ShivAllahSita sutra 108

[Guest guest]

Shots of Beauty

It's so hard and it's so soft

and so easy and so tough,

all possibilities betwixt between

simple creamy dreams lay wet

touching in the wiggle stream

hues and tones wait for birth

inside each other's reaching kiss

all of everything's in the mix

tame and wild, hot and cold

it's all here within our reach,

in fluid flux on playground's palette

black meets white, blue meets red

brush bodies join colors swirl

day and night make rivered love

green and yellow holding tight

while speckles of deep blue sway

share music in butterfly smiles

hearts rock on to the shots

of shocking lipstick that flies by

in shades of purpley pink.

Hilary Collins

The mind turned inwards is the Self; turnedoutwards, it becomes the

ego and all theworld. Cotton made into various clothes wecall by

various names. Gold made into variousornaments, we call by various

names. But allthe clothes are cotton and all the ornamentsgold. The

one is real, the many are mere namesand forms.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

Our PoetrySitting down in the blank page of desire.I prepare myself to

write in your hand.We are so close BelovedThat I can smell the scentOf

this love letter before it has materialized.I think I must be your

mail-manAnd You my precious burdenThat I deliver to myself.I swear,My

soul turns around to look into Your eyesAnd I find myself in the Body

of YouTouching Your lips from the inside. They never tell you about

this intimacyIn the holy scriptures.I guess its too ecstaticAnd too

into the sex life of You.Your secrets safe with me though, my

Beloved.I am only writing poetryFor all your loversTo feel Your

caress like this.Maybe we have to be young at heart enoughFor You to

pick us up as Your children,And old enough not to care what the world

thinks,To be Your passionate lovers.I have looked and lookedBut have

found no trace of guilt in this love for You.Somewhere between the

bedroom and the gardenYou stole my kissesAnd made them Yours.Now we

are making love in the openAnd only Gods strangersAvert their eyes in

distrust.I never know where or how Your poems will end.I just keep

tracing my finger over Your palmAnd circling our story written

there.When I feel Your own fingersClosing about my soulSeeking this

perfect union of silence.I let fall my outer garmentsAnd lay within

YouLetting you hold me against this love spot.Just as deep as a man

can be into You. ~Eric Ashford

To see god is to be God. There is no all apartfrom God for him to

pervade. He alone is.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

I am a sky where spirits live…

There is a passion in me that doesn’t long for anything

from another human being.

I was given something else -

a hat to wear in both worlds.

It fell off.

No matter.

One morning I went to a place beyond dawn,

a source of Sweetness that always flows and is never less.

I have been shown a Beauty that would confuse both worlds.

But I won’t cause that uproar.

I am nothing but a head

set upon the ground

as a gift

for Shams.

~Rumi

The sage helps the world merely by beingthe real Self. The best way

for one toserve the world is to win the egoless state.If you are

anxious to help the world, butthink that you cannot do so by

attaining theegoless state, then surrender to God all theworld's

problems, along with your own.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

Nerds in the GardenThere are nerds in the gardenAmong the dewA pocket

protector...Does it belong to you?There are thoughts in the

gardenAmong the loose dirtWas it you who thought"I like this plaid

shirt?"There are nebbishes hidden amongthe soft flowersSome of us

write drivel for hours and hoursThere are nerds in the gardenTreading

on the sweet grassesFingering tape on their thick plastic

glasses.~Vicki Woodyard

What is the undercurrent which vivifies themind, enables it to do all

this work? It is theSelf. So that is the real source of your

activity.Simply be aware of it during your work and do not forget it.

Contemplate in the background ofyour mind even whilst working. To do

that, do not hurry, take your own time. Keep the remembrance of your

real nature alive, evenwhile working, and avoid haste which causesyou

to forget. Be deliberate. Practisemeditation to still the mind and

cause it tobecome aware of its true relationship to theSelf which

supports it. Do not imagine it isyou who are doing the work. Think

that it is the underlying current which is doing it. Identify

yourself with the current. If you work unhurriedly, recollectedly,

your workor service need not be a hindrance.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

Mind and the objects of mind are the same thing; Things and oneself

are not two. A white horse enters the reed flowers...snow is piled up

in a silver bowl

This is what as known as the Jewelled-Mirror Samadhi.

