Sep 06 2024
wonder
Encounter every instant
entirely as it is,
in pure wonder.
Aug 23 2024
Ko Un – Two beggars
Two beggars
by Ko Un
Two beggars
sharing a meal of the food they’ve been given
The new moon shines intensely
— from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger
/ Image by Mr. Kris /
I find this short poem deeply moving. My first instinct is to say it is filled with compassion, but that’s not exactly what this poem is about. Ko Un isn’t telling us to see the hunger of these two beggars and to feed them. There is something else going on. He is, instead, calling on us to see not two beggars, but two human beings in communion, expressing their humanity even in their extremity. These two beggars aren’t objects of pity; they have become our teachers.
The two are hungry, yet they share the very little they have with one another. They have given us a moment to see a human connection at its most desperate, yet most profound moment.
In that simple act of human communion, something heavenly is recognized. And we, the witnesses, are that much more alive, awakened from our own spiritual lethargy, as a result.
The new moon shines intensely.
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| What?: 108 Zen Poems | Ten Thousand Lives | The Three Way Tavern: Selected Poems | Little Pilgrim: A Novel | Flowers of a Moment |
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Ko Un
Korea (1933 – ) |
Aug 23 2024
wisdom of each step
The wisdom we attain with each step
reveals the destination’s true meaning.
Aug 09 2024
Sarmad – Once I was bathed in the Light of Truth within
Once I was bathed in the Light of Truth within
by Sarmad
English version by Isaac A. Ezekiel
Once I was bathed in the Light of Truth within,
I abandoned all planning and scheming.
If you, too, seek this transcendence,
leave your lower self — then from head to foot
you will see your whole being as God’s refulgence.
— from Sarmad: Martyr to Love Divine, by Isaac A. Ezekiel
/ Image by Greyson Joralemon /
Once I was bathed in the Light of Truth within…
Light is one of the primary metaphors in sacred poetry, suggesting the Divine not framed within a mental concept. But for many genuine mystics, this light is directly experienced.
This light is perceived as being a living radiance that permeates everything, everywhere, always. The sense of boundaries and separation, long taken for granted by the mind as the fundamental nature of existence, suddenly seems illusory, for this light shines through all people and things. It has no edges, and the light of one is the light of all.
And it’s fitting to speak of being “bathed.” This light is not merely an airy phenomenon of the visual realm; it is tactile, permeating, embracing, profoundly soothing, revitalizing, healing. Some describe it in liquid language: water, fountain, lake, a shining white or golden ocean.
…I abandoned all planning and scheming.
I particularly like this line. Within this radiant encounter with Unity, the mind falls silent, and so too does the personal (selfish) will. The thinking mind can only create elaborate constructions, using discreet conceptual segments of reality as its building blocks. But in this wholeness there are no parts or segments to grab hold of. All blocks are already in place, with no seam or handhold found.
And with the heart full, overflowing… What want remains to scheme after?
Freed from the endless compulsive efforts of the mind and self-will, it’s breathtaking just how much buried life and energy is released through us. Mind becomes an open sky, with invisible, gentle breeze currents. Self-will becomes effortless selfless-will. Instead of you perceiving and acting, it’s as if perception and action take place through you — in joyous, flowing ease.
If you, too, seek this transcendence,
leave your lower self — then from head to foot
you will see your whole being as God’s refulgence.
This is “God’s refulgence,” the light of the true mystics.
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Sarmad
Iran/Persia & India (? – 1659) Timeline |
Aug 09 2024
total of all the stories
The little self is simply
the sum total of all the stories
we tell ourselves.
Jul 26 2024
Lynn Ungar – Camas Lilies
Camas Lilies
by Lynn Ungar
Consider the lilies of the field,
the blue banks of camas
opening into acres of sky along the road.
Would the longing to lie down
and be washed by that beauty
abate if you knew their usefulness,
how the natives ground their bulbs
for flour, how the settlers’ hogs
uprooted them, grunting in gleeful
oblivion as the flowers fell?
