
this woman is a sort of missionary for the life of gardens
i guess she sees gardens as the path to possible peace in the world
so she launches herself into the garden agenda with italian gusto
with all the intensity of mother cabrini on a bright day
my immediate sense is
this girl is correct in saying gardens are very important
reclaiming urban disaster zones with gardens is a very good idea
an idea whose time has come
it would also be a good thing to make huge community garden projects
in the suburbs and then designed into new subdivisions as well
garden mania should take over the country
this absolutely brilliant and beautiful girl out of amherst
this damsel of amherst as it were
at least seems to have a sense that benedictines are entrenched
in the old idea of sustainability
one might go so far as to say we are the prototype
for western culture..but agrarian traditions were taught to the monks too
and the nuns....copies of virgils' georgics date back to the 7th and 8th centuries
garden life is a way of knowing community
it's a way of knowing how a variety of growing things
can exist together quite well and it is a way of knowing
that people like food
the problem with communitas dies
is that at this point it is merely rhetorical
still i propose the garden as the UR image
for this little project
which i guess means if someone has some shit
to throw down on the ground
we may just have to consider that
but my bigger hope is that it would be a place of seeds
this disturbingly stunning beautiful vivacious passionate
woman on a mission to whom i obliquely refer is a believer in seeds
she's a seed girl
so she has planted a little seed in my garden thoughts
you too - when you feel the urge to embrace the garden
embrace the simple need for clean water and bright sunlight
embrace the stirring of birds and the flying flitting things
do feel free to plant here
do you have a thought about how a community could exist
in a dignified and noble way like a plentious garden in a place
where once there once was no hope
here i wish to offer a little personal story
at what now appears in retrospect as
the worst and darkest days of my monastic formation
i was assigned to work in the garden
day after day i did simple tasks of weeding
pulling yanking weeds hauling dirt tilling soil
stretching lines making rows dropping seed
being rather dusty and dirty every day
and looking back now i am conscious of a few "life giving"
awarenesses that came into my mind during that time
one was
there is life in working the complete cycle of a garden
marching through the whole pattern of waking from winter
preparing the soil planting the seed cultivating the rows
bringing the water to bear
harvest storage offering eating and putting the plot to rest
going through that whole cycle is important
i think i would not see the world the same had i not done that
over the course of ten yrs or so year after year
there's something to be said for
the GARDEN...
this veritable force of flowers from the garden
is something important
she is a lady of extreme critical importance
she is a planter and a gifter of seeds
she so wants to restore the intimacy between
the garden and the table and the human mind in its
goodness
already i'm returning to dream of the garden cycle
i am being drawn back in
i can feel it...
plant seeds not bombs
St. Fiacre don't be far away from us
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ReplyDeletemy parents had a garden
ReplyDeletein the vacant lot next to our house
when i grew up
sweet corn was the crop
i remember best
but potatoes were my contribution
i grew potatoes every year
i remember pumpkins too
they sort of took over
and i remember my parents
going through all sorts of schemes
to keep the deer away from the corn
and have-a-heart traps for the racoons
they kept coming
we wondered whether they kept finding
their way back from the place
where he dropped them off five miles away
i had pet sheep too
did i ever tell you that?
they lived in the log cabin
that my dad built for us
as a playhouse in the wooded backyard
i would clean the poop-laden straw out of the cabin
and add it to the compost pile for the garden
there
i've laid down my sh*t
i feel lucky that my parents
were into gardening
this is some good sh@t
ReplyDeletesally
i wonder however if my initial
inquiry could be useful
i mean
if we know all that is good
to make the garden grow
then do we also establish something
about a community vision
a paradigm as it were
from which other community awareness
might spring forth
a community needs to be a place
where people are interested in
helping other people to grow
trees are part of every good garden
it would seem to me
and maybe a tree house too
i'm in a state of suspended
cognition in regards to my
community life
on the other hand i'm
turning my thoughts to
newer possibilities
Yo le gustan las jardines...
ReplyDeletebut not the usual prim and orderly
sorts typical of suburbia.
Gardens should be exotic, overflowing
bougainvilla, heliotropes, ferns,
herbs, begonias, roses, camelias
or choice cannabis, rare cacti and "papaver somniferum", with colored birds, and swallowtails...covered by large leafy trees, oaks, cedars....accompanied by a fountain, or statue of Nuestra Madre....or Gautama in some
discreet corner . Or something like that.
Serio, jh---do you know anything about Oblate-ness? I have considered perhaps applying for Oblate...busy schedule, etc...but an Oblate position might work.
