ShivAllahSita sutra 100 - dedicated to Michael Garofalo

[Guest guest]

Only the idea of self remainsFloating on a sea of cells;Only

heartbeats short of eternityIn breath after breath we dwell.

~Michael Garofalo

Lazily scribbling poems on sun-dried

boulders, at peace with whatever comes,goes, remains unchanged ---

what has always been serenely indifferent

to any style of calligraphic graffiti

has no complaint with the phrasing.

Echoes on perception –

from the mouths of babes to

the ear of the Infinite.

Out West

barbarians say:

"Tat Sat Om!"

It has a certain ring.

~Mazie & b

Time is one apricot blossom.Space, a bee.The Universe, honey.And, the Goddess of Spring?

~Michael Garofalo

Those who see say little,

content with all creation,

but since I’m speaking with

nobody, I might as well

enjoy the conversation!

I have nobody to please.

I say what I see, and

what nobody sees

I imagine.

Imagination is a kind of

seeing –

fun, yes --

so fascinating at the start,

so brief its time to shine,

so pale to

seeing, deeply, the

source of its design.

~Mazie & b

Pointing at the moon,making a point--her lovely fingers.

~Michael Garofalo

Heart-struck, from this cliff

moonlight falls withno place to land.All eyes raised to the sky tonight will be

granted the vision of their own future.When the moon was graced by

the sun with such sight, it tumbled

from its perch on Cold Mountain --nothing bothering below to

break its fall.I sit here sighing where the same moon

grazed, gazing sentimentally at the littlemementos kept to remind itself of all the

places it had once visited -–pieces of light from hearts like mine,

translated into small breathlesspoems, fondly foldedon the altar of

its suicide,awaiting a fire thatnow will nevercome.

~Mazie & b

Live long enough and the losses pile up,Till you're tossed away like

an old cracked cup,All stained and worm, dulled by time,Useless,

leaking, not worth a dime.Egoless, your flesh falls away, a

skeletonLost in Nirvana; lights out, all done.

Then, the Skeleton Woman drinks your dry tears,Drums your still heart,

and sings away fears,Slips under the quilts and gives Love a Whirl

-Spinning, twirling, your reborn as a Girl.

Forget yourself, crack the cup on the floor,Speak in a new voice, the past is no more.

~Michael Garofalo

This curiosity,although distracted by belief,has never been about

belief butliving.This is why I waveGood-bye to believing –simple

curiosity aboutwhat remains whenpast beliefs give way towhat's beyond

them.It's the only thing I am at allcurious about --perhaps in the

same waythe butterfly,emerging from its cocoon, iscurious in its

newWinged-ness --the lure of the sudden swellingbreeze, the pulsing

urge oflife for lifethat will not,cannot be denied.Being lifts off

from a branch,discards the dry cocoon ofpast, and in a flight

ofbreathless sighs,heartbreaks throughthe startled skies!

~Mazie & b

Shells of Chevrons Fade to Powerout

Gleaming gas pumpsIn the fluorescent night.

Slaves of the Almighty Dollar,Pouring oily leaf slimeInto the bellies of Chevies.

Ding! Ding! Gallons go down.Wallets open and fold.Acid fogs melt steel-belted moons.

Headlights come and go,Flashing over the dry Lakes of Petro.

Only dead ends ahead;For us, for OPEC, for Fords.

~Michael Garofalo

It is not death that most fear, but life --

life that seems to contradict the possibility of

any resolution once hoped for in the eagerness of

youth’s vulnerable willingness to believe,life forever isolated from the rest of life

by the barrier imposed on itself

through belief in the reality of

this murmuring bag of flesh,life that seems to add up to zero

in a futility of form and motion

racing from nowhere to nothing,

that paradoxically feels trapped in a

closed loop of the known

yet fears the unknown,

life that deteriorates daily,

diminishing inexorably, untilall that is left is the stale air of

dusty concepts that by now have

dwindled to meaninglessness,

life that moves regardless,teased by the rumor of a

Beautiful One --

the End of Wanting --

just out of reach, foreverout of reach, seemingly

untouched by suffering hearts

pining for that healing embrace.For such, death indeed is not feared, but

welcomed, sought, and always found,

only to be usurped by yet another life ofconfusion, disastrous fixation, and

outrageous insult,bitterness vies with innocence,

Love becomes a rumor once despaired of, lately

merely shrugged off as just another lie,

dark thoughts become companions,

Blessing seems a cruel fiction,

relationship is avoided, and wide-open skylight, and

in the middle of the night a few inevitable tears, maybe

secret prayers, never answered,

doubt feeds itself, distrusts

whatever crosses its path, and the cancerfollows its inevitable course, a final gasp, and

