Year after year

I dug in the earth
looking for the blue of heaven
only to feel
the pile of dirt
choking me
until once in the dead of night
I tripped on a broken brick
and kicked it into the air
and saw that without a thought
I had smashed the bones
of the empty sky

~Muso Soseki

I am all hollowed out now

Like a reed.
I gave everything for this.
And still I laughingly wonder:
How could it have been so cheap?

Adyashanti

The Beat Speak

The taste
of rain
-- Why kneel?
Jack Kerouac

Done Dead !!

HE WHO KNOWS THIS KNOWS

You are wise.
You play and work and meditate.

But still your mind desires
That which is beyond everything,
Where all desires vanish.

Striving is the root of sorrow.

But who understands this?

Only when you are blessed
With the understanding of this teaching
Will you find freedom.

-Ashtavakra Gita 16:2-3

There is someone I know . . .

who is gonna enjoy this . . .

THIS . . .

Fourteen billion years ago,

something came from nothing. The energy and intelligence
that initiated that explosion is the same energy that is driving
this whole process right now. It is what I call the evolutionary
impulse or creative principle. And at the leading edge of
development, that same evolutionary impulse emerges
in human awareness as the spiritual impulse, the urge to
become more conscious. It is experienced as the
mysterious longing to develop spiritually, the ecstatic
compulsion to become more awake and more aware.
That impulse is what I call the authentic self. And
anybody who experiences this authentic self will
realize, upon reflection, that it is a completely
different part of the self than the ego. The ego
and the authentic self are parallel lines that never meet.

The ego is full of unresolved issues and unfulfilled desires,
deeply fearful and ambivalent about the very fact of being
alive. But the authentic self is only interested in creating
the future. And that part of your self and that part of my
self is not self-conscious and is not afraid of life. In the
authentic self, there's not a trace of ambivalence. There's
no hesitation. There's no doubt. There's no existential
confusion. And it's not a choice that needs to be made.
The authentic self, in you and in me, once we awaken
to it, is already completely committed. Absolute conviction
is inherent in the nature of the authentic self, and that is
why when any one of us awakens to that self, we experience
an intoxicating joy and confidence, a fearless passion and
pure doubtless conviction about being here and doing things
right in order to create a better future. Why? Because we
recognize that that is the very reason we are here.

Andrew Cohen

A New Best Apple

In, of all places, Albertson's looking for apples, not the
season for domestic apples, and in the low supply
found a name I was unfamaliar with, Jazz. Picked up
a few, and sometime later at first bite, to my supprise,
I was eating a very very wonderful apple. Crisp, not as
sweet as last Fall's pick, The Honey Crisp, but with more
complexity.
Sticker says the apple is from ENZA, a New Zealand company
that brought the Fuji to us a few years ago, also the Pink
Lady, and the Braeburn's along with others. Matter of fact,
Jazz is a cross between Royal Fala and Braeburn, and get
this, Jazz even has it's own cool web site.

"You have a purpose

only as long as you are not complete;
until then completeness, perfection, is
the purpose. But when you are complete
in yourself, fully integrated within and
without, then you enjoy the universe;
you do not labor at it."
~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Amelie Mauresmo

CHAMPION
WIMBLEDON LADIES SINGLES
2006

The state of the fasting mind or NO-MIND is by
no means a condition of idiotic vacuity but precisely
the opposite; a state of perfect, natural virtuosity,
intelligence and spontaneous power.

~ Ramesh S. Balsekar

We look but don't see it

and call it indistinct
we listen but don't hear it
and call it faint
we reach but don't grasp it
and call it ethereal
three failed means to knowledge
we weave into one
with no light above
with no shade below
too fine to be named
returning to nothing
this is the formless form
the immaterial image
this is the waxing waning
we meet without seeing its face
we follow without seeing its back
holding onto this very Way
we rule this very realm
and discover its ancient past
this is the thread of the Way.
TaoteChing #14
translated by Red Pine

Our journey had advanced --

Our feet were almost come
To that odd Fork in Being's Road --
Eternity -- by Term --

Our pace took sudden awe --
Our feet -- reluctant -- led --
Before -- were Cities -- but Between --
The Forest of the Dead --

Retreat -- was out of Hope --
Behind -- a Sealed Route --
Eternity's White Flag -- Before --
And God -- at every Gate --
~ Emily Dickinson

The Right and the Ten Commandments

Julie Blackmon

I'm so taken with this artist.
Hard to choose among many images, but this one I blew up to screen size (17")
and it's just breathtaking.

