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Issue #1512 - Sunday, August 3, 2003 - Editor: Gloria
photo: Juniper chinensis
'Shimpaku' specimen, approximately 80 years old.
Zen and Bonsai Garden, commercial site, yet worth seeing for
some great photos.
http://www.shantibithi.com/
photo: Tsukubai Garden
Lisbeth ~ Monks Mystics
365 Tao
Fog chills heaven to gray,
Nights come earlier.
Everyone knows decline,
But few discern its border.
Although it is summer and there are many warm months to
come, it is possible to sense that the heavens are already
turning downward. Nearly imperceptibly, the fruit is
ripening on the trees and the nights are lengthening once
again. It is too early to talk of autumn, and yet the next
season is on its way.
Why do we never prepare for decline? We all realize that it
is a valid phenomenon -- we know about the fall of empires,
the aging of heroes, the lessening of our own skill -- but
we are not always aware of its approach. We often realize
too late that we are in a period of decline, and so we are
unprepared. It takes a wise person to perceive the moment
when things begin to change.
Summer does not fade away in a day. Our actions must accord
with the times. Just as the decline of summer is gradual,
so too should our actions be commensurate with the pace of
change. Even though decline may be approaching, we must
gauge how quickly or how slowly events are moving. If we
are too hasty -- like someone who notices the first cool
breeze and immediately dons winter clothing -- we will be
overreacting. It is important to think of decline as
something natural and inevitable. Therefore there should be
no emotional values attached to it. It simply happens, and
that is all.
Al Larus ~ NDS
Turning Point
Each
seventh wave,
sometimes less
sometimes more
shaking
rocks,
the giants are closing
the gates
when the
Snipe calls
the stones to wake
for
each step I take
towards the sea
ants and
spiders
bugs and beetles
run and hide,
at the turning point
of low tide.
Shawn Hair ~ Advaita to Zen
epost of Pham D Luan's post
From
A Vision of the Sacred
My Personal Journey with Krishnamurti
by Sunanda Patwardhan, p. 49
Insights on the Path:
A Mystical Communication
Even individuals who have devoted their lives
to the quest for the sacred often lose their focus
and need corroboration of their direction.
A strange, esoteric event took place once
during Krishnaji's visit to India. I am speaking
now about a meeting between a Jain sadhu
(holy person) and Krishnaji, with Achyutji
and I as silent and fascinated witnesses.
The sadhu told Krishnaji, "Sir, for fourteen
years now, I have devoted myself to meditation,
yet I am not able to get into samadhi.
I have been practicing meditation, dhyana,
but I have not been able to go to the depths of it.
Can I do this? Will you be able to tell me
what my impediments are?"
Krishnaji asked him to describe the kinds
of meditative practices he had been following.
After listening to him, he said, "Do you realize
that you are still acquiring? Open your fist.
There is nothing to acquire."
For some minutes, the sadhu was silent.
He then got up and prostrated himself
before Krishnaji, who then asked him to
stay on for some more time. After a while,
the sadhu said, "Sir, I want to ask you
one more question. Is it the impact of your
personality that has given me this [experience]?
Is this due to your gurukripa [grace of the
guru]?"
Krishnaji replied, "I knew you would ask this
question. That is why I asked you to stay on
for some more time. This is not something
to acquire but to give up. Release your fist.
Leave everything." He paused for a moment
and said, "Is it the [new] mind that is asking
that question? Or is it the mind before you
experienced 'this' that is full of questions?
You have been caught up in it again. I took
you out of it, but you have gone back to it.
If you stand firmly on that and let go everything,
'it' will come. 'It' will come, not because you
want it, but 'it' will come. Have you understood
what I am asking?"
The sadhu prostrated himself again before
Krishnaji, sat down and said, "I don't need
to go anywhere else." Krishnaji then said to him,
"The 'other' is out of time, and we live in time.
And we want to bring timeless into time.
I have told you all this, but it is not mine."
Unknowable are the nonverbal experiences
and mysterious are the ways by which a teacher
communicates them. What I understood from
this conversation is that transformations in
oneself could take place in the presence of
an enlightened person if one was open and
vulnerable to the teaching.
Daily Dharma
FOUR WORDS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE:
You were never born.
~ ~ ~
"By day I
praised you
and never knew it.
By night I stayed with you
and never knew it.
I always thought that
I was me - but no,
I was you
and never knew it."
~~Rumi
From the book: "Hush Don't Say Anything to God", published by Jain Publishing
photo of seacoast by Al Larus