(Happy holidays, Miss S.)
a community needs to be a place
ReplyDeletewhere people are interested in
helping other people to grow
i'm going to take this thought with me for today
a seed planted
happy holidays to you too J
i've considered becoming an oblate at
st andrews abbey in valeyermo
i've never quite gotten around to it
but it is still a thought my mind
returns to from time to time
it's about time for me
to make another retreat there
getting back to community though
it occurs to me now
that the buddhist sangha
i have now visited three times
is a place where people
are interested in helping
other people grow
o and i also want to say
ReplyDeletethat i like the birds
in the upper right corner
of this blog
Catholic tradition demands a great sacrifice. The orders are very hierarchical, even militaristic IMHE (when I visited valyermo in 90s it seemed so). The scholarship--latin, etc--may be impressive and some monks and nuns may succeed but it is quite grueling (the story of the St. Andrews group is quite impressive however ...and tragic. They were mostly belgians who escaped Mao, as you may have heard. Quite a few benedictines were killed).
ReplyDeleteBuddhism is a rather different, exotic creed ( Im not a buddhist or trad. Cat. either. Nominally, at least, episcopalian). I don't think most Americans, certainly not the beatnik sort, understand b-ism. For one they can't read sanskrit and must depend on the translations, many of which are doubtful--so they turn it into some new agey, "find your bliss" BS. The Sanghas were not so liberal though as you probably know. They are now at least in US, but weren't traditionally--though hardly as regimented as most cat. monasteries.But perhaps you are right they help people, and that could be good.
Schopenhauer understood buddhism and hinduism quite well, and perceived shall we say the entropic elements--. The buddha--at least according to the few ancient reliable texts (not the "confucius says" jive)-- was a counselor, not a....Christ, or really a philosopher, IMHE. A mortal, regardless of the legends--wise, perhaps but not a god. IN ways, buddhism may do more harm than good--it tends to promote moral relativism. Dante and Aquinas--and the NT---are not moral relativism. (scuzi rant....).
No need for scuzi's
ReplyDeleteMy involvement with Buddhism is not as a religion, but as a practice to cultivate greater awareness, to help me see myself, others and the world more clearly. It began with tapes and books of Pema Chodron, an American woman who became a Buddhist nun. She presents Buddhist practices in a way that is relevant and helpful to modern Americans, but the fact that she is a nun and a recognized teacher at a Buddhist monastery gives her some credibility and authenticity, I think. I may not be able to read the sutras in their orginal language, but maybe she can. Actually I don't know whether she can or not, but the Tibetan Buddhists at her monastery who can read them don't seem to object to what she teaches or to view it as inappropriately watered down.
The way she teaches, I don't feel like she is pushing any Buddhist dogma. Instead, she is just teaching people how to see reality for themselves. She'll say things like, "if you don't buy multiple lifetimes, just this lifetime is enough to see the patterns of unhelpful behavior we get stuck in."
The Buddhist sangha that I visit is just small group of people who meet once a week in a suburban home to meditate together and to talk. Everyone there seems to be interested in developing compassion and in reducing suffering in the world--their own and that of others.
I can see how Buddhism incompletely applied might lead to moral relativism. There seems to be a recognition that it is important for each individual to see for themselves what leads to greater happiness and what leads to suffering. For some, this might engender some painful experiments in the short term. Ultimately, however, if the practitioner allows him/herself to be aware of the pain resulting from certain actions or thoughts, I think this leads to a stronger moral center than does a religion in which moral values are proclaimed and adhered to without personal reflection.