PLEASE GO HERE . . .

Eventually we will find (mostly in retrospect, of course)
that we can be very grateful to those people who have
made life most difficult for us.

-Ayya Khema, "When the Iron Eagle Flies"

In the city of Brahman is a secret dwelling,

the lotus of the heart. Within this dwelling is a
space, and within that space is the fulfillment
of our desires. What is within that space
should be longed for and realized.

-Chandogya Upanishad

Feelings,

whether of compassion or irritation,
should be welcomed, recognized, and treated
on an absolutely equal basis; because both
are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me.
The mustard greens I am planting are me.
I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean
this teapot with the kind of attention I
would have were I giving the baby Buddha
or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated
more carefully than anything else. In
mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard
green plant, and teapot are all sacred.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, "Miracle of Mindfulness"

The One

Spiritually, the enormous challenge for each and every one of us is to look directly into what it actually means to be the one who is going to consciously evolve for the sake of our collective salvation and transformation. From the absolute or nondual perspective that emerges in spiritual revelation, there is only ONE. There literally is no other; there is only one without a second. To truly understand conscious evolution, we have to grapple with the profound implications of that absolute fact. I believe we can only consciously evolve to the degree that we have actually realized at the deepest level of our being that we are that one without a second. Facing into the truth of nonduality—that the many is the one and that the one is ultimately who we always are—in an evolutionary context forces a confrontation with any relationship to the life process that is less than whole, complete, and fully committed. To consciously evolve is to surrender unconditionally to the truth that there is no other and at the same time to accept responsibility for what that means in an evolving universe—a cosmos that is slowly but surely becoming aware of itself through you and me. That one without a second is simultaneously awakening to itself as it develops, as it evolves, and it is that one, as you and me, alone, that can now begin to take responsibility for endeavoring to consciously create its own future.

Andrew Cohen

The outside world is not really concerned at all in
man's dilemma of suffering. It is all within the
fictitious 'me' of personal identity.
Realization of this fact is the ultimate
Understanding.

A Net of Jwels
Ramesh S. Balsekar

Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing;
What a little thing
To remember for years-
To remember with tears!

~William Allingham

SOMEONE UNTIED YOUR CAMEL

I cannot sit still with my countrymen in chains.
I cannot act mute
Hearing the world's loneliness
Crying near the Beloved's heart.

My love for God is such
That I could dance with Him tonight without you,
But I would rather have you there.

Is your caravan lost?

It is,
If you no longer weep from gratitude or happiness,
Or weep
From being cut deep with the awareness
Of the extraordinary beauty
That emanates from the most simple act
And common object.

My dear, is your caravan lost?

It is if you can no longer be kind to yourself
And loving to those who must live
With the sometimes difficult task of loving you.

At least come to know
That someone untied your camel last night
For I hear its gentle voice
Calling for God in the desert.

At least come to know
That Hafiz will always hold a lantern
With the galaxies blooming inside
And that

I will always guide your soul to
The divine warmth and exhilaration
Of our Beloved's
Tent.

~ Hafiz ~

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.

And what did I see I had not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.
Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,
House without air, I leave you and lock your door.
Wild swans, come over the town, come over
The town again, trailing your legs and crying!

~ Millay, Edna St. Vincent

Having To Go

Do you remember sitting in your boss's
office discussing a very important and
urgent topic while feeling that... you
"have to go" [to the bathroom that is...]!


I do remember it!


Similarity, do you remember sitting in
a prayer, in a church, in a sermon, in
a temple, in a satsang...

while feeling that you "have to go"...


Do you remember sitting with your
lover in a beautiful garden full of
roses, streams, green grass, singing
birds under the blue sky...

while feeling that you "have to go"...


Or, rowing your beautiful canoe with
you lover in the lake under the
moonlight...

while feeling that you "have to go"...



The whole joy seems to fade away...

the beauty seems to disappear...

you don't clearly hear...

you start missing the songs of birds...

you start missing the joke that your lover uttered...

Children playing around don't appear that
beautiful anymore...

The air doesn't feel that fragrant anymore...

Your lover doesn't seem that intriguing anymore...


you feel you "have to go"...
and, the beauty and reality of "where you are"
seem to fade and start disappearing for you...

The tension builds...

Division builds...

You feel divided...
you feel split between... the feeling
of being in this canoe under the
beautiful sky... versus you feeling the
need to go...


