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#1588 ~ Friday, October 17, 2003 ~ Editor: Gloria
Silence of the heart is
necessary so you can hear God everywhere -- in the
closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds
that sing, in
the flowers, in the animals.
-- Mother Teresa in "No Greater Love" edited
by Becky Benenate and Joseph Durepos
Book Review
by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
The Sacred Balance: A
Visual Celebration of Our Place in Nature
David Suzuki, Amanda McConnell, with Maria
DeCambra
Greystone Books 09/03 Hardcover $30.00
ISBN 1550549669
Read an excerpt on connections.
"Every living thing,
including this fern frond, is made
from the same stuff: earth and air, fire and water."
"We know what and who we
are:
made from water and air, fire and earth,
the elements that make up all creation,
part of the interconnected, interdependent
web of life, woven with all other
living things into a reciprocal
relationship with the planet.
We have never left Eden, that
infinitely complex and beautiful world
that gave us birth, shaped our minds
and bodies, and sustains us
every moment of life.
We are born into its endless aggregation
and disaggregation of matter.
We need to rediscover and
celebrate our place here;
there is nowhere else for us to live."
— David Suzuiki and Amanda McConnell
See a Gallery
of Images from
The Sacred Balance
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/withered%20leaf.htm
Tim ~ MysticWalk
Great Knowledge
Great knowledge sees all in one.
Small knowledge breaks down into the many
When the body sleeps, the soul is enfolded in One.
When the body wakes, the openings begin to function
They resound with every encounter
With all the varied business of life, the strivings of the hearts;
Men are blocked, perplexed, lost in doubt.
Little fears eat away their peace of heart.
Great fears swallow them whole
Arrows shot at a target; hit and miss, right and wrong.
That is what men call judgement, decision.
Their pronouncements are as final
As treaties between emperors.
O, They make their point!
Yet their arguments fall faster and feebler
Than dead leaves in autumn and winter.
Their talks flows out like piss,
Never to be recovered.
They stand at last, blocked, bound, and gagged,
Chocked up like old drain pipes.
The mind fails. It shall not see light again
.
Pleasure and rage
Sadness and joy
Hopes and regrets
Change and stability
Weakness and decision
Impatience and sloth;
All are grounds from the same flute,
All mushrooms from the same wet mold.
Day and night follow one another and come upon us
Without our seeing how they sprout!
Enough ! Enough !
Early and late we meet the "that"
From which "these" all grow !
If there were no "that"
There would be no "this"
If there were no "this"
There would be nothing for all these winds to play on.
So far can we go.
But how shall we understand
What brings it about ?
One may well suppose the True Governor
To be behind it all. That such a power works
I can believe. I cannot see his form.
He acts, but has no form.
[ii 2.]
The Way of Chuang Tzu
Translated by Thomas Merton
Daily Dharma
"I said, 'You know, I just
keep thinking of event after event
- all of these bad things I've done. I feel terrible. I feel
horrible. I feel awful.'
"U Pandita looked at me and asked, 'Well, are you finally
seeing the truth about yourself?' I was shocked at his
response even though I was enveloped in self-judgment and
criticism, something in his comment made me want to challenge
it. I thought to myself, 'No, I'm not seeing the truth about
myself.' And then he simply said, 'Stop thinking about it.'
Only later would I understand the wisdom in his advice. Who
among us has not done things to hurt people or to harm other
creatures, or the earth itself? Through actions born of the
mind state of aversion, we harm others and we harm ourselves.
We experience aversion through a host of afflictions - anger,
fear, guilt, impatience, grief, disappointment, dejection,
anxiety, despair.
"One of the ways in which we direct aversion toward
ourselves
is in the form of guilt. As I experienced with Sayadaw U
Pandita, as we go deeper in practice, we often begin
spontaneously to review everything harmful we have ever done.
These things just start coming up. People recall having
disappointed a friend twenty-six years previously by not
going to her sweet sixteen party, or the bitter retorts made
to a partner no longer a part of their life. People suffer
from having committed insurance fraud that remained
undetected, or from the subtle, ongoing fear in a current
friendship because of a lie told. It is very important to be
able to acknowledge such things, to experience the pain, and
then, as Sayadaw advised me, to just let them go - 'Stop
thinking about it.' Otherwise, we actually enhance a mistaken
sense of self."
~Sharon Salzberg
From the book, "Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of
Happiness," published by Shambhala.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/157062903X/Angelinc
”This is an indication of how to
know
What’s real.
When you feel
A peaceful joy, you’re near the
truth.
