ShivAllahSita sutra 36

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Why do you beat your breast for nothing?

If you possess unwavering intelligence,

you shall have to seek Him from within,

Shiva is seated there

and searching Him from outside

will be of no avail.

Do believe my word,

baked with self-perception.

 

The Super-Lord is supervising His shop with personal care.

All the aspirants are eager to take away wares of their liking.

Whatever, you would elect to buy,

does not admit of any intermediary;

It is to be earned by your own effort,

since the shop is devoid of any hinderance

and even a watch is not kept over it.

 

~Lalla

 

 

I set myself in a corner, and there had my work with me, but could

scarcely do anything by reason of the force of the attraction which

made the work fall out of my hands. I passed whole hours this way,

without being able either to open my eyes or know what passed; but I

had nothing to wish for, nor yet to be afraid of. Everywhere I found

my proper center, because everywhere I found God.

My heart could then desire nothing but what it had. This disposition

extinguished all its desires; and I sometimes said to myself, "What

wantest thou? What fearest thou?" I was surprised to find upon trial

that I had nothing to fear. Every place I was in was my proper place.

 

~Jean-Marie de la Mott Guyon

 

 

The point to be grasped is this,

that heart means the core of one's being,

the center without which there is

nothing whatever.

 

~Sri Ramana

 

 

When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God,

when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing,

then the Supreme State will come to you

uninvited and unexpected!

 

~Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

 

When I had lost all created supports, and even divine ones, I then

found myself happily compelled to fall into the pure divine, and to

fall into it through all those very things which seemed to remove me

further from it. In losing all the gifts, with all their supports, I

found the Giver. In losing the sense and perception of Thee in

myself -- I found Thee, O my God, to lose Thee no more in Thyself, in

Thy own immutability. Oh, poor creatures, who pass all your time in

feeding upon the gifts of God, and think therein to be the most

favored and happy. How I pity you if you stop here, short of the true

rest, and cease to go forward to God Himself, through the loss of

those cherished gifts which you now delight in! How many pass all

their lives in this way, and think highly of themselves

 

~Jean-Marie de la Mott Guyon

 

 

Without nothingness, there is no naturalness -- no true being.

True being comes out of nothingness, moment after moment.

Nothingness is always there, and from it everything appears.

But usually, forgetting all about nothingness,

you behave as if you have something.

What you do is based on some possessive idea

or some concrete idea, and that is not natural.

 

For instance, when you listen to a lecture,

you should not have any idea of yourself.

You should not have your own idea when you listen

to someone. Forget what you have in your mind and just

listen to what he says. To have nothing in your mind

is naturalness. Then you will understand what he says.

 

But if you have some idea to compare with what he says,

you will not hear everything; your understanding will

be one-sided; that is not naturalness. When you do something,

you should be completely involved in it. You should devote

yourself to it completely. Then you have nothing.

So if there is no true emptiness in your activity,

it is not natural.

 

Most people insist on some idea. Recently the younger

generation talks about love. Love! Love! Love!

Their minds are full of love! And when they study Zen,

if what I say does not accord with the idea they have

of love, they will not accept it. They are quite stubborn,

you know. You may be amazed! Of course not all, but some

have a very, very hard attitude. That is not naturalness at all.

Even though they talk about love, and freedom or naturalness,

they do not understand these things. And they cannot

understand what Zen is in that way.

 

If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your

previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of

experience you have in your practice.

That is naturalness.

 

Whatever you do, this attitude is necessary.

Sometimes we say nyu nan shin, "soft or flexible mind."

Nyu is "soft feeling"; nan is "something which is not hard";

shin is "mind." Nyu nan shin means a smooth, natural mind.

When you have that mind, you have the joy of life.

When you lose it, you lose everything. You have nothing.

Although you think you have something, you have nothing.

But when all you do comes out of nothingness,

then you have everything. Do you understand?

This is what we mean by naturalness.

