Dissolve their history according to conditions

You have obstacles only because you have not realized the emptiness of the eons. Genuine Wayfarers are never like this; they just dissolve their history according to conditions, dressing according to circumstances, acting when they need to act, and sitting when they need to sit, without any idea of seeking the fruits of buddhahood.

- Lin Chi (d 867?)

The Secret of the Universe

This may sound a little strange, but it is not quite so paradoxical as the case of Jacob Boehme, to whom Jove's thunderbolt revealed the secret of the universe while he was looking at a pewter bowl.

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Letters from Italy, p 49, Penguin 60s Classics] [written on 8 October 1786]

Our times are worse than we think

The art of mosaic, which gave the Ancients their paved floors and the Christians the vaulted Heaven of their churches, has now been degraded to snuffboxes and bracelets. Our times are worse than we think.

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Letters from Italy, p 48, Penguin 60s Classics] [written on 8 October 1786]

(Always "our times" are the most degraded and the worst. It wasn't true then Wolfgang (witness your true self) and it isn't true now).

Seeing the World

My tendency to look at the world through the eyes of the painter whose pictures I have seen last has given me an odd idea. Since our eyes are educated from childhood on by the objects we see around us, a Venetian painter is bound to see the world as a brighter and gayer place than most people see it. We northerners who spend our lives in a drab and, because of the dirt and the dust, an uglier country where even reflected light is subdued, and who have, most of us, to live in cramped rooms - we cannot instinctively develop an eye which looks like such delight at the world.

[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Letters from Italy, p 47, Penguin 60s Classics] [written on 8 October 1786]

Exactly! Thus, people like living where I live rather than places in the northern hemisphere because of the same brilliance and radiance of light and environment. Makes a difference to the approach to life.

(Also good to know that there is no thought that I can think that has not already been thought hundreds of years before by someone smarter and more eloquent!)

Monkey Pureness

The monkey is reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He'll never give up.
If he'd let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness.
- Hakuin (1685-1768)

True Buddha Dharma Way

Someone asked,
What do you mean by the true Buddha, the true Dharma and the true Way? Would you be good enough to explain to us?
The Master said,
The Buddha- this is the cleanness and purity of the mind.
The Dharma- this is the shining brightness of the mind.
The Way- this is the pure light that is never obstructed anywhere. The three are in fact one. All are empty names and have no true reality.
- Lin-chi (d.867)

MorOn-Star

Funny how all the features of our lives that are for our safety/security/protection and offered by some level of the government draw stiff resistance. However, market them as a convenience and suddenly people line up for it.

Imagine: We're putting a GPS chip in all your vehicles so that we have a record of everywhere you go with it. If there's a crash or carjacking, we can track it down.

Customers scream "Big Brother" and summarily reject it.

Reality: "MorON-Star. How can I help?"
"I locked my keys in the car! I can't get in!"
"What's your passcode?"
"I don't remember, but hurry up because the top's down and it's starting to rain!"

a thousand meters of melancholy

I shall go to the store of the tailor of lovers, tomorrow;
Wearing my long robe made from a thousand meters of melancholy.
He can cut you off from Yazid and sew you onto Zayd;
he can pair you with this one and separate you from the other.
He can attach you to one to whom you give your heart for life;
What a fabric, what a stitch, what a miracle-making hand.

(Divan 216:1-3)

Why by Philip Schultz (August 27, 2007)

Why

by Philip Schultz

August 27, 2007

is this man sitting here weeping

in this swanky restaurant

on his sixty-first birthday, because

his fear grows stronger each year,

because he's still the boy running

all out to first base, believing

getting there means everything,

because of the spiders climbing

the sycamore outside his house

this morning, the elegance of

a civilization free of delusion,

because of the boyish faces

of the five dead soldiers on TV,

the stoic curiosity in their eyes,

their belief in the righteousness

of sacrifice, because innocence

is the darkest place in the universe,

because of the Iraqis on their hands

and knees looking for a bloody button,

a bitten fingernail, evidence of

their stolen significance, because

of the primitive architecture

of his dreams, the brutal egoism

of his ignorance, because he believes

in deliverance, the purity of sorrow,

the sanctity of truth, because of

the original human faces of his wife

and two boys smiling at him across

this glittering table, because of

their passion for commemoration,

their certainty that goodness continues,

because of the spiders clinging to

the elegance of each moment, because

getting there still means everything?

