The Colors of Ritual
Artisan Hamid Ali carries freshly dyed kalawa, a sacred orange-yellow thread
used extensively in Hindu rituals, against a backdrop of kalawa drying in the
sun in Lalgopalgunj village, north of Allahabad, India, on Oct. 13.
==========================================================
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would
suffice to solve most of the world's problems.
--Mahatma Gandhi
==========================================================
Viorica Weissman
MillionPaths
sages & opinions
Although the systems of right and wrong are but human judgements and have
no validity from the 'point of view of nature', yet that people do pass these
invalid judgements is a fact . This fact is a natural phenomenon just as anything
else. So the sages 'rest in the evolution of nature,' just let the different opinions
alone, and do not dispute and interfere with them. They do not abolish the
different opinions; they just transcend them. This is called following two courses
at once.
taken from
A Taoist Classic , Chuang-Tzu
___________________________________________________________
Caiti
Being_One
Subject: holiness (de Mello)
So it is with holiness. The moment you are aware of your
holiness it goes sour and become self righteous.
(A.de Mello)
Be so in love with the action that you forget all about virtue. You
do it because it seems to be a natural, inevitable thing to do.
Real virtue you enjoy thoroughly.
Desire keeps you in constant state of dissatisfaction. Together
with anxiety that kills the happiness.
Cunningness of the ego pushes you to make efforts to become
other then what you are. It goes for the methods and techniques.
The other approach is the wisdom of the Nature. That is
creativity. When there is an abandonment in you, no greed,
ambition, no striving...but alert awareness that causes
dissolution...then....
___________________________________________________________
Tykal
Being_one
As the Gift Arrives
potentially anything,
perhaps nothing,
in these words at least
love lives whatever's necessary
whether one welcomes
it as oneself
or wishes
it would mind its own business
and go take a flying
leap
___________________________________________________________
Tykal
Being_one
What is the Heart?
What is the heart? It is not human,
and it is not imaginary. I call it
you. Stately bird, who one moment
combines with this world, and the
next, passes through the boundary to
the unseen. The soul cannot find you
because you are the soul's wings, how
it moves. Eyes cannot see you: you
are the source of sight. You're the
one thing repentance will not repent,
nor news report. Spring comes: one
seed refuses to germinate and start
being a tree. One poor piece of wood
blackens but will not catch fire.
The alchemist wonders at a bit of
copper that resists turning to gold.
Who am I that I'm with you and still
myself? When the sun comes up,
the complicated nightmind of the
constellations fades. Snowstorms do
not last through July. The heart-
quality embodied by our master, Shams
Tabriz, will always dissolve the old
quarrel between those who believe in
the dignity of a human being's decisions
and those who claim they're all illusion.
- Rumi
___________________________________________________________
Francis Hunter
DailyDharma
I see people as flowerings of their environments and not as separate
objects.Thus if a flower had a god it would not be a transcendental flower but a
field - more over a field as discussed in physics, an integrated pattern of energy,
a field which would not only be flowering, but also earthing, raining, shining,
birding, worming, and being. A sensitive flower would, through its roots and
membranes, feel out into this entire pattern and so discover itself as a particular
exultation of the whole field.
~Alan Watts
From the book, “In My Own Way,” published by Pantheon Books.
___________________________________________________________
Joseph Riley
Panhala
Each step of the journey
is the journey.
~ Zen aphorism
___________________________________________________________
Pusan
TheUnbornMind
Dhammapada
Live in joy,
In love,
Even among those who hate.
Live in joy,
In health,
Even among the afflicted.
Live in joy,
In peace,
Even among the troubled.
Live in joy,
Without possessions,
Like the shining ones.
The winner sows hatred
Because the loser suffers.
Let go of winning and losing
And find joy.
There is no fire like passion,
No crime like hatred,
No sorrow like separation,
No sickness like hunger,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.
Health, contentment and trust
Are your greatest possessions,
And freedom your greatest joy.
Look within,
Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of the way.
How joyful to look upon the awakened
And to keep company with the wise.
How long the road to the man
Who travels with a fool.
But whosoever follows those who follow the way
Discovers his family, and is filled with joy.
Follow then the shining ones,
The wise, the awakened, the loving,
For they know how to work and forbear.
Follow them,
As the moon follows the path of the stars.
___________________________________________________________
Al Larus
HarshaSatsangh
As if she was present
I kept wishing,
for the softest thread.
As if she was present;
Tread softly,
she said.
To know me,
come to the surface,
of the lake.
I give you, wrapped in this universe.
One grain of sand, to throw away.
It is all that it will take.
___________________________________________________________
Michael Read
NDS
"and now for something completely different"
from the world of monty python
http://www.pythonet.org/dibley/