beauty and ugliness

When people see things as beautiful,

ugliness is created.

When people see things as good,

evil is created.

Being and non-being produce each other.

Difficult and easy complement each other.

Long and short define each other.

High and low oppose each other.

Fore and aft follow each other.

Therefore the Master

can act without doing anything

and teach without saying a word.

Things come her way and she does not stop them;

things leave and she lets them go.

She has without possessing,

and acts without any expectations.

When her work is done, she takes no credit.

That is why it will last forever.

~ Lao Tzu

from the Tao Te Ching

translation by j.h.mcdonald

art by Ray Kovalio

what draws you?

There are two types on the path, those

who come against their will, the blindly religious,

and those who obey out of love.

The former have ulterior motives.

they want the midwife near because she gives them milk.

The others love the beauty of the nurse.

The former memorize the prooftexts of conformity

and repeat them. The latter disappear

into whatever draws them to God.

Both are drawn from the source.

Any motion is from the mover.

Any love from the beloved.

~ Rumi

from Rumi - The Book of Love

translations by Coleman Barks

 

sacrificed

Not until a person dissolves, can

he or she know what union is

There is a descent into emptiness.

A lie will not change to truth

with just talking about it.

***

Longing is the core of mystery

Longing itself brings the cure.

The only rule is, Suffer the pain.

Your desire must be disciplined,

and what you want to happen

in time, sacrificed.

~ Rumi

from The Soul of Rumi

translations by Coleman Barks

forget

Forget the suffering
You caused others.
Forget the suffering
Others caused you.

The waters run and run,
Springs sparkle and are done,
You walk the earth you are forgetting.

Sometimes you hear a distant refrain.
What does it mean, you ask, who is singing?
A childlike sun grows warm.
A grandson and a great-grandson are born.
You are led by the hand once again.

The names of the rivers remain with you.
How endless those rivers seem!
Your fields lie fallow,
The city towers are not as they were.
You stand at the threshold mute. 

By Czeslaw Milosz

version by Robert Hass

compassion and kinship

~ Fr. Gregory Boyle