Issue #1343 -
Friday, February 7, 2003 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Why are you so afraid of silence,
silence is the root of everything.
If you spiral into its void
a hundred voices will thunder messages
you long to hear.
(Rumi - 'Hidden Music' - Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin)
from Sufi Poetry
Gill Eardley
Rumi-Hafiz
Unseen Rain
by Rumi
My work is to carry this love
as comfort for those who long for You;
to go everywhere You've walked
and gaze at the pressed-down dirt.
What I most want
is to spring out of this personality,
then to sit apart from that leaping.
I've lived too long where I can be reached.
Who says the eternal being does not exist?
Who says the sun has gone out?
Someone who climbs up on the roof,
and closes his eyes tight, and says,
--I don't see anything.
......With one silent laugh
You tilted the night
and the garden ran with stars.
~Rumi
from 'UNSEEN RAIN' Coleman Barks and John Moyne
Anaand Supraath Sufi
Mystic
The present is almost always a hell:
you can prolong this hell only because of the hope
that you have projected into the future. You can live today
because of the tomorrow. You
are hoping something is going to happen tomorrow -- some doors of
paradise will open
tomorrow. They never open today, and when tomorrow will come it
will not come as
tomorrow, it will come as today, but by that time your mind has
moved again. You go on
moving ahead of you: this is what dreaming means. You are not one
with the real, that
which is nearby, that which is here and now, you are somewhere
else -- moving ahead,
jumping ahead.
And that tomorrow, that future, you
have named it in so many ways. People call it
heaven, some people call it moksha, but it is always in the
future. Somebody is thinking
in terms of wealth, but that wealth is going to be in the future.
And somebody is thinking
in terms of paradise, and that paradise is going to be after you
are dead -- far away in the
future. You waste your present for that which is not: this is
what dreaming means. You
cannot be here and now. To be just in the moment seems to be
arduous.
You can be in the past, because
again that is dreaming -- memories, remembrance of
things which are no more -- or you can be in the future, which is
projection, which again
is creating something out of the past. The future is nothing but
the past projected again --
more colorful, more beautiful, more pleasant, but it is the past
refined.
You cannot think anything other than
the past: the future is nothing but the past projected
again -- and both are not. The present is, but you are never in
the present. This is what
dreaming means. And Nietzsche is right when he says that man
cannot live with the truth.
He needs lies, he lives through lies. Nietzsche says that we go
on saying that we want
the truth, but no one wants it. Our so-called truths are nothing
but lies, beautiful lies. No
one is ready to see the naked reality.
This mind cannot enter on the path
of Yoga because Yoga means a methodology to
reveal the truth. Yoga is a method to come to a non-dreaming
mind. Yoga is the science
to be in the here and now. Yoga means now you are ready not to
move into the future.
Yoga means now you are ready not to hope, not to jump ahead of
your being .
The Path (part 4) by Richard Rose | What Are You Looking For? by
Bob Cergol |
Both by Thought and Feeling by Franklin Merrell-Wolff | The
Boundless Empty
Field by Gary Harmon | Words... or Experience? by Bob Fergeson |
Poems by Shawn
Nevins | The Ultimate Career by Shawn Nevins | Humor | Reader
Commentary
Good reading wishes to you,
The Forum staff
Terry Murphy Sufi
Mystic
Do not seek fame. Do not make
plans.
Do not be absorbed by activities. Do
not think that you know. Be aware of
all that is and dwell in the infinite.
Wander where there is no path. Be all
that heaven gave you, but act as though
you have received nothing. Be empty,
that is all.
The mind of a perfect man is like
a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects
nothing. It reflects but does not hold.