And, the need to go feels much
stronger than what you are actually
doing now, where you are actually
sitting now...

You physically stay at one place and
your mind keeps traveling to other
place and keeps reminding you that...
you "have to go"...


That I realized is the source of constant
pain that most of us constantly feel...

It builds [inner] conflict, it builds
tension, it creates [inner] split...
and, it perfectly spoils even most
beautiful Moments!

You feel annoyed at your boss [for making
you sit in an "important" meeting while
you needing "to go"]...

You feel annoyed at your lover [for making
you come on this canoe ride], you snap
at her...


It makes even the paradise a torturous Hell!


And, I realized that this "feeling"
of "having to go"***... is a constant
companion for almost all of us!


It gives a constant feeling of inner unease,
an inner discomfort and pain that unless deeply
investigated, examined and revealed accompanies
us all our life!

It lives as a constantly present inner
tension that seems to keep "reminding"
us of the "need" of 'being somewhere else',
'doing something else'... the "need" of
'being someone else'...


It practically keeps us always divided,
always split... and, in constant pain that
results from this 'split'!


Split this way,
we pass through our entire life...
without really "living" it!

and, our life seem to have just passed
through the rear-view mirror of our
memory whereas, we have been always
[mentally] "running" to... be Somewhere else!



...in very few moments when this
background tension, this stress to
be somewhere else is not present...

the real beauty appears...
real laughter appears...
real love appears...
real happiness appears...

real freedom appears...



and,

when this [Momentary] "gap" appears...

it doesn't appear because of any "effort"...

it appears because the constant
'reminding' effort [of being somewhere
lese, doing something else, having
something else, being someone else...]
ceased for a moment due to "surrender"...


or,

the effort broke for a moment of a
"sudden" movement that ego couldn't cope
with and thus left...




 

    "having to go" in real life is
also felt as "having to do", "should do",
"need to do", "need to be somewhere else",
"need to do something else", "need to get
something else", "need to achieve something
else"... "need to feel some way different than
excatly how I am feeling right now",
"need to do something other than
EXACTLY what I am doing right now"

I realized that, peace is when I clearly know that:

- I want to do... exactly what I am doing right now.

- I want to be... exactly where I am at this very moment.

- I want to be... exactly the way I am this very moment.

- I want to feel... exactly what I feel this very moment.

- I want... exactly what I have at this very moment.

- I need... exactly what I have at this moment.



Peace is when I realize with all my heart,

when I choose with all my heart...

- to be exactly where I am,
do exactly what I am doing,
think exactly what I am thinking,
feel exactly how I am feeling,
to be with exactly whom I am with!

Anything else keeps me divided,
split and... 'in pain'.

---

When I am perfectly clear, what is
is what I want.

~Byron Katie.


and,


I'm a lover of what is, not because
I'm a spiritual person, but because it
hurts when I argue with reality.

~ Byron Katie.


What is is. You don't get a vote.
Haven't you noticed?

~ Byron Katie.

~adithya comming

"While the mind is centered in the body,

and consciousness is centered
in the mind, awareness is free.
The body has its urges and mind its
pains and pleasures. Awareness
is unattached and unshaken. It is
lucid, silent, peaceful, alert and
unafraid, without desire and fear.
Meditate on it as your true being
and try to be it in your daily
life, and you shall realize it in its
fullness."

Beginners mind doesn't know what force is;

Beginners mind doesn't know what needs to be chosen;
Beginners mind doesn't know what beauty is;
Beginners mind doesn't know what it is to understand;
Beginners mind doesn't know what certainty is;
Beginners mind doesn't know about making a judgement;
Beginners mind doesn't know about violence;
Beginners mind doesn't know there are opinions;
Beginners mind doesn't know you are there;
Beginners mind doesn't know about suffering;
Beginners mind doesn't know about pride;
Beginners mind doesn't know what illusions are;
Beginners mind doesn't know what's important;
Beginners mind doesn't know what knowing is;


by Gary Merrill

If you wouldn't impale a dog in the mouth, why do it to a fish?

WWW.FishingHurts.com

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

If it were not for our conception of weights and measures,
we would stand in awe of the firefly as we do before the sun.

~Kahlil Gibran.

Boundless

Like the wind searching,
lifting feathers round
the sparrow's neck,
lifting leaves in a wave
across the bean field,
I find no place
where I can say,
here my being ends.

By Colin Oliver (1946 - )

Liberation . . .

is only being rid of the idea that there is anyone who needs liberation.

~Ramesh Balsekar