flight

The modern pagan, the child of technology or the “mass man,” does not even enjoy the anguish of dualism or the comfort of myth. His anxieties are no longer born of eternal aspiration, though they are certainly rooted in a consciousness of death. “Mass man” is something more than fallen. He lives not only below the level of grace, but below the level of nature—below his own humanity. No longer in contact with the created world or with himself, out of touch with the reality of nature, he lives in the world of collective obsessions, the world of systems and fictions with which modern man has surrounded himself. In such a world, man’s life is no longer even a seasonal cycle. It’s a linear flight into nothingness, a flight from reality and from God, without purpose and without objective, except to keep moving, to keep from having to face reality….

~ Thomas Merton

from Seasons of Celebration

art by picasso

the beauty

~ John O'Donohue

as we climb higher

As we climb higher, we say this.

It is not soul or mind, nor does it possess

imagination, conviction, speech or understanding.

It does not live nor is it life.  It is not a 

substance, nor is it eternity or time.

It is not wisdom.

It is neither one nor oneness, divinity nor goodness.

It falls neither within the predicate of nonbeing nor being.

It is beyond assertion and denial.  We make assertions and

denials of what is next to it, but never of it, for it is both beyond

every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things,

and by virtue of its pre-eminently simple and absolute nature,

free of every limitation,

beyond every limitation;

it is also beyond every denial.

~ Pseudo-Dionysius

art from Sistine Chapel images

unsophisticated teachers say

Unsophisticated teachers say that God is pure

being.  He is as high above being as the highest

angel is above a gnat.  I would be speaking as incorrectly

in calling God a being as if I called the sun pale or black.

God is neither this or that.

~ Meister Eckhart

the parents poem

It’s a good idea to figure what to do with parents.

One man I knew, after caring for them for years,

Led them across a busy street—two lines of traffic.

He started a lost colony for his parents.

He bought them big boots and pith helmets.

He sent his parents into battle. He dressed

Them in Austrian uniforms and gave them

Maps of Russia. No one ever saw them again.

Another man built a furnace and put his parents

Into it. He got some tincture, and tried to tran-

Substantiate his parents. It took a long time

And used a lot of heat, but there wasn't much change.

A neighbor stored them in an empty cistern—the ladder

Is still sticking out. He took them to Kenya

And got his parents to take a walk with the elephants.

And they died all right . . . But by the end,

They knew for sure that they’d had children.

~ Robert Bly

art by gene kloss

chinese foot chart

Every part of us

alerts another part.

Press a spot in 

the tender arch and 

feel the scalp

twitch.  We are no

match for ourselves

but our own release.

Each touch

uncatches some 

remote lock.  Look,

boats of mercy

embark from

our heart at the 

oddest knock.

~ Kay Ryan

from The Best of It

awareness

Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. 

Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. 

There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something.

 Consciousness is partial and changeful, 

awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. 

And it is the common matrix of every experience.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

from I AM THAT

nowness

The essence of realization is nowness, 

Occurring all at once, with nothing to add or subtract. 

Self-liberation, innate great bliss, 

Free from hope or fear is the fruition.

~ Marpa

 from his song of realization and experience

with thanks to life love yoga

sense of presence

This sense of presence, 

it is not the sense that I am present, you are present, or any individual is present. 

The sense of presence is the sense of presence, as such. 

Because one identifies oneself with his body, 

he thinks he is born and is going to die. 

What is born is the general sense of presence, as such. 

The sense of presence which has come spontaneously will leave spontaneously.

~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

beyond myself

When my heart came to rule

in the world of love,

it was freed

from both belief

and from disbelief.

On this journey,

I found the problem

to be myself.

When I went beyond myself,

the pathway finally opened.

~ Mahsati Ganjavi

translation by David and Sabrineh Fideler

Mahsati Ganjavi lived during the 12th century, born in Ganje, Azerbaijan. Her poetry was a strong voice against prejudice and hypocrisy and patriarchy, while upholding love -- both human and divine.

She was celebrated at the court of Sultan Sanjar for her rubaiyat (quatrains), but later persecuted for her courageous stand against overly dogmatic religion and arbitrary male dominance.

Comments by eric at poetry chaikhana

the dark and mysterious virtue

The Tao gives birth to all of creation.

The virtue of Tao in nature nurtures them,

and their families give them their form.

Their environment then shapes them into completion.

That is why every creature honors the Tao and its virtue.

No one tells them to honor the Tao and its virtue,

it happens all by itself.

So the Tao gives them birth,

and its virtue cultivates them,

cares for them,

nurtures them,

gives them a place of refuge and peace,

helps them to grow and shelters them

It gives them life without wanting to posses them,

and cares for them expecting nothing in return.

It is their master, but it does not seek to dominate them.

This is called the dark and mysterious virtue.

~ Lao Tzu

from the Tao Te Ching

Paul Cézanne

Born: 19 January 1839

Aix-en-Provence, France

Died: 22 October 1906 (aged 67)

Aix-en-Provence, France

The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects, a searching gaze and a dogged struggle to deal with the complexity of human visual perception.

self portrait

Throughout his life he struggled to develop an authentic observation of the seen world by the most accurate method of representing it in paint that he could find.

~ Paul Cézanne

comments from wikipedia

many-roofed building in moonlight

I found myself

suddenly voluminous,

three-dimensioned, 

a many-roofed building in moonlight.

Thought traversed 

me as simply as moths might. 

Feelings traversed me as fish.

I heard myself thinking,

It isn't the piano, it isn't the ears.

Then heard, too soon, the ordinary furnace, 

the usual footsteps above me.

Washed my face again with hot water,

as I did when I was a child.

~ Jane Hirshfield

poetry, mythology and fairy stories

the task

It is a simple garment, this slipped-on world.

We wake into it daily -- open eyes, braid hair --

a robe unfurled

in rose-silk flowering, then laid bare.

And yes, it is a simple enough task

we've taken on,

though also vast:

from dusk to dawn,

from dawn to dusk, to praise, and not

be blinded by the praising.

To lie like a cat in hot

sun, fur fully blazing,

and dream the mouse;

and to keep too the mouse's patient, waking watch

within the deep rooms of the house,

where the leaf-flocked

sunlight never reaches, but the earth still blooms.

~ Jane Hirshfield

from The October Palace

thanks to Ivan at poetry chaikhana