The universe does not revolve around us.
The stars and planets,
spinning through the ballroom of space,
dance with one another
quite outside of our small life.
We cannot hold gravity or seasons;
even air and water inevitably evade our grasp.
Why not, then, let go?
We could move through time
like a shark through water,
neither restless or ceasing,
absorbed in and absorbing the native element.
Why pretend we can do otherwise?
The world comes in at every pore,
mixes in our blood
before breath releases us into the world again.
Did we think the fragile boundary of our skin
could build a wall?
Let’s listen.
Every molecule is humming its particular pitch.
Of course we are a symphony.
Whose tune do we think
the planets are singing
as they dance?
Lynn Ungar, Boundaries
I keep looking for one more teacher,
only to find that fish learn from water
and birds learn from sky.
Mark Nepo, Behind the Thunder
Don’t waste time calculating your chances of success or failure.
Just fix your aim and begin
Chinese Master Guan Yin Tzu quoted in Stephen Cope, The Great Work of Your life
Re-examine all you have been told
at school or church or in any book;
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul;
And your very flesh shall be a great poem,
and have the richest fluency, not only in its words,
But in the silent lines of its lips and face,
And between the lashes of your eyes,
and in every motion and joint of your body.
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition
We seem to presume that others have their lives together and that this would be good for us also, that we will finally, one day, arrive…
The first day of autumn
returning from alms round
I set down my bowl by the temple
to go play with the children.
Last year, a foolish monk.
This year, no change.
Ryokan, 1758–1831, Zen Buddhist monk
We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen.
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for difficult Times