Careful

Careful! Even moonlit dewdrops,
If you're lured to watch,
Are a wall before the truth.
- Sogyo (18th century)

How (Elizabeth Sutherland)

How

 

Out in the field, where the noone resides

Gaping like a fish, for one and the same

Squealing like a hyena, surrounded.

One and the different.

 

There's pain in this muscle.

Pain pain.

In a place been reached too oft.

Turn off?

It can't it won't.

It won't.

It can't.

 

There are bugs under my skin?

Only scars. Her mistake.

 

The deceit, the impenetrable wall;

Maybe not so much? 

This mile of anguish, out in the meadow

Where the lambs run free and brisk,

There is no free.

There is only brisk

And hast

And rush rush mad.

With no air, shark shark, fish.

 

The bugs never disappear – an age or two they stay,

But how long is an age?

How wide is a field?

How wet is a fish?

How gleeful is a hyena?

How minute is a bug?

How free is a lamb?

 

The Ship of Death - D. H. Lawrence

The Ship of Death

	I
	Now it is autumn and the falling fruit
	and the long journey towards oblivion.
	The apples falling like great drops of dew
	to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.
5	And it is time to go, to bid farewell
	to one's own self, and find an exit
	from the fallen self.
	II
	Have you built your ship of death, O have you?
	O build your ship of death, for you will need it.
10	The grim frost is at hand, when the apples will fall
	thick, almost thundrous, on the hardened earth.
	And death is on the air like a smell of ashes!
	Ah! can't you smell it?
	And in the bruised body, the frightened soul
15	finds itself shrinking, wincing from the cold
	that blows upon it through the orifices.
	III
	And can a man his own quietus make
	with a bare bodkin?
	With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make
20	a bruise or break of exit for his life;
	but is that a quietus, O tell me, is it quietus?
	Surely not so! for how could murder, even self-murder
	ever a quietus make?
	IV
	O let us talk of quiet that we know,
25	that we can know, the deep and lovely quiet
	of a strong heart at peace!
	How can we this, our own quietus, make?
	V
	Build then the ship of death, for you must take
	the longest journey, to oblivion.
30	And die the death, the long and painful death
	that lies between the old self and the new.
	Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,
	already our souls are oozing through the exit
	of the cruel bruise.
35	Already the dark and endless ocean of the end
	is washing in through the breaches of our wounds,
	already the flood is upon us.
	Oh build your ship of death, your little ark
	and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine
40	for the dark flight down oblivion.
	VI
	Piecemeal the body dies, and the timid soul
	has her footing washed away, as the dark flood rises.
	We are dying, we are dying, we are all of us dying
	and nothing will stay the death-flood rising within us
45	and soon it will rise on the world, on the outside world.
	We are dying, we are dying, piecemeal our bodies are dying
	and our strength leaves us,
	and our soul cowers naked in the dark rain over the flood,
	cowering in the last branches of the tree of our life.
	VII
50	We are dying, we are dying, so all we can do
	is now to be willing to die, and to build the ship
	of death to carry the soul on the longest journey.
	A little ship, with oars and food
	and little dishes, and all accoutrements
55	fitting and ready for the departing soul.
	Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
	and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
	in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
	with its store of food and little cooking pans
60	and change of clothes,
	upon the flood's black waste
	upon the waters of the end
	upon the sea of death, where still we sail
	darkly, for we cannot steer, and have no port.
65	There is no port, there is nowhere to go
	only the deepening black darkening still
	blacker upon the soundless, ungurgling flood
	darkness at one with darkness, up and down
	and sideways utterly dark, so there is no direction any more
70	and the little ship is there; yet she is gone.
	She is not seen, for there is nothing to see her by.
	She is gone! gone! and yet
	somewhere she is there.
	Nowhere!
	VIII
75	And everything is gone, the body is gone
	completely under, gone, entirely gone.
	The upper darkness is heavy as the lower,
	between them the little ship
	is gone
80	she is gone.
	It is the end, it is oblivion.
	IX
	And yet out of eternity a thread
	separates itself on the blackness,
	a horizontal thread
85	that fumes a little with pallor upon the dark.
	Is it illusion? or does the pallor fume
	A little higher?
	Ah wait, wait, for there's the dawn,
	the cruel dawn of coming back to life
90	out of oblivion.
	Wait, wait, the little ship
	drifting, beneath the deathly ashy grey
	of a flood-dawn.
	Wait, wait! even so, a flush of yellow
95	and strangely, O chilled wan soul, a flush of rose.
	A flush of rose, and the whole thing starts again.
	X
	The flood subsides, and the body, like a worn sea-shell
	emerges strange and lovely.
	And the little ship wings home, faltering and lapsing
100	on the pink flood,
	and the frail soul steps out, into the house again
	filling the heart with peace.
	Swings the heart renewed with peace
	even of oblivion.
105	Oh build your ship of death, oh build it!
	for you will need it.
	For the voyage of oblivion awaits you.

