Saturday, May 30, 2015

Ella Wheeler Wilcox - A Golden Day




The subtle beauty of this day
Hangs o'er me like a fairy spell,
And care and grief have flown away,
And every breeze sings, "all is well."
I ask, "Holds earth or sin, or woe?"
My heart replies, "I do not know."

Nay! all we know, or feel, my heart,
Today is joy undimmed, complete;
In tears or pain we have no part;
The act of breathing is so sweet,
We care no higher joy to name.
What reck we now of wealth or fame?

The past--what matters it to me?
The pain it gave has passed away.
The future--that I cannot see!
I care for nothing save today--
This is a respite from all care,
And trouble flies--I know not where.

Go on, oh noisy, restless life!
Pass by, oh, feet that seek for heights!
I have no part in aught of strife;
I do not want your vain delights.
The day wraps round me like a spell
And every breeze sings, "All is well."



Ken Wilber - One Taste




picture intao

One Taste is not some experience you bring about through effort; 
rather, it is the actual condition of all experience before you do anything to it. 
This uncontrived state is prior to effort, prior to grasping, prior to avoiding. 
It is the real world before you do anything to it, including the effort to "see it nondually".

This is the world of One Taste, with no inside and no outside, no subject and no object, no in here versus out there, without means, without path and without goal. 
And this, as Ramana said, is the final truth.


Friday, May 29, 2015


Eja - Cherry blossoms



I see cherry blossoms in your eyes
Telling me spring has sprung
A frozen sea has melted within
Poetry trembles on the tip of my tongue


It’s been a bleak and loveless winter
Since I’ve spun my cocoon
The butterfly is about to take wing
And all things dance to the creator’s tune

A green tree grows in my heart
From the sunlight in your eyes
The singing birds have finally come
To celebrate the now where nothing dies

A poem blooms from glorious splendor
And all of creation begins to sing
I see beauty in your eyes
These are the gifts the cherry blossoms bring





Eamon Zicker

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Hafiz - Death is a favor to us






Death is a favor to us,
But our scales have lost their balance.

The impermanence of the body
Should give us great clarity,
Deepening the wonder in our senses and eyes

Of this mysterious existence we share
And are surely just traveling through.

If I were in the Tavern tonight,
Hafiz would call for drinks

And as the Master poured, I would be reminded
That all I know of life and myself is that

We are just a mid-air flight of golden wine
Between His Pitcher and His Cup.

If I were in the Tavern tonight,
I would buy freely for everyone in this world

Because our marriage with the Cruel Beauty
Of time and space cannot endure very long.

Death is a favor to us,
But our minds have lost their balance.

The miraculous existence and impermanence of
Form
Always makes the illumined ones
Laugh and sing.
 

The subject tonight is Love – 60 wild and sweet poems of Hafiz
Versions by Daniel Ladinsky





Hafiz - I bow to God




I bow to God in gratitude
And I find the moon is also busy
Doing the same.

I bow to God in great happiness
And I learn from where the sun’s
And the children
And my heart
All borrow their light.

I bow to the Friend in deep reverence
And discover a marvelous secret carried in the air:

This whole Universe is just as blessed
And divinely crazed as I,
And just as lost in this Wonderful Holy Dance.

My dear,
After such a long, long journey,
God has made another soul
Free!

Now all Hafiz wants to do
Is open a beautiful tavern
Where this sacred wine
Of God’s Truth, Knowledge and Love
Is forever and ever
Freely offered to you.

O bow to God in gratitude,
And someday
You will see how
The moon is also busy doing the same.




Sai Baba of Shirdi - You need not go far



You need not go far, or anywhere in search of Me. 
 Barring your name and form, there exists in you, as well as in all beings, a sense of Being or Consciousness of Existence. 
That is Myself. 
Knowing this, you see Me inside yourself as well as in all beings. If you practice this, you will realize all pervasiveness and thus attain oneness with Me.



