abandon yourself

People say: "O Lord, how much I wish that I stood as well with God,

 that I had as much devotion and peace in God as others have. 

 I wish that it were so with me!"  Or "I should like to be poor." or else
Things will never go right for me till I am in this place or that,

 or till I act one way or another.  I must go and live in a strange land, 

or in a hermitage, or in a cloister."  

In fact, this is all about yourself, and nothing else at all.  

This is just self-will, only you do not know it, or it does not seem so to you. 

 There is never any trouble that starts in you that does not come from your own will,

 whether people see this or not.  We can think what we like:

 that a man ought to shun one thing or pursue another -

 places and people and ways of life and environments and undertakings. 

 That is not the trouble; such ways of life or such matters are not what impedes you.

  It is what you are in these things that causes the trouble, 

because in them you do not govern yourself as you should.

Therefore, make a start with yourself, and abandon yourself. 

 Truly, if you do not begin by getting away from yourself,

 wherever you run to, you will find obstacles and trouble wherever it may be. 

 People who seek peace in external things - be it in places or ways of life

 or people or activities or solitude or poverty or degradation -

 however great such a thing may be or whatever it may be, 

still it is all nothing and it gives no peace.

 

  People who seek in that way are doing it all wrong;  

the further they wander, the less will they find what they are seeking.  

They go around like someone who has lost his way; 

 the farther he goes, the more lost he is.  

 

Then what ought he to do?  He ought to begin by forsaking himself,

 because then he has forsaken everything.  Truly, if a man renounced 

a kingdom or the whole world but held on to himself,

 he would not have renounced anything.  

What is more, if a man renounces himself, 

 whatever else he retains, riches or honors or whatever it may be,

 he has forsaken everything.  

About what Saint Peter said: "See, Lord, we have forsaken everything" (Matt. 19:27) -

 and all that he had forsaken was just a net and his little boat -

 there is a saint who says: "If anyone willingly gives up something little,

 that is not all which he has given up, but he has forsaken everything 

that worldly men can gain and what they can even long for; 

for whoever has renounced his own will and himself, has renounced everything,

 as truly as if he had possessed it as his own, to dispose of as he would."

 

 For what you choose not to long for, you have wholly forsaken and renounced

 for the love of God.  That is why our Lord said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt 5:3)  -

 that is, in the will.  And no one ought to be in doubt about this;

 if there were a better form of living, our Lord would have said so,

 as he also said: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself" (Matt 16:24);

 as a beginning; everything depends on that.  

 

Take a look at yourself, 

and whenever you find yourself deny yourself.  

That is the best of all.

 

~ Meister Eckhart

from Selections from His Essential Writings,

Counsels on Discernment

unfulfilled desires

The memory of the pasts unfulfilled desires traps energy,

 which manifests itself as a person. 

When its charge gets exhausted, 

the person dies.

 Unfulfilled desires are carried over into the birth. 

Self-identification with body creates ever-fresh desires 

and there is no end to them unless 

this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen.

 It is clarity that is liberating,

 for you cannot abandon desire unless 

its causes and effects are clearly seen.

I do not say that the same person is reborn.

 It dies, 

and dies for good. 

But its memories remain 

and their desires and fears. 

They supply the energy for a new person.

~  Nisargadatta Maharaj

the winged energy of delight

.

 

As once the winged energy of delight

carried you over childhood's dark abysses,

now beyond your own life build the great

arch of unimagined bridges.

 

Wonders happen if we can succeed

in passing through the harshest danger;

but only in a bright and purely granted

achievement can we realize the wonder.

 

To work with Things in the indescribable

relationship is not too hard for us;

the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,

and being swept along is not enough.

 

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions... For the god

wants to know himself in you.

 

 

 

 

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

from uncollected poems

each is fulfilled in the other

The universe must be experienced as the Great Self. 

Each is fulfilled in the other:

 the Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self,

 the individual self is fulfilled in the Great Self.

 

 Alienation is overcome as soon as we experience this surge of energy 

from the source that has brought the universe through the centuries.

New fields of energy become available to support the human venture.

 These new energies find expression and support in celebration. 

For in the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration.

It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself.

~ Thomas Berry

Dalai Lama - 86th Birthday Message

 

 

 

 

 

 

compassion - radical kinship

 

 

 

 
"It is not enough to believe that compassion is important and to think about how nice it is!"

Self-centeredness inhibits our love for others,

 and we are all afflicted by it to one degree or another.

 

 For true happiness to come about, we need a calm mind,

 and such peace of mind is brought about only by a compassionate attitude. 

How can we develop this attitude? 

 

 We need to make a concerted effort to develop it; 

we must use all the events of our daily life to transform our thoughts and behavior.

Many forms of compassionate feeling are mixed with desire and attachment.

 For instance, the love parents feel for their child is often strongly associated 

with their own emotional needs, so it is not fully compassionate. 

 

Usually when we are concerned about a close friend, we call this compassion, 

but it too is usually attachment. Even in marriage, the love between husband and wife—

particularly at the beginning, when each partner still may not know the other’s 

deeper character very well—depends more on attachment than genuine love.

 

 Marriages that last only a short time do so because they lack compassion; 

they are produced by emotional attachment based on projection and expectation,

 and as soon as the projections change, the attachment disappears. 

