April NonRequired Reading List

Contemplify / NRR #89

“Zen Master Dōgen taught that practice meant seeing ourselves making one mistake after another. Enlightenment expands awareness of this state of affairs. So the life of a Zen master then, according to Dōgen, is one continuous mistake.”

— Tracy Cochran

I get a big kick out of the Zen Master Dōgen quote above. This is a kissing cousin to what Jesus meant by “stay awake”. When we succumb to heavy-lidded sleepiness instead of surrendering to Divine Mystery we scapegoat god as the troublemaker who lit this whole conflagration but does not bother showing up to extinguish the mess. Tossing this tiny god onto the burn pile we are lulled back into sleep. We do our meager little practice not because it saves the world, but it saves us from our sluggish contortions of reality. 

Contemplative practice is consenting to being present to all of reality, even the crooked pathways. In practice, we bear witness to our unbridled minds berating smug politicos and pundits, taking flights of fantasy, and writing to-do lists in invisible ink. On this level, our attention snaps to and is burdened by what it sees—an endless supply of distracting thoughts galloping by.

Simultaneously, in practicing wakefulness we sense a shift on another level. A softening reception, a regarding of a glimmering that reflects off reality’s mirror (the galloping thoughts may continue, or slow to a trot, or sometimes even pause their clomping all together. The still thoughts look so docile then, cute even, turning their gaze back to you with their long taciturn faces. I digress). As our awareness expands, we draw near and forgive what interferes with this reception and reflection. Seeing the paradox of reality leads to the forgiveness of it and increases a desire to live in the unforced embrace of reality. To really get up into the armpit of reality. To wear its sweaty, salted fragrance. To be entangled in its hairy mess.

In contemplative practice our attention learns to bear, embrace, and forgive reality. Surrender even further, the mind cliff dives into the lakebed of the heart, surfacing on the banks of an undivided field¹. Once your toes sink into this unbroken field an impetus to play bursts forth. Resulting in more agency, not less. 

My practice is teaching me to watch myself make one mistake after another without judgment. Attentive when I get cheeky with my kids, unconsciously glaze over in Zoom meetings, take my wife for granted, or egoically carry a weight that is not mine to carry. Equally so, my practice is teaching me to watch my supposed wins without judgment…when I am patient with my kids, when I consciously glaze over in Zoom meetings, celebrate my wife’s amazingness, or quietly lend a hand to help carry a weight that is not my own. 

The yield that blossoms out of an undivided field is a yes to life. Not necessarily an approval, but a yes of participation. 

Embrace life as it is. Opportunities for wakeful forgiving and embracing surround us, from an undivided field we become unsure of when we are forgiving and when we are embracing, and we feel more settled into life becoming one continuous mistake.

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Contemplify is joyful work, like watching the full moon rise over the Sandia Mountains. A pressing glow. A midnight spotlight. A nightlight for the late night lake swimmers. To hold a gaze upon the moon as the moon smiles back, a pancaked reflection of the cosmos. The simplest way I can speak of this pursuit is this—Contemplify kindles the examined life for contemplatives in the world. Thank you to all who support Contemplify by dropping in on the offerings. For those who wish to support Contemplify through monetary means, press the button below. Becoming a paid subscriber is a both kindness and supportive slap on the back. It humbles me and keeps the jukebox plugged in. Some folks want to support just for the sake of supporting Contemplify (a deep bow to you folks), but paid subscribers are also automatically invited to the weekly Lo-Fi & Hushed Practice Session on Wednesday mornings. Good, clean, unglamorous contemplative fun.² Hope to see you there.

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April NonRequired Reading List

Poetry Books (links below)

April is National Poetry Month. Poetry should be read all year, if not every day. Here are few books of poetry that I have enjoyed (or re-enjoyed) as a part of my morning practice.

• Touch the Earth: Poems on the Way by Drew Jackson (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop): Touch the Earth companioned me during Lent, linking sacred text with the song of current day poetics. On this revisit, the poems flicked my eyelashes open by their craft and wordplay harkening new insights. You can see my original recommendation here, and it includes a snapshot of one of the poems, “These Bags”.

• Daywork: Poems by Jessica Fisher (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop): Milkweed Editions continues to be a favorite publishing house of mine, fearless in their dedication to the work that is theirs to do. Fisher’s poetry fits squarely in the irregular shelves of poetry that stirs me, works that feel as longterm as a memory within the flash of this little light of a light. I must have read the title poem, “Daywork” a dozen times, wringing it out further with each go.

• Earth Again by Chris Dombrowski (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop): Chris Dombrowski has been interviewed twice on Contemplify (hear here and here), his books have speckled the lists of these emails for years now. I do not tire of words. The particular eye of his poetry is sharpened by a guileless curiosity for what is in the natural world. Start with any of his work, but for right now begin with “Possible Psalm”.