Unquiet and off
center, jealous or greedy,
What you do seems pretentious and
Those around you
insincere. Speak
The clearest truth you know, and let the
Dis-ease heal.
If words are tinged with lying,
They’re
like water dripping into an oil lamp.
The wick won’t light,
And the
pleasure and rest of your love room
Will diminish.
~~Rumi
From the book, "The Soul of Rumi” published by Harper
Steve Toth ~ Rumi to Hafiz
NAKED POEM
We knew something
was bound to change
& so we tried to prepare ourselves
We did our research & gathered information
We talked to various people
& drew on their experiences
We considered our choices & thought things out
but when the time came
everything looked strangely different
& we did something in that moment
we'd never dreamed of doing
So here we are
like two faces in someone else's
postcard
trying to keep warm & dry all winter
If you're certain
you're certainly not
dealing with reality
George once asked me
"I remember being right
about something-was it the milk?"
but I couldn't remember
Dave once told me
"This is a dream
I am the dreamer
I have the advantage"
& I was happy for him
Sometimes it seems
that everything in this world
is just a mixture of rocks & life
Fear could never make them
work together like that
but love can & does
with deceptive simplicity
No matter how many
things we put on
Life still sees us
as naked
Steve Toth, copyright 2003
photo by Alan Larus http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/The%20kings%20alley.htm
Brigette Mohr ~ MysticWalk
Metta!
This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness, and who knows the path of peace. Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech, humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied, unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways. Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful, not proud and demanding in nature. Let them do not the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove, wishing-in gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease. Whatever living beings there may be- whether weak or strong, omitting none- the great or the mighty, medium , short or small.. the seen and the unseen, those living near and far away, those born and to-be-born..
May all beings be at ease! Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state. Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another. Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings - radiating kindness over the entire world.. spreading upwards to the skies, and downwards to the depths, outwards and unbounded, free from hatred and ill-will. Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down, free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection. This is said to be the sublime abiding. By not holding to fixed views, the pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision, being freed from all sense-desires, is not born again into this world.
Gill Eardley ~ Rumi to Hafiz
You know, ultimately, we have
to peer into that abyss alone,
with nobody to hold us. Not only peer, but jump, alone. No
way around it. Sometimes, it feels nice to have someone
hold us. We could even wish they would give us a push. But
it just doesn't work that way...
"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a
hundred
veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to
take a step without feet."
~Rumi
Viorica Weissman ~ Million Paths
Ojai , California
Friday , February 25 , 1983
It is odd that we have so little relationship with nature, with the insects and the leaping frog and the owl that hoots among the hills calling for its mate. We never seem to have a feeling for all living things on the earth. If we could establish a deep abiding relationship with nature we would never kill an animal for our appetite, we would never harm, vivisect, a monkey, a dog, a guinea pig for our benefit. We would find other ways to heal our wounds, heal our bodies. But the healing of the mind is something totally different. That healing gradually takes place if you are with nature, with that orange on the tree, and the blade of grass that pushes through the cement, and the hills covered, hidden by clouds. This is not sentiment or romantic imagination but a reality of a relationship with everything that lives and moves on the earth. Man has killied millions of whales and is still killing them. All that we derive from their slaughter can be had through other means. But apparently man loves to kill things, the fleeting deer, the marvellous gazelle and the great elephant. We love to kill each other. This killing of other human beings has never stopped throughout the history of man's life on this earth. If we could, and we must, establish a deep long abiding relationship with nature, with the actual trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass and the fast moving clouds, then we would never slaughter another human being for any being whatsoever. Organized murder is war, and though we demonstrate against a particular war, the nuclear, or any other kind of war, we have never demonstrated against war. We have never said that to to kill another human being is the greatest sin on earth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti to Himself
His Last Journal
Joe Riley ~ Panhala
Beginners
Dedicated to the memory
of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralla
“From too much love of living,
Hope and desire set free,
Even the weariest river
Winds somewhere to the sea—“
But we have only begun
To love the earth.
We have only begun
To imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
— so much is in bud.
How can desire fail?
— we have only begun
to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision
how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower,
not as oppressors.
Surely our river
cannot already be hastening
into the sea of nonbeing?
Surely it cannot
drag, in the silt,
all that is innocent?
Not yet, not yet—
there is too much broken
that must be mended,
too much hurt we have done to each other
that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,
so much is in bud. ~ Denise Levertov ~
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Beginners.html
Web archive of Panhala postings: www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html