~Hakuin Ekaku

Solitude is in the mind of man. One mightbe in the thick of the world

and maintainserenity of mind. Such a one is in solitude.Another may

stay in a forest, but still be unableto control his mind. Such a man

cannot be said tobe in solitude. Solitude is a function of the mind.A

man attached to desires cannot get solitudewherever he may be, whereas

a detached man isalways in solitude.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

I have just come across your website and been so very moved. Yours is

an insight borne of experience and wisdom.

" It took me a long time to get to this place. I studied truth for

years and years and then one day I had effortless access--sort of

like an atm machine with no limits. I have had no enlightenment

experience; rather, one crisis after another over a period of many

years. "

This quote really struck home and in it I recognised a true voice or

rather a voice speaking truth. It is the voice of no escape; that is

your wisdom. It is a note I recognise deep within myself. You

describe an enlightenment that has no consistant voice in our world.

It is an enlightenment not about bliss and light but instead one that

highlights the bitter truth of our existance, the truth that at such a

basic level we spend our time avoiding. It is a tough message.

again thank you for this D.

My reply:

Dear D.,

It is good to know that the words are working. I get the image of

someone trying to get strings and strings of Christmas lights to

work. It's the same old cardboard box filled with tangled heaps of

cheap green wire and multicolored bulbs. They know that there will be

a lot of time before all the wires are untangled and the missing bulbs

replaced. Then they have to be draped around the artificial tree. Who

wants such a job?

Nevertheless, when the job has finally been done and all the strings

of lights have been connected together, the cheap little bulbs are

now producing their annual display. You no longer see the individual

bulbs, only the light coming from the tree.

It's our job to keep dragging out the darned box and doing the scut

work of trying to untangle the mess. Frankly, it's a pain in the

you-know-what. That's why most people would rather hire a decorator

to come in and just "do" Christmas. Christ probably felt the same

way.

After I wrote D. an e-mail I came into the kitchen and was telling Bob

about what I had written....about the Christmas tree lights and what a

pain it was to have to untangle the wires and check to see if any

bulbs were not working.

"Then," I said, "finally you plug them in and the tree lights up. Now

you don’t see the individual bulbs or the ugly green wires, you just

see the tree as a whole and it’s beautiful."

"It’s like what we’re going through. You have multiple myeloma, your

eye is bothering you-- you have to do things everyday that are like

putting the strings of lights on the tree."

A song came into my head, "I’ve got your love to keep me warm." Some

of the words are, "The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing, but I

can weather the storm. What do I care when icicles form. I’ve got

your love to keep me warm.Your Love"....I thought....God’s love.

I went over to the stove to turn the eye on under the teapot. All of a

sudden there was an increase of voltage in our kitchen lights.

"Did you see that?" I asked Bob.

"Yes, I thought maybe it was my eye. All of sudden the light got brighter," he said.

I’m sure there was a simple explanation but the synchronicity cannot

be explained away. It was what it was--a brighter vision.

~Vicki Woodyard

Renunciation is always in the mind, not ingoing to forests or solitary

places, orgiving up one¹s duties. The main thing is tosee that the

mind does not turn outward butinward. It does not really rest with a

manwhether he goes to this place or that orwhether he gives up his

duties or not. Allthese events happen according to destiny.All the

activities that the body is to gothrough are determined when it first

comesinto existence. It does not rest with you toaccept or reject

them. The only freedom youhave is to turn your mind inward and

renounceactivities there.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

The following is an excerpt from a letter that I wrote to Jerry Katz of Nonduality Salon.

"It is important that someone who has been on the path for a long time

tell the truth. All the non-duality in the world does not help you

when a loved one is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. I wept

and suffered just like I had never heard of awareness being the great

healer. But then.....I got a grip and the idea came to me that if I

didn't learn how to nurture the now, my life would be a testament to

how not to live! Many months later, my love of truth has just

broadened and deepened and I now know the power of the wounded

healer."

And Jerry's reply,

"Yes, it's warriorship, and it's a matter of getting to the place

beyond pain and fear, which is the Now, as you say."

~Vicki Woodyard

Liberation is our very nature. We are that.The very fact that we wish

for liberationshows that freedom from all bondage is ourreal nature.

