Java Zen:Thinking Out Loud Wednesday, 2024.04.24 
Whenever any phenomenon reaches its extreme, it will change toward its opposite,
just as the darkest night begins to change toward dawn, and the coldest winter
is followed by glorious spring. Therefore, anything that one wishes to destroy
need only be led to its extreme or crushed while it is just appearing. For
example, the two easiest times to destroy a tree are when it is so tall that it
is about to topple or so young that it can be easily uprooted.

The same principle holds if one wishes to nurture something. You can prevent its
destruction by bringing it close to, but not over, its apex. You can take a
branch from an old tree and graft it. This is the wisdom of the middle ground.

		Deng Ming-Dao, "365 Tao - Daily Meditations", #80

2005.10.14

Once more unto the breach, dear friends – Cherubim Foundation’s Future

I’d like to start with a brief measure of your moral and ethical fortitude. Imagine you are coming out of a store and you see a car pull out of a parking space and smash into another car. You watch as the car drives away, making note of the offending driver’s easy to remember vanity license plate. As far as you know, you are the only one to have witnessed this accident. How would you respond? Would you call the police? Leave a note on the damaged car? Or would you just get on with your life and not get involved? Image the same story, except you recognize the damaged car as belonging to a friend you had met while shopping. Now what would you do? Your response to these scenarios will help put what follows in context.

This past August I was on an island in the South Pacific, relaxing into a little space to clear my mind and find some peace since Janet’s death in April. The month after her death had required my full attention as I worked to provide a memorial for family, Janet’s extended and impressive network of friends and any members of the public who wished to show their respect. Concurrent with and following this event has been a depressing solitary process of disassembling what remained of Janet’s life – her cremation, her psychotherapy practice, her business interests, her bank accounts, her medications, her clothes and uncounted smaller changes that if nothing else reminded me she was gone. Sorting through many, many thoughts and memories on Kaua`i, what emerged were five or six key areas I wanted to focus on in hopes of rebuilding a foundation for the future. (more…)

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