separation, the unsayable absence.
There’s a moon inside every human being.
Learn to be companions with it.
Give more of your life to this listening. As
brightness is to time, so you are to
the one who talks to the deep ear in
your chest. I should sell my tongue
and buy a thousand ears when that
one steps near and begins to speak.
Rumi
Good instructions when you are feeling fragmented or small, or when you are giving too much power over to others.
Settle the self on the self
and let your life force blossom
Zen instruction, from my current reading : Blanche Hartman, Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart
I believe that anybody can find a way into the world:
some landscape, a particular room, neighborhood street, a building such as a barn with its smells, or a thing privately treasured, for instance a baseball glove or a pair of shoes. “All things are full of Gods” is an ancient Greek saying; “In my Fathers house are many mansions”, a Christian one. These suggest that there is something divine even in the baseball glove and the neighborhood street.
James Hillman
Following on from yesterdays post…Issa’s poems are very simple and very beautiful
Simply trust:
Do not the petals flutter down,
Just like that?
Issa (1763-1828), Japanese Buddhist poet
photo: cogdogblog
Life always gives us
exactly the teacher we need
at every moment.
This includes every mosquito,
every misfortune,
every red light,
every traffic jam,
every obnoxious supervisor (or employee),
every illness, every loss,
every moment of joy or depression,
every addiction,
every piece of garbage,
every breath.
Every moment is the guru.
Charlotte Joko Beck
I remember I would sometimes go visit Ajahn Sumedho in his room. On the wall he had a picture of an old man sitting inside his little cottage on a rainy day, sitting just inside the window, looking out, and in his hand he held a cup of coffee. And I remember Ajahn Sumedho saying, for him this was the essence of meditation. It was really nothing more than just relaxing, and watching the happening of existence. Nothing needed to be explained. Nothing needed to be worked out. There’s just the event of existence presenting itself. Everything we are is simply presented. Whatever words come out, come out, but they’re not important; they’re simply the movement or the non-movement of whatever this happening is and it’s happening all by itself.
Darryl Bailey
Mindfulbalance 