It is not to be freshly acquired.All that is necessary is to get rid

of the falsenotion that we are bound. When we achievethat, there will

be no desire or thought of anysort. So long as one desires liberation,

solong, you may take it, one is in bondage.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

Emmy, my wife and I live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia,

Canada. Actually we live in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Brittereven more than the Brits... Oh so reserved this Victoria...

But oh but...Yesterday we were going to go to a talk on Cambodia

downtown, whichtalk got canceled, so we end up having a locally

brewed beer on the"Inner Harbor" and there we get to share a table,

outside, as it was awarm lightly breezy evening. What? Sharing a

table in Victoria? That is a 'No no', I'm sure there isa British

bylaw that prohibits sharing tables. But my wife is notBritish and

not afraid to ask, when all tables are occupied, if we cansit on some

unoccupied chairs to imbibe our beers sitting instead ofstanding. So

we get to sit next to a rather reserved looking... Brit... who, loand

behold, asks where we are from. You see, Brits just like Yanksalways

think that when you look other than British or Yankish that youmust

be alien... Actually, I'm sure he thought we were Chinese or

Japanese."I am from Jersey originally, my mom anyways, my old man if

from theStates, army bloke..."Neat thing was, eventually, this man

opened up totally... He had nevergone to town ever before as he was

afraid to run into unforeseencircumstances, but this evening, "Oh

well, why not, have a beer out inthe open, my girlfriend is at work

and I need to rethink therelationship, "Well you know?... A beer

might help..."A hour later this man is still talking; he once had a

girl friend whowas, "Well, you know, into funny things, you know

Buddhist like? and Ibroke up with her as she wanted to change me into

something I wasnot...Golly," he said, "everybody always wants to

change me into something Inever was...""Now, I realize after all

these years and all these relationship thatturned into bloody

hell..., I have to do something with myself. That'swhy I am sitting

here...You know," he said, "before you guys came and sat down next

to me, allthese six tables were occupied by by six lonely man, all of

us secretlystaring at each other from under our big hairy British

eyebrows. All ofus, I bet you, wanting to start a conversation but...

you know, we justdon't know how to. By Golly... we are so bloody

scared that we willopen ourselves up, that our inner turmoil starts

boiling and rises tothe surface..."This man ended up with tears in

his eyes... we will meet him again nextTuesday evening to go to that

talk on Cambodia... "Funny... Buddhism... I am into golf, I work in

the Golf Industry."Wim,I love 'm... even if they are British :-)

All doubts will cease only when the doubterand his source has been

found. There is nouse removing doubts one by one. If we clearone

doubt, another doubt will arise and therewill be no end of doubts.

But if, by seeking thesource of the doubter, the doubter is found

tobe really non-existent, then all doubts will cease.~Sri Ramana

Maharshi

At the strike of seven I’m in the glass doorway

looking out at the Redwood tree

and I’m in Norway with Alan,

and I smell woodsmoke

and I taste this Sweet-throat

thrumming to the Humming

in my head and in my heart.

How Beautiful is this life,

this Love, this lovely mind

that cannot define

nor divine exactly,

not exactly,

just Who I Am.

My Heart was explored, adored to Love today,

by Dolores, golden-haired Mata, maybe the mother I once knew,

The Beloved One I drew my first breath from in another life,

in another time....

A time when Senaldit held my hand in the deep, green forest

in a land filled with Reindeer,

Reindeer riveted in reality,

Reindeer who really knew what Seva was.

They spared the life of a another creature,

of a brother-sister human who fell ill unto death

when they communed in silent worship and perfect puja.

They presented one of their own as a token of Love.

The sacred Reindeer simply lay down in the white snow

and let its spirit go free….

And I will never be the same,

and I will never know just why this life as Saami sisters

has Bhava blister-burned the memory of this Love

so instinct-primal deep inside my mind.

The Saami time with Linda,

The Friend fare-thee-welling us onward,

Bliss-Kissing we 'two-not-two' Mystery Voyagers

with a Bon Voyage and Bare-It-All Smile,

it will always be more Dear to me

than I can ever say to anyone.

