Blue Poppy Blog: buds, seeds, thoughts

[It's a quote from The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed a wonderful, forthcoiming book by Kathleen Willis Morton. It was inked by Josh McAleer of Redemption Tattoo in Cambridge, Mass, and set in Dominican font.

These lines come from a book I had the privilege to edit for Wisdom Publications—an incredibly moving account of turning toward the most painful moments that any of us ever encounter. Lin Jensen, another of my all-time favorite authors, describe Willis Morton’s book as, “revealing in unflinching detail the way in which pain summons its own healing and restores one to one’s own natural life again.” This quote feels to me like a gatha or even a kind of prayer, succinct expression of all of my highest aspirations. The author of the book regards these lines particularly as a kind of “terma”, a gift from her infant son who would die seven weeks after being born. These words are comfort for me in difficulty and always an invitation, a reminder, to really be the person I mean to be. The layout of the words is meant to evoke a Japanese temple bell, the bell that calls us to the Dharma Hall, calls us to service.

These two tattoos on my upper arms feel to like kind friends, beings riding around on my shoulders looking out for me, guiding me, calling me back.

Words have always held a special place for me, always been especially important and vital for me, and now with these tattoos I actually have three different languages tattooed on my body: Sino-Japanese, Sanskrit, and English. It somehow seems to me very fitting. And this fits well with my Dharma name, Mu’nen, which in one translation means “Beyond words.” I like the irony.