"We talk to ourselves incessantly about our world. In fact
we maintain our world with our internal talk... Not only that,
but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we
repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die,
because we keep on repeating the same internal talk until the day
we die. A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his
internal talk."
- Carlos Castaneda, The Wheel of Time posted by Viorica
Weissman to The Power of Silence
Instructions
Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.
Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:
what your heart beats loudly for
what feels heavy and full in your gut.
There will only be one or two
things you will keep,
and they will fit lightly
in your pocket.
-Sheri Hostetler from the anthology A Cappella: Mennonite Voices
in Poetry
THE BUDDHA VERSUS BABE RUTH
The Buddha's nothing
if he can't hit, I figure.
So I knock on the bamboo door
of his tiny grass hut
and challenge him to a little contest.
Sure, sounds like fun!
he says, agreeing to
the ridiculously tough ground rules
I lay down for the event:
only one at-bat,
he has to hit it out of the park,
he can choose the fence.
But, he says, I want you to know,
I really have nothing to prove.
Yeah, yeah, I retort, spoken like a
true master of nothingness.
So he washes his bowl,
steps into his sandals,
and we head out for the park.
I enlist a catcher from a group of kids
standing there jeering
at the Buddha's uncool garb
and take the mound.
I throw some warmup pitches
as the Buddha looks on,
holding the bat to his chest
as if it were a newborn babe
in his arms.
When I'm ready, he steps into the box
and draws back the bat. A steady breeze
is blowing straight in from the plate,
perfect for my wicked slider
and butterfly knuckler.
I show him the slider first.
It might as well have been
a fastball, a change-up,
or movie tickets -- he swings
just as the ball is leaving my hand.
The kids jeer louder,
the Buddha smiles.
Okay, I think, but I've been around
enough to know the game's not over
till the last card's on the table.
So I bear down on the next pitch,
a blazing fastball with a nice hop on it.
This time the old geezer
takes his cut after the ball's
already popped into the catcher's mitt.
The kids roar,
the Buddha smiles,
and for some reason,
I break out into a nervous sweat.
But no one can get a solid piece of
my knuckler, I reassure myself,
scuffing up the mound
and fondling the resin bag.
I wind up, and just as I let it fly
the Buddha steps back
and leaves the bat wagging itself
there in the air!
The ball dances toward the plate
like a hyperactive jumping bean,
the bat comes around
with a whoosh that could probably
be heard in the outfield,
the ball cracks off like a shot.
When it reaches the
407-foot centerfield fence,
it's still rising.
I turn back around and gape at the bat,
still poised in its perfect follow-through.
The kids, too, are speechless now.
The Buddha smiles, reaches for the bat,
and holds it out in front of himself
like a sacred chalice.
Our jaws drop another notch
as the bat turns into
the reddest rose we've ever seen.
"In The Flower Ornament Sutra, a good
part of the ninth chapter is
about Buddha helping us to wake up. He keeps throwing truths out
into the crowd, right and left. So much energy is generated by
his
teachings that the bodhisattvas surrounding him can't keep their
mouths shut! So they also start shouting teachings right and
left.
It is hilarious. They are just too happy to sit still.
Then a wonderful sentence appears: 'Always rejoicing, they go to
all
lands to explain such a teaching for all.'
When I first read it, it stopped me in my tracks. Always
rejoicing.
Not, 'sometimes rejoicing', or 'occasionally rejoicing'.
Always."
"The road to Bodhgaya is not level;
there are mountain passes, valleys, rivers, precipices and so
forth.
No matter what your personal road is like,
do not lose courage,
but repeatedly relax loosely in nondual awareness.
If we practice like this then one day,
we will arrive in Bodhgaya,
which means we will attain enlightenment.
If we do not set out on the road, we will never arrive."
