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DharmaGlimpsesA Tattered Cover Bookstore Close EncounterBy Bob Doi Being among the first to enter Tattered, I am like anearly bird darting, pecking in random curiosity, beingdrawn to the colorful book jackets with captivatingtitles. Eventually meandering into the Zen section IAbsorbing his wisdom reminds me of a Tai-chi cen-tering movement from the yin to the yangposition. Closing my eyes to imagine a one thought/movement in unison, I am aware of the full cycle ofone breath, the effortless next breath; my body is nowa vessel sitting erect. As I slowly open my eyes a woman in a Lotus pos-ture seems to be levitating a foot above the carpet.ets. As I look intensely into her eyes this focal pointretreats to a point between us. The hairs on my bodyprickle with this overpowering current. This suddenrapport, mysterious yet natural, has its own language.Is she testing me? Unruffled, she sits tall, graceful,so serene. She has found the elusive Middle Way, centered inher true nature, being effortlessly present. Experienc-ing this level of awareness is a rare opportunity totune into my true nature. We meditate facing each other in deep conscious-ness until someone says, “Jung? Try lower level, first.”She rises, smiles through me while stretching, turnsand disappears before I can react. That pit in my stom-ach loneliness hits hard, suddenly leaves just asquickly. I didn’t lose a soul-mate, I gained an insight. Some-thing unique, beyond words happened. An energy wasfelt, one that came to fruition as a powerful entity. Iknow she will be back in many different forms if I letgo of her present one. She is pure energy, the Ch’ipower in all of us!Comical KarmaAvoid excessivethinkingthat reallymeans...Book ReviewThe Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough(reviewed by Barbara Smuts)NATURE’S POWER TO EVOKE AWEAND GRATITUDE Several years ago I took a day off from research on wild dolphinsto walk miles of remote Australian beach. To the west, the meetingof sea and sky was barely discernible; to the east, searing desertextended 2,000 miles. For hours I walked through this exquisite butbarren landscape in utter silence, mourning a recent personalloss. Suddenly, with no warning, the hollow feeling within mergedwith the emptiness all around into a singular, stunning void thatengulfed me with dizzying speed. I collapsed to the ground, re-duced to a tiny isolated speck in a vast, impersonal universe. Istruggled to a sitting position, blinking in the midday glare, search-ing for something, anything, to bring me back to my ordinary self.Nothing. Despite the sun’s heat, I felt cold and I was afraid. Then, as if from a great distance, I heard a faint, familiar soundthat brought immense relief. A few hundred yards away a dozencormorants were gathering at the sea’s edge to dry their wet, oilywings, squawking and scrambling as they settled into their placeson the sand. I drew closer, hoping fiercely that they wouldn’t rise upin flight, and beheld the luminous surface of their dark feathers.Those birds could have been anywhere, but instead by some miraclethey were right there, then, with me. I felt wave upon wave of grati-tude for their existence and for the existence of all sentient beings. In The Sacred Depths of Nature, Ursula Goodenough, one ofAmerica’s leading cell biologists and a professor of biology at Wash-ington University, gives voice to many such moments of commun-ion with nature. The recognition of nature’s power to evoke emo-tions such as awe and gratitude is, of course, not new, asGoodenough acknowledges in her introduction. Two aspects ofher approach, however, are novel. Continued on next page...

Universal Teachings For Everyday Living Page 3

Universal Teachings For Everyday Living Page 3

start reading “Essays in Zen Buddhism” by D.T. Suzuki.

Her eyes sear a path through the back of my eye sock-

by Kanon and Koyo Kubose 1999