 

Our desire can be so strong that the person to whom we are attached appears flawless,

 when in fact he or she has many faults. In addition, attachment makes us exaggerate

 small, positive qualities. When this happens, it indicates that our love is motivated

 more by personal need than by genuine care for another.

Compassion without attachment is possible. 

Therefore, we need to clarify the distinctions between compassion and attachment. 

 

True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason.

 Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude toward others

 does not change even if they behave negatively.

 

 Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, 

but rather on the needs of the other: irrespective of whether another person 

is a close friend or an enemy.

 

 This is genuine compassion. 

For a practitioner, the goal is to develop this genuine compassion, 

this genuine wish for the well-being of another, 

in fact for every living being throughout the universe. 

 

 

~ Dalai Lama

adapted from The Compassionate Life

 art of Father Gregory Boyle from

Saint Ignatius College Prep Library

 

 

 

life's splendor

Life's splendor forever lies in wait 

about each one of us in all its fullness, 

but veiled from view, deep down,

 invisible, far off. It is there, though, 

not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. 

If you summon it by the right word, 

by its right name, it will come.

 

 

  ~ Franz Kafka

from Diaries, 1910 1923

 

 

 

I was a tiny insect

I was a tiny insect. Now a mountain.
I was left behind. Now honoured at the head.

You healed my wounded hunger and anger,

and made me a poet who sings about joy.

 

 
~ Rumi

master of dance

.

When a kid with Down’s Syndrome lumbers along

in a coat of clumsy, squinting to find

a level parade, treading mostly alone;

what do you make of this jack-of-no-trade?

 

Revulsion, compassion, empathy, fear,

anger or sadness because strangeness is near

- what do you reckon, or, what do you feel?

 

‘owbout respect for a teacher over there,

a mirror of openness, simpleness, now

enjoying a journey with others and me

as a master of dancing, exuberance,

 

and with a strange little question ‘What’s the real deal?’

like, your last day on earth, well, what will you choose

- one million dollars, a hug, celebration,

or smile?

~ John Lavan

more at real poems

.

the tongue says loneliness

The tongue says loneliness, anger, grief,

but does not feel them.

As Monday cannot feel Tuesday,

nor Thursday

reach back to Wednesday

as a mother reaches out for her found child.

As this life is not a gate, but the horse plunging through it.

Not a bell, 

but the sound of the bell in the bell-shape,

lashing full strength with the first blow from inside the iron.

~ Jane Hirshfield

from Come, Thief

a zero between plus and minus

 

 

 

 

 

Discursive knowledge, knowledge by

Indirection passes away

And love, knowledge by direction,

Directly of another, grows

In its place. There exists a point

At which the known passes through

A sort of occulation,

A zero between plus and

Minus in which knower and known

And their knowledge cease to exist. 

Perfect love casts out knowledge.

...

 

"And what is love? said Pilate,

And washed his hands.

 

 

 

 

 

~ Kenneth Rexroth

from The Dragon and the Unicorn

 

 

 

 

vanished

.

The birds have vanished down the sky. 

Now the last cloud drains away. 

We sit together, the mountain and me, 

until only the mountain remains. 

~ Li Po (China, 701-762)

translated by Sam Hamill

from Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese

knocking

 

 

 

 

 

If there are a "chosen few"

then I am not one of them,

if an "elect," well then

I have not been elected.

I am one who is knocking

at the door.  I am one whose foot

is on the bottom rung.

But I know that Heaven's

bottom rung is Heaven

though the ladder is standing

on earth where I work

by day and at night sleep

with my head upon a stone.

 

 

 

 

~ Wendell Berry

from Leavings

 art by Wade M Flickr

 

 

 

just so long

 

 

 

as freedom is a breakfastfood

or truth can live with right and wrong

or molehills are from mountains made

-long enough and just so long

will being pay the rent of seem

and genius please the talentgang

and water most encourage flame

 

as hatracks into peachtrees grow

or hopes dance best on bald men's hair

and every finger is a toe

and any courage is a fear

-long enough and just so long

will the impure think all things pure

and hornets wail by children stung

 

or as the seeing are the blind

and robins never welcome spring

nor flatfolk prove their world is round

nor dingsters die at break of dong

and common's rare and millstones float

-long enough and just so long

tomorrow will not be too late

 

worms are the words but joy's the voice

down shall go which and up come who

breasts will be breasts and thighs will be thighs

deeds cannot dream what dreams can do

-time is a tree (this life one leaf)

but love is the sky and i am for you

just so long and long enough

 

 

 

~ e.e.cummings

.

plung

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.

Jump into experience while you are alive!

Think...and think... while you are alive.

What you call "salvation" belongs to the time

before death.

 

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,

do you think

ghosts will do it after?

 

The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic

just because the body is rotten -

that is all fantasy.

If you find nothing now,

you will simply end up with an apartment in the 

City of Death

 

If you make love with the divine now, in the next

life you will have the face of satisfied desire.

 

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,

Believe in the Great Sound!

 

Kabir says this:  When the Guest is being searched for,

it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that

does all the work.

Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

 

 

 

 

Kabir

art by Juna Biagioni