Therefore, the perfect man can act
without effort.
from "Chuang-tzu: Inner Chapters" (feng/english)
Dear Friends,
Our Dear fellow poet and Zen friend, Michael Garofalo,
has put the website up with the entire complete and edited
versions
of the 300 Missing Poems of Han Shan that b and i have been
working
on for many months now. If you'd like to take a peek, go to -
Han Shan and
Shih-te
Painting by Tensho Shubun
Japan, 1460
Han Shan was a Chinese hermit who lived in a world called Cold Mountain
in the T'ien-t'ai Range that spans the coast of Chekiang Province, south of
the Bay of Hangchow, in the late eighth or early ninth century. Mostly what
we know of him originates from a mysterious intuition that is shared by that
which is Free in all of us, and from a preface, written by a T'ang Dynasty
official named Lu-ch'iu Yin, for Han Shan's collected Cold Mountain Poems:
"He looked like a tramp. His body and face were old and beat. Yet in
every word he breathed was a meaning in line with the subtle
principles of things, if only you thought of it deeply. Everything he
said had a feeling of the Tao in it, profound and arcane secrets. His
hat was made of birch bark, his clothes were ragged and worn out, and
his shoes were wood. Thus men who have made it hide their tracks:
unifying categories and interpenetrating things."
Lu-ch'iu Yin sent clean clothes and incense to Kuo-ch'ing Temple,
near Cold Mountain, asking that the gifts be delivered to Han Shan
and his friend Shih Teh. But on the approach of the messenger, Han
Shan disappeared inside a mountain cave. Shih Teh vanished too.
Lu-ch'iu Yin then asked the monks to collect any of the poems
they left behind.
Many claim that Han Shan was the incarnation of the Bodhisattva
Manjusri. People say a lot of things, but Han Shan paid little mind
to the opinions of dreamers and interpretations of myth-makers.
Of his own poems he wrote:
"Some might laugh at my poems,
yet they are fine and fun!
They need no commentary,
nor any signatory.
Why care if anybody reads
them or not?
I don't follow word laws,
yet these poems have some light."
- Han Shan, Transliteration by Robert O'Hearn.
Mary Bianco NDS News
Spirituality and
Art
By Jean Macleod le
Cheminant Page 1 of 2
Being inspired: it's
something we've all tasted and want more of. It's "the touch
of spirit on the body, a kiss we want with our whole lives,"
according to an ancient Persian song. Different traditions
describe it in different ways: a moment of freedom, seeing more
clearly, peace in the midst of a chaotic world. Whatever it is,
it's a mystery that intrigues, tantalizes, and maybe even scares
us.
Every year artists
in various media visit Hollyhock Centre, north of Vancouver, to
practise their art in the company of others, while sharing some
of its secrets and drawing inspiration from the beauty of the
place. We met with several of these artists-a photographer, a
dancer and storyteller, a musician, a Zen painter, and a
singer--to discuss what spirit and art means to them.
Opening the Path of
Love
Bruce Langhorne, or Brother Bru Bru as he's known on his hot
sauce label, is an extraordinary musician, composer, and creator
of Hollywood film scores. He assisted drummer Gordy Ryan at his
workshop this year. Langhorne's recording credits since the 60s
read like a who's who of North American music. He's perhaps best
known for being the inspiration for Bob Dylan's classic "Mr
Tambourine Man."
"I have fingers missing on my right hand, which is a mixed
blessing because it meant I had to find things to play that
didn't rely on flash," says Langhorne. "That really
helped me; it taught me the lesson that you're only partially
your body. There's something inside, call it spirit, that
transcends your vessel. When you open the path of love, whatever
walks down that path for you, that's spirit."
Cobwebs and dust,
all swallowed by darkness.
Its welcome did come.
.
This is written in the light
of the pale pile gone.
Now no smoke is here
under a shining sun
,
What is left is what is.
It can be read by none.
Daily Dharma
"It is very important to
experience the complete
negation of yourself, which brings you to the other
side of nothing. People experience that in many ways.
You go the other side of nothing, and you are held by
the hand of the absolute. You see yourself as part of
the absolute, so you have no more insistence of self
as yourself. You can speak of self as no-self upon the
absolute. Only real existence is absolute."
~Kobun Chino Otokawa Roshi.
From the article, "Earthquakes and Blossoms Appear,"
published in "Buddhadharma," Winter 2002.
