Susan Kahn - No True Things

To see that there are no true things
Is to fall through crevasses,
Through the appearing bedrock
And into an emptiness.

One finds a freedom
To wander among open fields
Of neither thing nor no thing.

With everything arising dependently,
And so, without inherent natures,
The many are not fractured.

And because nothing stands alone
But for the veil of empty names,
The barren desert blooms.

Posts by Susan Kahn

 

Danna Faulds - Awakening now

Why wait for your awakening?

The moment your eyes are open, seize the day.

Would you hold back when the Beloved beckons?

Would you deliver your litany of sins like a child’s collection of sea shells, prized and labeled?

“No, I can’t step across the threshold,” you say, eyes downcast.

“I’m not worthy” I’m afraid, and my motives aren’t pure.

I’m not perfect, and surely I haven’t practiced nearly enough.

My meditation isn’t deep, and my prayers are sometimes insincere.

I still chew my fingernails, and the refrigerator isn’t clean.

“Do you value your reasons for staying small more than the light shining through the open door?

Forgive yourself.

Now is the only time you have to be whole.

Now is the sole moment that exists to live in the light of your true Self.
Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain.

Please, oh please, don’t continue to believe in your disbelief.

This is the day of your awakening.

 From: Go In and In:
Poems From the Heart of Yoga

More about Danna Faulds HERE

Nisargadatta Maharaj - What is religion?

“What is religion?
A cloud in the sky.
I live in the sky, not in the clouds, which are so many words held together.
Remove the verbiage and what remains?
Recorded religions are mere heaps of verbiage.
Religions show their true face in action, in silent action.
To know what man believes, watch how he acts.
For most of the people service of their bodies and their minds is their religion. 

They may have religious ideas, but they do not act on them.
They play with them, they are often very fond of them, but they will not act on them.

 Christianity is one way of putting words together and Hinduism is another.
The real is, behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced,
explosive in its effect on the mind.
It is easily had when nothing else is wanted.”

 

Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol - Awareness

Despite the innumerable names that are tagged on to it,
Know that the real meaning is as follows:
Let your mind spontaneously relax and rest.

When left to itself, ordinary mind is fresh and naked.
If observed, it is a vivid clarity without anything to see,
A direct awareness, sharp and awake.
Possessing no existence, it is empty and pure,
A clear openness of nondual luminosity and emptiness.

It is not permanent, since it does not exist at all.
It is not nothingness, since it is vividly clear and awake.
It is not oneness, since many things are cognized and known.
It is not plurality, since the many things known are inseparable in one taste.
It is not somewhere else; it is your own awareness itself.

 

Lao Tzu - Can you?

Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?

Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child’s?

Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?

Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?

Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?

Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.

~ Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching, #10)