Followers

Tuesday, June 26, 2007


I'm neither beautiful nor ugly
neither this nor that

I'm neither the peddler in the market
nor the nightingale
in the rose garden

Teacher give me a name so that I'll know
what to call myself

I'm neither slave nor free neither candle
nor iron

I've not fallen in love with anyone
nor is anyone in love with me

Whether I'm sinful or good
sin and goodness come from another
not from me

Wherever He drags me I go
with no say in the matter

By Jelaluddin Rumi
(1207 - 1273)





















"... in Buddhism we're not that interested in talking
about the Buddha himself. Nor was he; he wasn't
interested in people believing in him, so to this day
Buddhism has never encouraged its followers simply
to believe in the Buddha. We have always been more
interested in understanding human psychology, the
nature of the mind. Thus, Buddhist practitioners
always try to understand their own mental attitudes,
concepts, perceptions and consciousness. Those are
the things that really matter."
--Lama Yeshe

Sunday, June 24, 2007




















Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed,
but nature does not depend on us. We are not
the only experiment.
R. Buckminster Fuller

Friday, June 22, 2007


Perhaps, according to the Washington Post:

"...seen as a single entity, the Glass House/Brick House structures add up to the gayest house in America, an architectural enactment of a life lived with a rigorous division between the public and the private. Not that Johnson, a man who enjoyed wealth throughout his life, lived that particular dichotomy of hiding and revealing in the way that less fortunate men had to. But even at the level of its mechanical systems, the two-house dyad seems like a metaphor for the publicly brilliant homosexual: The Glass House is enticingly open but dependent on the Brick House for its hidden electrical and plumbing connections."

Philip Johnson's 1949 modernist masterpiece, the "Glass House" in New Canaan, Connecticut, will open to the public as a National Trust for Historic Preservation site this Saturday.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Summer Solstice, 12:06 MST, 2007


There came a Day at Summer’s full,
Entirely for me –
I thought that such were for the Saints,
Where Resurrections – be –

The Sun, as common, went abroad,
The flowers, accustomed, blew,
As if no soul the solstice passed
That maketh all things new –

The time was scarce profaned, by speech –
The symbol of a word
Was needless, as at Sacrament,
The Wardrobe – of our Lord –

Each was to each The Sealed Church,
Permitted to commune this – time –
Lest we too awkward show
At Supper of the Lamb.

The Hours slid fast – as Hours will,
Clutched tight, by greedy hands –
So faces on two Decks, look back,
Bound to opposing lands –

And so when all the time had leaked,
Without external sound
Each bound the Other’s Crucifix –
We gave no other Bond –

Sufficient troth, that we shall rise –
Deposed – at length, the Grave –
To that new Marriage,
Justified – through Calvaries of Love –

By Emily Dickinson
(1830 - 1886)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Permanence



To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane’s bill.

By Dogen
(1200 - 1253)

Friday, June 15, 2007


Do...
as if you have nothing else to do.


Be...
as if you have nowhere else to go.


Look...
as if, you are looking at the only
thing that exists.

Be...
as if you have Infinite time.


Be...
as if you have nothing to think.


Unknowingly, I did that and miraculously,
it again transported me
to Heaven.
The heaven that I have been
secretly afraid of.
Heaven, that I
have been secretly avoiding.
Adithya Comming

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Grace


Background is two temporary lovers - one an anti-religious anarchist statistician and the other a society girl clearly out of his league - stumbling across a Church in the snow, in post-war Germany:

"They walked through the tracks of all the others in the snow, she gravely on his arm, wind blowing her hair to snarls, heels slipping once on ice. "To hear the music," he explained.

Tonight's scratch choir was all male, epauletted shoulders visible under the wide necks of white robes, and many faces nearly as white with the exhaustion of soaked and muddy fields, midwatches, cables strummed by the nervous balloons sunfishing in the clouds, tents whose lights inside shone nuclear at twilight, soullike, through the cross-hatched walls, turning canvas to fine gauze, while the wind drummed there ... The children are away dreaming, but the Empire has no place for dreams and it's Adults Only in here tonight, here in this refuge with the lamps burning deep, in pre-Cambrian exhalation, savory as food cooking, heavy as soot. And 60 miles up the rockets hanging the measureless instant over the black North Sea before the fall, ever faster, to orange heat, Christmas star, in helpless plunge to Earth.

