Joan Ruvinsky - For the record

It is this constant flux, breathing in, breathing out.
Sometimes there is no one there at all.
In town, everyone smiles at no one, and no one smiles back
and no one knows no one isn't there.
Sometimes, at home, no one goes to the wood shed
and comes back with an armful of logs, different shapes, different sizes,
so no one gets cold where no one is living.
No one calls, so the telephone doesn't ring,
but it doesn't matter because no one is there to answer it anyway.
One day, not long ago, no one went to the woods
so there weren't any tracks to follow in case of a suspected disappearance.
No one would think to look anyway because no one even lives near there anymore.
It was no surprise when no one came back unbenounced
since no one knew anyone had left in the first place.
No special occasion.
Just breathing out and breathing in.
Nothing notable.
Sometimes no one goes to the grocery store for provisions,
mostly when there is nothing left to eat.
It is a six-mile trip. It takes no time at all.
The store is never crowded when no one is there.
Off hours. No one cooks much anymore so shopping is simple.
Some nights before bed, no one sets the alarm
because it isn't necessary to wake up at any particular time.
No one is there to wake up.
So waking up is no problem as it happens by itself.
Nothing alarming.
Just breathing in and breathing out.
When no one is laughing, nothing much happens.
When no one isn't laughing, it is the same.
Only variations in the passing air.
No one is particularly puzzled by this.
It seems so natural. Nothing noteworthy.
No one wonders if it has always been this way.
No one can't remember. It is a gift everyone has.
Memory. No one remembers this.
It is as natural as breathing out and breathing in.
No one comes and goes but no one is there to notice,
so no one takes note of it here so nothing will be missed.
This is just for the record.

http://www.pathlessyoga.com/ 

 

Milarepa - No difference

appearance & emptiness
when they’re no different
everything is my view

dream time & wake time
when they’re no different
everything is my meditation

bliss & emptiness
when they’re no different
everything is my activity

now & later
when there’s no difference
everything is naturally real

mind & space
when there’s no difference
everything is dharmakaya

happy & sad
when there’s no difference
everything is guru’s instruction

upset & wisdom
when there’s no difference
everything is the realized state

my mind & buddha mind
when there’s no difference
everything is complete

Jeff Foster - Picnic with Rumi

Out beyond ideas of right and wrong
There is a field
And out beyond that field
There is a harbour

Pack your bags
I'll meet you there

We'll sail out together
Into the vastness of night
With only the breeze to guide us
No idea where we're going
No idea when we'll return

Sometimes we'll doubt ourselves
Often we'll want to turn back
But the ocean will always remind us
That we had no choice
And never did

And then one morning
In the warm glow of sunrise
In that perfect calm
After a perfect storm
We will disappear

Leaving the vast ocean
And a cool southwesterly breeze
Blowing an empty boat
To destinations unknown

They will search for us
They will assume we went under
But we will know otherwise

And we will picnic with Rumi
Laughing like children
In that field
Beyond right and wrong

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Life without a center 

 

 

 

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Liberation

I have been a wanderer long
In this world of transient things.
I have known the passing pleasures thereof.
As the rainbow is beautiful
But soon vanishes into nothingness,
So have I known,
From the very foundation of the world,
The passing away of all things
Beautiful, joyous and pleasurable.
As the moon is full and serene,
In the day of harvest
So am I
In the day of my Liberation
Simple as the tender leaf am I
For in me are many winters and many springs.
As the dew drop is of the sea,
So am I born
In the ocean of my Liberation
As the mysterious river
Enters the open seas,
So have I entered
Into the world of Liberation
This is the end I have known.

PDF HERE

Rumi - Where is that Moon?

Where is that Moon that never rises or sets?
Where is that soul that is neither with nor without us?
Don't say it is here or there.
All creation is Him but for the eyes that can see..

-Mevlana Rumi.

 

Peter Cutler - Seek and Ye Shall Not Find

art Gun Legler

 We’re all seeking something. Until we’re not. As long as we’re seeking bliss, peace, unconditional love or spiritual enlightenment, we’ll never find it. Seekers are not finders.

