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#2235- Friday, August 19, 2005 - Editor: Gloria Lee
There is a lake so tiny
that a mustard seed would cover it
easily, yet everyone drinks from this lake.
Deer, jackals, rhinoceroses, and sea elephants
keep falling into it, falling and dissolving
almost before they have time to be born.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
posted to Along the Way
It was out of the dynamic of cosmic celebration that we were
created in the first place. We are to become celebration and
generosity, burst into self-awareness. What is the human? The
human is a space, an opening, where the universe celebrates its
existence.
~ Brian Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon
posted to MillionPaths by Viorica Weissman
Cottonwood Trees
The cottonwoods are
flinging themselves outward,
filling the air with spiraling flurries,
covering lawns in deepening drifts.
You could not call this generosity.
Like any being, they
let loose what they have
in order to survive,
in order that their lives might continue
in a new year's growth.
The more seeds they send out
on their lofted journeys
the greater the chance
for their kind to flourish.
There is no hesitation.
No one asks how much
they will give. Without words
they know so clearly
that everything depends
on what we call giving,
that which the world knows only as creation.
~ Lynn Ungar ~
(Blessing the Bread)
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photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/birds_and_horses.htm
"When we
train in letting go of thinking that
anything-including ourselves-is either good or
bad, we open our minds to practice with
forgiveness and humor. And we practice opening to
a compassionate space in which good/bad judgments
can dissolve. We practice letting go of our idea
of a "goal" and letting go of our concept of
"progress," because right there, in that process
of letting go, is where our hearts open and
soften-over and over again."
~Pema Chödrön
posted to
Daily Dharma by Sherab
Question: What are the marks of a real teacher
(sadaguru)?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Steady abidance in the Self, looking at all
with
an equal eye, unshakable courage at all times, in all places and
circumstances.
Question: There are a number of spiritual teachers teaching
various
paths. Whom should one take for one's Guru?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: Choose that one where you find you get
shanti
(peace).
Question: Should we not also consider his teachings?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this
or
that is not a true master. The seeker is already afflicted by his
activities and wants peace and rest. In other words he wants
cessation of his activities. If a teacher tells him to do
something
in addition to, or in place of, his other activities, can that be
a
help to the seeker?
Activity is creation. Activity is the destruction of one's
inherent
happiness. If activity is advocated the adviser is not a master
but a
killer. In such circumstances either the Creator (Brahma) or
death
(Yama) may be said to have come in the guise of a master. Such a
person cannot liberate the aspirant; he can only strengthen his
fetters.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, from "Be As You Are," edited by
David Godman posted to nondualnow by Mazie Lane
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/birds_and_horses.htm
'… unless there is an innate passion to find out, to
discover for oneself one will not be equipped to live the
meditative way. Meditation is a total way of living, not a
partial or fragmentary activity… Life is neither occidental
or oriental… There is no excitement in a real enquirer,
there is a depth of intensity, not the shallowness of
enthusiastic excitement… Then that state of observation
begins to permeate the waking hours. Whether you cook a meal, go
to the office, or while you are talking, the state of observation
begins to permeate all activities of the waking hours… When
the state of observation is sustained the sensitivity gets
heightened, and from morning till night you are much more aware
than before… It is no use concentrating your attention upon
the activities of the mind, to the exclusion of the rest of your
way of living. Meditation is something pertaining to the whole
being and the whole life. Either you live in it or you do not
live in it. In another words, it is related to everything
physical and psychological… Thus, from the small area of
mental activity, we have brought meditation to a vast field of
consciousness, where it gets related to the way you sit or stand,
the way you gesticulate or articulate throughout the day. Whether
you want it or not, the inner state of your being gets expressed
in your behaviour… This co-relation of meditation to the
total way of living is the first requirement on the path of total
transformation… Very few of us realise that constant
verbalisation is one of the greatest obstacles in the path of
meditation… Life is a homogeneous whole and you can never
fragment it… To be aware of the lapse or the gap is itself a
kind of observation.’
Vimala Thakar