Wherever and whenever

Wherever and whenever
The mind is found
Attached to anything,
Make haste to detach
Yourself from it.
When you tarry for
Any length of time
It will turn again into
Your old home town.

-- Daito Kokushi (1282-1334)

I watch William Blake, who spotted angels

Blake

by Adam Zagajewski

August 13, 2007

I watch William Blake, who spotted angels

every day in treetops

and met God on the staircase

of his little house and found light in grimy alleys—

Blake, who died

singing gleefully

in a London thronged

with streetwalkers, admirals, and miracles,

William Blake, engraver, who labored

and lived in poverty but not despair,

who received burning signs

from the sea and from the starry sky,

who never lost hope, since hope

was always born anew like breath,

I see those who walked like him on graying streets,

headed toward the dawn's rosy orchid.

(Translated, from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh.)

---

Not Worried About The Future

Scott Adams having some fun methinks! http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/08/not-worried-abo.html

---

The Way of Heaven

The Way of heaven is silent,
It has no appearance, no pattern.
It is so vast that its
Limit cannot be reached;
It is so deep that it
Cannot be fathomed.
It is always evolving
Along with people,
But knowledge cannot grasp it.
It turns like a wheel,
Beginninglessly and endlessly,
Effective as a spirit.
Open and empty,
It goes along with the flow,
Always coming afterward
And never in the forefront

-- Lao- tzu

There must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest

"There must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest." - Jorge Luis Borges

Sharing Happiness

"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

-- Buddha

HARRASSED BY REAL UNSEEN EVIL ENITY

HARRASSED BY REAL UNSEEN EVIL ENITY:

You know, the diversity of crud on the internet is never ending and always amazing!
I laughed and laughed when I read this entry (in an otherwise serious site where people were trying to get answers to things they wanted to find out about - the original was at: http://askearth.com/go/view_request?request=130317).
I am still not sure whether this guy was totally for real or a faker - but if he was the latter (faking it for the "laffs", he did a spectacularly good job). Anyway, I laughed and laughed until I turned into an evil enity (sic)!

Question

HARRASSED BY REAL UNSEEN EVIL ENITY

"Member 5369987" (C) Does any one know (other than church) where i can find help to remove this UNSEEN EVIL ENITY that has followed me from city to city in the last 15 year's,it hangs around all day and nite and harasses me,i tried all things possible to get rid of it,even priest! I feel i am right with God,I need someone who will persist till this thing is gone, One try may not be enough to eliminate 15 years of it being around. I never believed in these things until it happened to me, I THANK YOU FOR YOUR SEREOUS RESPONCES JOHN.

How can I utter one word when each moment My perplexity is more perplexing

There is no edge to my vast desert;
There is no peace for my heart and my soul.
The world is taken, from end to end, by image and form;
Which of these images is mine?
If you see a severed head on the way
Rolling in the direction of the battlefied;
Ask him, ask him concerning my secrets
For, from him you hear my hidden mysteries.
What if one ear could be found;
Suited to understand the speech of my birds.
What if one bird could fly,
Who wore my ring of Solomon's secrets [around her neck].
What am I saying? when I know telling this tale
Is beyond my limits and my ability is.
How can I utter one word when each moment
My perplexity is more perplexing.

