Crossing Nebraska

Surely this spring will not be remembered as just any other spring. For just as the crocuses are teasing us with tender blossoms and their promise of new life, so it is that hardship and even death lurk just over the horizon. A global pandemic has already taken some of us, and it will take an unknown number more. Surely all can see that life will not be the same for quite some time, if ever.
How strange it is to lose that which we’ve taken so for granted! I now look back with fondness at the simple joy of sitting in a coffee shop on a weekend morning. And I lament that we were too busy to take my wife out for a nice meal on her birthday this past weekend, the last weekend we could have done so before the restaurants were ordered closed. I also just happened to visit the library earlier this week to renew my card, only to be told that they’d be closing the following day. How strange it is to say goodbye to one thing after another that all seemed so commonplace as to hardly be worth me…

There were many itinerant teachers at the time of the Buddha, going village to village begging for alms, and providing teachings to those who would listen. Not surprisingly, they would often contradict each other, thus confusing the people and perhaps even causing them distress. After all, we don’t just want to be told pretty stories, we want to know what’s true. And so it was that the Kalamas of Kesaputta were hoping that the Buddha might ease their troubled minds:
[They] said to the Blessed One, "Lord, there are some brahmans and contemplatives who come to Kesaputta. They expound and glorify their own doctrines, but as for the doctrines of others, they deprecate them, revile them, show contempt for them, and disparage them. And then other brahmans and contemplatives come to Kesaputta. They expound and glorify their own doctrines, but as for the doctrines of others, they deprecate them, revile them, show contempt for them, and disparage them. They leave us absolutely uncertain an…

Shunryu Suzuki summarized Buddhism in two words: “everything changes.” Indeed, Buddhism itself changes as it moves from country to country, culture to culture, and down through the ages. Our individual practice will continue to change and evolve as well. The passage of time and the changing of circumstances may well take our teachers from us, our practice communities, and perhaps even the meaningfulness of those practices that we once thought central to our path. We may find ourselves much like the storied hermit monks of long ago, with only our will and whatever truth we’ve come to realize to guide us through the dharmic landscape.



I’m not quite a hermit, but I do live in a small country town now, far away from anything one might consider overtly “Buddhist.” That’s probably just as well, though. I’m at a place in my practice where I believe very little, and practice communities seem all too often to fairly reek of belief. Meditating with a group of people can be a very powerfully gu…

Greetings! On the heels of some life changes, my writing headed off in a slightly different direction – more intimate and expansive all at the same time. I could have continued posting these new offerings here on Crossing Nebraska (which I will continue to maintain and cultivate). However, given the abundance of variously flavored posts contained herein – spanning over five years now – it seemed more appropriate to start a new blog altogether.
Please check out my new Heartland Contemplative website. It will showcase both prose and poetry, as well as photographs mostly taken in the countryside surrounding my home. I’ll likely cross-pollinate the two blogs from time to time, but for now I’ll be concentrating on content for Heartland Contemplative. Also, you’ll be able to find out what I’m up to in a number of interconnected ways. Please check out the Heartland Contemplative presence on WordPress, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I appreciate it!
Copyright 2018 by Mark Robert Frank

As stated in my previous post on the subject, what Buddhists refer to as enlightenment is nothing other than a profound realization of the most fundamental truth regarding the emptiness of all things (sunyata in Sanskrit). Myriad other Buddhist teachings can be understood as various facets of this diamond-like truth. For example, it is emptiness that has us speaking in terms of dependent origination, interbeing, and the non-dual; and it is emptiness that has us speaking of the three marks of existence: the impermanence of all things, the lack of inherent selfhood of all things, and the unsatisfactory nature of all things. The last of these, by the way, is merely the first noble truth – the truth of suffering – viewed from a slightly different angle.



However, it is the second noble truth that points to the fundamental difficulty of human existence: our almost unrelenting tendency to overlay the infinite potential inherent in the emptiness of all things with our own finite and often do…

Good Friday marks the day of Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion, his death by all appearances at the time. And if that were the end of the story, Christianity likely would not have grown to be the religion it is today; for suffering and death do not convey much in the way of Good News. A resurrected Christ, on the other hand, one who is raised up from the dead – now that is a reason for untold joy! Such is Easter, the holiest of holy days for Christians around the world. Jesus died for our sins, that we may live forever. This is the truth for millions of Christians.



The first noble truth of Buddhism is the truth of suffering. Like the passion of the Christ, however, this truth alone does not convey a very hopeful message either. It is the truth of the path, the fourth noble truth that conveys the good news of the Buddha’s teaching. Thus, the Buddha didn’t die for us. He lived such that through his example of heightened awareness we might liberate ourselves. “Watchfulness is the path of…