an oblate
ReplyDeleteat least the benedictine sort
is someone who agrees to live
life according to the rule of st benedict
albeit in the world
instead of the cloister
so it requires some sense of
the inherent values within the rule
which is merely a practicum in living the gospel
there's nothing binding about being an oblate
one is free to take it seriously or not
but
the ardent oblate will probably seek to
incorporate some sort of balance of
work and prayer
it is in essence a commitment of good will
the oblate wills to incorporate the spirit
of the the rule of benedict
and the monastery wills to be a resource
for the spiritual sustenance of the individual
as per a previous comment
on the hierarchy of religious orders
the hierarchy is present as a means
of protecting the personal and physical
assets of a community
it is necessary
as or more necessary than a
board of directors of a corporation
there is hierarchy in nature
in human nature it is a way of
investing in and sustaining wisdom
it would be difficult to explain
the sort of freedom that comes
from having a "superior"
or an "abbot"
but if superior and monk or friar or nun
are on the same page with regards to christ
then the strength that comes from having
others make decisions and to appropriate physical resources like money is extremely beneficial
to anyone who is "mission" oriented
there needs be honesty and integrity
in the dynamic or else it becomes
a sordid power play
something that i suppose happens
(o i've seen it happen)
however for the most part those persons
who are given the task of being a superior
of a religious community are generally
humbled by the formidable nature of the call
the paradigm par excellence for hierarchy is still
christ with his disciples
thanks for the discussion here
jh
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ReplyDeleteSally: I agree in principle that we should, in general, develop compassion and reduce suffering in the world. There are authentic buddhists. I didn't mean to question your path. Yet for some buddhism and new age stuff becomes a type of escapism, I believe. Not all. Really, I think buddhism was (my devangari not great however) originally a health thing--right living, so forth--the dietary aspects not completely wrongheaded (I don't eat pork, very rarely beef or mutton--and westerners might do well to consider, for a few nanoseconds at least, eastern religions' mostly negative views of killing animals for food--even in terms of resources, not too bright)
ReplyDeletejh--re catholic/monastic hierarchy I have mixed feelings. Good has been done by the RCC--the jesuits in North America are hardly "as guilty" as the WASPs--yet much evil has been done as well (at times the jesuits battled against the spanish and port. military leaders, and slavers themselves--). Some hierarchy might be needed--nurses aren't doctors or professors, and laypeople not priests--but the RCC formality (including, say the...garments, etc) seems excessive and authoritarian, IMHE.
the uniquely american predisposition for individual freedom is a force against the easy recognition of the importance of hierarchy
ReplyDeleteformality is the doorstep to the freedom the heart most desires
jesuits are the pioneers (and were as early as the early 17th century) of enculturation they were famous and often times reviled within the ranks of other orders for the liberties they took in acknowledging the cultural traditions of the people they sailed around the world to serve
the case of "matteo ricci" is perhaps the most famous one the movie "the mission
is a pretty accurate description of the jesuit approach to things
nobody on this earth with all the information they could muster to tarnish them could turn me away from my admiration of the jesuits...i thank god every day for their presence in the church
jesuits and franciscans and dominicans all battled civic and military leaders on matters of justice "eusebio kino sj" there's a story to be told and told again
the fact of the matter is the jesuits were almost always right - that in itself made them suspect
one jazz theorist wrote ( I THINK IT WAS NAT HENTOFF) that african young men in 18th cent. new orleans were shipped off to jesuit academies in france where they learned classical music and they came back and taught this music in the 19th century and it was this knowledge of baroque counterpoint wedded to the polyrhythmic sense of percussion that made jazz... that and standard church hymns that were sung from the church to the cemetery that were given this synthesis of european harmonic understanding and african rhythms
i thank god for the RC hierarchy for i know there is more knowledge there than i will ever have...and that they keep the arguments for intellectual life and faith at a premium
any sense i have about a conversation for community comes to me by way of my submission to a magisterium - i need to be obedient
. (O)
< . . >
. \
. \..../
. V
jh
jesuits and franciscans and dominicans all battled civic and military leaders on matters of justice "eusebio kino sj" there's a story to be told and told again
ReplyDeletethe fact of the matter is the jesuits were almost always right - that in itself made them suspect
Yes, but....they usually lost out to the royals and the military strongmen (and the slavers)--thus the history of the RCC in the west provides additional evidence for those inclined to ...manichean readings of world history (or, alas, even...Nada-ism). Latin American history expert Im not, but in Mexico at least the Jesuits did some important work with the aztec culture and language (ie, nauhuatl). In CA as well, but the missions were not the complete triumph that some catholic figures make them seem. At the same time, I agree (tentatively) that the jesuits (but not the spanish and port royals) did bring some civilizing influences to the New World (one might say...Aristotle as much as ....JC).
one jazz theorist wrote ( I THINK IT WAS NAT HENTOFF) that african young men in 18th cent. new orleans were shipped off to jesuit academies in france where they learned classical music and they came back and taught this music in the 19th century and it was this knowledge of baroque counterpoint wedded to the polyrhythmic sense of percussion that made jazz...
