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Nondual Highlights #2076 - Tuesday, March 8, 2004 - Editor: Gloria
Perseverance is not a long race;
it is many short races
one after another.
- Walter Elliott
Such power as I possess in the political field has derived
from my experiments in the spiritual field.
- Mahatma Gandhi, in his autobiography
"What was it in the wilderness that gave peace and
joy? What was it that came to us in the forest, the
solitude? In either case it was nothing else but the
depth of our own life, which is silent like the depths
of the great sea, so silent and still. It is the
surface of the sea that makes waves and roaring
breakers; the depth is silent. So the depth of our own
being is silent also. And this all-pervading,
unbroken, inseparable, unlimited, ever-present,
omnipotent silence unites with our silence like the
meeting of flames."
~Hazrat Inayat Khan Daily Dharma - Amrita Nadi
All…phenomena are intrinsically void and yet this
Mind with which they are identical is no mere nothingness.
-Huang Po, “Zen Teaching of Huang Po”
From "365 Buddha: Daily Meditations," edited by Jeff
Schmidt
The Sky Hunter
"Keep
Ringing the bell,
Playing the tamboura, calling for Him.
For you
Have touched something holy inside
With your spirit-body
And now your eyes look broken
Without His sacred presence near.
The heart is like that: blessed and ruined
Once it has known
Divine beauty.
Then,
It becomes a restless sky hunter.
The lover keeps circling in their being
Their sweetest moments
With God
Needing to kiss
His face
Again."
'The Gift - Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master'
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
nondualnow - Sam Pasciencier
PURPOSE
He who has a "why" to live for
can bear almost any "how".
- Friedrich Nietzche
"Listen to the principles of yoga. By practicing these you
can break through the bonds of karma. On this path effort never
goes to waste, and there is not failure. Even a little effort
toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest
fear. Those who follow this path, resolving deep within
themselves to seek Me alone, attain singleness of purpose. For
those who lack resolution, the decisions of life are
many--branched and endless."
- Bhagavad Gita 2:39-41
Excerpted from The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Eknath Easwaran,
copyright 1985
Devotee: What is the purpose of life?
Maharshi: To seek to know the significance of life is itself the
result of good karma in past births. Those who do not seek such
knowledge are simply wasting their lives.
Devotee: People give some names to God and say that the name is
sacred and repetitions of the name bestows merit on the
individual. Can it be true?
Maharshi: Why not? You bear a name to which you answer. But your
body was not born with that name written on it, nor did it say to
any one that it bore such and such a name. And yet a name is
given to you and you answer to that name, because you have
identified yourself with the name. Therefore the name signifies
something and it is not a mere fiction. Similarly, God's name is
effective. Repetition of the name is remembrance of what it
signifies. Hence its merit.
- Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi
THE MAHARSHI 11-12/1993
MillionPaths - Michael Bindel
"all the precious words
you and I have exchanged
have found their way
into the heart of the universe
one day they'll pour on us
like whispering rain
helping us arise
from our roots again"
'Rumi, Dancing the Flame' Nader Khalili
Allspirit Inspiration - Gill Eardley
Courage
It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step,
as awesome as an earthquake.
The first time you rode a bike,
wallowing up the sidewalk.
The first spanking when your heart
went on a journey all alone.
When they called you crybaby
or poor or fatty or crazy
and made you into an alien,
you drank their acid
and concealed it.
Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets
you did not do it with a banner,
you did it with only a hat to
cover your heart.
You did not fondle the weakness inside you
though it was there.
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
If your buddy saved you
and died himself in so doing,
then his courage was not courage,
it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.
Later,
if you have endured a great despair,
then you did it alone,
getting a transfusion from the fire,
picking the scabs off your heart,
then wringing it out like a sock.
Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow,
you gave it a back rub
and then you covered it with a blanket
and after it had slept a while
it woke to the wings of the roses
and was transformed.
Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion
your courage will still be shown in the little ways,
each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen,
those you love will live in a fever of love,
and you'll bargain with the calendar
and at the last moment
when death opens the back door
you'll put on your carpet slippers
and stride out.
~ Anne Sexton ~ (The Awful Rowing Toward God)
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MASTER HAKUIN'S CHANT IN PRAISE OF ZAZEN
From the
beginning all beings are Buddha.
Like water and ice, without water no ice,
Outside us no Buddhas.
How near the truth, yet how far we seek,
Like one in water crying "I thirst".
Like a child of rich birth
wand'ring poor on this earth,
we endlessly circle the six worlds.
The cause of our sorrow is ego delusion.
From dark path to dark path we've wandered in darkness,
How can we be free from the wheel of samsara?
The gateway
to freedom is zazen samadhi,
beyond exultation, beyond all our praises,
the pure Mahayana.
Observing the precepts, repentance and giving,
the countless good deeds and the way of right living
all come from zazen.
Thus one true samadhi extinguishes evils;
it purified karma, dissolving obstructions.
Then where are the dark paths to lead us astray?
The pure lotus land is not far away.
Hearing this truth, heart humble and grateful,
to praise and embrace it, to practice its wisdom,
brings unending blessings, brings mountains of merit.
But if we
turn inward and prove our True-nature,
that True-self is no-self,
our own Self is no-self,
we go beyond ego and past clever words.
Then the gate to the oneness of cause and effect is thrown open.
Not two and not three, straight ahead runs the Way.
Our form now being no-form,
in coming and going we never leave home.
Our thought now being no-thought,
our dancing and songs are the voice of the Dharma.
How vast is the heaven of boundless samadhi!
How bright and transparent the moonlight of wisdom!
What is there outside us, what is there we lack?
Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes.
This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land,
And this very body, the body of Buddha.