Just above the staircase landing

I revisited the time when we were Saamis,

when we were homies hanging out with the Reindeer

in our rain-gear of neti-neti naked skin

and Awe-widened eyes, Bewildered, Bhava-birds,

in dove-cries of Love to Love,

Love-Cries of laughter and tears of Happy surrender

to this memory we hold so clearly,

so Dearly and so very Sweetly.

I touched the Saami Buddha today and made a note to b,

through me,

to take a picture and send it to Linda,

to Senaldit from Iiiskg,

in memory of the Bodhisattva Reindeer

rushing like Spirit-Light

through You,

through me,

through everyone we'll ever be or see.

The Land of the Reindeer Trees –

where we rested in Love’s Still Abode of Peace.

~Mazie & b

If we talk of knowing the Self, there mustbe two selves, one a knowing

self, anotherthe self which is known, and the process ofknowing. The

state we call realisation issimply being oneself, not knowing

anythingor becoming anything. If one has realised,one is that which

alone is and which alone hasalways been. One cannot describe that

state.One can only be that. Of course, we looselytalk of

Self-realisation, for want of a betterterm. How to 'real-ise' or make

real thatwhich alone is real?~Sri Ramana Maharshi

The Third Body

"A man and a woman sit near each other, and they donot longat this

moment to be older, or younger, nor bornin any other nation, or time,

or place.They are content to be where they are, talking

ornot-talking.Their breaths together feed someone whom we donot

know.The man sees the way his fingers move;he sees her hands close

around a book she handsto him.They obey a third body that they share

in common.They have made a promise to love that body.Age may come,

parting may come, death will come.A man and a woman sit near each

other;as they breathe they feed someone we do not know,someone we

know of, whom we have never seen."~ Robert Bly

All other knowledges are only petty and trivialknowledges; the

experience of silence alone isthe real and perfect knowledge. Know

that themany objective differences are not real but aremere

superimpositions on Self, which is the formof true knowledge.~Sri

Ramana Maharshi

When we first met again, we couldn't stoplaughing. We are laughing

still.It never ends, we never stop –

Flowers or horror shows

turn out the same.Nothing shall remain, and sowe laugh.

It's just the way we are.

We say we came a long way to

meet again, yet, it is as if

we have never parted.

I know who she is, she knows

what I am. Together,

we have no idea, and so

we laugh.

It is not as if we are strangersto ourselves, but we are stranger

thanourselves, free before we were born

free, and so we can freely

be together, laughing

through the night, justlaughing, laughing,

loving into laughter

into love.

Really, she can put her hand on my heart andthe tiny laughter in her

fingers brings laughingtears to my eyes, these Irish eyes of a

Loveleaning to kiss Itself to deeper laughter still –the laughing

stillness of Silence,

cracking a great big

Smile.This Laughter is

the third body we have been feeding,but honestly, SweetHeart –we never

have been able to say whois feeding, nor who isbeing fed.In such

Divine Confusion, weburst out laughingall over again!

~Mazie & b

We think that there is something hiding ourreality and that it must be

destroyed before thereality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will

dawnwhen you will yourself laugh at your past efforts.That which will

be on the day you laugh is alsohere and now.~Sri Ramana Maharshi

After sunset

there are swallows gathering

above the apple trees.

They pass my ear

with the sound of

feathers and wind,

Then come together high

and disappear

Leaving me with tears

wishing I could bring

you their song

A fast flow of joy,

a stream of pearls and gems

from glowing spines

under golden clouds

in northern summer nights.

Now who goes to sleep

when the sun is traveling

just below the horizon

and every leaf on every tree

is waiting for the moment

~Alan Larus

How can the mind which has itself createdthe world accept it as

unreal? That is thesignificance of the comparison made betweenthe

world of the waking state and the dreamworld. Both are creations of

the mind and,so long as the mind is engrossed in either,it finds

itself unable to deny their reality.It cannot deny the reality of the

dream worldwhile it is dreaming and it cannot deny thereality of the

waking world while it is awake.If, on the contrary, you withdraw your

mindcompletely from the world and turn itwithin and abide there, that

is, if you keepawake always to the Self which is the sub-stratum of

all experiences, you will find theworld of which you are now aware is

just asunreal as the world in which you lived yourdream.~Sri Ramana

Maharshi

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