And you — what of your rushed
and useful life? Imagine setting it all down —
papers, plans, appointments, everything —
leaving only a note: “Gone
to the fields to be lovely. Be back
when I’m through with blooming.”
Even now, unneeded and uneaten,
the camas lilies gaze out above the grass
from their tender blue eyes.
Even in sleep your life will shine.
Make no mistake. Of course
your work will always matter.
Yet Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
— from Bread and Other Miracles, by Lynn Ungar
/ Image by https://unsplash.com/@dynamiclx /
A lovely reminder to us– Being useful is useful. And sometimes we must rush. But our real gift to the world is not what we do, but what we are.
leaving only a note: “Gone
to the fields to be lovely. Be back
when I’m through with blooming.”
Have a beautiful day!
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| Bread and Other Miracles | Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems | Blessing the Bread: Meditations | ||
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Lynn Ungar
US (Contemporary) |
Jul 19 2024
Shih Shu – as flowing waters disappear into the mist
as flowing waters disappear into the mist
by Shih Shu
English version by James H. Sanford
as flowing waters disappear into the mist
we lose all track of their passage.
every heart is its own Buddha;
to become a saint, do nothing.
enlightenment: the world is a mote of dust,
you can look right through heaven’s round mirror
slip past all form, all shape
and sit side by side with nothing, save Tao.
— from A Drifting Boat: Chinese Zen Poetry, Edited by J. P. Seaton / Edited by Dennis Maloney
/ Image by Ivana Cajina /
Just reading these words tensions cease, the mind settles, and the glow of deep truth naturally shines forth.
I especially like these lines:
every heart is its own Buddha;
to become a saint, do nothing.
What we look for when we seek the Buddha, or enlightenment, or the Truth, is already seated within our own hearts. The way to enlightenment is not to do more — make new journeys, comprehend new teachings, perfect new practices, think more profound thoughts. Those can be important aids, yes, but the real goal is always to discover what is already in the heart. When the seat of the Buddha has not been discovered, it is because we are still distracting ourselves with too much doing.
This is not what we’re taught as we try to find a place in the world. We are always pressed to Do. Do more. Do brilliantly. Do efficiently. Do.
But try it sometime: Do less. Do nothing. Try to understand what doing nothing means. It is not about being inactive or unproductive. Truly doing nothing becomes internal, when not only thoughts are quiet, but the selfish will no longer exerts itself, when the subtle energies from which the mind arises have settled. You won’t believe the immense sense of relief you’ll then feel! Like a cramped muscle relaxing for the first time in years.
Don’t do more. Don’t do at all. Do nothing. Embrace nothing. Come to rest in that wide open plain. Sit side by side with it. See what it reveals.
slip past all form, all shape
and sit side by side with nothing, save Tao.
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| A Drifting Boat: Chinese Zen Poetry | Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry | The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China | ||
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Shih Shu
China (1660? – 1740?) Timeline |
Jul 12 2024
Ikkyu – The vast flood
The vast flood
by Ikkyu
English version by R. H. Blyth
The vast flood
Rolls onward
But yield yourself,
And it floats you upon it.
— from Zen and Zen Classics, by R. H. Blyth
/ Image by bimjo /
This short poem feels like it is saying a lot.
The vast flood
Rolls onward
Day after day, experience after experience, terrors and tragedies, joys and victories, everything — life. It can feel like an onslaught. Most of us learn to dampen down the awareness in order to cope and mimic those around us.
Yet even with dimmed senses we feel overwhelmed.
But yield yourself,
And it floats you upon it.
This is the liberating wisdom of surrender.
Most of our intense efforts in life, whether directed toward work, family, even spirituality, are about trying to control the flow of life. We want to master the flood, bring it under our will. We want to tame it so we can be safe.
But it never really works.
This lifelong effort is like a duck on a great river who imagines he controls the current by the action of his paddling feet. When he happens to face downstream — Amazing! The river goes just where he commanded! When he turns left or right, he imagines that he needs to increase his effort and improve his technique to get the river flowing where he wants. And when he turns upstream — Calamity! He has lost control of the river.
