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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #4202, Saturday, March 26, 2011
Each of us has our own idea of happiness. It's because of this
idea that we run after objects we desire. We sacrifice our time
and, to a certain extent, destroy our bodies and our minds.
According to the Buddha, happiness is simple - if we go home to
the present moment, we realize that we have more than enough to
be happy right here and now.
All the wonders of life are in us and around us. This realization
can help us release our craving, anger, and fear.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, posted to DailyDharma
Crossing the Sound
Far into the silver, the rolling hum carries me.
Top deck of the ferry, at the back rail, I watch
herring gulls ride updrafts, collapse on bread chunks
tossed by a small boy in an outsized tee shirt.
They whiten the gray with their noisy hungers.
Below, in the great room, others doze,
play set-back, queue up for coffee.
Leashed to a chair leg, a terrier starts yapping.
In the sting of the spray, I am aware
I am one of them, know I am not one of them,
know that beneath the waves patina,
the unseen slides by in silvery shadows.
I understand hunger -
why the shearwater grazes the whitecaps.
I know that, behind me, the wake
stretches shining - a road I can't follow.
The rail I lean on beads with silver.
My breath is a mist, warm, heavy with brine.
Silver everywhere, evening on the rim.
Nearing New London Harbor, I feel boundaries
dissolve, and I'm the hundred tiny bells
the halyards clink on the sailboats at rest.
By the time night drops down its dull foil sheets,
by the time I enter the mouth of the river,
I am ocean and sky,
gull-bone and light,
I am salt. I am seasmoke.
- Patricia Fargnoli, posted to allspirit
WHY ABSTAIN?
Why
Abstain from love
When like the beautiful snow goose
Someday your soul
Will leave this summer
Camp?
Why
Abstain from happiness
When like a skilled lion
Your heart is
Nearing
And
Will someday see
The divine prey is
Always
Near! - Hafiz, from The Gift - Translations by Daniel
Ladinsky, posted to AlongTheWay
By all means be selfish; the right way. Wish yourself well, labor
at what is good for you. Destroy all that stands between you and
happiness. Be all; love all; be happy; make happy. No happiness
is greater.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
I can well understand why children love sand.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, posted to Distillation
Let us bind ourselves for ever for passionless journeyings. Let
us swear to meet again far in the Milky Way.
- Li Po, posted to Distillation
i am
the minstrel of
eternal love
and will play
the song of happiness
when my soul
hears music
and changes to softness
i'll break open
the wine jar's seal
i am in love
with the temple of fire*
because i was born
as the prophet
named Khalili Abraham*
i am in love
with soul and
wisdom
i am the enemy
of false images
the spring is arriving
it is high time
for action
for the sun and Aries
to get together
my blood is boiling
my heart is on fire and
the winter snow
is melting away
from my body
someone's love
is knocking me out
and pulling me
after itself
very forcefully
though i am
in this
hell and fire
i'm filled with
honey and nectar
though i am
condemned to take
this journey
i'm filled with
the sweetness of going home
now the time has come
my sweetheart
kindly express
what my tongue
can never describe
- Rumi, Ghazal (Ode) 1395, from Diwan-e Shams,
translation by Nader Khalili, from Rumi, Fountain of Fire,
posted to Sunlight
Sunlight footnotes, courtesy of Ibrahim Gamard:
* temple of fire: a Zoroastrian fire temple. A symbol in sufi
poetry for the "Religion of Love (of God)," which burns
up all worldly loves.
* Khalili Abraham: refers to the story about how the idolators
threw the Prophet Abraham into a pit of fire as a punishment for
opposing their idolatry, but God ordered the fire to be cool
(Qur'an 21:68-69). In the Islamic tradition, the Prophet Abraham
is called the Friend of God (Khaleel Allah).