(Divan 239:1-8)

There are roads, But they do not reach the world;

As for me, I delight
In the everyday Way,
Among mist-wrapped vines
And rocky caves.
Here in the wilderness
I am completely free,
With my friends,
The white clouds,
Idling forever.
There are roads,
But they do not reach the world;
Since I am mindless,
Who can rouse my thoughts?
On a bed of stone I sit,
Alone in the night,
While the round moon
Climbs up Cold Mountain.

-- Han shan ( 8th century)

Free to use the treasure house

My teacher said to me,
"The treasure house
within you contains everything,
and you are free to use it.
You don't need to seek outside."

-- Dazhu (487–593)

Will You Understand

In a grove of tall bamboos
Beside an ancient temple
Steam rolls from the brazier
In fragrant white clouds;
I show you the path of Sages
Beyond this floating world,
But will you understand
The lasting taste of spring?

-- Baisao (1675-1763)

Infinity

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former.
 -- Albert Einstein

Abode of the Way

Heaven is calm and clear,
Earth is stable and peaceful.
Beings who lose these
Qualities die,
While those who
Emulate them live.
Calm spaciousness is the
House of spiritual light;
Open selflessness is the
Abode of the Way.

-- Huai-nan-tzu

Fear Death

What shall he fear that does not fear death
 -- Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

Revolutionary Bureaucracy

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
  - Kafka, Franz

Solace or Assistance

You ARE right - nobody does love you

You are alone in this world and you will die alone, facing the long eternity of extinction without solace or assistance.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. -- Voltaire

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
  --  Voltaire

Perfectly Ambiguous Ending

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity".

one seriously weird individual

We are talking about a seriously weird individual here (well, at least, someone who wants to be weird)

http://www.pdark.de/about-en.html

German version

Welcome to the World of Philmann Dark

NEWS About me About the author Stories Mailing lists Links Impressum Copyright

Some short facts about me FAQ Some short facts about me Size 2 Meters Hair color Dark Brown, almost black Eye color Blue-Gray Hobbies Communication Current Occupation First Contact Officer Current body Planetdestroyer #13 Age of current body 86'483 Earth years as of 1.1.1970 FAQ What does Current body mean? I'm an immortal life form. My origins go way back to beginning of the universe. Unfortunately, nothing material can stand the test of time so my bodies deteriorate and I'm forced to seek a new host. I'm not a prasitic lifeform, though. I don't remove the former owner of the body but instead form a symbiosis with them. Usually, the hosts evolve over time (or rather their souls do). When the body of the host finally becomes inhabitable, the former owner of the host has evolved that much that (s)he has no urges to posess a body anymore (which would end in a struggle for control of the next body). The advantage for someone to form a symbiosis with him is that we grant protection and psychic abilities (some would call this magic but that's a very imprecise term) to the new host who in turn uses them to influence his/her surroundings. Our current host, for example suffers from a computer virus, which has destroyed the other PDs during the last years of the great galactic war. By protecting him against the virus, we both get what we want. Where do you originally come from? I came to be on a small, nameless planet which was destroyed long ago when one of the eight suns it circulated turned into a Super Nova. My race (about 300 beings) died with its planet. Planetdestroyer? The term is more slang than real. We're not like the big energy projectors that you saw in the Star Wars movies. What's the point in blowing up a perfectly good planet? Instead, our modus operandi was to extinct the population on the surface of the planet or to drive it away. And did you? During the great galactic war, I destroyed three major populations (actually drove them into extinction) and wiped out the populations of 377 planets. I was responsible for 5'300'475'000'000 +/- 1% casualties. *ulp* And your job here? After the great war, I was cleaning hazardous zones (mine fields and other relicts of the great war). It is generally accepted that I contributed a major part to the rebuilding of the civilizations that we see in the galaxy today. My current occupation is that of a First Contact officer (FCO). FCOs seek emerging civilizations in our galaxy and protect them against external influences (technology smugglers or people who use our advances in social sciences to influence primitive sociologies). After the systems are sealed off, we wait until the civilization has evolved to a point where they have enough internal stability to survive the contact with a much advanced one. This is usually the around the time when a civilization begins to build the first colonies on other planets because this step takes a lot of energy and therefore needs a very broad support in the members of the civilization in question. This means that the internal struggles which usally destroy a civilization when it makes first contact with an advanced one, must have been resolved or are at least under control. Unfortunately, the evolution from a civilization, in which greed and agression are major driving forces, to the next level is usually one which is accompanied with a lot of turmoil because some of the most powerful or influential beeings of such civilizations have come to their positions because they were the most greedy and aggressive. Beeing greedy and agressive, they distrust the change and try to prevent it. Even if they know the futility of the attempt, beeing what they are forces them to still try to prevent this change to the worse for them. What do you especially like on Earth? I enjoy the creativity and power of young civilizations a lot. I like to be surprised by new ways to do things and, just like parents, I'm proud if my civilization has climbed another step on their own. Unlike real parents, I usually don't teach or influence; I'm only observing. Noting things. This has lead to some confusion in the past. Usually, people blame me for not stepping in and preventing damage. This is a charge against which I don't defend because of two things: First, people who blame this on me, are usually in an agitated state and talking to them is pointless. Secondly, if you can't do mistakes, then you cannot learn and thus, evolve. Preventing a child to burn its hands makes them careless. So please don't blame me for giving you the chance to learn. Copyright © 2001-2002 Aaron Digulla a.k.a. Philmann Dark. Last Modification: 27.11.2001

