The Buddha

Art : Meditating Maitreya, Japan

"The Buddha was not different from you. No different.
That is why he serves as a good model, because he was as you are now.
So don't worship the Buddha. Don't put him on a pedestal.
Don't even look up to him. Become him. "

Adyashanti

THE SOUL LIVES CONTENTED

"Woman Through A Window"

Topkapi Palace
Istanbul. Turkey. January 6th 2016

The soul lives contented
by listening,
if it wants to change
into the beauty of
terrifying shapes,
it tries to speak.

That’s why
you will not sing,
afraid as you are
of who might join with you.

The voice hesitant,
and her hand trembling
in the dark for yours.

She touches your face
and says your name
in the same instant.

The one you refused to say,
over and over,
the one you refused to say.

The Soul Lives Contented: in
‘River Flow:
New and Selected Poems’
©David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

Embracing the groundlessness of our situation

Art : He Iaying

It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught.

Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation.

Our discomfort arises from all of our efforts to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.

When we resist change, it’s called suffering.

But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality,

that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness.

Another word for that is freedom — freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.

–  Pema Chödron, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change

Self-consciousness

Art : Daria Petrilli

"Self-consciousness makes us see ourselves double,
and we make the double image for two selves - mental and material, controlling and controlled, reflective and spontaneous.
Thus instead of suffering we suffer about suffering, and suffer about suffering about suffering."


Alan W. Watts

The Song of Creation from the Rigveda

The Song of Creation from the Rigveda (over 3,000 years old)

At first there was neither Being nor Non-being,

No kingdom of air, no sky beyond it.

Who straddled what, and where? Who gave shelter?

Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?

There was no death then, nor immortality,

No sign of stirring, no curtain of day or night.

Only one thing, Breath, breathed, breathing without breath

Nothing else, nothing whatsoever.

Also, there was Darkness, darkness within darkness,

The darkness of undiscriminated chaos

Whatever existed then was void and formless,

Then came the stirring of warmth, giving shape…

Then rose Desire, primal Desire,

The primal seed, the germ of Spirit.

The searching Sages looked in their hearts, and knew:

Being was a manner of non-Being.

And a line cut Being from non-Being transversely:

What was above it, and what below it?

Only might makers, mighty forces,

Action flowing freely and a fund of energy

A Happy New Year to everybody!

When I heard the sound of the bell ringing,
there was no bell,
and there was no I -
there was only the ringing.

Once you stop clinging and let things be,
you’ll be free, even of birth and death.

You’ll transform everything…
And you’ll be at peace wherever you are.

Even as fire finds peace
in its resting place without fuel,
when thoughts become silence
the soul finds peace in its own source.

When the mind is silent,
then it can enter into a world
which is far beyond the mind:
the highest End.

The mind should be kept in the heart
as long as it has not reached the highest End.
This is wisdom, and this is liberation.

~ Upanishads

As you wander under the moon...

Photo by MARC LESTER / ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

The moon rises into view over the Chugach Mountains in this view from the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge
on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010, in Anchorage, Alaska.

As you wander under the holding of the moon,

stay embodied to the vulnerability as it washes through you.

Receive the transmission of lunar essence as it emerges from inside her.
 

In one moment of pure astonishment, behold the colors, the sounds,

and the somatic spinning of light that have arrived as her emissaries,

come to remind you of something the world has forgotten.
 

As you receive her into the coming days, do whatever you can to help others.

Hold them and offer them the gift of your kindness and your presence.

Show them how much you love them and how much you care about

how they are making meaning of their life as a sensitive,

alone, and connected human being.
 

Look carefully at the one you love for in the not-so-distant future they will no longer be here.

You may not be able to touch and to hold them tomorrow.
 

As the veil is parted and the secret moon inside your heart appears,

you will remember how precious it truly is here.

And what a rare opportunity you have been given

to break open in a star of love.

 

Matt Licata

Wandering in the forests of the inner and the outer worlds.

Today I feel the need to share with you that...

 

There are pieces of you wandering in the forests of the inner and the outer worlds.
Do you sense them nearby? Do you feel them gathering around you?

 

Sadness, shame, loneliness, and grief.
Abandoned joy, unbearable openness, and long-forgotten aliveness.
Even the ancient ones anxiety, unworthy, and unlovable have arrived and are circling.

 

Look carefully as they are being assembled for an extraordinary meeting.
Your raw, sensitive heart – your tender, ripening body – the most outrageous host.

 

Open to your fellow travelers and keep them close, for they are weary from a long journey.
They have not come from outside to harm you,
but are only longing for one moment of your presence and your care.
They have not appeared in order to be ‘understood,’ ‘transformed,’ or ‘healed,’
but have come spinning out of the unseen only to be held.
Held, not ‘healed.’ For what you are has never been unhealed.

 

While they may appear as obstacles along the way, they are only seeking wholeness.
If you will provide sanctuary where they can unfold and illuminate,
they will reveal their essence as pure,
wisdom-allies on the raging path of metabolization by love.

 

Matt Licata