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#1903 - Friday, August 27, 2004 - Editor: Gloria Lee
If you want with a few words to benefit one who is eager to learn, speak with him about prayer, right faith, and the patient acceptance of what comes. For all else that is good is found through these.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from Philokalia, I
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
posted by
Gabriele Ebert on Million Paths
The Buddhist
tantras teach: "The thunderbolt cuts through hatred;
the great symbol blazes bright. A drop appears in the midst of
space; it appears as the door of life, and should be meditated
upon
in the center of the heart."
http://jove.prohosting.com/tiso/index.html
from Symeon the new
Theologian
On Hesychastic* Heart meditation....
"...the love of God, like a kind of heavenly dew which is
joined
with an ineffable light, falls immaterially on the heart in the
guise of lightening and takes the form of a shining pearl...This
pearl grows daily in the heart of him who prefers it to
everything else, becomes in him a miracle of miracles, both
inexpressible in every way and in all respects indescribable,
neither grasped by the mind nor uttered in words. Ecstatic at
the inexpressibility and incomprehensibility of the thing, and
fixing his intellect in meditation upon it, the man goes wholly
outside the world - not in his body, but - in all his
perceptions, for the latter also withdraw together with the
intellect to what is contemplated within him."
("on the Mystical Life" - Vol.2, pg 106
*stillness, silence from Jackson Peterson: ejackpete@aol.com
Have You Ever Tried to
Enter the Long Black Branches?
Have you ever tried to enter the long black
branches
of other lives --
tried to imagine what the crisp fringes, full of honey,
hanging
from the branches of the young locust trees, in early
morning,
feel like?
Do you think this world was only an entertainment for you?
Never to enter the sea and notice how the water divides
with perfect courtesy, to let you in!
Never to lie down on the grass, as though you were the grass!
Never to leap to the air as you open your wings over
the dark acorn of your heart!
No wonder we hear, in your mournful voice, the complaint
that something is missing from your life!
Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot
in front of the other, all attentive to what presents
itself
continually?
Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed
with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?
Well, there is time left --
fields everywhere invite you into them.
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To put one's foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life, and
not be afraid!
To set one's foot in the door of death, and be overcome
with amazement!
To sit down in front of the weeds, and imagine
god the ten-fingered, sailing out of his house of straw,
nodding this way and that way, to the flowers of the
present hour,
to the song falling out of the mockingbird's pink mouth,
to the tippets of the honeysuckle, that have opened
in the night
To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!
Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
While the soul, after all, is only a window,
and the opening of the window no more difficult
than the wakening from a little sleep.
Only last week I went out among the thorns and said
to the wild roses:
deny me not,
but suffer my devotion.
Then, all afternoon, I sat among them. Maybe
I even heard a curl or tow of music, damp and rouge red,
hurrying from their stubby buds, from their delicate watery
bodies.
For how long will you continue to listen to those dark shouters,
caution and prudence?
Fall in! Fall in!
A woman standing in the weeds.
A small boat flounders in the deep waves, and what's coming
next
is coming with its own heave and grace.
Meanwhile, once in a while, I have chanced, among the quick
things,
upon the immutable.
What more could one ask?
And I would touch the faces of the daises,
and I would bow down
to think about it.
That was then, which hasn't ended yet.
Now the sun begins to swing down. Under the peach-light,
I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean's edge.
I climb, I backtrack.
I float.
I ramble my way home.
~ Mary Oliver ~
(West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems)
http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Have_You_Ever.html
music link (left button to play, right button to
save)
Have Hope
The modern era is steeped in restlessness as man is tossed
between
conflicting ideals. Like mounds in a sandy desert,
intellectual knowledge
is mounting up without provision for the expression of the heart,
which is
so vitally necessary to quench the need of the spirit. It
is lack of this
that has checkmated man's achievements, in spite of himself and
his enormous
advancements in the fields of science. Unhappiness and
insecurity,
emotional or otherwise, are the dominant notes of the age, and
mankind is
engulfed in the darkness of wars, hate and fear.
