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issue # 1339, Monday, February 3, 2003, Edited by Jerry
Ha Long Bay - Ha Long City - market (see poem below)
enlarged version: http://www.tropicalisland.de/travel_vietnam.html
iamom
http://www.livejournal.com/users/iamom/
Bush called for the entire country to unite in their grief for seven people, yet he will probably start to kill thousands of innocent civilians within a few short weeks. It would be nice to take a pause for thought, George.
Terry Murphy
Sufi Mystic
I hope that people who were anti-war thirty and forty years
ago
return to the realization that we must again 'give peace a
chance' and that
'love and peace' are once again the order of the day.
Remember little zen
buddhist vietnamese monks immolating themselves? How will
the deeply
spiritual people of the Middle East capture our imaginations?
Amanda
from HarshaSatsangh Magazine
http://www.harshasatsangh.com/MagazineV2/FilmNonDuality.htm
"...many viewers were confused about "The Thin Red Line", in particular the long shots showing the soldiers' natural surroundings and the interchanging voice overs, finding them hard to understand and even superfluous for a war movie. Some commented that it looked as if the film crew were trying to make a nature film instead of a movie about an event in WW2. My interpretation of those shots is that they depict the surroundings being neutral to the characters' warring, yet constantly being there as the unblinking and all inclusive Presence."
from Basho's 'Narrow Road to the Deep North
It was here that the glory of three generations
of the Fujiwara family passed away like a
snatch of empty dream. The ruins of the main
gate greeted my eyes a mile before I came upon
Lord Hidehira's mansion, which had been utterly
reduced to rice-paddies. Mount Kinkei alone
retained its original shape. As I climbed one
of the foothills called Takadate, where Lord
Yoshitsune met his death, I saw the River
Kitakami running through the plains of Nambu in
its full force, and its tributary, Koromogawa,
winding along the site of the Izumigashiro
castle and pouring into the big river directly
below my eyes. The ruined house of Lord
Yasuhira was located to the north of the
barrier-gate of Koromogaseki, thus blocking the
entrance from the Nambu area and forming a
protection against barbarous intruders from the
north. Indeed, many a feat of chivalrous valor
was repeated here during the short span of the
three generations, but both the actors and the
deeds have long been dead and passed into
oblivion. When a country is defeated, there
remain only mountains and rivers, and on a
ruined castle in spring only grasses thrive. I
sat down on my hat and wept bitterly till I
almost forgot time.
A thicket of summer grass
Is all that remains
Of the dreams and ambitions
Of ancient warriors.
I caught a glimpse
Of the frosty hair of Kanefusa
Wavering among
The white blossoms of unohana
- written by Sora
*Kanefusa - a governor who was an assiduous student of poetry
Rice for Peace
In the 1950's, tens of thousands of people sent small bags of rice to President Eisenhower to encourage him to send food to then-enemy China during a famine. The campaign helped dissuade Eisenhower from attacking China during two distinct international confrontations. Now a nationwide effort has been launched to send a similar message to President Bush about Iraq. If we are going to send something to Iraq it should be food, not bombs.
Poems
by Lam Thi My Da
translated by Martha Collins and Thuy Dinh
The Color of Phai Street
At Tet, people buy chickens in the market
I bought a clay rooster when I was a child
Now that earthen rooster lies in the earth
But he's still crowing brightly against the sky
Suddenly a rainbow sweeps before me
Many beautiful flowers speak dreamy words
In the flowers a small angel keeps appearing
Her dark eyes waiting, full of anticipation
Sometimes I think the soul is the color of Phai Street
Its silent mossy tiles, its silent walls
The morning weather, like being seventeen
The leaves waking up, releasing their strange scent
Illusive Lover
I wait in rain for the Ha Long Bay ferry
The storm churns black coffee in my cup
Ha Long Bay, like a lover I've never met
Desire is swirling anxiously in my heart
How can it be that we might not meet?
If it keeps storming, I might have to turn back
Ha Long Bay—a beautiful dream
Like you, forever distant
Please let my imagination
Fall like a leaf against your magical face
Your handsome face that humbles the gods
A wanderer's face, with dreamlike features
I am resigned: I will become a desert
And bow to say goodbye to you
In the rain that falls on the far horizon
Ha Long Bay is like an illusive lover
A lover who doesn't exist in this life
Gill Eardley
Allspirit
Self-knowledge
... self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were
raised right
up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your
cultivation
of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more to
us than
humility... As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing
ourselves
unless we seek to know God: let us think of His greatness and
then
come back to our own baseness; by looking at His purity we shall
see our foulness; by meditating upon His humility, we shall see
how
far we are from being humble.
~Teresa of Avila
(p. 38, First Mansions, Chapter 2, Paragraph 9)