into the midst of everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

She saw that all phenomena arose, abided, and fell away. 

She saw that even knowing this arose, abided, and fell away. 

 

Then she knew there was nothing more than this, no ground,

 nothing to lean on, stronger than the cane she held. 

 

 Nothing to lean upon at all, and no one leaning…

 

 And she opened the clenched fist in her mind and let go,

 and fell, into the midst of everything.

 

 

 

~Teijitsu 

from Women of the way  by Sallie Tisdale

 

 

 

 

here is peace

 

 

 

 

It is a sort of tradition in this country not to talk about religion 

for fear of offending — I am still a little subject to the tradition,

 and rather dislike stating my “attitudes” except in the course of a poem.

 However, they are simple. I believe that the universe is one being,

 all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, 

and they are all in communication with each other, 

influencing each other, therefore parts of one organic whole.

 (This is physics, I believe, as well as religion.)

The parts change and pass, or die, people and races and rocks and stars, 

none of them seems to me important in itself, but only the whole. 

This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be 

so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it, 

and to think of it as divine. It seems to me that this whole alone

 is worthy of the deeper sort of love; and that here is peace, 

freedom, I might say a kind of salvation.

I think that one may contribute (ever so slightly) to the beauty of things

 by making one’s own life and environment beautiful, so far as one’s power reaches.

 This includes moral beauty, one of the qualities of humanity, 

though it seems not to appear elsewhere in the universe. 

But I would have each person realize that his contribution is not important,

 its success not really a matter for exultation nor its failure for mourning;

 the beauty of things is sufficient without him.

 

 

 

 

~ Robinson Jeffers

from  The Wild God of the World: An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers

 with thanks to Brain Pickings

The tides are in our veins, we still mirror the stars,
life is your child, but there is in me
Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye
that watched before there was an ocean.

~  "Continent’s End” in Tamar and Other Poems

 

 

 

naturally mindful

 

 

 

 

Mindfulness may seem like a difficult practice that takes special training and abilities to practice, but in many ways we are naturally mindful, whether we practice mindfulness or not. Everybody has awareness. That is how we know that we are suffering. We know we’re anxious. Whether we practice mindfulness or not, we notice our breathing. We notice that we have a body. We notice the taste of our food, the smells in the air. We notice that we feel good when we are generous. We notice that we like it when people are nice to us. We notice that we feel wonderful when we feel loved. We don’t need a special practice to notice these things. That is what we do because we are alive.

Whether we practice mindfulness or not, we train our minds to manage our emotions. We practice habits that create our typical moods. We live according to our beliefs to create as much happiness as we are able. Even if we don’t practice mindfulness, we live in the present moment. That’s all we have.

Making the transition from not practicing to practicing mindfulness is not always a question of choice. You don’t always choose what to believe. If you somehow begin to believe that you can train your mind to create your emotional states, then you naturally begin a mindfulness practice. You don’t even have to believe it whole heartedly. You only have to suspect that it might be true. Then you begin experimenting by watching your mind. In any moment that you consciously watch your mind, in any moment that you are aware of your awareness, if you suspect that this awareness is creating a difference, you are being mindful.

When you begin entertaining the belief that you are constantly, either actively or passively, training your mind, then your mindfulness practice expands into every moment. You know you are practicing when you test your beliefs by engaging with your difficult emotions. If you find yourself purposefully breathing in the heat of your anger to see how quickly it passes or dismissing a judgmental thought as another thought, then you are doing it.

When you start to notice that bringing your awareness regularly to your present circumstance creates subtle or profound changes, then you reinforce your beliefs and begin collecting tools to help your practice. You may consciously set an intention for your practice, such as to train your mind to feel happiness, or to train your mind to work through sadness, anger or grief. You may begin a meditation practice to improve your focus. You may learn breathing techniques, yoga or a martial art to assist your practice. As you gain skills and techniques to work with your mind, you become an active participant in your changing mind. That feels good. When you recognize your own basic goodness, there is no turning back. Compassion naturally arises.

 

 

~ Peter Taylor.

  a Zen master in the Korean Jogye tradition

with thanks to whiskey river

a handful of truths

Buddha took some Autumn leaves

In his hand and asked

Ananda if these were all

The red leaves there were.

Ananda answered that it 

Was Autumn and leaves

Were falling all about them,

More than could ever 

Be numbered.  So Buddha said,

"I have given you

A handful of truths.  Besides

These there are many

Thousands of other truths, more

Than can ever be numbered.

~ Kenneth Rexroth

photo by Eliot Porter

is it possible

.

