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 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 unimaginably You? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) - e. e. cummings
Before the soul can see, the harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion. Before the soul can hear, the image (Man) has to become as deaf to roarings as to whispers, to cries of bellowing elephants as to the silvery buzzing of the golden fire-fly. Before the soul can comprehend and may remember, she must unto the silent speaker be united, just as the form to which the clay is modelled is first united with the potter's mind. For then the soul will hear, and will remember. And then to the inner ear will speak the voice of silence. From: Helena Blavatsky The Voice of the Silence
"Stream of Life"
"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of
leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and
of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And
my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this
moment."
-Rabindranath Tagore- (from the book, "The Heart of God")
"The real work is in the Heart: Wake up your Heart! Because when the Heart is completely awake, Then it needs no Friend." ~ Rabi'a ~ "Doorkeeper of the Heart"; Charles Upton
"If A Simple Meditation Works, Trust It" by John Haag "Somewhere a disaster, however small, is refusing to happen. An infant falling from a 6th-story window lights uninjured on an awning. This time the mouse escaped the cat, the gnat evaded the nighthawk. Someone said Yes when who'd have thought it. Hundreds of mineshafts didn't quite collapse and John Wayne missed on his first shot. Well I admit my luck hasn't been all bad. And since each instant, once it arrives, will be exactly like this instant, I have a lot to think about: a jackknife at the bottom of a lake; an asteroid in someone else's galaxy; your warm night-smell- things too far or too near for ordinary attention. Six weeks from now I'll pack up and drive East, and I'll say, Here I am driving East, as I knew I would. And each mile will be its particular mile and I'll be there just as I am here, and just as I will be the moment I know I'm dying, which will be the same instant I've always lived, and it's been, all the way, a fantastic instant, and I'm convinced it's worth more than ordinary attention." from "Stones Don't Float" by John Haag, Ohio State University Press, 1996.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change." --Charles Darwin--
The Swan "Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river? Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air - An armful of white blossoms, A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies, Biting the air with its black beak? Did you hear it, fluting and whistling A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall Knifing down the black ledges? And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds - A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river? And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything? And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for? And have you changed your life?" ~Mary Oliver
Little Stones at My Window "Once in a while joy throws little stones at my window it wants to let me know that it's waiting for me but today I'm calm I'd almost say even-tempered I'm going to keep anxiety locked up and then lie flat on my back which is an elegant and comfortable position for receiving and believing news who knows where I'll be next or when my story will be taken into account who knows what advice I still might come up with and what easy way out I'll take not to follow it don't worry, I won't gamble with an eviction I won't tattoo remembering with forgetting there are many things left to say and suppress and many grapes left to fill our mouths don't worry, I'm convinced joy doesn't need to throw any more little stones I'm coming I'm coming." ~ Mario Benedetti From "Little Stones at My Window" by Mario Benedetti; Charles Hatfield translator.
"Spring-Watching Pavilion" by Ho Xuân Huong (~ 1776-1820) "A gentle spring evening arrives airily, unclouded by worldly dust. Three times the bell tolls echoes like a wave. We see heaven upside down in sad puddles. Love's vast sea cannot be emptied. And springs of grace flow easily everywhere. Where is nirvana? Nirvana is here, nine times out of ten." "Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong"; edited and translated by John Balaban; Copper Canyon Press, 2000
The tree or the flower in front of you has more power to bring you present than all the books in the world and all the teachers who have ever existed. All you have to do is bring yourself present with that which is present. ~Leonard Jacobson
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