Dr. Maya Angelou: "Love Liberates"



Khalil Gibran - Prayer




Then a priestess said, "Speak to us of Prayer." 
And he answered, saying: 
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether? And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart. 
And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing. When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet. Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion. For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive. And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted: Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard. It is enough that you enter the temple invisible. 
I cannot teach you how to pray in words. God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips. And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains. But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart, And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence, "Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth. It is thy desire in us that desireth. It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also. We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us: 
Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

from "The Prophet"  
HERE 




Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Ramana Maharshi - The world and the mind



Does the world really exist by itself?
Was it ever seen without the aid of mind?
When asleep there is neither mind nor world.
When awake there is mind and world.
The world neither exists by itself
Nor is it conscious of its existence
And what is the nature of the world?
It is perpetual change
A continuous, interminable flux
A dependent, unself-conscious, 
ever changing world cannot be real.




Kabir - Dance, my Heart! Dance today with Joy



DANCE, MY HEART! DANCE TODAY WITH JOY.

THE STRAINS OF LOVE FILL THE DAYS AND THE NIGHTS WITH MUSIC AND THE WORLD IS LISTENING TO ITS MELODIES.

MAD WITH JOY, LIFE AND DEATH DANCE TO THE RHYTHM OF THIS MUSIC. THE HILLS AND THE SEA AND THE EARTH DANCE. THE WORLD OF MAN DANCES IN LAUGHTER AND TEARS.

WHY PUT ON THE ROBE OF THE MONK, AND LIVE ALOOF FROM THE WORLD IN LONELY PRIDE?

BEHOLD! MY HEART DANCES IN THE DELIGHT OF A HUNDRED ARTS; AND THE CREATOR IS WELL PLEASED.




WHERE IS THE NEED OF WORDS, WHEN LOVE HAS MADE DRUNKEN THE HEART?

I HAVE WRAPPED THE DIAMOND IN MY CLOAK; WHY OPEN IT AGAIN AND AGAIN?

WHEN ITS LOAD WAS LIGHT, THE PAN OF THE BALANCE WENT UP: NOW IT IS FULL, WHERE IS THE NEED FOR WEIGHING?

THE SWAN HAS TAKEN ITS FLIGHT TO THE LAKE BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS; WHY SHOULD IT SEARCH FOR THE POOLS AND DITCHES ANY MORE?

YOUR LORD DWELLS WITHIN YOU: WHY NEED YOUR OUTWARD EYES BE OPENED?

KABIR SAYS: "LISTEN, MY BROTHER! MY LORD, WHO RAVISHES MY EYES, HAS UNITED HIMSELF WITH ME."




Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Nirmala - Let Love have it all




Die a little
with every disappointment
or find what never dies
and has no preferences

Try a little
and keep illusion going
or see the futility of effort
and stop pushing on nothing

Be happy a little
now and then when circumstance allows
or rest in the source of happiness
now, then and always

Believe a little
that you are someone
or notice there is no separate one
nor any limit to being

Love a little
with half a heart
or let love have it all
filling the heart to overflowing



Monday, May 25, 2015

Papaji - You are the Moment in which all is




"Identify as Peace-Beauty-Love, do not experience it.
Know, “I am inactive, the activity takes place in me,
I am That, I am the screen, I never come and I never go.”
Identify as Consciousness Itself.
If you do not forget who you are,
this appearance of activity is the Cosmic Dance.
Stay as ‘I am,“ not as what comes and goes.
The individual I-sense is mind, but Being has no frontiers.
It is aware of Itself Itself. Identify as Being.
When mind is pure you will see Self in all Beings.
Purify the mind by removing all concepts,
especially the concept of purity,
Then Self reveals itself to the empty mind
which is Consciousness.
Ego and mind and all creations arise out of Self as Self,
even the ugliest of doubts and the most separate of differences
rise from the beautiful source as Isness.
In Self there are no do’s and don'ts.
If there is unhappiness you are not unhappy,
you are the Untouched Awareness of this unhappiness.
As waves are not separate from ocean, nor rays from sun,
you are not separate from existence.
You are the Moment in which all is."

 

 

art The Spirit of Plato by William Blake


First rid yourself of yourself. 
Then we can really meet. 


 From Conversations with Plato