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The Mind of Steven Wright

If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the guy who once said: "I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen and replaced by exact duplicates." His mind sees things differently than we do - to our amazement and amusement. Here are some more of his gems:-

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.

Half the people you know are below average.

99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.

I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

Narcissism as the ultimate expression of 21st century religion

Narcissism as the ultimate expression of 21st century religion.
In the same manner that in the mid/later 20th century we truly experienced the essence of Nietszche, it is only in the very late 20th and early 21st century that we are now channeling the essence of Freud.

Habits

The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky

In seeking the essence of the Way

In seeking the essence of the Way,
one should quiet the mind
and penetrate to the depths.
Silently wander within
and clearly see the origin
of all things, obscured by nothing.
The mind is boundless and formless,
just as the pure water
contains the essence of autumn.
It is glistening white and lustrously bright
in the same way that
moonlight envelops the entire night.

- Hung-chih (12th century)

Woody

Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right.
  - Woody Allen

Perfect Lover Perfect Love

"We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love".
  -- Tom Robbins in "Still Life With Woodpecker"

God, Spinoza, Einstein and Scott Adams

This is perfectly apposite to belief systems in our current society:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/05/god_for_weasels.html

God for Weasels

One of the great things about being ignorant is that I often think my ideas are original. It's a wonderful feeling. That's why I try to avoid any knowledge that would spoil the sensation. Sometimes it isn't easy. People keep hurling knowledge at me, and I can't always duck.

For example, people often accuse me of ripping off the great philosopher Spinoza when I write about the universe being God, or when I say people obviously have no free will. I act like I know what they are talking about and quickly change the subject. In reality, I didn't know Spinoza from Shinola.

Einstein has famously said he believes in Spinoza's version of God. I always wondered why he invoked Spinoza. It was time to find out about this Spinoza dude. I'm far too lazy to read an entire book, so I went to Wikipedia and read what strangers with no credibility had to say about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza

Holy cow! My opinions match Spinoza's perfectly. It turns out that being ignorant is almost exactly like being a well-read student of philosophy who can quote from the work of the masters. How lucky is that?

Now I know why Einstein invoked Spinoza when talking about his beliefs. Einstein discovered more than the theory of relativity. He also found a way to act like he believed in God, so all the God-lovers would accept him as their own, while simultaneously saying God is nothing more than semantics, so atheists would embrace him too. And he blamed it all on a dead guy, Spinoza. How many ways does Einstein need to keep proving he's a genius? I mean seriously, this is just showing off.

I have decided to adopt Einstein's weasel-genius view of God so everyone thinks I'm on their side. That could come in handy when I run for President. For the record, I believe in Spinoza's God. Less than one percent of Americans will know what that means. The other 99% will think I believe God is a bearded guy who hands out harps in the afterlife. They will love me for being on their side.

I think Spinoza would be proud to know that his life's work boiled down to creating a God for weasels.