Jerry Katz NDS News
NDS News may have arisen out of a
discovered, but unarticulated resonance with the
journalistic trend described in the following story. In the story
below, McBride says, "As daunting as this may seem, there is
great value in examining the religious beliefs of the individuals
at the center of dramatic events. Through these people, we
glimpse a universe endowed with meaning, waiting to be
discovered." However, just as a degree from a school
of journalism will not create a 'nose for news', a formal
education in religious studies will not give a journalist an eye
for the ineffable. Hence there could be value in the 'nondual
journalist'. That is the one comfortable trekking in the
intricate forests of religious traditions and
practices, the one at home in the nondual core of
major religions.
Over the last decade,
religion and spirituality have gained a new foothold in American
newsrooms.
There is an element of faith in almost every news story and
reporters are getting better every year at articulating this
realm of life. When done well, there is great validity in this
journalistic exploration. It invites the readers and viewers to
chew on the themes of diversity, tolerance, collaboration, race,
ethnicity and nationality.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Seven Heroes,
Seven Faiths" read the
headline. It was a simple piece of journalism, from a
non-traditional news source, Beliefnet.
It said so much. It gave equal time to the religious lives of
each of the crew members who died on the Columbia. It documented
that, in addition to the four Christians from four different
traditions, there was a Hindu, a Unitarian Universalist and a
Jew. It blended small details about each of the traveler's
religious practices with a bit of theology from his or
her religion.
It was no surprise that journalists discovered the spiritual side
of the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster early in the news cycle.
Over the last decade, religion and spirituality have gained a new
foothold in American newsrooms.
There is an element of faith in almost every news story and
reporters are getting better every year at articulating this
realm of life. When done well, there is great validity in this
journalistic exploration. It invites the readers and viewers to
chew on the themes of diversity, tolerance, collaboration, race,
ethnicity and nationality. In a world often divided by these
differences, they tell the story of seven people
brought together for a common purpose.
Religion is after all a human quest for understanding.
Although it is many other things, journalism too seeks to create
understanding.
When merely mediocre, stories about
religion ring hollow in the public ear. When we misrepresent
theology, generalize across varying sects, or paint with a broad
brush when detail work is in order, we compromise our
credibility.
There is a temptation to gloss over the differences among the
astronauts. It takes a particular skill with the language to
accurately reflect the beliefs and practices of an individual or
a faith community.
While many journalists have the desire to delve into religious
themes, they lack a basic understanding of how faith is practiced
in everyday life. Likewise, journalists are lured into simplistic
and inaccurate reporting on religious themes by the desire to
create a world where differences -- rooted in ethnicity, gender
and faith -- don't matter. That world doesn't exist.
The astronauts didn't leave their differences behind as they
boarded the shuttle. They brought them along in the concrete form
of artifacts, special diets and religious mementoes, as well as
in their very DNA.
As daunting as this may seem, there is great value in examining
the religious beliefs of the individuals at the center of
dramatic events. Through these people, we glimpse a universe
endowed with meaning, waiting to be discovered.
Embedded in the saga of the Columbia and its seven doomed
astronauts are themes as old as civilization itself, the pursuit
of knowledge, the journey into the unknown and home again, the
human aspiration to be close to God and the pride that
accompanies accomplishment. Think of Eve and the apple, Icarus
and his wings, the Tower of Babel, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Religion is after all a human quest for understanding. Although
it is many other things, journalism too seeks to create
understanding. By telling stories, we provoke our readers and
viewers to see information in a new light, to ask new questions,
to tolerate the ambiguity that comes with real life. We give the
journey a name. We make it possible to join the travelers in
their desire for enlightenment.
Unseen Rain
Being inspired: it's
something we've all tasted and want more of. It's "the touch
of spirit on the body, a kiss we want with our whole lives,"
according to an ancient Persian song. Different traditions
describe it in different ways: a moment of freedom, seeing more
clearly, peace in the midst of a chaotic world. Whatever it is,
it's a mystery that intrigues, tantalizes, and maybe even scares
us.