Or… he can just sit on top of the river and let its current carry him.
Yielding ourselves to this great river, no longer imagining that we control it, we can finally begin to discover its true nature and direction — and beauty. We come to see its flow as a unifying harmony and not a threat. Importantly, we notice our natural buoyancy. We are built to float upon it.
Recommended Books: Ikkyu (Ikkyu Sojun)
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Ikkyu (Ikkyu Sojun)
Japan (1394 – 1481) Timeline |
Jul 12 2024
The smallest thing
The smallest thing,
properly gazed upon with the whole self,
unmasks itself as the Beloved.
Jun 30 2024
al-Shushtari – The night’s journey
The night’s journey
by Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari
English version by Stephen Hirtenstein
You who look in the mirror.
Do you see whom you see there?
Is the looker someone other than you,
or a reflection of your fantasy?
Turn your glance toward the glance itself,
for it holds wisdom concealed from the others.
When day breaks, may people
praise the night’s journey.
/ Image by Rishab Dharmani /
I am just beginning to discover and explore the poetry of al-Shushtari. He is a fascinating poet and mystic who, like ibn Arabi, was from Andalusia, that is, Spain when it was under Muslim rule. He was a Sufi who taught a radically unified vision of reality in which only God exists. Everything one might perceive, every person, every place, even finally oneself, is really just a passing phenomenon within the single reality that is God. We might say his poetry and teachings were a sort of non-dualism that can be compared in some ways to other non-dualist traditions, such as Advaita in India.
In fact, these lines sound like statements that could have been made by the famous 20th century Hindu Advaita teacher, Ramana Maharshi.
You who look in the mirror.
Do you see whom you see there?
Is the looker someone other than you,
or a reflection of your fantasy?
I think the real power of this short selection is in the lines:
Turn your glance toward the glance itself,
for it holds wisdom concealed from the others.
At first it sounds like a riddle that can’t be solved, almost a Zen koan (another non-dualist tradition). How can you “turn your glance toward the glance itself”?
Let’s back up for a moment and contemplate the image al-Shushtari has given us. We are looking in a mirror gazing at the face — our own face — reflected back at us. But is it our face? Reach out to touch your face and your fingers hit hard glass. It is a reflection, after all, a play of light on a reflective surface. It is not actually our face, but an image that represents our face. So is it really our face or a “fantasy,” a semblance? When we finally see through the illusion and recognize that the reflection is not actually our face we have to then accept that we have never seen our own face, and we never will.
The more deeply we work with this fundamental psychic dilemma, our certainty about who or what we are begins to slip. We cannot see ourselves, but– we can see ourselves seeing. We think of ourselves as this eye perceiving the world, this face fronting the world, this body interacting with the world. What if, instead, we are life moving through this body? What if we are this magical act of seeing happening through the eye? When we stop looking at the face in the mirror, saying, “That is me,” and begin to notice the one looking through us our identity radically shifts and we come to know ourselves for the first time. We open to reality in was previously unimaginable and see everything as a living, glowing, blissful interconnectedness. And only That is real. The pretense drops and everything “else” is seen as a play of appearance within that light — like a face reflected in the mirror.
When day breaks, may people
praise the night’s journey.
Have a beautiful day!
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There is not a lot of information available in English about al-Shushtari right now. You can probably find the book Songs of Love and Devotion, by Lourdes Maria Alvarez. There is also a very good video about al-Shushtari on Filip Holm’s YouTube channel Let’s Talk Religion: https://youtu.be/Te-ohX1qfHs?si=QNClire3DaPJlZ_a. I highly recommend his channel for a broad exploration of religious and mystical thought from various cultures.
Recommended Books: Abu al-Hasan al- Shushtari
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| Abu al’Hasan al-Shushtari: Songs of Love and Devotion | ||||
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Abu al-Hasan al- Shushtari
Spain (1212 – 1269) Timeline |
Jun 21 2024
e. e. cummings – i thank You God for most this amazing
i thank You God for most this amazing
by e. e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
— from E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962, by e. e. cummings
/ Image by Shahram Sharif /
It is the summer solstice. A gorgeous morning here in Oregon, a day that inspires me to step outside and feel utter gratitude for simply being…
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
I first read this more than thirty years ago, and I still get shivers reading those opening lines.
