The problem getting it is that we have learned to go the long way, and this one's unbelievably short : )    posted to nondualnow by Alan Larus  

  However deep your
Knowledge of the scriptures,
It is no more than a strand of hair
In the vastness of space;
However important appears
Your worldly experience,
It is but a drop of water in a deep ravine.
~Tokusan   posted to Allspirit Inspiration  

The Great Nebula in Orion

God and the Quantum Vacuum:

A Conversation with Brian Swimme

John David Ebert

excerpt:

JE: In your lecture series Canticle to the Cosmos, you say that the reason the universe created chlorophyll was to capture sunlight and that the reason the universe created human beings was to capture the depth of things. What did you mean by that?

BS: I meant that there seems to be the possibility of developing human sensibilities so that we can become deeply moved by the magnificence of existence. Now, it's quite possible to avoid that kind of development and to throw yourself into a more simplistic pursuit of money or whatever else, and that too is a human life. But I just mean there is the possibility for evoking sensitivities and sensibilities that respond very deeply to the majesty of the universe. So it seems to me that the whole tradition of poetry and music and art and religious expression comes out of humans who have developed this capacity to be moved to awe. That really is what I was trying to get at.

But to give one example, a human can go outside and look up and see the Andromeda galaxy. You can see it with your naked eye, no telescope or anything, it's just there. It's slightly different than the other stars, and if you have really good eyesight or a set of binoculars you can actually see that it's a galaxy. You can see the spiral structure. And it's just so remarkable because as you're looking at that, the light that's entering your eyes took two and half million years to get here. It left Andromeda right when the first humans were discovering how to use stone tools. The eye that I'm using to see Andromeda has been shaped by two and a half million years of human development, starting with those first stone tools. You know, it involved mathematics and language and all this, and eventually we've arrived at a place where we can now see Andromeda and know what we're seeing. And the light that we're seeing has been traveling toward us all that time, for two and a half million years, so that to experience Andromeda is to experience not only the depth of the galaxies, it's also to experience the depth of the human. And I just mean that that kind of experience is something like what a chlorophyll molecule does in capturing sunlight. We capture instead wonder or amazement that so easily could have been missed.

 for entire interview see:

http://www.lapismagazine.org/archives/L07/swimme-interview.html   link posted to nondualnow by Gyan  

Andromeda galaxy    

  The thing...   “People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.”
 
Logan Pearsall Smith


“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.”
 
Nikos Kazantzakis


”Let us imagine the anima mundi [world soul] neither above the world encircling it as a divine and remote emanation of spirit, a world of powers, archetypes, and principles transcendent to things, nor within the material world as its unifying panpsychic life-principle. Rather let us imagine the anima mundi as that particular soul-spark, that seminal image, which offers itself through each thing in its visible form.”
                           
James Hillman


“I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.”
 
Leo Rosten



“The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them.”
 
Stephen King



“The necessary thing is great, inner solitude.
What goes on inwardly is worthy of your love.”
                        
Rainer Maria Rilke
 


posted to AlphaWorld  

"There is a Zen story about a student who made a
special point of keeping all the Buddhist
precepts. Once, however, while walking at night,
he stepped on something that made a squishing
sound. He imagined he must have stepped on a
frog. Immediately he was filled with fear and
regret, for the precepts include not killing.
When he went to sleep that night he dreamed that
hundreds of frogs came to him, demanding his life
in exchange.

"When morning came, he went back to the place the
incident had occurred and found he had stepped on
an over-ripe eggplant. Suddenly his confusion
stopped. From that moment on, he knew how to
practice Zen and how to truly follow the
precepts.

"Although he could expound upon the precepts at
length, when he stepped on something squishy in
the night, his understanding of the precepts did
nothing to bring him peace or stability of mind.
In fact, it did just the opposite: he needlessly
tortured himself with guilt.

"The student's problem was that he thought he
understood something that he didn't. He thought
he stepped on and killed a frog, but he hadn't.
He also thought that he understood the precepts
but he was wrong here too. In both cases, rather
than honestly admitting and facing what he didn't
know, he imagined he did know. Because he only
had an intellectual understanding of the precept
against taking a life, he was thrown into
anguish. He had completely forgotten that in
Reality he didn't know what he stepped on. And
instead of living with that uncertainty, he made
up an explanation for what happened - and made
himself miserable believing it.

"To keep the Buddhist precepts, we simply must be
here, immediately present with what's going on,
and not lost in thought or speculation. We need
to see what's going on in this moment- including
what is going on in our own mind.

"And when we don't know what's going on, when for
example, we step on something in the dark - then
it means fully realizing that we don't know. This
is the deeper understanding - to know when you
don't know. If we would look closely we would see
that the world is not the way we think it is, and
that it can never be the way we think it is.

"If you're here - truly present - you realize
there's nothing to run from or to go after. You
can stay calm, even if you did accidentally step
on a frog. Just be with this moment and see
what's going on. Know your own mind."
~Steve Hagen

From the book, "Buddhism Is Not What You Think,"
by Steve Hagen, published by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060507233/Angelinc


posted to Daily Dharma by Sherab  

From 'Peace Is Every Step'
by Thich Nhat Hanh

If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important.
If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and
happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we
really know how to live, what better way to start the day than
with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination
to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an
awakened mind.

How can you remember to smile when you wake up? You might
hang a reminder--such as a branch, a leaf, a painting, or some
inspiring words--in your window or from the ceiling above your bed,
so that you notice it when you wake up. Once you develop the
practice of  smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile
as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming
through the window. Smiling helps you approach the day with
gentleness and understanding.


Allspirit Website: http://www.allspirit.co.uk

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