souvenir

I would like

to take something with me

but even one chair

is too awkward

too heavy

peeling paint

falls off in a suitcase

hinge sounds betray a theft

cheeses won't keep

the clothespin 

without its surroundings 

would be mediocre

the big thunder rolled elsewhere

the umbrella is for sale

but in a desert what you want is a soaking

the do not disturb sign is tattered

I have many times taken

some cafe's small packets of sugar

so that in Turkey

I might sweeten my coffee with China

and in Italy remember a Lithuanian pastry

but where is the coffee

hands left and right useless

Knees clattery

heart finally calm

as some hero at the end of a movie

squinting silently into the sun

you can't hold an umbrella there anyhow

and what would he hang from the clothespin

~ Jane Hirshfield

from The Beauty

When I come near the red peony flower

When I come near the red peony flower
I tremble as water does near thunder,
As the well does when the plates of earth move,
Or the tree when fifty birds leave at once.

The peony says that we have been given a gift,
And it is not the gift of this world.
Behind the leaves of the peony
There is a world still darker, that feeds many.

~ Robert Bly

real presence is the ideal

Real presence is the ideal of all true individuation.  When we yield to helplessness, 
we strengthen the hand of those who would destroy.  When we choose indifference, 
we betray our world.  Yet the world is not decided by action alone. 

 It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action
 and behavior.  The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. 
 And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. 

 Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter.  
Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on.  When you give in
 to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it.  When you take back
 your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, 
your creativity awakens and flows...

~ John O'Donohue

from To Bless the Space Between Us
art: Herzeloyde – The Mother Archetype

singly

They come singly, the little streams,

Out of their solitude.  They bear

In their rough fall a spate of gleams

That glance and dance in morning air.

They come singly, and coming go

Ever downward toward the river

Into whose dark abiding flow

They come, now quieted, together.

In dark they mingle and are made

At one with light in highest flood

Embodied and inhabited,

The budded branch as red as blood.

~ Wendell Berry

from This Day - Collected & New Sabbath Poems

flow like the Tao

Who can free himself from achievement

And from fame, descend and be lost

Amid the masses of men?

He will flow like Tao, unseen,

He will go about like Life itself

With no name and no home.

Simple is he, without distinction.

To all appearances he is a fool.

His steps leave no trace.  He has no power.

He achieves nothing, has no reputation.

Since he judges no one

No one judges him.

Such is the perfect man:

His boat is empty.

~ Chuang Tzu

translation by Thomas Merton
from The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton

who?

 who sees exactly what is taking place in the world, 

and who really wants to find out if God, truth, 

is an actuality or merely a clever invention of the priest? 

After all, you and I are the result of the collective, are we not? 

And there must be individual human beings who have completely broken away from the collective, 

from society, who are free from conditioning, not in layers or in spots, but totally, 

for it is only such individuals who can find out what truth or God is 

-not the man of tradition, not the man who does japa, rings the bell, quotes the Gita,

 and goes to the temple every day. 

It is the irreligious people who do that. 

But the man who really wants to find out 

what this extraordinary movement of living is 

must not only understand the process of his own conditioning, 

but be able to go beyond it. 

Because, the mind can find out what is true 

only when it is free from all conditioning, 

not when it merely repeats certain words or quotes the sacred books. 

Such a mind is not free.

~ J. Krishnamurti

from  Collected Works

primal simplicity

.

Tao is always nameless.

Small as it is in its Primal Simplicity,

It is inferior to nothing in the world.

If only a ruler could cling to it,

Everything will render homage to him.

Heaven and Earth will be harmonized

And send down sweet dew

Peace and order will reign among the people

Without any command from above.

.

When once the Primal Simplicity diversified,

Different names appeared.

Are there not enough names now?

.

Is this not the time to stop?

To know when to stop is to preserve ourselves from danger.

The Tao is to the world what a great river or an ocean

is to the streams and brooks.

.

~ Lao Tzu

from the Tao Te Ching

translated by John C. H. Wu

.

the secret fish

As timely as a river

God's timeless life passes

Into this world. It passes

Through bodies, giving life,

And past them, giving death.

The secret fish leaps up

Into the light and is 

Again darkened. The sun

Comes from the dark, it lights

The always passing river,

Shines on the great-branches tree,

And goes. Longing and dark,

We are completely filled

With breath of love, in us

Forever incomplete.

~ Wendell Berry

from Sabbaths 2000

be ever kind

I saw a wise sage!  he did not heed

For caste or creed, for faith or worldly greed;

And free from truth and quest, from path and goal,

He sat at ease, from earth and heaven freed.