as if on a spinning wheel again,the horror of embodiment resumes again,

and there is birth and death again,

and this may seem to never end, untilthe struggle spontaneously

burns itself out,

resistance gracefully collapses,now the dark night --

only ashes --

yet from such piles a spark

may rise, become a bonfire,

brilliantly blaze through boundless space,

liberate both sinner and saint,

the same light alive as each of us now,

waiting to stir from our ashes, knowing

it’s never too late.

~Mazie & b

Stalled imagination, repeating plot's old,A dull shovel lifting wiser

men's gold.Thinking when reading, otherwise not;Museless, unleavened,

a nondescript pot.

~Michael Garofalo

Arriving and departing,

with no point in time

when one becomes the other,

I recline on Cold Mountain

in a blanket of fallen maple leaves,

rustling in glee!

~Mazie & b

A fly on my fingerrubs his feet--every hair alive.

~Michael Garofalo

After a nap of a thousand years,I awoke to the footsteps of

treesquirrels, scurrying amidstcrisp fallen maple leaves.Boiling

myself some tea fromthose leaves, their perfumereminded me of what I

had

missed, and why

the squirrels romp through it.

~Mazie & b

I was thinking about "the Absolute"(whatever that is)yesterday.

(Philosophers enjoythe rush of mental masochism:bondage to leathery

ideas,painful flagellation with cutting words,the humiliation of

utter confusion.)

Absolute Zero - Death!Clearly, a deep shivering Super-ConductingAbsolute No.

Then,The Past: a second ago, a century ago...Dead Time - absolutely kaputt!

~Michael Garofalo

Our curiosity about what remains

afloat when all the fine ships we have

launched sink beneath the waves of

memory will carry us into that

infinite depth where we,ocean-bound, shall

come to rest in the peacethe sea grants to all sailors.

~Mazie & b

No Guarantees to the End

Our guarantees thatOur cherished ideals will survive,Our great great

grandchildren will thrive,Our monuments stand ...Our guarantees?This

tree my great great grandmother planted,This dog-eared Leaves of

Grass on my desk,This classic folksong on my breath,This heirloom

apple in my hand ...This day,no guaranteesfor or against.Good! So we

strive on,Their hopes in our hands.

~Michael Garofalo

The one who will kindly kill my last cow has been playing with me all along.

The milk from that cow is

rich indeed, yet I’ll happily

share it with all who have heard

their own death’s familiar whisper.

It’s only milk, you see, and yet

it’s sweetness fills canyons with

rivers of light, snow white

emptying into white, snow melt

gone to the ocean.

~Mazie & b

Half n' Half

Ripening figs summer half gonecutting up peach pies family reunionThe

moans of the bereaved dead girl's coffinchurch chimes shaking

handsLakeside shade a shivering boycool pools steelhead troutHer blue

eyes closed lips quiveringhe leaps eyes wide openRed roses in full

bloom scented morngasoline on his hands coughingThe lawn mower jerks

forward sputteringblowing out 36 candles a life half done

~Michael Garofalo

This way proceeds harmoniously.Being in opposition is not trulybeing

in opposition.There are no arguments inthis family.When the river

poursover the waterfall,countless relatives areshocked into the

objective world.Splashing down, it’s as ifthey had never been.Water's

voice is that strong!Silence wants to hear itself –a thousand merging

streams

oblige.This conversation astounds the universe,burbling forth like

rich rice wine,splashing over waterfalls thatdescend an airy stairway

towash the bowls, after

the rice has been eaten.After all,

it's just a family meal!

~Mazie & b

Panting

our lips smackseparatingour fantasies

scent of her flowers -woozykissing her knee

ruckus ondamp sheets all askew -panting face to face

trembling togetherwe explode!groaning ...

~Michael Garofalo

Cold Mountain never asked"Who am I?"Whatever this isstared down into a

chasmstaring up at Buddha.Vultures lifted on cold currents,though that

is not the name

they have for this.Across the gorge ice glittered,down in the valleylight shining from peonies

illuminated the surrounding hills.Two children laughed and pointed ata goose gone bottom-up

in a pond.

