creator, preserver, and destroyer

statue from Tamil Nadu, Chola Dynasty, India

As a symbol, Shiva Nataraja is a brilliant invention. 

It combines in a single image Shiva's roles as creator, preserver, and destroyer 

of the universe and conveys the Indian conception of the never-ending cycle of time. 

Although it appeared in sculpture as early as the fifth century, its present, 

world-famous form evolved under the rule of the Cholas. 

Shiva's dance is set within a flaming halo. 

The god holds in his upper right hand the damaru (hand drum that made the first sounds of creation). 

His upper left hand holds agni (the fire that will destroy the universe). 

With his lower right hand, he makes abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). 

The dwarflike figure being trampled by his right foot represents 

apasmara purusha (illusion, which leads mankind astray). 

Shiva's front left hand, pointing to his raised left foot, 

signifies refuge for the troubled soul. 

The energy of his dance makes his hair fly to the sides.

~ description by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beneath its diversity and complexity, the underlying unity of Hinduism has correspondences with the inward dimension of the Christian faith.

~ Ursula King

only breath

~ Rumi

with Coleman Barks

after long busyness

I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk.

Moon gone, plowing underfoot, no stars, not a trace of light!

Suppose a horse were galloping toward me in this open field?

Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.

~ Robert Bly

photo by michael totten

creativity - authority - self-knowledge

There is no method for self-knowledge. 

Seeking a method invariably implies the desire to attain some result and that is what we all want. We follow authority - if not that of a person, then of a system, of an ideology - because we want a result that will be satisfactory, which will give us security. We really do not want to understand ourselves, our impulses and reactions, the whole process of our thinking, the conscious as well as the unconscious; we would rather pursue a system that assures us of a result. But the pursuit of a system is invariably the outcome of our desire for security, for certainty, and the result is obviously not the understanding of oneself. When we follow a method, we must have authorities - the teacher, the guru, the savior, the Master - who will guarantee us what we desire; and surely that is not the way to self-knowledge.

Authority prevents the understanding of oneself, does it not? Under the shelter of an authority, a guide, you may have temporarily a sense of security, a sense of well-being, but that is not the understanding of the total process of oneself. Authority in its very nature prevents the full awareness of oneself and therefore ultimately destroys freedom; in freedom alone can there be creativeness. 

There can be creativeness only through self-knowledge.

~ J. Krishnamurti

from The Book of Life

with thanks to j krishnamurti online

you can barely distinguish me

I have hymns you haven't heard.

There is an upward soaring

in which I bend close.

You can barely distinguish me

from the things that kneel before me.

They are like sheep, they are grazing.

I am the shepherd on the brow of the hill.

When evening draws them home

I follow after, the dark bridge thudding,

and the vapor rising from their backs

hides my own homecoming.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

from The Book of Monastic Life

translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

art from the cave of chauvet-pont-d'arc

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