 

 

 

Is it possible for the rose to say, 

"I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, 

but I will withhold it from the bad?" 

Or is it possible for the lamp to say, 

"I will give my light to the good people in this room,

 but I will withhold it from the evil people"? 

Or can a tree say, 

"I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me,

 but I will withhold it from the bad"? 

 

These are images of what love is about.

.

~ Anthony de Mello

from Awareness: The perils and opportunities of reality

photo by Kathleen Connally

.

deepening journey

 

 

What amazes me is that before we can count

 we are taught to be grateful for what others do. 

As we are broken open by our experience, 

we begin to be grateful for what is,

 and if we live long enough and deep enough

 and authentically enough, 

gratitude becomes a way of life.

~ Mark Nepo

 

 

 

 

forms we seem to be

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These forms we seem to be are cups floating in an ocean

of living consciousness.

 

They fill and sink without leaving an arc of bubbles or

any good-bye spray.  What we

 

are is that ocean, too near to see, though we swim in it

and drink it in.  Don't

 

be a cup with a dry rim, or someone who rides all night

and never knows the horse

 

beneath his thighs, the surging that carries him along.

 

  

 

 

~ Rumi 

 

 

 

as we have loved

 

 

 

 

Over the local stations, one by one,
Announcers list disasters like dark poems
That always happen in the skull of winter.
But once again the storm has passed us by:
Lovely and moderate, the snow lies down
While shouting children hurry back to play,
And scarved and smiling citizens once more
Sweep down their easy paths of pride and welcome.

And what else might we do? Let us be truthful.
Two counties north the storm has taken lives.
Two counties north, to us, is far away, -
A land of trees, a wing upon a map,
A wild place never visited, - so we
Forget with ease each far mortality.

Peacefully from our frozen yards we watch
Our children running on the mild white hills.
This is the landscape that we understand, -
And till the principle of things takes root,
How shall examples move us from our calm?
I do not say that is not a fault.
I only say, except as we have loved,
All news arrives as from a distant land. 

 

 

 

 

~ Mary Oliver

Beyond the Storm Belt from Devotions

 

 

a time of change

In a time of drastic change 

one can be too preoccupied with what is ending
 or too obsessed with what seems to be beginning.

 In either case one loses touch with the present
 and with its obscure but dynamic possibilities. 

You do not need to know what is happening,
 or exactly where it is all going.

 

What you need is to recognize the possibilities
 and challenges offered by the present moment, 

and embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

 

In such an event, 
courage is the authentic form taken by love.

~  Thomas Merton

from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

yet my soul drew back

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.


"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"


"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.





~ George Herbert

art by  Pavlo Makedonskyi

the tree in winter

This is the time of hidden regeneration.  

Mist hangs above the ground.  

Frost forms on open fields.

The tree is still.  

It stands alone and quiet.  

In the darkness of the early morning, nature is asleep.  

There is no movement in the air, 

no hint of trembling in the branches.  

The tree is silent in the darkness like a stone - 

a pillar in the courtyard of an empty temple.

A distant sound breaks through the stillness.  

The day's first light advances on the earth.  

The shadow of the tree moves with the dawn, 

but the tree is motionless.

The ground beneath the tree is frozen hard.  

Above the ground, the bark is cold, the limbs are stiff.  

A passer-by might wonder if the tree will live in spring.

But underneath the ground the earth is warm.  

The weight of all the tree sinks to its roots.  

They are indifferent to the frozen soil, 

they grow toward the centre of the earth.

The tree is not afraid.  

It was a seed: it knows the earth is holding it.  

Within its core, a vital ring is being formed.

Around its spine, a new life is rising from the earth, 

while flakes of snow are settling on the silent and unmoving tree.

~ Master Lam Kam Chuen

from the way of energy: 

mastering the chinese art of internal strength 

 

 

 

 

closed for the night

~ St. John of the Cross

read by Robert Bly

holding hands

 

 

 

 

Out of a great need
we are all holding hands
and climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen,the terrain around here
is
far too
dangerous
for
that.

 

 

 

~ Hafiz

 

 

 

 

the word

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I pronounce the word Future,

the first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence,

I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing,

I make something no nonbeing can hold.

– Wislawa Szymborska

 Polish Poet (Born July 1923)/Nobel Literature Prize 1996

intimately

Knowledge always deceives.
It always limits the Truth, every concept and image does.

From cage to cage the caravan moves,
but I give thanks,
for at each divine juncture
my wings expand
and I

touch Him more
intimately.




~ Meister Eckhart