HAPPY NEW YEAR

"That's the remarkable thing, isn't it?
Enlightenment is ruthlessly intelligent.
Peace doesn't get involved in any of the
details -- one's historical, moral, religious,
spiritual, racial, political, educational,
or social background and so on. Not one iota.
Wisdom cares nothing about these things.
Freedom only knows of this one eternally present
moment. That makes it all very, very simple -- no
need to complicate it. With no
historical or future entanglements, there is just
this one immediate choice: Are you completely
willing TO BE that which you say you love and
revere, no matter what the circumstances?
No pause, no hesitation, no deliberation.
If you say yes and proceed to speak or think
or act in a way that contradicts it, then it
begs the question, are you serious about this?
This simple question, "The way you are living
this instant, does it work?" is profoundly useful.
If it isn't working, then what will it take?

If we are not wisdom, if we are not freedom,
if we are not serenity this very instant,
then what good is any of this? If we are,
then in our very being here, we offer the most
precious and joyful gift in the world to everyone
around us. Infinitely more than thousands of
philosophies or religions, or millions of words.
It's that simple.


from openmindopenheart dialogues Scott Morrison

GOODBY 05

The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.
~Ludwig Wittgenstein

When I'm here
you don't come
when I'm gone
there's just you

Steve Toth

LISTENING TO YOU

You feel like an imposter
because you are one
We all are
Imposters
posing as separate beings

We don't need to know
all the services
we're performing
at any given moment
So we don't

When you become
a lover
everything you do
becomes
what a lover does

Steve Toth

A HOLIDAY CARD FROM MYRIAM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lagoa
Christmas Tree, a floating megastructure standing 82 meters
tall over the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in Rio de Janeiro, has
become a holiday tradition for thousands of tourists visiting
the city from all over the world. Considered the largest
floating Christmas Tree in the world by the Guinness Book
of Records, the tree has been assembled for 10 straight
years, with $1.1 million in funds provided by Grupo Bradesco
Seguros e Previdencia. Since its opening on Nov. 26, the tree
has attracted 80,000 people a day to the area surrounding the
lagoon. The tree, the third most important tourist attraction
in Rio de Janeiro after Carnival and Reveillon (end-of-year
celebrations), will remain lit until January 6.
Close to 600,000 tourists, including 300,000 foreigners, are
expected in Rio de Janeiro to participate in Reveillon this year.



















The Christmas tree is supported by 11 floating steel
marine blocks, forming a 810 square meter base bearing
the tree's 450-ton weight. 2,228KVA of power are required
to light the tree. Candles, wheat stalks andChristmas tree
balls (traditionally used on Christmas dinner table
arrangements) adorns the tree. 2.8 million small lights and
35,000 meters of rope lights are also used. The Christmas
tree is 82 meters tall, the equivalent of a 27-story building,
and can be seen from anywhere around the Rodrigo de
Freitas Lagoon.



This year, the Christmas tree features water ballet.
Every day at 8 p.m., spectators will marvel at the
beauty of water in movement, with lighting and color
effects. Forty-eight pumps positioned around the tree
shoot jets of water 20 meters up into the air. On
weekends, the water shows are enhanced by music,
and are presented every half hour from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

IF

if you distance yourself
only for an hour
from your endless thoughts
what do you think will happen

if you let yourself sink
just like a fish
into the ocean of our love
what do you think will happen

you are merely
a piece of straw
and we are
that eternal amber

if you leap forth
from your lowly house
to fuse with the amber
what do you think will happen

a hundred times
you've promised yourself
to depart from self-claim
to be humble as earth

only for once
if you keep your word
what do you think will happen

you're a precious
hidden diamond
sunken in the mud

if you wash away
all that impurity
from your gorgeous face
what do you think will happen

if you abandon
for a little while
your ego and greed
tear down your shield
rise with a quest
to unite with the divine
what do you think will happen

-- Ghazal (ode) 844
Translated by Nader Khalili
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"
Cal-Earth Press, 1994

A hypocrite is a person who--but who isn't?
- Don Marquis
- Also more here...

The trees of the forest silently await God's blessing.

The law of gravitation is working from two sides:
from the side of the earth which draws all that
belongs to the earth, and from the side of the spirit
which attracts the soul towards it. Even those who
are unconscious of this law of gravitation are also
striving for perfection, for the soul is being continually
drawn towards the spirit. They are striving for
perfection just the same. In the small things of everyday
life a man is never satisfied with what he has. He
always wants more and more, be it a higher rank,
wealth, or fame. He is always striving for this.

This shows that the heart is like a magic bowl.
However much you pour into it, it only becomes deeper.
It is always found to be empty. The reason why man is
never satisfied is that he is unconsciouslystriving for
perfection. Those however who strive consciously after
perfection have a different way. Nevertheless, each atom
of the universe is meant to struggle and strive in order to
become perfect one day. In other words, if a seer happens
to be in the mountains he will hear the mountains cry
continually, 'We are waiting for that day when something
in us will awaken. There will come a day of awakening,
of unfoldment. We are silently awaiting it.' If he went
into the forest and saw the trees standing there they
would tell him that they too were waiting patiently.
One can feel it. The more one sits there the more one
feels that the trees are waiting for the time when there
will be an unfoldment. So it is with all beings. But man is so
absorbed in his everyday actions and his greed that he
seems to be unaware of that innate desire for unfoldment.
It is his everyday tasks, his avariciousness, his cruelty to
other beings, that keep him continually occupied, and that
is why he cannot hear the continual cry of his own soul to
awaken, to unfold, to reach upward, to expand, and to go
towards perfection.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

TODAY a turning point

There is nothing to explain.
There is no answer, nor any
legitimate question.

When old Yu was asked about the One
he got up and walked out of the room.

Sitting here I feel a comfort in knowing
there is nothing to know.

How do I know?

Is it just the end of the questions?
That the wondering was extinquished,
snuffed out in the silence?

Such ponderings can lay fallow,
waiting for the ages to leaven them.
There is no need to clarify any of this.

What is defunct is defunct, past,
utterly gone.

Yet the meanderings of the mind still
play in the wind.

There is no harm in that.
And if there were, what could be done?

Nothing matters, and yet the simplicity
of the play of these musings
unravels as it will.

Need for justification too is defunct.

Such is real freedom.

Bill
a great master

BELOVED FOOL

Pause for a moment,
come closer -- beloved fool.

Is it because you found me among gods
that you rattle bones and dance around fires?
Never was I right or left, high or low, within or without,
yet you say I am the 'unity of things'.

Look! While you search clouds and stars
I am the eye within your eyes.
As you cry out I am the sound of your voice,
your hearing within hearing.

You reach for book, holy cup, bell and flame,
yet I am the touch within touch,
scent within scent,
savor within savor.

Ten thousand miles you walk to the sacred well,
yet all the while I am the sandals on your feet,
and the brief emptiness between your strides
I fill with suns and moons.

See, hear?
The lover's tune is playing again
in the springs beneath your busy mind.
The lamp still burns in your shadows, unseen.

Come home, beloved fool --
come home.

Frank Gorin
1997

West Wind #2

You are young.









So you know everything. You leap into the boat and begin rowing. But listen to me. Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me. Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, and listen to me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks – when you hear that unmistakable pounding – when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and steaming – then row, row for your life toward it.

~ Mary Oliver ~

THERE'S NOTHNG TO BELIEVE

"This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.' Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence." ~Rumi