Truth is not found.

Contemporary exponents of Buddhism tend to
address contemporary issues
facing a contemporary audience.
But in the rush to relevance
a feeling for the density and gravity of tradition can be lost.
The sociologist Robert Bellah observes that,
living as we do at a time when our social institutions are in alarming decline,
contemporary forms of spirituality that exalt individualism –
the personal journeys of individuals seeking spiritual self-interest –
over community and tradition may be doing more to contribute to our social pathology
than to ameliorate it. Religious traditions – at least ones that are vital –
anchor individuals in a meaningful collective life.
They provide a framework that links individual spiritual aspirations to communities
extending deep into the past, far into the future, and outward into the long present.
The recalcitrance of tradition pulls against the innovative stirrings of the individual talent,
setting up a creative tension. That point of tension,
between the self and the community to which the self is bonded,
is the place where religion happens.

Andrew Cooper
The Lotus of the Wonderful Law
Tricycle, Spring 2006 issue

XVI

Owl lives in truth.
Coyoté sees that
and knows that is not where
truth lies.

But he knows this is not a time
for truth with Owl.
The dream fills
Owl’s eyes
and heart.

Some day, perhaps,
but not today.
The romance of truth
yet fills Owl’s heart.
The Dream fills his eyes,
closed
to what is.