Perhaps, though again....there's another side to that story--ie, jazz arising out of "sporting houses", in post-bellum Nawlins, along with some african influences (rhythm as you say). Scott Joplin's music, considered part of the roots of jazz, sounds a bit...frenchy, or maybe, mozart-y, but not exactly church music was it--though church hymns probably a slight influence on some "dixieland" music.
we cannot deny the jukejoints and the field chants in essence these two elements probably have more to do with the energy behind jazz than did the church or state mardi gras being the big splooge for the wanton expression of it all
ReplyDeletethen came the storm
jazz is perhaps the quintiessential communal music for it requires an intentive listening and conversation happening at the same time beholding all the players to hear and play poignantly all the time to a back beat
i wonder
does there exist a religious community
that uses the jazz idiom everyday
that would be interesting
if almost all the music every day
was jazz
in the morning we chant
lord open my lips
i can hear satchmo chanting that
jh
Carnivale, yes hermano I agree, mostly: authentic jazz rather than the corporate or, mafia sort seems a bit catholic in that sense, (though....there's a noirish aspect as well. Jelly Roll Morton's not attending sunday school). But according to my own somewhat...untraditional reading of catholicism, the Carnival, the holidays, the rituals and indeed entire RCC Weltanschaaung does not just spring out of one Kid Galilee, but arises from greek and roman kultur (tho im loathe to use the K word), and ultimately...hindu polytheism and sanskrit--the roots of indo-european syntax
ReplyDeleteplaying hooky and rebelling in general are part of the political nature of jazz
ReplyDeletethat and getting it on with damsels in the
back seats of 37 pontiacs
or
is that rock and roll
billie holiday had what i would call the perfect
woman's church voice clear rich and not too affected by anything other than her experience
she would be my ideal cantor
she and maybe taj mahal
ta
Miss Holiday def. had beautiful pipes but again...I hear noir, the jazz nocturne, city-scape, boozebars, goons, shadyladies, even....Muerto. Mingus does that well too. Miles Davis, 'Trane and Bill Evans- era jass (and ...later) impresses somewhat because they attempted to move beyond the speakeasy sounds, IMHE. A bit cynical ,lo siento...I doubt yr spiritual padres always approve of jazz though (or rock, or even kah-lassical). Nearly all Musick seems ...purgatorial in a sense...even the virtuosos don't lack for the occasional diabolical element--Freddy Chopin, bandleader in Perdido.
ReplyDeleteone kid galilee
ReplyDeletebeing the god dude
the alpha martyr
it is amazing to me to read everywhere
this historically insistent proposal that
RC culture is really and persian and greek thing
when in fact
it owes it's very liturgical self awareness to
judaism and nothing else
the character of la missa
is the proper retention of two
jewish ancient practices
the reading of torah
and the practice of sabbath
in constant recognition of
the passover
that's the basis of roman catholicism
that the early church mingled with
cultures both east n west is no secret
the missionaries tended to go everywhere as
fearlessly as paul who probably made it to spain
before 100 AD christians were in india and persia
and africa by 200 they were all over the mediterrainian and along the trade routes far and wide setting up shrines and whatnot
in eastern orthodox celebration it is possible to see elements of eastern aesthetics and philosophy...mainline katholikos however eschewed zoaroastrianism did not jibe with islam too well at all ever did not go the way of monophysitism did not borrow too heavily from india though shirley macclain claims jesus went to india and smoked hashish with a guru there ed baker thinks the same i suppose the apocryphal gospels and what not try to convey a bigger picture but it's all anectdotale aftere awhile
who the flock cares
arches flourid capitals styles of human representation in art - yes
considerable borrowing
philosophy - other than plato and aristotle not so much
but the whole world more or less tapped into greek thought by the time the enlightenment came around - so no surprise there
the catholic libraries have always been chock full of every and anything worth reading and saving in every culture and that's just the way things are
books are us
jh
The New Testament was written in koine greek, that's fairly evident. St. Augie insisted on that (and the gospel of St John, for one has many themes from greek philosophy...LOGOS--and not so distant from say...platonism, though the pagan elements purged. Perhaps rightfully in some cases) . The aramaic writings, peshittas, so-called hebrew, were secondary.
ReplyDeleteThe Septuagint, the ONLY source for the NT, was greek--indeed the semitic people who became "jews" owe the ptolemaic greeks for rescuing them from the pharoahs, in some sense. The primary semitic language of the ancient world was..Aramaic. Hebrew was not even codifed until 4-5 AD . And the LXX was a compendium of semitic myths-- not one single narrative. Much was left out. There are large unexplainable gaps. Between the legends of Abraham and Moses, lies what--nearly 10 centuries-- covered in like 2-3 pages in OT.
A Moises figure may have existed, but...
the evidence is sketchy, and the entire tale echoes egyptian myths. Even Spinoza calls it mostly ...myth and poetry, even until the time of Alex I's arrival.
