Click here to go to the next issue.

XAN DELIVERS LALLA:


My body caught fire like an ember,
as I brought the syllable OM,
the one that says "You are That,"
into me.
I moved through
the six chakra centers
that urge human beings to action
and out into the lightedness
where Lalla lives now.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

_____________________________________________________________________

GLORIA LEE DELIVERS BLAKE

The Smile


There is a Smile of Love
And there is a Smile of Deceit
And there is a Smile of Smiles
In which these two Smiles meet.

And there is a Frown of Hate
And there is a Frown of disdain
And there is a Frown of Frowns
Which you strive to forget in vain.

For it sticks in the Heart's deep Core
And it sticks in the deep Back bone.
And no Smile that ever was smil'd
But only one Smile alone.

That betwixt the Cradle and Grave
It only once Smil'd can be,
But when it once is Smile'd
There's an end to all Misery.

William Blake

____________________________________________________________

CEE DELIVERS CEE

ways consciousness (self) is rock-solid:

always there (here)
exactly as it is (i am)
never changing
never capable of division
silent
still
unborn
exactly this


love to all, cee

____________________________________________________________________

ANTHONY CRAIG DELIVERS WEI WU WEI:

The whole Buddhist and Vedantic system (Advaita) depends on
the non-existence of identity, so does the very idea of
‘enlightenment’ - which is reintegration in universality.

I doubt if there is anything else to be understood, since
every other element of doctrine is dependent on that, so
that such understanding is final.

But in itself it is an impossibility as a thing-to-be-done,
since it requires the absence of anyone to ‘do’ it or to
abstain from doing it.

Here there is neither doing nor abstaining from doing but
only absence of abstaining from doing - which is the
Master’s way of saying total absence of any identity to do
or to abstain from doing anything whatsoever.

That is the arrow of an enlightened archer, for - however
many such arrows may be loosed - each one must split its
predecessor in the bull’s-eye - which is the eye which is
itself the flight of the arrow.

Wei Wu Wei
__________________________________________________________

MICHAEL READ DELIVERS ARACHNIDS

There are two great hairy wolf spiders living in my
entryway.

Fearsome looking creatures they are indeed. Black,
multi-legged, multi-eyed,hairy with one spot of white on
their backs. Quick and fearless, they rule their little
domain.

Shall I squash them? Perhaps. Should their dripping fangs
find my tender skin, no doubt, I would fall quite ill.

I hold my power over them in check. They may be buddhas
from a vast and distant buddha field come to further my
transformation. May they hold their power over me in check.

Then again, they may be but lowly spiders, incarnated for
the very first time. May they then hunt well and keep my
house free from flies, ants, and other insect pests.

I shall praise them as buddhas and teach them of the
dharma. I shall praise them as buddhas and learn from them
the dharma.

May they catch many bugs!

HAHAHAH and HOHOHO!

Peace - Silly, Ain't IT - Michael
_______________________________________________________

TIM DELIVERS THE PROVOCATIVE

TIM GERCHMEZ: Apologies, I am not a Bhakti. I am not
anything that has to do even very remotely with concepts,
words, ideas or thoughts.

"In this the Kali Yuga, bhakti is the easiest path."
--Ramakrishna

BRUCE MORGEN: Sure, if one is a bhakta by nature bhakti is
the only path, but in the absence of such a natural
propensity it is fraught with conflict. Besides, ease has
no intrinsic advantage over arduousness or, for that
matter, effortlessness. Since "path" is nothing more or
other than the course of ones life, it's hard to credit
such broad generalizations, even when they come from one as
widely revered as Sri Ramakrishna.

JODY: Agreed, but because I'm a master of projection, I just
had
to slime the universe with my overlay.

One of the things Ramakrishna was communicating with this
statement was that because realization comes of Itself--as
an act of Grace--we may as well devote ourselves to the One
who bestows the grace. In Ramakrishna's case this happened
to be Ma Kali, aka Shakti, otherwise known as Brahman in
drag. ;)

Of course, to each his own in every case. In no way is a
devotional attitude required. The grace will befall s/he as
Grace sees fit, devotee or not.

MATTHEW FILES: when does this fascination with what iam or
what i am not, come to an end? When do we stop staring at
our reflection in the water? We are constantly reinventing
our self image. When do we stop having definitions of who
we think we are now? I think it it only begins to happen
when we make "the other" our focus rather than ourselves.
The nature of ego is that it is completely self-serving.
Everything that we do,without consciousness, without
attention and intention is in our own best interest. Do we
treat those around us with kindness, generosity and
compassion, under all circumstances? Under ALL
circumstances.This is a very functional and practical way
that we can begin to undermine our usual condition of total
self reference.As Bob D said, "you can serve the devil or
you can serve the lord, but you gotta serve somebody".The
key here being serving somebody, a person, flesh and blood
not some nebulous abstract idea of service.Got to, there is
no way around it, if we want out of our suffering. It has
been my observation too that we are most happy, most
radiant, most alive when directly serving other people.But
even this can be more of egos self-serving ways. Just
another survival strategy. Another way to "win". So enquiry
and ruthless self-observation cannot cease.Ever.
.......matthew .......phew! amen

MANCHINE: You can serve the lord, but you gotta serve
somebody.... Man what a life! matthew, I'm getting to like
you. Some serve the "lord" very well. Getting to know what
that means, is perhaps a lifetime job. For some it's
easier, say, serving the "lord", than some body.

Serving bodies, here and there, too is another instance of
serving the "lord", still a layer of isolation, but
service...

But serving somebody is the ego's maximum sacrifice if it
still exists by now.

____________________________________________________________

GLO DELIVERS WOODPECKERS

TIM:What is it with small birds? Those little peckers!

GLO:~~Our resident woodpecker (actually large for birds)
has a habit of drumming madly away on the metal top to the
chimney, quite a racket when you are trying to read
peacefully. I thought surely he is not so stupid as to
expect bugs there, so I looked it up. What it is about is
that the noise is to attract a mate, more noise the further
it carries, so indeed he is not stupid. This morning we
heard a faint answering drum and off he flew.

top of page