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#2597 - Wednesday,
September 27, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee
The Nondual Highlights
'The heart that breaks
open can contain the whole universe.'
-- Joanna Macy
Mr. Yee Is In The Garden
from Freeze Tag (1984)
Mr. Yee is in the garden talking to his flowers.
I don't know what he says
but I know they love him, little boats
coming to anchor in his hands
He weeds and laughs. The thin notes
of a song glide across the soil, dark
as the Chinese fishing village
he hasn't seen in thirty years.
And beyond the muddy river, in the next town,
Dusk slides into its car and speeds
through the red light by the depot
and arrives in its pale coat.
Sails gather in the gray:
orange tiger lilies,
roses and the fragile
pink bleeding hearts.
Mr. Yee is singing them to sleep.
On the roof the sun balances on its back.
He stands watchful, hands on his hips.
Anything could snatch them.
--Marea Gordett
Understanding
"Few people are
capable of wholehearted commitment,
and that is why so few people experience a real
transformation through their spiritual practice. It is
a matter of giving up our own viewpoints, of letting
go of opinions and preconceived ideas, and instead
following the Buddha's guidelines. Although this
sounds simple, in practice most people find it
extremely difficult. Their ingrained viewpoints, based
on deductions derived from cultural and social norms,
are in the way.
"We must also remember that heart and mind need to
work together. If we understand something rationally
but don't love it, there is no completeness for us, no
fulfillment. If we love something but don't understand
it, the same applies. If we have a relationship with
another person, and we love the person but don't
understand him or her, the relationship is incomplete;
if we understand that person but don't love him or
her, it is equally unfulfilling. How much more so on
our spiritual path. We have to understand the meaning
of the teaching and also love it. In the beginning our
understanding will only be partial, so our love has to
be even greater."
--Ayya Khema
From the book, "When the Iron Eagle Flies: Buddhism
for the West", posted to Daily Dharma
The great Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj once said,
"Wisdom tells me I am
nothing. Love tells me I am everything.
Between the two my life flows." "
I am nothing" does
not mean that there is a bleak wasteland within.
It does mean that with awareness we open to a clear,
unimpeded
space, without center or periphery--nothing separate. If we
are
nothing, there is nothing at all to serve as a barrier to
our
boundless expression of love. Being nothing in this way, we
are also,
inevitably, everything. "Everything" does not
mean
self-aggrandizement, but a decisive recognition of
interconnection;
we are not separate. Both the clear, open space of
"nothing" and the
interconnectedness of "everything" awaken us to our
true nature.
This is the truth we contact when we meditate, a sense of
unity
beyond suffering. It is always present; we merely need to be able
to
access it.
--Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness
photo by Al Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/shores/closer.htm
Circles
Hafiz
The moon is most happy
when it is full.
And the sun always looks
like a perfectly minted gold coin
that was just polished
and placed in flight
by God's playful kiss.
And so many varieties of fruit
hang plump and round
from branches that seem like a Sculptor's hands.
I see the beautiful curve of a pregnant belly
shaped by a soul within,
and the Earth itself,
and the planets and the Spheres -
I have gotten the hint:
here is something about circles
the Beloved likes.
Hafiz,
Within the Circle of a Perfect One
there is an Infinite Community
of Light
'I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz' by Daniel Ladinsky
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posted by Sam Pasiencier