Hegel Im not, but read between the lines of ancient history apres-Alex I and ... hellenization looks def. like a great leap for the humanity, compared to the egyptian/babylonian/semitic cavemen.
I don't believe the LXX was the basis for...Christianity or what became the LXX. In many ways, ...JC reacts against the jewish dogma (woe unto you, pharisees, scribes! etc). It's rather difficult to think JC would not have known the primary language of the area-- koine greek-- probably even latin.Aramaic was street speak. I wager JC was a hellenized semite (ie, had some greek blood), probably looked something like an egyptian or north african--Ghaddafi-like. Re the Mass I tend to think it may have originated from egyptian elements ( not so...copacetic initially but like an appeasement of the nile deities), but Ive read some saying rituals of the sort were known throughout the med. area. Passover was a strictly semitic thing, and I suspect it was not really important to the early christians--lets not forget the force of the "heretics" as well-- Marcion, gnostics. Even St Augie seems a bit...marcionic at times. As do the Orthodox churches. I suspect the Reformation and chistoso Luther brought back the Old Testament .
That is, the Septuagint, the ONLY source for the OT. Augustine said as much (and nearly called Jerome a....mentiroso).
ReplyDeletebeing part of the temple and synagogue worship was everything for the first christians
ReplyDeleteand when they went off on their own around 70 AD they took the psalms and the pattern of sabbath worship with them the eucharistic prayers the anophoras the antiphons all came from jewish worship...the rationale the apologies of justin martyr melito of sardis theodorous etc these folks were steeped in greek concepts no doubt but jesus himself was purebred jew through and through and spoke the jewish vernacular of the day aramaic which actually belongs to a very very ancient syriac tongue - thoroughly semitic lingua
the RC world is indebted to the jews for our liturgical structure and content
we are indebted to the greeks for our intellectual trajectory
jewish scholars like klausner and buber and edith stein all noted the structural adaptation of liturgical forms in the Katholicos way
it's rather a given...the life thesis of louis bouyer of the oaratory...
and once you sit in the midst of it you realize what it is
of course the pattern is conducted throughout the year to correspond to ancient agrarian rites but that is taken into full account
the big festival days at least in principle were all adapted into christian practice - that some gentilic elements sauntered in too is also a given...but we practice a faith now that is in full recognition of the covenants in the jewish narrative that preceded the way
paul and peter established the paradigm
bothe jewish guys (greek speakers no doubt)
but jewish guys through and through
the dialectic of cultural influence is interesting
the 20th century constitutes a return to
awareness that prevailed in the first 3 centuries
that's the world i know now
peace
dialexis
jh
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ReplyDeleteGrazi for commentary but your interpretation of the ..Eucharist, εὐχαριστία, as a form of Passover seems to be the minority view (even...heretical in traditional RCC and Orthodox churches). Im not a priest, and not offering a opinion on La Misa but the language itself shows the greek roots of the concept, IMHE. There were no semitic equivalents for many of the words of the New T., like Eucharist, communion, Agape (or ...Theos/Deus for that matter).
ReplyDeleteDoes Aquinas connect the Mass to the Old T?. No claims do I make as Thomist, but the sections of the Summa Ive read rarely refer to the OT. At times Aquinas refers to...Isaiah, or Ezekiel, the later prophetic books. Usually he's alluding to.."The Philosopher" (Aristotle), or Augustine, or sections of the New T. ( more often than not, Aristotle). He at times even mentions muslim scribes (Avicenna). The eastern churches still insist on the LXX. Ergo, I am still convinced the dogmatic readings of the OT did not occur until Reformation days.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(f-ed up editing)
ReplyDeleteActually jh didn't mean to let loose scorpions in your garden--lo siento for that . But Im for recognizing scorpions exist, even....in human form--for insta-metaphor of the AM (for that matter, arachnids, or ...plagues would be as much a part of the... Hylemorphic Being as....Augustines ...)
perhaps as long as we see the scorpions as
ReplyDeletebeautiful and the spiders as somehow necessary
the garden can withstand anything
jh
Yes, we might: what remarkable order and complexity, so forth That is until a emperor scorp's crawling up your leg, or on the gentry's scones, or hundreds swarming on the convent floors. Eek! Then not so remarkable. I doubt few humans, even the most pious, would call any number of diseases--cholera, influenza, TB plague, cancer, STDs-- beautiful however. Yet per Aristotelian trad. they are all part of the divine Substance as well, or at least manifestations thereof.
ReplyDelete