My hope is you find the poetry that lights you up and sharpens your axe. Forget the icky words of unresonate cuckoos that disembody your poetic sensibilities.

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm in a Busy World by Haemin Sunim (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop)

This month ‘slowness’ was a theme that presented itself to me. The first three months of the year blasted out of a canon, all of April I have been catching up to myself and picking up the pieces. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down was a book I had never heard of—which means nothing as I don’t know most books—but when its title met me twice in as many days I knew I had to pick it up.

Haemin Sunim, a Zen Buddhist teacher, whose public teaching took flight when he started responding to earnest questions with pithy, original remarks (reminded me of a more gentle version of Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files, which I highly recommend) Sunim breaks the book into five chapters; rest, mindfulness, passion, relationships, and love. I listened to this book on my runs, the rhythm of my feet on the pavement syncopated with the beats of the book. Slowing the mind, while speeding the body opened me to simple lines of attraction, “I wish you could see my true nature. Beyond my body and labels, there is a river of tenderness and vulnerability” and instructive reminders, “If I had to summarize the entirety of most people’s lives in a few words, it would be endless resistance to what is. As we resist, we are in constant motion trying to adjust, and yet we still remain unhappy about what is.” No gigantic a-has or change of course occurred, but a slow book met an absorptive mind that did not run while my legs pumped out the miles.

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down is for those who need a reminder that you do not have to move at the pace of a sick culture.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport (Get it at the Public Library or Bookshop)

A favorite mantra of mine is “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” Razzle dazzle has its place, but a slow pace is most conducive for the majority of relationships and projects in my life. Cal Newport’s 2016 book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World furthered my thinking on this, radically expanding how my approach to work could align with a contemplative embodiment (hear my conversation with Cal Newport here).³

Slow productivity is a “philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner, based on the following three principles: Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality.”⁴ Thing rings my bell. Slow productivity does not align with a capitalistic mindset and is it not possible in a lot of work sectors. I still think that embodying these principles can flood over the walls of influence. For example, whether in your personal life or on work projects, “once you commit to doing something very well, busyness becomes intolerable. In other words, this third principle (obsess over quality) helps you stick with the first (do fewer things).”⁵ The most helpful part of Slow Productivity are the examples of connecting the dots of the aforementioned principles.

Slow Productivity is for any reader who seeks good work⁶ as a gift, a vehicle of transformation, and a means to be a supportive contributor to the communities they participate.

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Contemplify Update

Season Five is getting real, conversations in the can and real excited to have them hit your ears as invitations to wonder. As always you can find the complete list of Contemplify episodes here and below are the three most recent episodes.

• Reduced to the Scale of Our Competence (Season 4, Ep 15 Bonus)

• Eat the Wild Thing (Season 4, Ep 14 Bonus)

• Lo-Fi & Hushed / 2023 Winter Solstice Session / To Know the Dark (Season 4, Ep 13 Bonus)

All episodes are available from Contemplify through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get delicious podcasts.

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Arts & Articles

THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING PROFESSOR WHO LIKED TO COLLABORATE WITH HIS ADVERSARIES by Cass R. Sunstein (NYT): Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman called it “adversarial collaboration”. It is when you engage in a project with someone who you are in deep disagreement, based on the data of your study. Working together you might learn something new, and might be of wider service to the world. Man oh man, this is my jam, can we get some more “adversarial collaboration” in politics, religion, and the media?

COWBOY CARTER by Beyoncé (Apple Music): I was late to this party, but am staying to the end. Beyoncé has made a complete album, highlights are aplenty and layered. Tip of the cowboy hat.

GREYBEARD: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MISSISSIPPI directed by Zak Rivers, Alex Maier, Amy Robin (YouTube): Floating down the Mississippi has been an adventure I have dreamed of for years, watching an 87-year old man do it only adds fuel.

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A yield blossoms
out
of an undivided field.
Yes to life.
Not approval,
participation. 

In the armpit,
Paul

All Bookshop links give a kickback to a local New Mexico bookstore and to Contemplify. What a kindness.

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1. This is ever present, but usually ignored from bossy and stampeding four-legged thoughts, unbroken field.

2. Contemplify never wants money to be a filthy barrier to practice, not everyone has the means. So if you want to practice weekly with this contemplative basecamp at Lo-Fi & Hushed but aren’t able to offer support, no sweat, follow the instructions here.

3. In regards to work, I also love the book ReWork.

4. Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, 1st Edition. (New York: Portfolio, 2024), p.8

5. Cal Newport, Slow Productivity, p.177

6. Good work as I loosely call it here, is not easy work or easily found. There are a lot of demeaning and oppressive jobs out there. This book is not a panacea.