The delightfully anarchic poetry of e. e. cummings is more than poetic art, there is something of the mystic experience in it, as well. This poem is a good example.
The two parenthetical verses hint that he is describing much more than simply the natural joy of a beautiful day. There is something truly magical going on here…
He uses Biblical, ecstatic phrasing when he proclaims “(now the ears of my ears are awake and / now the eyes of my eyes are opened).” He isn’t just saying this, he seems to shout it out to the “great happening illimitably earth.” This is seeing the inner nature of things, as they are in their true essence. This is not just seeing; he is seeing, not with the eyes, but with the “eyes of my eyes.” Perceiving in this way, we invite the natural world in, as if we are ingesting it, integrating it into ourselves. Every experience becomes vivifying nutrition for the soul.
In this new awareness, we perceive not only the living day all around us, we also recognize ourselves for the first time. It is a radical awakening, a new life, a birth of Self —
i who have died and am alive again today.
Have an amazing day!
Recommended Books: e. e. cummings
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| E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962 | 73 Poems | 1 x 1 [One Times One] | 50 Poems | 95 Poems |
| More Books >> | ||||
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e. e. cummings
US (1894 – 1962) Timeline |
Jun 21 2024
gratitude
When we don’t practice gratitude,
the world around us seems alien and unwelcoming,
and we shut down in self-protection.
Gratitude opens us to reality.
Jun 14 2024
Tukaram – Smaller than the smallest mote
Smaller than the smallest mote
by Tukaram
English version by Ivan M. Granger
Smaller than the smallest mote,
All embracing as the heavens,
I finally see the world as it is —
All appearance but a dream.
Realizing the true nature of things,
I drop my mask like a snake shedding its skin.
I leave the three-fold nature of things behind me,
as I pass beyond them.
Miraculously, this dull clay has been shaped, formed into a lamp
and begins to shine!
Filled with that radiance, I Tuka
Live to light the world.
/ Image by Alejandro /
I am rebounding from the oral surgery, but it went well. I already notice the difference of no longer carrying the hidden weight of a dental infection in the body. That endless dance of balance with the body and the light that shines through it…
I like this short abhang by the great Vishnu devotee, Tukaram.
I finally see the world as it is —
All appearance but a dream.
The experience of sudden opening is very much like waking up. We thought we saw clearly within our dream, but then we surprise ourselves by actually opening our eyes.
It is as if we have been drifting through life in a dream state and just not known it. Nothing around us has changed, but we finally, truly see things as they are. The dream-like barrier of mental filters and projections that has stifled our perception for so long falls away like a heavy blanket. We blink, look around, and are surprised to realize we’ve been in a sort of half-seeing trance all our life… and now we are awake.
Realizing the true nature of things,
I drop my mask like a snake shedding its skin.
Not only do we see the world through a filter upon the awareness, we also raise this same veil across our own faces. We mask ourselves — from ourselves, from others, most of all, from the Divine. We hide ourselves and become aliens within our own being.
Real spiritual opening occurs when we become honest and humble with ourselves (“smaller than the smallest mote”), when we drop our games and evasions, when we allow ourselves to be naked. That is when we truly come to know ourselves. The reality is more stunning than we imagined: In that supreme humility, we discover that we are immense, boundaryless beings. We finally see that we are “all embracing as the heavens.”
Miraculously, this dull clay has been shaped, formed into a lamp
and begins to shine!
Alive to this new, ageless sense of self, one is bathed in light, filled with light. Light pours through you. Somehow, miraculously, this dense body has been refashioned into a vessel through which that light shines.
Filled with that radiance, I Tuka
Live to light the world.
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Tukaram
India (1608 – 1649) Timeline |
Jun 14 2024
The final key
The final key
to the final door
is finally found within yourself.
This is the rule.