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Issue#1426 Friday, May 9, 2003 Editor: Gloria
And
the Blessed Lord said:
By whatsoever path people approach me,
even so do I welcome them,
for the paths they take on every side are mine.
Bhagavad Gita
(Song of the Holy One)
4,11
David Bozzi NDS
If a picture is a
thousand words
a song must be a thousand dreams
or a million poems
uttered
from the heart of still vibration...
And if one could take a snapshot
of that holy heart,
beating
the still
would show up missing
like a vampire's reflection
or the ripples left behind
in water's memory...
I still might try
to think up something
to instill
what I am saying
but that won't matter
like your biggest problem...
My issue is none,
as is yours
as we keep saying,
singing
and portraying
-------------------------------
http://www.inkblotpoetry.com
Robert Cooper Daily Dharma
"Listen, great
being! All that exists in the animate and inanimate world
manifests as my nature, is pure in the ultimate dimension of
phenomena, and
emanates in manifold forms in order to teach. The various
manifestations of
the three dimensions transmit the teachings of the three vehicles
and in
this way they satisfy those who base themselves on cause and
effect.
However, once there is no longer dependence on a past object one
no longer
strives to work with the cause and no longer yearns for the
fruit. This
state beyond desire vouchsafes the spontaneous realization of
self-perfection: there is no purpose in creating what
already exists from
the beginning."
~Kunjed Gyalpa
From the book, The Supreme Source,
by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, translated by
Adriano Clemente. Published by Snow Lion Publications.
photo of geese flying sent by Al Larus
Gill Eardley Allspirit
From: 'Entering
the Sacred Mountain - Exploring the Mystical Practices
of Judaism, Buddhism, and Sufism' by Rabbi
David A. Cooper
An ant today had a ball of pollen attached to one leg. God is
all, everything,
and everywhere, "they" say. So the ant touched the
flower as part of God's
everywhereness. Then it wandered, not in a happenstance manner,
but each move
blending in tune with a cosmic melody, until I glanced its way,
as was meant to
be, and started thinking about the everythingness and
everywhereness of God.
The flies twist and buzz in a confused frenzy of activity. Yet
could it be that
each turn, every stop and go is part of the mystical dance? If I
brush one away,
if I don't, is it all the same? A fly smashes into a window,
reels back stunned,
falls in a daze. This too? A lesson for the fly, for me, or what?
Either we
believe it is all an accident, or there is a creative force.
Einstein said he
did not believe God throws dice. So there is nothing less godly
about a stunned
and confused fly than one in perfect harmony, functioning as a
fly should.
Moreover, whether we, as human beings, are in a state of
emotional balance or we
are bewildered and flustered, we are still an expression of the
Divine. When we
are "enlightened," we glow with God's light; but it is
no different when we are
dense hulks of neurosis and anxiety - we still radiate the same
light for those
who know how to see.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Rainbow
D H Lawrence
Even the rainbow
has a body
made of the drizzling rain
and is an architecture of glistening atoms
built up, built up
yet you can't lay your hand on it,
nay, nor even your mind.
(From Last Poems)
Coming Awake
D.H. Lawrence
When I woke, the lake-lights were quivering on the wall,
The sunshine swam in a shoal across and across,
And a hairy, big bee hung over the primulas
In the window, his body black fur, and the sound of him cross.
There was something I ought to remember: and yet
I did not remember. Why should I? The running lights
And the airy primulas, oblivious
Of the impending bee-they were fair enough sights.
Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk
Daily Bodhi Drop
Relying
on solitude is easy;
giving up things to do is hard.
Adept Godrakpa, in Hermit of Go Cliffs
Joe Riley Panhala
"For Mothers Day"
Invisible Work
Because no one could ever praise me enough,
because I don't mean these poems only
but the unseen
unbelievable effort it takes to live
the life that goes on between them,
I think all the time about invisible work.
About the young mother on Welfare
I interviewed years ago,
who said, "It's hard.
You bring him to the park,
run rings around yourself keeping him safe,
cut hot dogs into bite-sized pieces for dinner,
and there's no one
to say what a good job you're doing,
how you were patient and loving
for the thousandth time even though you had a headache."
And I, who am used to feeling sorry for myself
because I am lonely,
when all the while,
as the Chippewa poem says, I am being carried
by great winds across the sky,
thought of the invisible work that stitches up the world day and night,
the slow, unglamorous work of healing,
the way worms in the garden
tunnel ceaselessly so the earth can breathe
and bees ransack this world into being,
while owls and poets stalk shadows,
our loneliest labors under the moon. There are mothers
for everything, and the sea
is a mother too,
whispering and whispering to us
long after we have stopped listening.
I stopped and let myself lean
a moment, against the blue
shoulder of the air. The work
of my heart
is the work of the world's heart.
There is no other art.