Yet I say, "Have hope."
Selfishness and lust for power tend to drag man
towards brutality, which
he has inherited from his evolutionary ancestry or acquired
during erroneous
searching through his incarnations. But there is within man
the
inextinguishable light of Truth, because he is essentially divine
in origin
and being.
Those who cleanse their hearts of the embittering
poison of selfishness,
hate and greed shall find God as their own true Self. When
you find and
realize God, the problem of selfishness and its numerous
expressions melts
away like mist before the sun. In God and as God, all life
reveals itself
as being really one and indivisible, and all separateness created
by
identification with human or subhuman forms is seen to be
illusory.
The Truth of divine life is not a hope but a
reality. It is the only
reality, and all else is illusion. Have faith and you will
be redeemed.
Have love and you will conquer the lower and limited self of
cravings that
veil your own true being as God. Not through desperate
self-seeking, but
through constant self-giving is it possible to find the Self of
all selves.
from Meher Baba, "Life At Its Best"
Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk
To subscribe to
allspiritinspiration, send a blank email to:
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posted
on Allspirit Inspiration by Gill Eardley
Al Larus photo: http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Views.htm
A Scientists View: Peter Russell
The Paradox of Light
With hindsight, my decision to study theoretical physics along
with
experimental psychology was definitely the right one. They
provided
two complementary directions to my personal search for truth.
Theoretical physics was taking me closer toward the ultimate
truths
of the physical world, while my pursuit of experimental
psychology
was a first step toward truth in the inner world of
consciousness.
Moreover, the deeper I went in these two directions, the closer
the
truths of the inner and outer worlds became. And the bridge
between
them was light.
Both relativity and quantum physics, the two great paradigm
shifts of
modern physics, started from anomalies in the behavior of light,
and
both led to radical new understandings of the nature of light.
For
example, in relativity theory, at the speed of light time comes
to a
stop–in effect, that means for light there is no time
whatsoever.
Furthermore, a photon can traverse the entire universe without
using
up any energy–in effect, that means for light there is no
space. In
quantum theory, we find that light has zero mass and charge,
which in
effect means that it is immaterial. Light, therefore, seems to
occupy
a very special place in the cosmic scheme; it is in some ways
more
fundamental than time, space, or matter. The same, I later
discovered, was true of the inner light of consciousness.
Although all we ever see is light, paradoxically, we never know
light
directly. The light that strikes the eye is known only through
the
energy it releases. This energy is translated into a visual image
in
the mind, and that image seems to be composed of light–but
that light
is a quality of mind. We never know the light itself.
Physics, like Genesis, suggests that in the beginning there was
light, or, rather, in the beginning there is light, for light
underlies every process in the present moment. Any exchange of
energy
between any two atoms in the universe involves the exchange of
photons. Every interaction in the material world is mediated by
light. In this way, light penetrates and interconnects the entire
cosmos.
An oft-quoted phrase comes to mind: God is Light. God is said to
be
absolute–and in physics, so is light. God lies beyond the
manifest
world of matter, shape, and form, beyond both space and time–so
does
light. God cannot be known directly–nor can light.
The Light of Consciousness
My studies in experimental psychology taught me much about the
basic
functioning of the human brain. Yet, despite all I was learning
about
neurophysiology, biochemistry, memory, behavior, and perception,
I
found myself no closer to understanding the nature of
consciousness
itself. The East, however, seemed to have a lot to say about
consciousness, and so had many mystics, from around the world.
For
thousands of years they had focused on the realm of the mind,
exploring its subtleties through direct personal experience. I
realized that such approaches might offer insights unavailable to
the
objective approach of Western science, and began delving into
ancient
texts such as the Upanishads, The Tibetan Book of the Great
Liberation, The Cloud of Unknowing, and works of contemporary
writers
such as Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung, and Christopher
Isherwood.
I was fascinated to find that here, as in modern physics, light
is a
recurring theme. Consciousness is often spoken of as the inner
light.
