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#1517 ~ Friday, August 8, 2003 ~ Editor: Gloria Lee  

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Viorica Weissman ~ Million Paths    

Q: it is said that prarabdha karma is only a small fraction of the karma accumulated from previous lives . Is this true ?   

Maharshi:  A man might have performed many karmas in his previous births. A few of these alone will be chosen for this birth and he will have to enjoy their fruits in this birth. It is something like a slide show where the projectionist picks a few slides to be exhibited at a performance, the remainig slides being reserved for another performance. All this karma can be destroyed by acquiring knowledge of the Self. The different karmas being the result of past experiences, and the mind is the projector. The projector must be destroyed so that there will be no further births and no deaths.   

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BE AS YOU ARE, The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman

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from The Four Quartets  

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought,
for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

  --T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

also posted on  The Other Syntax list
 

Photo by Al Larus  


Lisbeth ~ Monks and Mystics  

Hua Hu Ching thirty eight


Why scurry about looking for the truth?

It vibrates in every thing and every not-thing, right off
     the tip of your nose.
Can you be still and see it in the mountains?  the pine
     tree?  yourself?

Don't imagine that you'll discover it by accumulating
     more knowledge.
Knowledge creates doubt, and doubt makes you
     ravenous for more knowledge.
You can't get full eating this way.
The wise person dines on something more subtle;
He eats the understanding that the named was born
     from the unnamed, that all being flows from non-
     being, that the describable world emanates from an
     indescribable source.
He finds this subtle truth inside his own self, and
     becomes completely content.

So who can be still and watch the chess game of the
   world?
The foolish are always making impulsive moves, but
     the wise know that victory and defeat are decided by
     something more subtle.
They see that something perfect exists before any move
     is made.
This subtle perfection deteriorates when artificial
     actions are taken, so be content not to disturb the
     peace.
     Remain quiet.
     Discover the harmony in your own being.
     Embrace it.

If you can do this, you will gain everything, and the
     world will become healthy again.
If you can't, you will be lost in the shadows forever.


     ~ translated by Brian Walker

http://hjem.get2net.dk/civet-cat/zen-writings/hua-hu-ching.htm  


Along the Way  

Dive deep; one does not get to the precious
        gems by merely floating on the surface. God
        is without form, no doubt; but He also has a
        form. By meditating on God with form one
        speedily acquires devotion; then one can
        meditate on the formless God. It is like throwing
        a letter away after learning its contents, then
        setting out to follow its instructions.

                - Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

        ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
by M. (Mahendranath Gupta)
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Society, 1942
 



Joe Riley ~ Panhala     Love
 
Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills—
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.
  Then he wants to use himself and things
So that they stand in the glow of ripeness.
It doesn’t matter whether he knows what he serves:
Who serves best doesn’t always understand.
 

~ Czeslaw Milosz ~
 


    Steve Toth ~ Rumi - Hafiz,  with photo by Al Larus  

MERCY

We aren't sweet talkers who melt
     at the first drops of rain
We know love is like a storm
     that pours on the inside
Love doesn't mind laughing
     you off the stage
It can fry your imagination
     in its crucible
& have you breathing fire
It can make time stand still
     or fly like lightning that knows
     just where to strike you

Most animals will run from a fire
     Not humans
We look for things to cook
If you've lost your ego
     perhaps a word
of praise or blame will help
     you find it
How many ways are there to say
     you have nothing to say
or to explain why silence is better
     than any explanation?
All language is a form of play acting
We had all eternity to work on nothing
     but we came here anyway
so have mercy when demonstrating
     the divine breath in action

Loneliness is lonely for us
     All our lives have been spent
     setting up this moment
in which we come together
     while sharing this poem
connecting different times & places
    with our love alone
True poetry fears no reading
Love knows us inside out
     & loves us anyway
Love does whatever we lovers do
     Let your heart be light
     Let it shine

 


No umbrella, getting soaked,
I'll just use the rain as my umbrella.
-- Zen monk Daito quoted in "Zen and the Art of Anything" by Hal W. French

To Practice This Thought: Just deal with whatever happens to you.

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Your true nature is something never lost to you even in moments of delusion, nor is it gained at the moment of Enlightenment. It is the Nature of the Suchness. In it is neither delusion nor right understanding. It fills the Void everywhere and is intrinsically of the substance of the One Mind.

-"The Zen Teachings of Huang Po," translated by John Blofeld

From "Teachings of the Buddha," edited by Jack Kornfield,

http://www.beliefnet.com.


 Margaret James ~ Rumi - Hafiz  

Yi Ok-Bong (? -1592)

I am anxious to know how you are late.

As moonbeams surge on the windowpanes, my longing deepens.
If footsteps in dreams can leave their traces,
The stony path near your home must be worn to sand.

*****

Having promised to come, why are you so late?
Plum blossoms in the yard are ready to wilt.
A sudden cawing of a magpie* on the branch
Makes me line my eyebrows, looking into an empty mirror.

*The cawing of a magpie, according to Korean folklore, announces the coming of a long-awaited person.

The Moonlit Pond - Korean Classical Poems in Chinese_
Translated and Introduced by Sung-Il Lee
Copper Canyon Press

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