 

~Shunryu Suzuki

"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"

 

 

Shih-Teh has no fear of the fire-tongued

dragons, ancient guardians at the threshold,

who roast those for whom belief and unbelief,

good and evil, affirmation and denial,

still have any meaning.

 

He long ago surrendered his hot head

to fall into his heart and swims there

now, free of hope or regret.

 

The heart is a pool of fire,

thoughts strands of smoke.

When that blaze roars,

every wisp of knowing is

obliterated.

 

Only one whose Wisdom Eye has

flashed open will unhesitatingly

welcome those searing flames.

 

Pretenders cannot bear the heat –

every step of the way is like

a walk over sizzling coals.

 

Shih-Teh has burned off his feet and now

drifts like smoke over Cold Mountain,

spiraling into the sky of cool mercy.

 

~b

 

 

Then the soul knows that all the states of self-pleasing visions,

openings, ecstasies and raptures, are rather obstacles; that they do

not serve this state which is far above them; because the state which

has supports, has pain to lose them; yet cannot arrive at this

without such loss. In this are verified the words of an experienced

saint; "When I would," says he, "possess nothing through self-love,

everything was given me without going after it.

 

~Jean-Marie de la Mott Guyon

 

 

in the west

 

a lingering red

 

wisp of ribbon

 

long after sunset,

 

these words

 

and what they describe

 

so gently

 

surrendering themselves into

 

the fathomless

 

until

 

even the night frogs

 

grow silent

 

in the blaze of this

 

immaculate

 

luminescence

 

~b

 

 

He is in me, I am in Him. I experienced bliss in his company.

It was futile of me to seek Him in an alien land.

I found Him in my own country – my own self.

 

He is here, He is there, He pervades all. He is all-in-all,

concealed and transcendent in the form of pure consciousness).

 

I forsook everything and took shelter in you.

When I got hold of you in my own self, I merged with you.

In that state there is no duality at all.

 

~Nunda Rishi

 

 

He, who considers his own self and others as alike,

abjures distinction between 'I' and 'you'.

He who treats days and nights alike;

is undisturbed by pleasure or pain.

He whose mind is bereft of duality,

whose heart beats for all alike;

only such a realizer can perceive the highest of preceptors –

Shiva.

 

~Lalla

 

 

I am battlefield grounds,

Kurukshetra,

Afghanistan,

Rome.*

 

I am Bernadette's grotta,

the Madonna and Ramana

wrapped up in Bliss unfolding

in every inch of Arunachala

and Cold Mountain.**

 

I am a slaughterhouse floor

drenched in blood

and death.

I am America

blasted and blown

to total oblivion.*

 

I am Hippocrates

staunching wounds,

sipping Light

from the Heart of Life,

slipping Manjusri His blade

to smear ghee and ash across time,

severing space from nothing.**

 

I am a village of mothers

sunk in despair,

Cholera,

flooding

and fire.

I am the assassin's hand

trembling,

with his gun raised

and pointed at Gandhi.*

 

I am Radiant health

Singing delightedly of Death,

Red blood cells and white

Rocking to the Soundless,

Buoying up brothers and sisters

In Oceanic pinpointed Sparkle.**

 

I am the first-born child

of Egypt and Rameses,

a river of woe.

I am an ocean of sadness,

lamentation,

broken hearts,

every kind of hell.*

 

I am the last man out

Of everyman making headway

To nowhere,

A Sea of something not other,

Spilling in and out of sutras.

The mending of Hearts,

The Charting of the Uncharted Voyage -

Inherent Happiness heaving heavens

and hope, like children laughing,

leaping and landing

in the River of Self.**

 

I am the Dark Finger of Light

weaving through You

like dreams.

I am Shiva

the Master and Dancer

in Every Disguise!*

 

I am the Luminous Mouth,

Guha glowing,

swallowing You

like prosad.

I am Brahma

breaking bread

in the wheatfields wafting

through Vishnu.

I decorate the garments

of Shiva in vasanas,

then burn down the house –

Naked Nothing…

Knowing nothing.**

 

~*Mazie

~**Mitzvah

 

 

LoveEternal.