 

 

Some strung the pearls of thought by searching deep,

And told some tales about Him,–sold them cheap;

But none has caught a clue to secret realms,

They cast a horoscope and fall in sleep.

Dedicate yourself to the wise when you find

Forget fasting and praying, you need not mind

But listen to truth from what Umar Khayyæm says,

Drink wine, steal if you should but be ever kind. 

 

 

 

 ~ Omar Khayyam

(1048 - 1131)

from The Great‘UMAR KHAYYAM

 

He known for his agnostic and skeptic poetry 

 also lived in complicated times of cultural unrest

in which freedom of expression was repressed and 

access to education was limited. 

 

 

practicing listening

I want to speak just briefly on the whole idea of universalism, since that’s what has brought us all together and I’d like to share a little bit about my own background. I was raised Catholic, and I’m now a Quaker – a member of the Celo Friends Meeting, which is part of Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting. I am also a practicing Buddhist, and I have had some experience in Native American religious tradition. This past summer, I had the pleasure of experiencing Hinduism in Indonesia. So when someone says, “What religion are you?” I give a different answer each time. The fact is, it really doesn’t matter what you call yourself. What I have found is that words are easy to come by, and I’ve heard many things said in the name of religion. What really matters is what people do with their lives. How they live out their faith and what they do with what they believe and what impact they have on the world and on their neighbors. That is the essence, I think, of religion. 

 ...

 Many times in social change movements, activists help polarize the situation. We create enemy images, just as anyone else does. They are the bad guys, we are the good guys. Or they are the people who don’t understand, and we are the people who do understand. So when we approach people in this way, they feel defensive and the potential for change actually decreases. We don’t really listen to people who disagree with us – listen to their fears and concerns – so they become even more polarized against us. Too many peace groups are largely isolated and seen as “outsiders” or fringe groups in their own communities. That was one of my primary reasons for starting the Listening Projects. I saw people in the peace movement going out to preach, to convert, to change people and tell them what was the right way, but very little true communication was happening. As you know, the minute you’re preached to, you become defensive, because the people preaching to you seem not to really care about who you are or what you believe. All they care about is changing you. 

 ...

 So the Listening Project was an attempt to break through the isolation and barriers that separate people into the good vs. the bad; liberal vs. conservative; hawks vs. doves. The Listening Project is an attempt, through deep listening and non-violence, to get down to the basic human values that really connect us all. These are the same values that connected my father and myself. Deep down in us all there is a desire for peace, for goodness and for justice. For each person those feelings come out in different ways and in some cases they get covered up, distorted or hidden by painful human experiences, by fear, insecurity or lack of knowledge. As children, we’ve all learned ideas from adults that we later found to be negative or problematic. My father grew up as a poor farm boy. He had no other opportunity to change his life than to join the military. The military became his way of understanding world issues. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with him that made him go into the military and want to use those kinds of solutions. It could have been me. Any of us could have ended up in the military instead of at a Quaker gathering about peace.

...

The Listening Project involves listening at a very deep level so that one builds a relationship of trust and respect between oneself and the person doing the speaking. We try to be non-judgmental and not react to things the other person may say. The other person must be allowed to start from where she or he needs to start. As this trust is built, people open up and begin to reconnect with their basic yearning for goodness and peace. What normally prevents that opening up from happening is a polarization process. People aren’t able to overcome their fears. When we tell them that what they think is all wrong, they feel that they have to defend themselves. So while we’re sitting there telling them what all the right answers are, they’re figuring out a way to say, “Yeah, but this is what I believe.” They defend their viewpoint. 

 ...

 Listening is a way of empowering people. It’s a way of saying to people, “What you think, what you feel and what you believe really counts and is important, and you can make a difference.” In Palau most of the people with whom we talked said they wanted more information and they wanted to get involved. In Southern communities and areas that are probably some of the most conservative areas in the country, we’ve gone in using a Listening Project and a large percentage of the people have said: “We do care. We want to get involved.” We’ve used projects to talk about social problems and military spending and we’ve found that people have never had the opportunity before to really explore their feelings and explore what they think and what might make a positive difference. One very important aspect of a Listening Project is that the group conducting the project is committed to following up with people who express an interest in getting involved. Listening Project participants are committed to acting on some of the input and ideas that come from people. So even after the active act of listening has concluded, a process of empowerment continues.

 ~ Herb Walters

excerpts from the article Adventures in Listening

find more here:  https://universalistfriends.org/walters.html

listening

What is deep listening?

Sema is a greeting from the secret ones

inside the heart, a letter.

The branches of your intelligence

grow new leaves in the wind of this listening.

The body reaches a peace.

Rooster sound comes,

reminding you of your love for dawn.

