A moment's insight
is sometimes worth
a life's experience.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
The perfect Way’s like
boundless space
Nothing lacking, nothing extra
It is because of choice
That its absolute truth is lost.
Don’t pursue externals;
Don’t dally in the interior void.
When the spirit remains serene
In the unity of things
Dualism vanishes by itself;
When that unity is not clear
There is loss in both directions.
-
Seng-ts'an (d.606)
The teaching of the mind ground
Is the basis of Zen study.
The mind ground is the
Great awareness of being as is.
- Fayan
However young,
The seeker who sets out
Upon the Way
Shines brightly over
The world.
But day and night
The person who is awake
Shines in the radiance of the spirit.
- Dhammapada
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single
candle, and the life of the
candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being
shared.
- The Buddha
“For the marvel of
the Asian golden age was that everywhere reality, fierce
and difficult though it was for all (as the records of history
show), was
translated, not only in fable but also in belief and experience,
into
wonder - which, of course, as our own physicists now show, is
exactly what
reality is. The chief lost art of antiquity might be said,
therefore, to
have been the art of living in realization of the sheer wonder of
the world:
passing readily back and forth between the plane of experience of
its hard
crust and the omnipresent depth of inexhaustible wonder within.”
“Today we turn to science for our imagery of the past and
of the structure
of the world, and what the spinning demons of the atom and the
galaxies of
the telescope’s eye reveal is a wonder that makes the babel
of the Bible
seem a toyland dream of the dear childhood of our brain.”
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God - Occidental
Mythology.
“… where the old patterns of
morality are retained they no longer match the
actualities even of the local, let alone the world, scene. The
adventure of
the Grail - the quest within for those creative values by which
the Waste
Land is redeemed - has become today for each the unavoidable
task; for, as
there is no more fixed horizon, as there is no more fixed center,
any Mecca,
Rome, or Jerusalem. Our circle today is that announced, c. 1450,
by Nicolaus
Cusanus (1401-1464): whose circumference is nowhere and whose
center is
everywhere; the circle of infinite radius, which is also a
straight line.”
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God - Occidental
Mythology. posted to AlphaWorld by
Sandra
Who Am I? No, He's The Who!
Question: ...Don't know the connection between Meher Baba
and Pete
Townshend...Must be a good story Later on I found an
interview with Pete from '94.
I've taken out the good bit from this much longer read but quite
interesting:
PLAYBOY: Why did you take out most of the original version's look
at
hero worship and religion? Were you afraid of offending a
mainstream
audience?
TOWNSHEND: It works better as a play now. When Tommy first
appeared,
there were 30 to 40 human-potential groups who were sincere
seekers of
spiritual truth. There were all the traditional pathways that we
know
about. There were a dozen Indian masters. There were Chinese
traditions, Tibetan traditions, holistic leaders. They all turned
to
shit, most of them. That was part of another time, though I still
quietly follow Meher Baba.
PLAYBOY: How is that different?
TOWNSHEND: I don't go on about it much because I don't want to
bring
him into the loop of people who machine-gun other people in
South America,
the David Koreshes and the Rajneesh leader who spent most of
their
time fucking his disciples. I don't know if it is important to me
whether Meher Baba is a one or the one or what. But if I focus on
him
I actually feel a kind of--I'm trying to think of a word that
personalizes the idea of pilgrimage, because that is what I feel:
that
I'm attending to my inner pilgrimage. It's the idea that one's
time on
earth is about more than just getting through the time allotted.
It is
the idea that the main purpose of the human animal is to try to
rise,
to stand taller. It is the energy to aspire to more, to create,
to
discover or to invent. Meher Baba gives me an idea of what the
target
is. It is very simple: Thinking of him makes me aspire to more
for
myself and my family and the planet. It is not a religion, which
often
has more to do with guilt than with anything inspired.
PLAYBOY: So there is no guilt with Meher Baba?
TOWNSHEND: No, although I actually have a great deal of guilt and
I
use it to drive myself forward, which is quite diseased. I try
not to,
but guilt is very big in Western society. It is the reason for
the
success of the Catholic Church. posted by Gyan to nondualnow
Colors blind people’s eyes,
Sounds deafen their ears;
Flavors spoil people’s palates,
The chase and the hunt
Craze people’s minds;
Goods hard to get
Make people’s actions harmful.
Therefore sages work for the core
And not the eyes,
Leaving the latter and taking the former
- Lao-tzu
The universal body of reality
Is so subtle that you do not
Hear it when you deliberately listen for it,
And you do not see it when you look at it.
As for the pure knowledge
That has no teacher,
How can it be attained by thought or study?
- Huanglong
Upon the clatter
of a broken tile
All I had learned was at once forgotten.
Amending my nature is needless;
Pursuing the tasks of everyday life
I walk along the ancient path.
I am not disheartened in the mindless void.
Wherever I go I leave no footprint,
Walking without color or sound.
- Chikan Zenji
I explain to you matters
Pertaining to enlightenment,
But don’t try to keep
Your mind on them.
Just turn to the ocean
Of your own essence
And develop practical accord with its nature.
- Yangsha
A hundred thousand worlds are flowers in the sky,
a single mind and body is moonlight in the water;
once the cunning ends and information stops,
at that moment there is no place for thought.
- Han-Shan Te-Ch'ing, in The Clouds
Should Know Me By Now
Upon the clatter
of a broken tile