Pelagic Callipygian

cal·li·pyg·i·an        /ˌkæl əˈpɪdʒ i ən/ [kal-uh-pij-ee-uh n]
–adjective
having well-shaped buttocks.  

Also, cal·li·py·gous        /ˌkæl əˈpaɪ gəs/ [kal-uh-pahy-guh s]
  _____

[Origin: 1640–50; < Gk kallipýg(os) with beautiful buttocks; referring to a statue of Aphrodite (kalli- calli- + pyg( ) rump + -os adj. suffix) + -ian ]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.  

American Heritage Dictionary -
cal·li·pyg·i·an        (kāl'ə-pĭj'ē-ən)
adj.   Having beautifully proportioned buttocks.   

---

pe·lag·ic        /pəˈlædʒ ɪk/ [puh-laj-ik]
–adjective
1.    of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans.     
2.    living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms.   
Compare neritic, oceanic.
  _____

[Origin: 1650–60; > L pelagicus > Gk pelagikós, equiv. to pélag(os) the sea + -ikos -ic ]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source
pe·lag·ic        (pə-lāj'ĭk)  
adj.   Of, relating to, or living in open oceans or seas rather than waters adjacent to land or inland waters: pelagic birds.   

Vain Wishes

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.  Don't let yourself indulge in vain wishes.
   -- Rabindranath Tagore

Treasure Mountain

It is pitiful that we are
living in a treasure mountain
but cannot see it.
If we develop an
enlightenment seeking mind,
everything becomes the
practice of enlightenment,
even if we are in the midst
of the various worlds of samsara.

- Dogen (1200-1253)

Go with the flow

Outwardly go along
With the flow,
While inwardly keeping
Your true nature.
Then your eyes and ears
Will not be dazzled,
Your thoughts will not
Be confused,
While the spirit within you
Will expand greatly to roam
In the realm of absolute purity.

- Huai-nan-tzu

A Dream Within A Dream (by Edgar Allan Poe)

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Aspect are within us, and who seems most kingly is king

Aspect are within us, and who seems most kingly is king.
-- Hardy, Thomas

Just an ordinary person

When the mind's as is,
Circumstances also are as is.
There's no real
And also no unreal.
Giving no heed to existence
And holding not
To nonexistence,
You're neither saint nor sage,
Just an ordinary person
Who has settled their affairs.
Easy, so easy.

- Layman P'ang

And cannot those who once have lovd. ever forget their Love?

And he said Wherefore do I feel such love & pity
Ah Enion Ah Enion Ah lovely lovely Enion
How is this All my hope is gone for ever fled
Like a famishd Eagle Eyeless raging in the vast expanse
Incessant tears are now my food. incessant rage & tears
Deathless for ever now I wander seeking oblivion
In torrents of despair in vain. for if I plunge beneath
Stifling I live. If dashd in pieces from a rocky height
I reunite in endless torment. would I had never risen
From deaths cold sleep beneath the bottom of the raging Ocean
And cannot those who once have lovd. ever forget their Love?
Are love & rage the same passion? they are the same in me
Are those who love. like those who died. risen again from death
Immortal. in immortal torment. never to be deliverd
Is it not possible that one risen again from Death
Can die! When dark despair comes over [me] can I not
Flow down into the sea & slumber in oblivion. Ah Enion

-- William Blake
THE FOUR ZOAS (1797)
"Night The Fourth"
(see: http://www.english.uga.edu/nhilton/Blake/blaketxt1/the_four_zoas.html#nt4 )

The Wail of Enion

The Wail of Enion

I am made to sow the thistle for wheat, the nettle for a nourishing dainty:
I have planted a false oath in the earth, it has brought forth a Poison Tree:
I have chosen the serpent for a counsellor, and the dog
For a schoolmaster to my children:
I have blotted out from light and living the dove and nightingale,
And I have causèd the earthworm to beg from door to door:
I have taught the thief a secret path into the house of the just:
I have taught pale Artifice to spread his nets upon the morning
My heavens are brass, my earth is iron, my moon a clod of clay,
My sun a pestilence burning at noon, and a vapour of death in night.

What is the price of Experience? Do men buy it for a song,
Or Wisdom for a dance in the street? No! it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath -- his house, his wife, his children.
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy,
And in the wither'd field where the farmer ploughs for bread in vain.

It is an easy thing to triumph in the summer's sun,
And in the vintage, and to sing on the waggon loaded with corn:
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted,
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer,
To listen to the hungry raven's cry in wintry season,
When the red blood is fill'd with wine and with the marrow of lambs:

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements;
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter-house moan;
To see a God on every wind and a blessing on every blast;
To hear sounds of Love in the thunderstorm that destroys our enemy's house;
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, and the sickness that cuts off his children,
While our olive and vine sing and laugh round our door, and our chil 1000 dren bring fruits and flowers.

Then the groan and the dolour are quite forgotten, and the slave grinding at the mill,

And the captive in chains, and the poor in the prison, and the soldier in the field
When the shatter'd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead:
It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity --
Thus would I sing and thus rejoice; but it is not so with me.

