~ Alan Watts
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Friday, November 17, 2017
There is nothing but this
.
First days of spring - blue sky, bright sun. Everything is gradually becoming fresh and green. Carrying my bowl, I walk slowly to the village. The children, surprised to see me, Joyfully crowd about, bringing My begging trip to an end at the temple gate. I place my bowl on top of a white rock and Hang my sack from the branch of a tree. Here we play with the wild grasses and throw a ball. For a time, I play catch while the children sing; Then it is my turn. Playing like this, here and there, I have forgotten the time. Passers-by point and laugh at me, asking, "What is the reason for such foolishness?" No answer I give, only a deep bow; Even if I replied, they would not understand. Look around! There is nothing but this.
~ Ryokan
Sunday, November 12, 2017
this rain
What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone,
in the forest, at night, cherished by this
wonderful, unintelligible,
perfectly innocent speech,
the most comforting speech in the world,
the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges,
and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!
Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it.
It will talk as long as it wants, this rain.
As long as it talks I am going to listen.
~ Thomas Merton
Saturday, November 11, 2017
by dying they have their living
The lovers know the loveliness
That is not of their bodies only
(Though they be lovely) but is of
Their bodies given up to love.
They find the open-heartedness
Of two desires which both are lonely
Until by dying they have their living,
And gain all they have lost in giving,
Each offering the desired desire.
Beyond what time requires, they are
What they surpass themselves to make;
They give the pleasure that they take.
~ Wendell Berry
from Sabbaths, 1997 V
Painting by Chagall
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
seek the mystery
The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery.
If you seek the mystery instead of the answer,
you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer.
They think they have, so they stop thinking.
But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery,
plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom.
The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
~ Ken Kesey
from The Art of Fiction - interview by Robert Faggen,
The Paris Review No. 130 (Spring 1994)
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Friday, October 27, 2017
metaphors and symbols
Someone who found the inner path
who, dedicated to deep meditation,
got a glimpse of this essential truth,
that we choose God and World
only as metaphors and symbols.
Every thought and action then
becomes an inner conversation,
a meeting between God and World.
~ Hermann Hesse
from The Seasons of the Soul
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water
Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected
even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon
and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass,
or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you,
just as the moon does not break the water.
You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water
does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop
is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long
or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop,
and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected
even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon
and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass,
or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you,
just as the moon does not break the water.
You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water
does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop
is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long
or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop,
and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.
~ Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253)
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Friday, October 13, 2017
You Are Tired (I Think) by e.e.cummings
You are tired,
(I think)
Of the always puzzle of living and doing;
And so am I.
Come with me, then,
And we’ll leave it far and far away—
(Only you and I, understand!)
You have played,
(I think)
And broke the toys you were fondest of,
And are a little tired now;
Tired of things that break, and—
Just tired.
So am I.
But I come with a dream in my eyes tonight,
And I knock with a rose at the hopeless gate of your heart—
Open to me!
For I will show you places Nobody knows,
And, if you like,
The perfect places of Sleep.
Ah, come with me!
I’ll blow you that wonderful bubble, the moon,
That floats forever and a day;
I’ll sing you the hyacinth song
Of the probable stars;
I will attempt the unstartled steppes of dream,
Until I find the Only Flower,
Which shall keep (I think) your little heart
While the moon comes out of the sea.
~ e.e.cummings
Sunday, October 8, 2017
the wise silence
We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole;
the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.
And this deep power in which we exist, and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
from The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
The Over-Soul
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
telling a story to her own ears
Every word of every tongue is
Love telling a story to her own ears.
Every thought in every mind,
She whispers a secret to her own Self.
Every vision in every eye,
She shows her beauty to her own sight.
Every smile on every face,
She reveals her own joy for herself to enjoy.
Love courses through everything,
No, Love is everything.
How can you say, there is no love,
when nothing but Love exists?
All that you see has appeared because of Love.
All shines from Love,
All pulses with Love,
All flows from Love--
No, once again, all IS Love!
~ Fakhruddin Iraqi
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