~ Alison Luterman ~
Web
version at www.Panhala.net/Archive/Invisible_Work.html
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Viorica Weissman MillionPaths
So far as I am aware, only one Christian group has given pride of place to Jesus' revelation that He is 'I am', and that is a modern twentieth century organization, 'The Infinite Way', which was founded by the Christian mystic Joel Goldsmith. After many years in the Christian Science movement, the inner 'I' revealed itself to him. By abiding in it he came to realise that this inner 'I' was God Himself. This gave him new insights into the nature of Christ's teachings, particularly those that were revealed in the Gospel of John. He eventually started his own group, teaching all who came to him that God is within, shining as the 'I'. More than twenty books appeared under his name, most of them being edited collections of his teachings. I have selected a few of his statements on the nature of God as 'I' or 'I am' and given them below. All of them have been taken from The Mystical 'I', a book that relates the author's own experience of 'I am' and also gives his explanations of the 'I am' statements that appear in John's Gospel. Readers will note that his exegesis of the biblical texts is very similar to my own, and that his teachings on the nature of 'I' and the means by which it can be experienced are very similar to those propounded by Ramana Maharshi:
'I stand at the door and knock.' Who is this 'I' standing at the door? And at what door is this 'I' standing? At what door but the door of your consciousness? 'I' stand at the door of your consciousness and knock, but you must open the door and admit Me, for 'I am the bread of life … I am the way, the truth and the life … I am the resurrection and the life … I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.'
The 'I' that is standing at the door of your consciousness and knocking is the 'I' that has come that you might have life more abundant. When you admit that I' into your consciousness, you have admitted life eternal: the bread of life, the water of life, and the wine of life. You have admitted into your consciousness the power of resurrection …
Close your eyes and within yourself, silently, sacredly, secretly and gently say the word 'I, I'. That 'I' in the midst of you is mighty. That 'I' in the midst of you is greater than any problem in the outside world. That 'I' in the midst of you is come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. That 'I' has been with you since 'before Abraham was', waiting your recognition and your acknowledgement. 'Know ye not ye are the temple of God?
Know ye not that the name of God is 'I' or 'I am', and that you are the temple of God only when you have admitted 'I' into your consciousness and held it there secretly, sacredly, gently, peaceably, so that at any moment you can close your eyes and just remember 'I'? …
When Jesus speaks of the Father within and when Paul speaks of the Christ that dwells in him they are speaking of the I AM, the very 'I' that you are, the 'I' that you have just announced, that is in the midst of you.
It may take a month or a year, or ten years before you can break the crust of personal sense and finally hear that still small voice within yourself, but when you do it says to you, 'Be still and know that I am God'. It does not say that Joel or Mary is God. No, no! It does not say that William or Robert is God, or Mildred. It always says 'I'. And do you know what else it says? 'Fear not for I am with thee … I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' Fear not. Though your sins be scarlet, in the moment of your recognition of 'I' in the midst of you, you are white as snow.
To be sure that no one misses the way, we caution our students never to say, even to themselves, 'I am God'. It is not even wise to voice such a statement as 'I am the son of God'. The ideal way is just to say 'I'. And think what It means. Then in time, as the listening ear is developed, you will hear the voice say, '''I'' in the midst of you am God. ''I'' who am closer to you than breathing am God.' When you hear this, you have made contact with your source.
The unveiled truth in every age has always been the revelation that 'I' am He: there is no other. There is only one Ego, only one Selfhood, the AM THAT I AM, that 'I' in the midst of us, the divine Selfhood of you and me.
Abide in the word 'I'. Let this 'I' abide in you and recognise its identity. Never let anyone veil It for you again. Keep it sacred and secret.
The minute you have an image of God in your thought, you are personalizing, and you are expecting that concept to be God, and a concept cannot be God. Only 'I' can be God, and you cannot have a mental image of 'I'. That is the one word that defies description. Try as you will, you cannot make a mental image of 'I'.
Whether you say that God is Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence, or that Jesus is Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence, really makes no difference, because in either case you have set up God and Jesus as separate and apart from the Self which you are, the 'I' which you are. When, however, you bring it all down to 'I and the Father are one', and know that 'I' is Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence, in the oneness you are infinite in being. In this oneness the 'I' of you is immortality.
One of the most important statements in the New Testament is the passage, 'I am the way'. The incorrect interpretation of these few words has kept the world in spiritual darkness for seventeen hundred years …
Rightly interpreted, the words 'I am the way', mean what they say. The way, the truth and the life more abundant are to be found in 'I', the 'I' that I am, the 'I' that you are, for you have been told that you and your father are one … It is in his word 'I' that you find the entire secret of the spiritual message given to the world by Christ Jesus.
God is not a person … God is not localized as the mind of some one person: God is being. But God is infinite being; therefore God must be your being and my being. That is why we can accept 'I' as the name of God because I have the name 'I' and you have the name 'I'. Each of us is 'I' … Each one of us is 'I' and God is that infinite 'I' in us.
When you know the secret of 'I', you abide in stillness and let 'I' do its work; not you - 'I', that 'I' that is in the midst of you. You need no thoughts, since you cannot and need not enlighten God.
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