Treasury of Precious Qualities: A Commentary on the Root Text of Jigme Lingpa Entitled the Quintessence of the Three Paths by Longchen Yeshe Dorje

 ". . . The intellect pertains only to the relative truth and is itself the factor that veils the state of nonduality. The absolute truth can be realized only by thought-free primordial wisdom, wherein there is no duality of subject . . .."

The Essential Chogyam Trungpa by Chogyam Trungpa

". . . But even the very sense of nonduality is a faint stain, a very subtle, transparent stain. On the shunyata level, that stain is regarded as an adornment,. . ."

David Hodges - NDS  

Here in New England the temperatures have been in the teens and tens and
zeroes the last week or so, with the coldest weather in years expected
tonight. I'm sure where Jerry is in Nova Scotia it must be even colder.

This inspired me to pull out Volume 4 of R.H.Blyth's "Haiku" series, for
some appropriate winter haiku.

    The cold blast -
Small stones rattling
     On the planks of the pent-roof.
             ----Buson

    The winter tempest
Blows small stones
     Onto the temple bell.
---Buson

    The tempest is blowing
Someone's painfully
     Swollen face.
          ---Basho

    Winter desolation
In a world of one color
     the sound of the wind.
---Basho

   The previous owner,
I know it all--
    Down to the very cold he felt.
---Issa

    So bitter cold it was
I left the bamboo broom
    Under the pine tree.
---Taigi

    A thin-bladed kitchen knife
Dropped at the edge of the well -
    The cold!
---Buson

    The sound
of a rat on a plate -
    How cold it is!
---Buson

    The desolation of winter,
Passing through a small hamlet,
    A dog barks.
---Shiki

    By the light of the next room
I sit before my small food-table;
    Ah, the cold!
---Issa  (note: Issa is so poor he can't even afford a room in the Inn
with a light, so he keeps the door open to see by the light of the next
room. Blyth notes that because there is no self-pity in this haiku, Issa's
wretchedness becomes impersonal. and universal)

    A child under ten,
taken to the temple;
    Bitter cold!
---Shiki (Note: the child's parents are too poor to support their child so
they take him to the temple to become a priest on a cold cold night).

    Raising my head,
I gaze a my recumbent form:
    Bitter cold.
---Raizan

    The light in the next room
Also goes out:
    The night is cold.
---Shiki

    After killing the spider,
A lonely
    Cold night.
---Shiki

    My neighbors hate me,
Rattling their saucepans
    This winter night!
---Buson (note: Buson's neighbors are presumably making something tasty in
their saucepans while he lies there cold and hungry under a thin blanket)

    My bones
Feel the quilts;
    A frosty night.
---Buson


Stay warm, everyone! And if you can't get warm, try writing a haiku of your own!
David

Gill Eardley - Allspirit Inspiration    

"The true contemplative is not less interested than others
in normal life, not less concerned with what goes on in
the world, but more interested, more concerned. The fact
that he or she is a contemplative makes them capable of a
greater interest and a deeper concern. The contemplative
has the inestimable gift of appreciating at their real worth
values that are permanent, authentically deep, human.
truly spiritual and even divine. Their mission is to be a
complete and whole person, with an instinctive and
generous need to further the same wholeness in others,
and in all humanity. They arrive at this, however, not by
superior gifts and talents, but by the simplicity and
poverty which are essential to their state because these
alone keep one traveling in the way that is spiritual,
divine and beyond understanding.              

~Thomas Merton

---

 

Byzantine Faces

i won't believe
i'm really
alive

until i'm gladder
to be alive
here now
than to have
been alive
there then

living in greece
i may be
thinking
i am, was,
alive there
then

some byzantine
time
some classical
time

why think
that good?

i should
know better

i think good
any time except
the eighteenth
century

(not too bad)

the nineteenth
century

(bad enough)

or the twentieth

really, i'm
glad to be
alive in the
twentieth

not only glad
to be just
alive

but even to
be alive
just now
right now

yes, but i keep
remembering
a light in the
eyes of certain
figures in
frescoes

certain figures
in mosaics

that made
me wish
i was living
then

as though
living then
were to
live

forever

some life
some liveliness
in the eye
that seemed
eternal
eternally
alive
eternally
infinitely
joyous
& penetrating

(warm with
the warmth
of life
exploding,
even, with,
the joy
of life)

yet there
forever

is it
that see
ing them
in some
mu
se
um

seeing
them still
preserved
still
living

made me
envy
their
state

?

not
sure

am
not
sure,
either,
that it
was envy
they gave
me, but
rather a
life

a spark
of living
to keep
alive

 

Poem: "Byzantine Faces," by Robert Lax, from A Thing That Is (The Overlook Press).

art works: top to bottom

Master of Saint Francis
Saint John the Evangelist, probably c. 1270/1280
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?41353+0+0

http://www.ateliersaintandre.net/fr/Pages/Esthetique/Chronologie/Icones/berze.gif

Wall paintings of St Georges of Kastoria (Greece).
http://www.ateliersaintandre.net/en/pages/aesthetics/Chronology/Comments/saec12.html

Santa Maria e Donato, Murano (Venice).