We get this idea that we can find bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment the way we find other things in our life. If we’re seeking a new car, we go to a car dealership. If we’re seeking a new house, we go to a Realtor. If we’re seeking an education we go to a university. If we’re seeking a meal, we go to a restaurant. We’ve been conditioned to believe that seeking and finding are connected. As long as we keep seeking eventually we’ll find.

Teachers and Retreats

So if we’re seeking enlightenment, why shouldn’t we go to a spiritual teacher, an ashram or monastery? Why shouldn’t we pay a thousand dollars for a week-long enlightenment retreat? Surely for a thousand dollars we should be able to get enlightenment. Unfortunately the only thing lighter after this retreat will be our wallet.

Seekers Remain Seekers

When it comes to bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment, that’s not how it works. Seekers do not become finders. They simply remain seekers. You may have noticed this already in your own seeking. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s only by giving up seeking, by giving up what is being sought and by giving up the one who is seeking that you actually find what you’re seeking.

Enlightenment Is Not a New Car

If you want a new car, you can find a variety of cars at a car dealership. But bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are not cars. You cannot simply go to a spiritual teacher or attend an enlightenment retreat and get enlightenment. You may get a very superficial and temporary taste of peace, love, bliss or enlightenment. And that’s usually what’s being sold. That keeps you coming back for more. It’s a good business practice. But you won’t get the real thing. You can’t get the real thing in this way. If you got the real thing, you wouldn’t need to come back again. Your seeking would be over.

Your Car Is the Only Car That Exists

Imagine that you want a new car, but the only car that exists is the very one you’re driving. There are no other cars. No other car exists. You have the only car in all existence. Your desire for this imaginary non-existent car is your seeking. Can you imagine the suffering and frustration that comes from seeking this non-existent car? It doesn’t exist. How can you find what doesn’t exist?

And yet, thanks to your illusion, you fail to realize that you’re driving the only car that actually does exist. So you have an existing car, but you’re seeking a car that doesn’t exist. That’s exactly the situation of spiritual seekers.

You’re seeking something imaginary that doesn’t exist. Your idea of bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are just ideas. They are not reality. And yet true bliss, peace, love and spiritual enlightenment are always right here. They’re not what you imagine them to be, nor can they be what you imagine them to be. That’s because they’re not thoughts; they’re real.

When you let go of all thoughts about peace, bliss, love and enlightenment, when you let go of all thoughts about you and what you are, when you empty your mind of all illusion, you realize that peace, bliss, love and enlightenment are right here and have always been right here. You have never for a single moment ever been apart form them. Even in the depths of your greatest suffering, everything you were seeking has always been here. Your illusions and all that seeking have simply hidden it from you. That realization is the end of seeking. You are now a finder. You have returned to a Home you never could have left.

You didn’t do this through seeking. You did it through the end of seeking. You did it through the surrender of illusion and openness to what is always right here now. You not only found enlightenment, but you saved a thousand dollars in the bargain.

https://n-lightenment.com/ 

 

Rumi - The Sufi's Tavern of Love

"In the tavern are many wines," writes poet, Coleman Barks, "the wine of delight in color and form and taste, the wine of the intellect's agility, the fine port of stories, and the cabarnet of soul singing. Being human means entering this place where entrancing varieties of desire are served. The grapeskin of ego breaks and a pouring begins."

"Fermentation is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation," he points out. "When grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two drunks meet so that they don't know who is who. Pronouns no longer apply in the tavern's mind-world of excited confusion and half-articulated wantings."

"But after a time in the tavern," Barks warns, "a point comes, a memory of elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off from the tavern and begin the return. The Qu'ran says, "We are all returning." The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in their search for truth. The tavern is a dangerous region where sometimes disguises are necessary, but never hide your heart, Rumi urges. Keep open there. A breaking apart, a crying out in the street, begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way home."

 

 PDF HERE

We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups
That is fine with us
Every morning we glow, and in the evening we glow again
They say there is no future for us
They are right
Which is fine by us 

-Rumi