St John refers to "the true light, which lighteth every man
that
cometh into the world." The Tibetan Book of the Great
Liberation
speaks of "the self-originated Clear Light, eternally unborn
. . .
shining forth within one's own mind."
Those who have awakened to the truth about reality–whom we
often call
illumined, or enlightened–frequently describe their
experiences in
terms of light. The sufi Abu'l-Hosian al-Nuri experienced a
light "gleaming in the Unseen. . . . I gazed at it
continually, until
the time came when I had wholly become that light."
The more I read about this inner light, the more I saw close
parallels with the light of physics. Physical light has no mass,
and
is not part of the material world; the same is true of
consciousness.
Light seems in some way fundamental to the universe, its values
are
absolute, universal constants. The light of consciousness is
likewise
fundamental; without it there would be no experience.
This led me to wonder whether there was some deeper significance
to
these similarities. Were they pointing to a more fundamental
connection between the light of the physical world and the light
of
consciousness? Do physical reality and the reality of the mind
share
the same common ground–a ground whose essence is light?
from Jackson Peterson: ejackpete@aol.com
Mr. G.V. Subbaramiah, a devotee, has written some short
poems, which
are interesting. Some of them refer to a child. Sri
Bhagavan said God
becomes a child, and vice versa. That means that the
samskaras are yet
latent in the child and thus its innocence is complete.
When they are
eradicated even a grown up man becomes a child again, and
thus
remains God.
The author said: The child creates the 'home' atmosphere.
Sri Bhagavan: Yes. The children
are always in the 'home'. We too are
there but are dreaming and imagining that we are outside
the home. S
ri Bhagavan added: I have
rendered the word 'youth' (yuva) in
Dakshinamurti Stotra as 'child' (bala). This seems more
appropriate. To
be reborn is to become a child over again. One must be
reborn before
gaining jnana, i.e., recovering the natural state.
~ Talks with Ramana Maharshi
On Realizing Abiding Peace and Happiness p. 315
posted by Viorica Weissman on Million Paths
Al Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/Views.htm
Papaji
Q: I am having
difficulty expressing what I want to say.
Papaji:
When you cannot express it, it means that you are That Itself.
You
can only express something that is other than you. That which you
are
gives power to all your expressions, but That Itself cannot be
expressed.
The Katha Upanishad says that the Self reveals Itself to him whom
the
Self chooses. It is not revealed by the intellect. If the Self
chooses you, then Self alone remains. The Grace of the Self
reveals
Itself to Itself.
When you have denuded yourself of all concepts, what happens? The
revelation of the Self. You have ideas such as 'my knowledge',
'my
experience'. Can't you throw them away for just one second?
from NOTHING EVER HAPPENED, vol 2, p. 321
by David Godman
posted by Viorica
Weissman on Million Paths
NO BIRTH, NO BASE AND UNION
"The true nature of
appearances is that they've never been born
If birth seems to happen it's just clinging, nothing more
The spinning wheel of existence has neither a base nor a root
If things seem to be stable, that's only a thought
The true nature of the mind is union, inseparability
If you separate its aspects, you're hooked on some view
The sign of the true lamas is that they hold a lineage
The ones who make stuff up are just being dumb
The mind's basic reality is like the clear and open sky
But the dark clouds of thoughts just cover it all up
So let the lama's pith advice
Be the wind that blows those clouds away
Even confused thoughts themselves are clear light
that shines so brilliantly
Experiences so bright like sun and moonlight
Without any direction, clarity shines timelessly
You cannot hold it, you can't say what it is
So many kinds of certainty shine like the stars in the sky
Whatever arises is the greatest bliss
Its nature is simplicity, the dharmakaya expanse
The six dependent appearances are empty naturally
This natural flow is effortless, there's not a klesha in sight
Within this basic state, completely relaxed
Wisdom without fixation abides continuously
The three kayas inseparable—the greatest miracle"
~Songs of Milarepa
found at the website
http://www.thebuddhadharma.com/issues/2002/winter/experiences
posted
by Anapachen on Daily Dharma