Lower in the sky the flying bombs are out too, roaring like the Adversary, seeking whom they may devour. It's a long walk home tonight. Listen to this mock-angel singing, let your communion be at least in listening, even if they are not spokesmen for your exact hopes, your exact, darkest terror, listen. There must have been evensong here long before the news of Christ. Surely for as long as there have been nights bad as this one - something to raise the possibility of another night that could actually, with love and cockcrows, light the path home, banish the Adversary, destroy the boundaries between our lands, our bodies, our stories, all false, about who we are: for the one night, leaving only the clear way home and the memory of the infant you saw, almost too frail, there's too much shit in these streets, camels and other beasts stir heavily outside, each hoof a chance to wipe him out ... But on the way home tonight, you wish you'd picked him up, held him a bit. Just held him, very close to your heart, his cheek by the hollow of your shoulder, full of sleep. As if it were you who could, somehow, save him. For the moment not caring who you're supposed to be registered as. For the moment, anyway, no longer who the Caesars say you are.

O Jesu parvule

Nach dir is mir so weh...

So this pickup group, these exiles and horny kids, sullen civilians called up in their middle age ... give you this evensong, climaxing now with its rising fragment of some ancient scale, voices overlapping threee and fourfold, filling the entire hollow of the church - no counterfeit baby, no announcement of the Kingdom, not even a try at warming or lighting this terrible night, only, damn us, our scruffy obligatory little cry, our maximum reach outward - praise be to God! - for you to take back to your war-address, your war-identity, across the snow's footprints and tire tracks finally to the path you must create by yourself, alone in the dark. Whether you want it or not, whatever seas you have crossed, the way home..."

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon

Hat Tip Daily Dish



Monday, June 11, 2007

Sunday, June 10, 2007























Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the
barriers within yourself that you
have built against it.
Jalal ud-Din Rumi

Friday, June 08, 2007

35 Years Ago Today



















Wikipedia

Enso
























Enso is a Japanese word meaning "circle". Enso is perhaps the most common subject of Japanese calligraphy. Enso symbolizes enlightenment, strength, elegance, and the universe, and is an "expression of the moment".

It is believed by many that the character of the artist is fully exposed in how he draws Enso, and that only one who is mentally and spiritually whole can draw a true Enso. Some artists will draw Enso daily, as a kind of spiritual diary.

Some artists draw Enso with an opening in the circle, while others complete the circle. For the former, the opening symbolizes that the Enso is not separate, but is part of something greater.

The Enso is also a sacred symbol in the Zen Buddhist religion, and is often used by Zen masters as a form of signature in their religious artwork. See also Hitsuzendo for information about the Way of the Brush.

The Enso has also been co-opted as an advertising symbol by various companies, notably, Lucent. Lucent's logo is often jokingly referred to as the "coffee cup ring." Enso has also been co-opted by the company Humanized as the name of a series of software products based on the work of Jef Raskin meant to simplify common computing tasks.

