Tuesday, July 13, 2021

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



Monday, July 12, 2021

patlience in our sadnesses

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It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension, 
which we feel as paralysis because we no longer hear our astonished emotions living.
 Because we are alone with the unfamiliar presence that has entered us; 
because everything we trust and are used to is for a moment taken away
 from us; because we stand in the midst of a transition 
where we cannot remain standing. 
 
That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us,
 the presence that has been added, has entered our heart,
 has gone into its innermost chamber and is no longer even there, – 
is already in our bloodstream. And we don’t know what it was. 
We could easily be made to believe that nothing happened, 
and yet we have changed, as a house that a guest has entered changes. 
We can’t say who has come, perhaps we will never know, 
but many signs indicate that the future enters us in this way
 in order to be transformed in us, long before it happens. 
 
And that is why it is so important to be solitary and attentive when one is sad:
 because the seemingly uneventful and motionless moment 
when our future steps into us is so much closer to life
 than that other loud and accidental point of time when it happens to us
 as if from outside. The quieter we are, the more patient and open 
we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence
 can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, 
the more it becomes our fate.
 
 



~ Rainer Maria Rilke

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Sunday, July 11, 2021

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

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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





Wednesday, July 7, 2021

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

 
 
 

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

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
 
 
 

Friday, July 2, 2021

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






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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

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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




Wednesday, June 30, 2021

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
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

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





Monday, June 28, 2021

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
 
 
 

Sunday, June 27, 2021

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


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