-- William Blake

(see http://users.compaqnet.be/cn127848/blake/collected/chap-27.html#enion )

Dangerous Plaything

The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
 -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Success

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous, on the contrary, it makes them for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
-- Maugham, W. Somerset

How very quickly life itself is pressed along its course

The sound of a swollen
Mountain stream rapidly rushing
Makes one know
How very quickly life itself
Is pressed along its course.

-- Saigyo (1118-1190)

Sages’ minds are luminous

Because they have no high
Opinions of themselves,
The sages' minds are luminous;
Not caring for status,
They become illustrious;
Being without pride,
They achieve success;
Unassertive, they are supreme.
Because they do not contend,
No one contends with them.

-- Lao-tzu

Bible Humour

Dec 25 reading Malachi 1-4	Study Guides and Commentary Archive	* Malachi on the Messiah and Faithfulness written about 430-420 BC - contemporary of Nehemiah
"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me", says the LORD Almighty. (3:5) "Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. But you ask, "How are we to return?" (3:7b)
Although Malachi was NOT the one who said "God's ways are not man's ways", that truth fits the prophesy he was given. But many of God's chosen people still didn't get it. The prophesy is largely an argument between the Lord and Israel, like: "I have loved you," the Lord says. "How?" asks Israel "I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland.." "You have said harsh things against me," says the Lord. Like what? asks Israel. "You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements? ... Certainly the evildoers prosper and even those who challenge God escape." (3:13-15) What king is pleased with disrespectful citizens? What father wouldn't punish disobedient children? And the Lord is both King and Father. The Lord continues his plan to make his Name great among all nations. (1:11) His plan for his people is "the way", and many of the priests had already turned away to do and teach other ways, like being unfaithful. Your faithfulness to your wife effects your faithfulness to God. How you live your life has direct effect upon your life with God. Obey Him; give Him your best in your sacrifices and your whole tithe. In this last book of the Jewish Bible, written about 430-420 BC, the Lord gives more details about His long promised messenger of the covenant who, before He comes to His temple, will be announced by another messsenger preparing the way before Him. "Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when He appears?" This will not be an easy process. Faithful Levites, Judah, and Jerusalem will be refined and purified. (3:1-4) In conclusion, the day is coming when the arrogant and evildoers will be cut off. Remember the law of the Lord's servant Moses. Watch for Elijah before the dreadful day of the Lord. Either the hearts of fathers will be to their children and vice versa, or the land will be cursed.

Happy

You are happy, happy, but I am a thousand times happier!
Whom have I encountered in my dream last night? I know not.
I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world;
But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.
If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;
For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.

(Divan 1740:1-3)

clouds and fog everywhere

When there are clouds and fog everywhere, the world is dark, but that does not mean the sun has decomposed. Why is there no light? The light is never destroyed; it is just enshrouded by clouds and fog. The pure mind of all living beings is like this, merely covered up by the dark clouds of obsession with objects, arbitrary thoughts, psychological afflictions, and view and opinions. If you can just keep the mind still so that errant thought does not arise, the reality of nirvana will naturally appear. This is how we know the inherent mind is originally pure.

-- Hongren (602-675)

Work and the Way

People who really have
Their minds on the Way
Do not forget work on the fundamental
No matter what they are doing.
Yet if they still distinguish this work
>From ordinary activities
Even as they do them together,
They will naturally be concerned
About being distracted by activities
And forgetting the meditation work.
This is because of viewing
Things as outside the mind.

-- Muso (1275-1351)

Stranger Than Fiction

See "Stranger Than Fiction".
My take on it:
About mid-life crisis and addressing life in a purely existential manner, heavily influenced by JP Sartre and literary conceit (in a manner).
Facing one's own death willingly and with fore-knowledge.
The "redemption" (not really, but in a manner of speaking only) of realising that life is created every second and is not directed or ordained or inevitable.
A very modern darwinian view on life - that nothing is impossible - only improbable: some things may be very very very highly improbable yet nothing is ever impossible. Life is, in fact, purely statistical - which makes life glorious and worthwhile and ultimately meaningful.

Wordy non-attachment

The way of buddhas is wide open, without any stages.  The door of nothing is the door to liberation; having no intention is the will to help others.  It is not within past, present, and future, so it cannot rise and sink; setups are counter to reality, because it is not in the realm of the created.  Move, and you produce the root of birth and death; be still, and you get drunk in the village of oblivion.  If movement and stillness are both erased, you fall into empty annihilation; if movement and stillness are both withdrawn, you presume upon buddha nature.  You must be like a dead tree or cold ashes in the face of objects and situations while acting responsively according to time, without losing proper balance.  A mirror reflects a multitude of images without their confusing its brilliance; birds fly through the air without mixing up the color of the sky.

- Hsuan-sha

Don’t love sagehood

Don't love sagehood; sagehood is an empty name. There is no special truth but this radiant spiritual openness, unobstructed and free. It is not attained by adornment and cultivated realization. From the buddhas to the Zen masters, all have transmitted this teaching, by which they attained liberation.
   - Te-shan (d. 867)