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)

The Train

My friend, the train
Forward and Majestic
Overbearing my Journey

Whatever a man knows

Whatever a man knows, whatever is not mere rumbling and roaring that
he has heard, can be said in three words.
-- Kurnberger

Behind a blood-stained curtain

Behind a blood-stained curtain, love has spread its gardens.
Lovers are busy with the beauty of the love that is beyond explanation.
Intellect says: 'The six directions are the limit, there is nothing
beyond them.'
Love says:'There is a road, and I have journeyed on it many times.'
Love detected markets beyond that market.
Intellect says:'Do not set foot on the land of annihilation;
There is nothing there but thorns.'
Love says;'Those thorns you feel are only inside you!
Be silent! remove the thorn of existence from the foot of the heart;
So that you may see the gardens within.'
O Shams of Tabriz! you are the Sun cloaked by the cloud of speech;
When your Sun rose, all the words melted!

(Divan 132:1-3, 6-8)
Rumi

Wisdom and Age

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up
all by itself.
- Woodrow Wilson

Calm and Strife

The person resolute in the Way must strive not to lose sight of it,
whether in a place of calm or in a place of strife. Beware of clinging
to quiet places and shunning those where there is disturbance. If you
try to take refuge from trouble by running to some quiet place, you
will fall into confusion.

- Daikaku (1213-1279)

Cleverness and Stupidity (oh, and money, too!)

To be clever enough to get all the money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
-- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Same Source Differ In Name

Ever desireless,
One can see the mystery.
Ever desiring,
One can see the manifestations.
These two spring
From the same source
But differ in name.

- Lao tzu

Caught in the storm of my tears, with a bleeding heart

I said I shall tell the tale of my heart as best as I can;
Caught in the storm of my tears, with a bleeding heart,

I failed to do that!
I tried to relate to event in broken, muted words;
The cup of my thoughts was so fragile, that I fell into pieces like
shattered glass.
Many ships were wrecked in this storm;
What is my little helpless boat in comparison?

The waves destroyed my ship, neither good remained nor bad;
Free from myself, I tied my body to a raft.
Now, I am neither up nor down-no this is not a fair description;
I am up on a wave one instant, and down under another the next.
I am not aware of my existence, I know only this:
When I am, I am not, and when I am not, I am!

(Divan 1419:1-6)
Rumi

In the World

In the World

Barefoot and naked of breast,
I mingle with the people
Of the world.
My clothes are ragged
And dust laden,
And I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me,
The dead trees become alive.

- Kakuan (1100-1200)

The Primordial Sea

It is impossible to give a clear account of the world, but art can
teach us to reproduce it --just as the world reproduces itself in the
course of its eternal gyrations. The primordial sea indefatigably
repeats the same words and casts up the same astonished beings on the
same sea-shore.
-- Albert Camus

the sages who, abandoning learning, rest in spontaneity

Fearing that none of you would understand, they gave it the name Tao,
but you must not base any concept upon that name. So it is said that
"when the fish is caught, the trap is forgotten." When body and mind
achieve spontaneity, the Tao is reached and universal mind can be
understood. In former times people's minds were sharp. Upon hearing a
single sentence, they abandoned study and so came to be called "the
sages who, abandoning learning, rest in spontaneity." In these days,
people only seek to stuff themselves with knowledge and deductions,
placing great reliance on written explanations and calling all this
the practice.

- Huang-po (d.850)

Priceless!

Holy Moses! Have a look!
Flesh decayed in every nook!
Some rare bits of brain lie here,
Mortal loads of beef and beer,
Some of whom are turned to dust,
Every one bids lost to lust;
Royal flesh so tinged with 'blue'
Undergoes the same as you.

-- Amanda McKittrick Ros

objects

Over the ages
You have followed objects,
Never once turning back
To look within.
Time slips away;
Months and years
Are wasted

- Kuei-shan Ling-yu (771-854)

Contentment

It is the bedrock or foundation on which to parry the vicissitudes of common existence.

Narrow and Wide

Many times the mountains have
Turned from green to yellow
So much for the capricious earth!
Dust in your eyes,
The triple world is narrow;
Nothing on your mind,
Your chair is wide enough.

- Muso (1275 – 1351)