Thomas Merton - His boat is empty

“Who can free himself from achievement

And from fame, descend and be lost

Amid the masses of men?

He will flow like Tao, unseen,

He will go about like Life itself

With no name and no home.

Simple is he, without distinction.

To all appearances he is a fool.

His steps leave no trace. He has no power.

He achieves nothing, has no reputation.

Since he judges no one

No one judges him.

Such is the perfect man:

His boat is empty.”

http://merton.org/chrono.aspx

Etty Hillesum - Mystics

“Mystics are people who begin their quest for wisdom or for God 

not in the world of externals but in the microcosm of their own soul. 

There they allow themselves to be fully present to the experiences of a deep-felt joy or sorrow, 

of beauty or suffering, of gain or loss, so that these opposing poles 

might in time reconcile and grow and ripen into a harmonious whole. 

Once this inner harmony has grown from within and wells up

 as a peace that defies all rational explanation, 

mystics can carry this inner harmony into the world, 

thus becoming catalysts in the transformation of the world.”

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hillesum-etty

 

Gilbert Schultz - Effortless

        The entire weightlessness of the universe moves upon empty space, as the expression of this incredible lightness of being. Lighter than a feather, the universe moves with great ease, reality itself. The harmonious symphony of the spheres and spirals like music, move on and on. The art of falling towards a moving attractor is expressed silently and faultlessly by planets and moons.

    A machine? A living dynamic display of intelligence? Who can make the judgement? A machine? Intelligence?

    Theories pop up like flowers in a meadow.

    Do not be concerned about who you are. Do not be concerned about what you are. You are and in that there is no doubt.

    Find that which you cannot doubt and rest as that.

    It is not difficult. It is effortless.

    Don’t struggle with the mind. Let the mind, or thought, be just as it is. Do not set up residency in the mind.

    All that appears in mind is transient, fleeting. That which mind appears upon is changeless.

    The changeless is always here, here before the spontaneous appearance of the body…. or mind.

 

http://seeing-knowing.com/

 

Nanyue Mingzan - Enjoying the Way

    I
    1. Serenely carefree, nothing to change;
    2. Carefree, what need for words?
    3. Real mind doesn’t scatter,
    4. So no need to stop worldly cares.
    5. The past is already past,
    6. The future can’t be reckoned.
    7. Sitting serenely carefree,
    8. Why would anyone pay a call?
    9. Seeking to work on things outside –
    10. It’s all foolishness!

    II
    11. As for provisions, not one grain;
    12. If a meal is offered, just gobble it up.
    13. Worldly folk full of needless care,
    14. Always chasing, they never get it.

    III
    15. I neither desire heavenly realms,
    16. Nor want blessings in this world.
    17. When hungry, eat;
    18. Tired, sleep.
    19. Fools laugh at me,
    20. But the wise know its wisdom.
    21. It’s not being stupid –
    22. It’s what we originally are.

    IV
    23. When you have to go, go;
    24. When you have to stay, stay.
    25. Over shoulders, a ragged robe;
    26. Below, bare feet.
    27. Talking, talking, more and more –
    28. Always leads to mistakes.
    29. If you want to save others,
    30. Better work on saving yourself!

    V
    31. Don’t rashly seek the true Buddha;
    32. True Buddha can’t be found.
    33. Does marvelous nature and spirit
    34. Need tempering or refinement?
    35. Mind is this mind carefree;
    36. This face, the face at birth.
    37. Even if the kalpa-rock is moved,
    38. It alone remains unchanged.

    VI
    39. Carefree is just that –
    40. What need to read the words?
    41. With the root of delusive self gone,
    42. All falls into place right where it is.

    VII
    43. Rather than get worn out over this and that,
    44. In the woods, serene, just take a nap.
    45. Raise your head and the sun’s already high;
    46. Scrounge for food, then wolf it down.

    VIII
    47. Intent on getting good results,
    48. You merely fall deeper into ignorance.
    49. Try to grasp, it can’t be gotten;
    50. Let go and there it is.

    IX
    51. I have one “word”;
    52. With it, all concepts and relations gone.
    53. Clever explanations cannot get at this,
    54. Only mind conveys it.

    X
    55. Again this single “word,”
    56. Directly expressed without medium.
    57. Smaller than small,
    58. Originally without direction or place.
    59. Originally whole and complete –
    60. Not something strung together with effort.

    XI
    61. Lost in worldly cares
    62. Is far from mountain stillness.
    63. Where pines obscure sunlight,
    64. Clear green streams flow on and on.
    65. Lying down beneath wisteria vines,
    66. Head pillowed on smooth stone.
    67. With mountain clouds as curtain
    68. And night moon as a hook.
    69. Not rising for the emperor,
    70. Why envy royalty?
    71. Not even birth-death concerns me –
    72. What remains to grieve over?

    XII
    73. Moon reflected in water has no fixed form;
    74. That’s the way I always am.
    75. Each and every thing as it is,
    76. Originally unborn.
    77. Sitting serenely carefree:
    78. Spring comes, the grass grows green of itself.

 Translated by Jeff Shore

 E n j o y i n g   t h e   Wa y
I n t r o d u c t o r y   L e c t u r e
Jeff Shore

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Wu Hsin - This play called Life

Each being is a moment in time 
With a name and 
A form and 
A script 
To be performed 
In this play called 
Life.

None chose the name 
Nor the form 
Nor the script 
Yet each believes himself to be 
The master of his destiny.

Once their sight clears, 
They, too, will laugh.

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http://www.wu-hsin.com/

Fred LaMotte - This Is An impeccably Logical Argument

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely 

or in darkness the astonishing light of your own Being.” 

~Hafiz

        This grass blade is not a miracle, but it's Being is. The nectar of divine Existence bathes this blade of grass, and every creature that exists, in the sparkling energy of pure bliss, a substance too clear to be seen by the eyes in our head.

        But to the eye of the heart, this pure Existence appears as a golden light, a flame around the wick of thingness, whether the thing is a grass blade, or one cell of a grass blade, or the galaxy that contains the sun on whose tiny world the grass is growing.

        However fallen, broken or tiny a creature may seem, she floats in perfection, the sea of God.

        Until now, we have perceived the forms and objects of this world as foreground, and their mere Being as background. But in this age we shift to a new way of seeing, where the creature is background and Consciousness itself, the uncreated sparkle of pure Existence, is foreground.

        Earth, stars, stones and dandelions are suspended in Beauty, ever dissolving and re-appearing as the evidence of divine love. But the Beauty that contains these fleeting shapes of creation remains an eternal continuum of luminous Existence, more solid than matter, more real than the object.

        Why not dwell in perpetual astonishment, since merely to Be is a miracle? This is an impeccably logical argument.

        Why not bow down to every cricket, every mote of dust, not because it is a cricket or a mote of dust, but because it IS?

        If you don't understand this, I'm sorry. I can't explain it. Why don't you just walk barefoot in the wet grass at midnight, and listen to the stars?

Fred LaMotte:

http://yourradiance.blogspot.gr/

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Nisargadatta Maharaj - The painter is in the Picture

Questioner: I am a painter and I earn by painting pictures. 

Has it any value from the spiritual point
of view?

Maharaj: When you paint what do you think about?

Q: When I paint, there is only the painting and myself.

M: What are you doing there?
Q: I paint.
M: No, you don't. You see the painting going on. You are watching only, all else happens.

Q: The picture is painting itself? Or, is there some deeper 'me', or some god who is painting?

M: Consciousness itself is the greatest painter. The entire world is a Picture.
Q: Who painted the picture of the world?
M: The painter is in the Picture

I AM THAT ch 19