A white cranestitching the canyon,my final memory before

the sun crashed into my head.

~Mazie & b

Double Visions

An eager face staring into the Rich silenceOf mirrored space devoid of

mind;Not projecting or connecting, but reflectingSupreme non-fictions,

ThingsNaked as they are, as they are.

Inevitably, as sunshine blares on stones,Green erupts from

Brown;Curious George swings across the mind,Past junkyards of ideas,

peeling metaphors,Rusting rimes, and concrete cliches,Into the Center

of Imagination City.

We are as we are:

Twofold,Realities and Possibilities.

~Michael Garofalo

Everything is said before

we open our mouth, the truth

of our nature is silence.

Awareness is

its own proof.

Presence.

Acceptance of what’s born and dies

by that which clings to neither is

the heart that only claims itself --

it needs no intermediary.

We can speak openly now

as silence --

everyone understands.

~Mazie & b

Ten Thousand Wonders

The endless treasures of the everyday,the uncommonness of common

things;Ordinary mind does point the wayto unspoken wonders of myriad

beings.

Whether, a leaf, the moon, a plastic spoon,or a shoe, an eye, an

infant's cry;the endless parade, zoom out, in zoom,Details on

details, thick, piled high.

Cellular seedpods pulsing pure time,Flowering brains clone families of

mindsthat revel in thinking to the Infinite edge,agog over life, and

love of knowledge.

Whether, a quasar, a hand, a DNA strand,Fantastic journeys in the Minds of Man.

~Michael Garofalo

We’ve come to believe there’s somethingto change, but that itself

will change.

Moment by moment

everything returns to itself.

Everything is brought to

the edge of the waterfall to

pour off through itself.

A great water wheel is spinning us

round and round forever, yet

we can slide right off of it

by letting and forgetting it--

by stopping and remembering

we are not what’s spun, and change

is just what never changes

having a little fun.

~Mazie & b

Mystical Union at the Union

How ya do'n?, winkingStarbuck's smile, pumped,She pushed out a chair,

join me;I did. Very eagerly, as she could see.Still reading the

mystics?, sheHalfway teased, eyes wide,Bending forward, Venus

undisguised;I melted, nearly died. Yes, and You?

Listened; kept my Cool. Her clear mindSpinning Rumi and dizzy Dervish

blisses,Obscure illusions from Eliot's Quartets,Koans about

Buddha-Nature in shit and piss,folktales about Indra's Magic Net.

Loosing my focus,Fantasies flashed:Tantric hugs,Yogas of Love,Sacred kisses,Playful wishes.

Later, we left for her home;Both with high hopes, forEncounters with Eros.

~Michael Garofalo

Unlike the dim city suitors with fine

flared fangs for tongues and sharp

iron spikes armoring their chests,the arms of this moon embrace

the lover of night without threat

or demand, simply offering

a serene shine of suchness.

People, men and woman alike,avert their glance, embarrassed

when the robes of expectation

fall away, revealing the empty

futility of belief and hope.

The naked kindness of this moonlight

is a soothing balm for those who

have weaned themselves of grasping.

As the hot flavors of desire grow

bitter and rancid, only the

sweet fountain of surrender

can cleanse the palate.

When the One ruling watersurveys the water worlds with

clear moon eyes of compassion,

what true heart can be concealed?

~Mazie & b

Thumping the Bible Thumper

They used the Bible to justify slavery,To keep women under foot, and

children under rods,To silence free thinkers on the hanging

trees,Making weak men into pompous demi-gods.

Now, a free people think on their own,Rejecting worship of passé

tomes;Looking for truth in human facts,Reason, wisdom, wholesome

acts.

Other scriptures fare no betterWhen blindly followed to the letter;As

soon as The Truth becomes the ruleThe realities of truths are lost on

fools.

So strong men now speak face to face,Using wisdom, not scriptures, to design their fates.

~Michael Garofalo

You lovers of leaving --

if you want to hide from mankind,best to stay and walk among them.

If you want a good retreat,Cold Mountain 's hard to beat.Within Cold

Mountain the world isstainless, and yet the distance betweenCold

Mountain and the world

does not exist.

Beyond purity or taint

we can relax, perhaps compose

love lyrics to a single white lotus,and how the breeze tonight is

just what it seems,

never to be

read.

~Mazie & b

Koan 46

And before the Wise Ones appeared,Forty million years of ducks in the mud.

