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#2860 - Sunday, July 1, 2007 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nondual Highlights
Don't hide -
the sight of your face is a blessing.
Wherever you place your foot,
there rests a blessing.
Even your shadow,
passing over me like a swift bird,
is a blessing.
The great Spring has come.
Your sweet air,
blowing through the city, the country,
the gardens, and the desert
is a blessing.
He has come with love to our door;
His knock is a blessing.
We go from house to house, asking of him.
Any answer is a blessing.
Caught in this body,
we look for a sight of the soul.
Remember what the Prophet said:
One sight is a blessing.
The leaf of every tree brings a message
from the Unseen world.
Look! Every falling leaf is a blessing.
All of Nature swings in unison -
singing without tongues,
listening without ears.
What a blessing!
O soul, the four elements are your face -
Water, wind, fire, and earth -
Each one is a blessing.
Once the seed of faith takes root
it cannot be blown away,
even by the strongest wind -
Now that's a blessing!
I bow to you,
for the dust of your feet
is the crown on my head.
As I walk toward you,
every step I take is a blessing.
His form appeared before me, just now,
as I was singing this poem. I swear.
What a blessing!
What a blessing!
Every vision born of earth is fleeting;
Every vision born of heaven is a blessing.
For people, the sight of Spring warms their hearts;
For fish, the rhythm of the ocean
is a blessing.
The brilliant Sun
that shines in every heart -
for the heavens, earth, and all creatures -
What a blessing!
The heart can't wait to speak of this ecstasy.
The soul is kissing the earth saying,
O God, what a blessing!
Fill me with the wine of your silence.
Let it soak my every pore
For the inner splendor it reveals
is a blessing,
is a blessing.
"A Garden Beyond
Paradise: The Mystical Poetry of Rumi,"
Version by Jonathan Star based on translation by Shahram Shiva
Bantam Books, 1992
posted to Allspirit by Abdullah bin John
~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is
your own time. This spot where you sit is
your own spot It is on this very spot and in this
very moment that you can become enlightened.
You don't have to sit beneath a special tree in a
distant land. Practice like this for a few months,
and you will begin to know a profound and renewing
delight."
--Thich Nhat Hanh From the book "The Miracle of
Mindfulness"
posted to Daily Dharma
~~~~~~~~~~~
What the
Buddha Taught
Mindfulness, or awareness, does not mean that you
should think and be conscious "I am doing this" or
"I
am doing that." No. Just the contrary. The moment
you think "I am doing this," you become
self-conscious, and then you do not live in the action,
but you live in the idea "I am," and consequently
your work too is spoiled. You should forget yourself
completely, and lose yourself in what you do. The
moment a speaker becomes self-conscious and
thinks "I am addressing an audience," his speech is
disturbed and his trend of thought broken. But when
he forgets himself in his speech, in his subject, then
he is at his best, he speaks well and explains things
clearly. All great work--artistic, poetic, intellectual
or spiritual--is produced at those moments when its
creators are lost completely in their actions, when
they forget themselves altogether, and are free
from self-consciousness. --Walpola Ruhala
~~~~~~~~~~~
"In my view things are a bit more complicated."
Well, that's it, isn't it, Brother?
We complicate
the view with our various notions
about how it is, obscuring how it actually is with
layer upon layer of assumptions, beliefs, and images
which we have somehow convinced ourselves need
defending or preserving. This is called fixating in the
stagnant swamp of identity. It is planting our shoes
in glue.
In reality,
there are many gates but no place to
tarry, to carve out some little certainty in the midst
of the unknown, some secret holy house where we
can be safe. There is no safety in the unknown.
That's why it frightens us to let go of the past. It's
why we consent to be bound by it. True freedom has
nothing to do with core values, because core values
are simply more transient stories we tell ourselves
and each other in the midst of the immensity of the
mystery. They begin and end. All stories do. They
are impermanent, and so not real. When push comes
to shove, all that stuff just flies out the window,
and one finds out that they really just don't know.
Yikes! The house of cue-cards starts to crumble,
and the movie director gets very sweaty palms.
On the other
hand, as we become intimate with the
underlying plot, we can begin to recognize how this
dreamy sense of independent self is fashioned, the
script concocted, and how the tender trap of desire
and attachment is laid. Values come later, after the
various complicators get their two dimes in, and we
end up walking around (innocently enough) with
mucho hearsay in our heads, blindly synching up with
the perpetual loop of attraction and aversion that
we come to represent, and on it goes. And on it
goes. AKA suffering. AKA complication. AKA samsara.
Yadda yadda . . .
In reality,
things are very simple. There is no
paradigm for reality. There is only reality. That's it.
Clear as daylight. Unmistakable. It's you. You are
the reality you seek! How could it be otherwise?
Yes, Namaste -- it's all you, yet you are none of it!
You're not even speakable with words, you're that
cool! Indeed, why complicate?
"Truth
is simple and open to all. Why do you
complicate? Truth is loving and lovable. It includes
all, accepts all, purifies all. It is untruth that is
difficult and a source of trouble. It always wants,
expects, demands. Being false, it is empty, always in
search of confirmation and reassurance. It is afraid
of and avoids enquiry. It identifies itself with any
support, however weak and momentary. Whatever it
gets, it loses and asks for more. Therefore put no
faith in the conscious. Nothing you can see, feel, or
think is so. Even sin and virtue, merit and demerit are
not what they appear. Usually the bad and the good
are a matter of convention and custom and are
shunned or welcomed, according to how the words
are used. "
--Nisargadatta Maharaj
LoveAlways Bob O'Hearn on GardenMystics