Wikipedia

Monday, June 04, 2007

You Are the Buddha


Starting right now, this moment, I am asking you to become the Buddha. I am asking you to take your stand, to stand absolutely firm in your intention to awaken to the Truth of your Self. This is what the Buddha did. He didn't say, "I'll try." He didn't say, "I hope I'll find the Truth." He didn't say, "I'll do my best." He didn't say, "If not in this lifetime, then maybe next lifetime." He came to the point where he didn't look for anyone else to tell him the Truth or show him the Truth. He came to the point where he took it all on himself. He sat alone under the Bodhi Tree and vowed never to give up until the Truth be realized. The power of this very simple, yet unshakable intention and absolute stand to be liberated in this lifetime propelled him to awaken to the simple fact that he and all beings are liberated—that all beings are freedom itself. Pure awakeness. The Buddha was no different from you. No different. That is why he serves as a good model, because he was as you are now. So don't worship the Buddha. Don't put him on a pedestal. Don't even look up to him. Become him. Have the same intentions, take the same stand. Be the Buddha now! Put an end to all delaying, to all excuses, to all bowing down to saintly figures of the past or present. Stand up! You are the Buddha! You are freedom itself! Stop dreaming your dream! Stop pretending that you are in bondage—stop telling yourself that lie! Stop pretending to be someone, or something! You are no one, you are no-thing! You are not this body or this mind. This body and mind exist within who and what you are. You are pure consciousness, already free, awake, and liberated. Stand up and walk out of your dream. I am here to say that you can do this. Step out of the dream of your concepts and ideas. Step out of the dream of what you imagine enlightenment to be. Step out of the dream of who you think you are. Step out of the dream of everything you have ever known. Step out of your dream of being a deluded person. Stop telling yourself those lies and dreaming those dreams. Step out of all of that. You can do it. Nothing is holding you back. There are no requirements and no prerequisites to awaken. There is nothing to be done, nothing to think, nowhere to go. Just stop all dreaming. Stop all doing. Stop all excuses. Just stop and be still. Effortlessly be still. Grace will do the rest. At each and every moment from here on out, have the intention to directly experience Truth, your true liberated Self. Don't think about the Truth—directly return to your experience here, now, moment to moment. Experience Truth. Experience your Self. Dive into your experience. Your experience! Your experience of hearing, of seeing, of tasting, of breathing, of your heart beating, of your feet touching the floor, of the birds, of the wind. Experience the vastness of who you are. Experience the freedom of who you are. You are the Buddha—experience that. You are the Buddha.

© 2005 Adyashanti

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Women in Art

Saturday, June 02, 2007

The Negative


To remain 'negative' is to remain 'stuck' . . . in the linear dimension. Negativity thinks it is trying to solve a 'problem'; yet, it can't solve it because I, itself is the part of very same problem. It provides food on and fuel to the very same cycle it thinks it is trying to end. We can already see its failure in the result of fighting violence with violence, stress with stress, depression with depression [as in feeding it thoughts like 'I don't like being depressed', 'I hate being depressed', 'I am depressed. . . because, I am depressed']. Positivity moves in the vertical dimension and in doing so it changes its FOCUS and Perspective and gains the ability to view the entire 'maze' - unlike negativity which because of being lost in the same maze can only see a fraction at a time. Because of this change in perspective, positivity transcends the very problem. . . that negativity can spend eons and still not be able to 'solve'.

Love is the language of positivity.

Fear [and violence] is the language of
negativity. And, brain deals with
psychological fear [and violence] in
the same way as it does with real
physical threat and violence. . . by
releasing emergency stress hormones
like Adrenaline!

Therefore,

Stress, Strain, Violence, Fear,
tension and depression. . . naturally
results from negativity.

And, yes,
negativity 'fights' against violence too. . .
using more 'violence' of course ;)

And, it fights against stress causing more stress,
against depression causing more depression,
against thoughts causing more thoughts.


Negativity 'fights' against garbage. . .
Positivity simply remains its
beautiful inner self - and, just by
being so it serves inner-outer beauty.

Positivity envisions a beautiful
landscape, a fertile land and a
beautiful garden growing out of the
garbage. It 'sees' garbage giving shape
and slopes to landscape, it 'sees'
'garbage' acting as fertilizers for
grass, for beautiful plants, for roses. . . for flowers.

Negativity 'looks' for and 'finds'. . .
'problems' that it 'must' 'fight' against.

Positivity SEES Possibilities.

adithya_comming

me






















All the causes of human confusion and

discontent - desire, greed, envy, anger,

pride, fear, etc. are not the independent
phenomena but merely the various
manifestations of the identified ego.
And
the great joke is that the identified
'me'
wants to be free of these things to
'enjoy'
that enlightenment which cannot
come
about except by the annihilation
of that
very 'me'!
Ramesh S. Balsekar