Also a good site for viewing full screen Byzantine mosaics is here: http://buten.net/max/sicily/mosaics/index_mosaics.html

And for frescoes:

http://www.letow.com/Mediterranean/Frescoes.jpg

---

Daily Dharma - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DailyDharma/  

"The Buddha could accomplish the enlightened mind because its
very nature was already there. That is why
buddhahood-enlightenment-is possible. If there were no such
nature or potential, it would be impossible."
-His Holiness The Dalai Lama


From the Book, "Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations,"  

---

  Holly - HarshaSatsangh  

Before Harsha started this list, I knew of his devotion to
Ramana through the k-list and always enjoyed and
respected his posts. One day I was enduring a long
airplane flight with a bad migraine (have you noticed by
the way, how many spiritual stories occur on public
transportation? What IS it about buses, planes, etc.!). I was
trying to meditate and suddenly remembered Harsha's
description of inquiry. I tried to get "behind" the
headache, asking who is having it. Suddenly my mind
exploded and I WAS the airplane and all of the people in
it. The illusion of being a Holly was transparent and my
joy was boundless. Ironically enough, this happened on
my birthday. Thanks Harsha!! Love, Holly   

Harsha- HarshaSatsangh  

Thanks Holly. I remember your sharing this story some
years ago on the K-List. It was a powerful experience
and has stayed with you. Such moments remind us of our
eternal existence.

Many people went to Sri Ramana. They got according to
their capacity. Many people read about him and his
teachings. Each gets according to their receptivity
and faith and grace.

When Sri Ramana's body was dying, he said, "Where can
I go. I am here."

So Sri Ramana is as alive today as he ever was. If one
doubts that (Tony, you are a good man and I love you),
then Sri Ramana's teaching is not fully understood.
Sri Ramana was the Heart. We are the same Heart. Exact
Same. No cheap copy or anything. Same Heart. Same
Sameness. Such conviction comes from knowing the Heart
as the Self. Heart is neither external nor internal.
Worship of God, Murti, Ishta Devata outside turns into
surrender and one lands in the Heart and becomes the
Heart. Sri Krishna says to Arjuna, "I am in the Heart
of all beings...."

Self-Inquiry and surrender merge and the Heart Reveals
It Self as the Eternal Being. One's Very Own Being.

Love to all
Harsha

---

Gill Eardley - Allspirit

The Heart Sutra teaches that "form is emptiness, and
emptiness is form." Many people don't know what this
means-even some long-time students of meditation. But
there is a very easy way to see this in our everyday
lives. For example, here is a wooden chair. It is brown.
It is solid and heavy. It looks like it could last a long
time. You sit in the chair, and it holds up your weight.
You can place things on it. But then you light the chair
on fire, and leave. When you come back later, the chair
is no longer there! This thing that seemed so solid and
strong and real is now just a pile of cinder and ash
which the wind blows around. This example shows how
the chair is empty: it is not a permanent, abiding thing.
It is always changing. It has no independent existence.
Over a long or short time, the chair will eventually
change and become something other than what it appears.
So this brown chair is complete emptiness. But though it
always has the quality of emptiness, this emptiness is
form: you can sit in the chair, and it will still hold you
up. "Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form."

But why is it necessary to understand this? The reason
for this is that many human beings are attached to name
and form, and this attachment to name and form is the
cause of nearly all suffering. If we want to cure human
beings of this attachment, then we must apply name-and-
form medicine. We must begin by showing that names and
forms are not real and permanent: they are always changing,
changing, changing. If you are rich, you must see that the
riches you covet are empty. If you are attached to fame
and other people's approval, you must see that these things
that you struggle and suffer for are empty. Most people
treasure their bodies; they use a lot of money to make
their bodies strong or beautiful. But someday, soon, when
you die, this body will disappear. You cannot take this
empty body with you, however much you treasure it. You
cannot carry fame with you. You cannot carry money. You
cannot carry sex. You cannot carry anything!

from 'The Compass of Zen'
by Zen Master Seung Sahn

Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk

---

  Gill Eardley - Allspirit Inspiration  

Excerpt from Don Miguel Ruiz's "The Four Agreements"

The second agreement is "Don't take anything personally"

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of
themselves. All  people live in their own dream, in their own
mind; they are in a completely different world from the world
we live in. when we take something personally, we make the
assumption that they know what is in our world, and  we try
to impose our world on their world.

Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult
you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say,
what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the
agreements they have in their own minds. Their point of view
comes from all the programming they received during
domestication.
[...]
As you make a habit of not taking anything personally, you
won't need to place your trust in what others do or say. You
will only need to trust yourself to make responsible choices.
You are never responsible for the actions of others; you are
only responsible for you. When you truly understand this, and
refuse to take things personally, you can hardly be hurt by the
careless comments or actions of others.

If you keep this agreement, you can travel around the world
with your heart completely open and no one can hurt you. You
can say, "I love you", without fear of being ridiculed or
rejected. You can ask for what you need. You can say yes, or
you can say no-whatever you choose- without guilt or self-
judgment. You can choose to follow your heart always.

---

  Morning Zen - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/morningzen/  

Your life can explode with potential that had little possibility of developing the day before, if you are open to it.
-- Gary Zukav 

---

Joe Riley - Panhala

GOD POURS LIGHT  

God
pours light
into every cup,
quenching darkness.  

The proudly pious
stuff their cups with parchment
and critique the taste of ink  

while God pours light  

and the trees lift their limbs
without worry of redemption,
every blossom a chalice.  

Hafiz, seduce those withered souls
with words that wet their parched lips  

as light
pours like rain
into every empty cup
set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.  

~ Hafiz ~  

(Interpretive version of Ghazal 11 by Jose Orez)    

Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/God_Pours_Light.html

Web archive of Panhala postings: www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html
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