😉

 

The Natural State

art Kinuko.Y.Craft

The Natural State
Perfectly stay in the natural flow,
There is no other concentration.
Perfectly realize the natural state,
There is no other wisdom.
~ Patrul Rinpoche 

When shall I come to dwell in forests amongst the deer, the birds, the trees?
~ Shantideva

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are - perfect, complete, lacking nothing. 
~ Dogen Zenji

 
“Mountains and rivers, the great earth itself—these are the true masters, offering teachings without words.”
~ Chan Saying

“In the silence of the forest, where the winds chant their songs, one discovers the dharma more clearly than in a thousand sermons.”
~ Ajahn Chah

“Living among the pines and the cedars, I let the stream and rocks teach me how to practice.”
~ Ryokan

“To see the essence of things, walk in the wilderness; there, the mind and nature are one.”
~ Milarepa

“There are no greater temples than mountains, no more profound scriptures than rivers, no truer teachers than the rustling of leaves.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“On retreat in nature, I see that the sound of the wind in the trees and the cry of the cuckoo are no different than the Buddha’s voice.”
~ Zen Master Bankei

“When the body sits at rest under a tree, the heart can truly take refuge in the forest’s stillness.”
~ Ajahn Sucitto

“A mind that is quiet and at ease, like a mirror reflecting the sky, finds its reflection in the unspoiled beauty of the natural world.”
~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

“The forests and mountains invite us to abide in a state of simplicity, to rediscover the ground of being.”
~ The Buddha, paraphrased from the Pali Canon

The great 13th century master Longchen Rabjam said that nature provides a perfect support for resting in “the mind of uncontrived naturalness” which lies at the heart of the Buddhist Great Perfection tradition.
One’s own present awareness, left as it is, in natural ease,
Beyond qualities and flaws to be added or removed, accepted or rejected,
Is the unaltered, unchanging wisdom of pure awareness;
And to rest in this experience is to unite view and meditation.
~ Patrul Rinpoche 

May you find your way home today - to your true nature, the natural state.
With Palms Together 

Lama Michael

Thanks to Michael Gregory

 

Swami Abhishiktananda - Return within

 

Return within,

to the place where there is nothing,

and take care that nothing comes in.

Penetrate to the depths of yourself,

to the place where thought no longer exists,

and take care that no thought arises there!

There where nothing exists,

Fullness!

There where nothing is seen,

the Vision of Being!

There where nothing appears any longer,

the sudden appearing of the Self!

Dhyana is this!

Swami Abhishiktananda 

(Henri Le Saux)

Swami Abhishiktananda was a French Benedictine monk and priest who felt called to live in india in order to set up contemplative monasteries there. He ended up staying the rest of his life and discovering more than he had bargained for in the general life of india and particularly in advaita vedanta. He never renounced his vocation as a monk or priest

Joan Tollifson - Undeniable and unavoidable

 

Naming this undivided wholeness (calling it wholeness, unicity, Consciousness, awareness, the Self, the True Self, the One Mind, presence, Buddha Nature, emptiness, or any other name) is always potentially misleading because names create the mirage-like appearance of something in particular (this but not that). And what we’re talking about is not something. It is everything and no-thing. Emptiness is what remains when all our ideas, words and beliefs about life drop away. It is not nothing in a nihilistic sense. It is everything, just as it is. 

This wholeness or emptiness is not some abstract idea or mystical state of consciousness, but simply the undeniable actuality of this moment – the sounds of traffic, the hum of machinery, the song of a bird, the knowingness that this is and that you are here. This bare being, this aware presence, this present experiencing requires no belief and cannot be doubted. It is undeniable and unavoidable. What can be doubted are all the ideas, interpretations, and stories about this. All our confusion and suffering is in this conceptual overlay, never in Reality itself. This book is about seeing through the imaginary problem.

