Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII

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Want the change.
Be inspired by the flame where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation it did not think it could survive.
And Daphne, becoming a laurel, dares you to become the wind.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

BAKING PAN HAIKU

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The old temple,
Rusting among the parsley-
A baking pan.
BUSON

Yes, it is as simple as what the haiku is pointing at.
No more to add no more to take away. No matter
how many wishes and conflicts are whipping your mind,
the old temple is not impressed and the baking pan
among the parsley goes on rusting - no matter how
much or little you are suffering. No matter how much
you are investing effort to chase pleasure - all great
pleasures in life are silent. The night will come and
then the next morning. The old temple is there and the
baking pan among the parsley goes on rusting. But
now it and the parsley is covered with a breeze and
of morning dew.
Werner

Immutable

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Recognizing the power of our minds means that even as unfortunate or terrible things happen to us, we can receive them in a more spacious and ultimately more enlightened way. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that the mind becomes like space that cannot be tainted. If someone throws paint, it is not the air that will change color. Space will not hold the paint; it will not grasp it in any way. Only the walls, the barriers to space, can be affected by the paint. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences--good, bad, and indifferent--are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.
-- Sharon Salzberg