The reed flute and the singer's lips.

The knack of how spirit breathes into us

becomes as simple and ordinary as eating and drinking.

The dead rise with the pleasure of this listening.

If some cannot hear a trumpet melody,

sprinkle dirt on his head and declare him dead.

Listen and feel the beauty of your separation,

the unsayable absence.

There is a moon inside every human being.

Learn to be companions with it.

Give more of your life to this listening.

As brightness is to time, so you are 

to the one who talks to the deep ear in your chest.

I should sell my tongue and buy a thousand ears

when that one steps near and begins to speak.

~ Rumi

from The Big Red Book

translations by Coleman Barks

before listening

Before listening to the way, do not fail to wash your ears.

Otherwise it will be impossible to listen clearly.

What is washing your ears?

Do not hold on to  your view.

If you cling to it even a little bit,

you will lose your way.

What is similar to you but wrong, you regard as right.

What is different from you but right, you regard as wrong.

You begin with ideas of right and wrong.

But the way is not so.

Seeking answers with closed ears is

like trying to touch the ocean bottom with a pole.

~ Ryokan

from Sky Above, Great Wind

extraordinary concentrated affection

You know, when you have a small child with you, you listen to its cries, 
you listen to its words, its murmurs.  You are so concerned you listen;
 you may be asleep, but the moment he cries you wake up.  You are attentive
 all the time because the child is yours, you must care for it, you must love it, 
you must hold it.  You are so tremendously attentive that even though 
you are asleep, you wake up.  Now, with that same quality of attention, affection,
 care, you give to every movement of that child, could you watch the mirror 
which is yourself?  Not me, you are not listening to me: you are listening 
with that extraordinary concentrated affection and care to the mirror
 which is yourself, and to what it is telling you. 
 Will you do it?

J. Krishnamurti

from a talk at Saanen, July 18th, 1978

we conceal ourselves

Like cuttlefish we conceal ourselves, 

we darken the atmosphere in which we move; 

we are not transparent. I pine for one to whom

 I can speak my first thoughts; thoughts which

 represent me truly, which are no better and no worse than I; 

thoughts which have the bloom on them, which alone 

can be sacred and divine. Our sin and shame 

prevent our expressing even the innocent thoughts 

we have. I know of no one to whom I can

 be transparent instinctively. I live the life of the cuttlefish; 

another appears, and the element in which I move is tinged 

and I am concealed. My first thoughts are azure; 

there is a bloom and a dew on them; they are papillaceous feelers

 which I put out, tender, innocent.

 Only to a friend can I expose them.

~ Henry David Thoreau

.

below high cliffs - ten poems

1

Below high cliffs

I slash and I burn

there's vegetables and grain

to boil and steam

to satisfy the present

to brighten old age

looking at a tree in the yard

I count its falls and springs

2

Below high cliffs 

my companions are the ancients

having reached the source

here I rest

others of more mystic persuasion 

study koans to death

wait beside stumps for rabbits

notch boats to find lost swords

3

Below high cliffs

all day I see plants

no sign of people

yellow leaves in the wind

birds call at dusk from the valley

the mountain moon rises at night

a crane takes flight from a pine

and showers my robe with dew

4

Below high cliffs

tigers and snakes are my neighbors

once I forgot my mind

their natures suddenly became tame

people born in this world

all have something divine

mouths of teeth heads of hair

why can't they be kind

5

Below high cliffs

unaware of the source

wherever you turn is karma

chaos and confusion

in order to see the truth

look beyond your senses

it's always been this way

the spring flows all around you

6

Below high cliffs

serene in solitude

not visited by time

the mind creates the world

the window holds a setting moon

the stove contains a dying fire

pity the sleeping man

startled from his butterfly dream

7

Below high cliffs

a white-haired old man

his robe with no hem 

his pants with no lets

practicing zazen at night

working his fields by day

herein lies the Path

where else could it be

8

Below high cliffs

I face a thousand mountains

one sense finds the source

all six relax

white clouds drift

green water ripples

beyond movement and stillness

there's another world

9

Below high cliffs

I don't dress up by body

I eat roots and wear plants

my socks are hemp my shoes are sedge

dense bamboo shades my windows

thick moss covers the steps in front

desires die in the quiet

cares disappear it's so still

10

Below high cliffs

you eat and sleep your fill

indulge desire and lethargy

idle away the months and years

until old age and illness arrive

and a thousand pains afflict you

digging a well when you're thirsty

you endure heat in vain

~ Stonehouse

from: Book Two Gathas, "The Zen Works of Stonehouse"

by Red Pine

art by Huang Kung-wang

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.