---Joan Tollifson, from her book, “Painting the Sidewalk with Water”

https://www.joantollifson.com/joan.html

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Ed Crowley - In Rumi’s field

 People often 
ask me where
I live and what’s 
the name of my 
hometown road
I smile 
as I tell them 
it’s nowhere 
Yet 
it’s everywhere 
and it’s simply 
my humble abode 
I’m the 
Unknown Wanderer 
and hence 
I simply wander 
then I pivot 
Awareness around 
Into the stillness 
of the Silence 
as I lay my soul 
down in Rumi’s field 
Where the 
Beloved Ones 
teachings are revealed 
If you want to know 
where I call home at 
the end of the day 
look up at the stars 
It’s beyond your vision 
but if you look 
long enough you’ll 
sense me there
spinning like a Sufi 
in the boundless 
galaxy 
of the Milky Way 
But you can find me 
if you simply look 
within your heart 
That’s where I’ve 
always been right 
from the start 

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Knock,

And He'll

open the door

Vanish,

And He'll

make you shine

like the sun

Fall,

And He'll

raise you to

the heavens

Become nothing,

And He'll turn you

into Everything.

Jalal Ad-Din Rumi

 

The silence of intuited unicity is always on

It cannot and need not be contrived 

or arrived at or made anew

It is either recognized or not

Nancy Neithercut

Christian Bobin - Silence is the highest form of thought

 

For a long time I let this slow movement towards the unknown, 
this highest form of knowledge, be fulfilled in me: 
the dream, the worship of silence. 
It is never in vain that we give way 
to this elementary beauty which seizes the soul 
in the spiral of a star or anything in the world:
such certainty soothes the hours when I do not write, as those when I write. 

It illuminates the night and its angelic sister, solitude. 
Silence is the highest form of thought 
and it is by developing in us this silent attention 
mute to the day, that we will find our place 
in the absolute that surrounds us.
It is ours when all is lacking and all is far from being _ 
to give our life the patience of a work of art, 
the flexibility of reeds that the hand of 
the wind wrinkles, In homage to winter. 
A little silence is enough. 
A little of this immaterial food that the mother dispensed 
by reading a story that dug the night and burned it to infinity...

Christian Bobin -The simple enchantment

Shams-e Tabrîzî said to Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī

Happy Birthday Beloved Rumi ♡

"A hundred more years from now,

My Poems will be your evening-talks,

Just like Joseph's beauty!"

-Rumi

Today (September 30, 2024) is Mv Rumi's 817th Birthday,

and just as he had said, Rumi's Wisdom is still enlightening our Globe.

                                                                      “Shams said to Rumi:

—You are a scholar, a leader, 

a guide, and an authority!

Rumi answered:

—I am no longer the scholar, leader, 

and guide of the external world… 

I am one of the poor on a journey 

in the world beyond reason, 

lit by the torch you sparked.

Shams said again:

—You still maintain rational thinking! 

Since you could not go beyond reason, 

you are not a native of this region!

Rumi responded:

—From now on, 

I will veil my mind with my heart… 

I became crazy… 

With your spiritual guidance, 

I became a native of this land.

Shams said:

—You still make calculations! 

You are not intoxicated with love! 

You are out of this world! 

This world is lit not by mind but by love. 

You cannot even see what is before you!

Rumi said to Shams:

—Since that moment, 

with your spiritual guidance, 

I became a fire from top to bottom 

entirely covered by love and ecstasy.

This time Shams said:

—You are the torch of this community! 

Your place is high.

Rumi said:

—From now on, my torch is extinguished. 

In my eye, it is no different 

from the May beetle. 

I am now walking under the light 

of other torches.

Shams said:

—You are not dead. 

You still maintain your external life. 

You cannot cross through this door 

like that to the other side. 

You have to completely abandon 

your mundane existence.

Rumi answered:

—It was in the past. 

After I met you, I am no longer alive 

in the conventional sense. 

I have died as I have come across 

a new type of existence.

Shams said to him:

—You still rely on your ego at some points. 

You still maintain your position and titles. 

Free yourself from them.

Rumi replied:

—From now on, I will be seeking position 

in the divine presence 

to which you are drawing me. 

I have abandoned my earlier existence 

and whatever belongs to it. 

I have surpassed it all.

Shams said:

—You still have arms and wings! 

Therefore, I cannot give you 

new arms and wings!

Rumi answered:

—From now on, I will break my arms and wings, 

so that I can become your arms and wings!”

At that moment, Shams was convinced 

that his mission was over 

as he had given him wings to travel 

to the horizons full of divine manifestations… 

And he left him alone in the world 

of blissful separation from the world of union.

From The Garden Of Mathnawi

TEARS OF THE HEART

Tranlators Sencer Ecer & Abdullah Penman

PDF

HERE