The blue sky

The guest is inside you, and also inside me;
you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,
the daily sense of failure goes away,
the damage I have done to myself fades,
a million suns come forward with light,
when I sit firmly in that world
.

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,
inside “love” there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light.

Kabir, Ecstatic Poems

Close the book

The mind is constantly trying to figure out what page it’s on in the story of itself.

Close the book. Burn the bookmark.

End of story.

Now the dancing begins.


Ikko Narasaki, roshi, died 1996

Morning thoughts

The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

Derek Mahon, 1941-2020, Irish Poet, Everything is going to be all right.

Sunday quote: Trust

Faith requires at times marching into the waters before they part.

Walter Wink, 1935 – 2012, American Biblical scholar and theologian

Fundamentally lacking

This assumption – [that happiness comes through having or storing up something] – which promises a way out of dissatisfaction, actually supports the nagging insecurity of assuming that we are fundamentally lacking, inadequate, or needing to be propped up. As long as this assumption holds the mind, we can never realize the independent balance…. This is why, if you really want freedom from the suffering that the mind creates, you have to be prepared to challenge the assumption of gain and loss. Otherwise, you’ll be chasing its mirages and projections forever, and losing touch with the way to freedom.

Ajahn Sucitto

Without freaking out

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that’s happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.

Ram Dass