Blowing out a candleten thousand miles awayCutting up a duck for dinner.

A dog barks at nothing,a thousand ducks twitch--winds of winter.

Has a duck the Buddha-Nature?"Ssssshh!Stop quacking like a duck."

~Michael Garofalo

It’s usually something,

nothing in particular.

This morning

it’s everything –

all light,

all felicity.

Come and sit with me,

all are welcome to

share this mystery.

This gash of color

will never be splashed

on the canvas of our vision

in quite the same way again –

we say too much before

paintings.

Shhhh,

Silence…..

~Mazie & b

((((JOLT))))

((((The Jolt)))) AwakenedGod,

Earthquake!((((HARD!!!!BAD))))(Shattering Glass!)Exploding

World!Buckling Walls ROAR!!(((((Heaving!!!!! God!! Black)))))Oh,

No!!!!! ((((((((JOLT)))))))(((((ROAR!!!)))) God!!

((((((((JOLT)))))))Screaming.........

ROAR!!!(((((((^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥^¥)))))))(((((((....................................................................)))))))Gujarat,

India, 1/26/2001(((((JOLT)))))Central Taiwan,

9/20/1999(((((ROAR)))))Izmit, Turkey,

8/17/1999(((((JOLT)))))Afghanistan, 5/30/1998(((((ROAR))))Kobe,

Japan, 1/17/1995(((((JOLT)))))Retching Earth Vomits Up

Death(((((ROAR))))((((Skull Crushing, Back Breaking, Gut

Squishing))))Collapsing their Futuresscreaming thud after thudinto

seconds of terror.Merciless Gaia, wimp God, Devil Rocks.

~Michael Garofalo

Like a baby content at mother's breastI rest in the arms of Cold

Mountain .Pressing my ear to that great chestI hear the swirling

music of my own bodyechoing through the caverns of a heartthat hums

the universe.This music is the source of the world, and yet

within its refrain the silent song ofitself has tuned to a subtler,

timelesschord beyond the play of energy'slyrical themes in form.The

more we search for the Water Goddessin liquid currents of the

Heavenly Sound,the more She will gaily elude us,slipping away on the

rippling melodieswe make in the motion of our pursuit.When we come to

our natural stillnessat last, She'll float to the surface andgreet us,

singing:"Where have you been, my mischievous child?I've waited for you

in the murmuring stream,while you've been dreaming of water."

~Mazie & b

Emptiness in Full Bloom

Leaping from the Ledge of Infinite Regress,The Unmoved Mover fell into

Formlessness:Her screams were pure silence,Eons of eons vanished in a

second,Withered trees bloomed in fires,Polar mountains crumbled,

rivers went dry,Thusness scattered in sixty directions,Space became

Time, time became things,Black Holes filled with Nirvana,A billion

samadhi mirrors shattered, Death was baptized, Life was mourned,Many

became One, One only, only One. Thus, the Divine Illuminatrix in All

BeingsOpened Her clouded Eye, to see:

Flowers in the Sky.~Michael Garofalo, from Emptiness in Full Bloom

While I slept I dreamtCold Mountain shonea rare mysterious glow

and,smoldering just below thesurface, such an indescribablerevelation

of itself unfurled indawn-like splendor, ripplingalong the subtle

nerve lines of thistransfigured planetary realm in liquidlight

transmission of some urgent blissbeyond all reason but for the

veryappearance of itself as thisunreasonable wakinghappinessI am.

~Mazie & b

She Dropped Away

Shimmering yellow mulberry leavesSwayed in the oblique sunlight and

gentle breeze;As leaf after leaf fell to the frosted grass,My dear

old friend, she breathed her lastBreaths. Weakly she lifted the

pencil to her lips,Thinking of what to say before the driftInto her

own unconscious depthsAnd the rapid sinking unto her death.

Long afterwards, reading her last words,My breath choked up, then stopped:

"Finally, finished -a yellow leaf drops."

~Michael Garofalo

The raging storm which flings itself with

all its might against Cold Mountain

wants nothing but to empty itself at last

into the body of its willing lover and come

to peace there, soaking into the welcoming

soil and dying into life for love.

Who could resist such a lover, whose single

aim is but to breathe out one final breath into

the mouth of the beloved?

The peace that follows the storm is

the child the family dotes on, the happy issue

of the marriage of heaven and earth.

A rainbow smile bridges two kingdoms,

and all the relatives rejoice in praise!

~Mazie & b

 

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