ShivAllahSita sutra 110

[Guest guest]

>From the heart aknife flung outward,piercing itself in every direction.~Mazie & b

Symphony for a Seabird

"Haven't you heard this story? Once a sea bird alighted in the suburbs

of the Lu capital. The marquis of Lu escorted it to the ancestral

temple, where he entertained it, performing the Nine Shao music for

it to listen to and presenting it with the meat of the T'ai‑lao

sacrifice to feast on. But the bird only looked dazed and forlorn,

refusing to eat a single slice of meat or drink a cup of wine, and in

three days it was dead. This is to try to nourish a bird with what

would nourish you instead of what would nourish a bird. If you want

to nourish a bird with what nourishes a bird, then you should let it

roost in the deep forest, play among the banks and islands, float on

the rivers and lakes, eat mudfish and minnows, follow the rest of the

flock in flight and rest, and live any way it chooses.

~Chuang Tzu, Supreme Happiness

Without anticipation or regret, wandering an incandescent landscape

where memory and imaginationno longer gain foothold, I open mymouth

and only syllables of "AH…"exhale, the respiration of acceptance,the

breathing heart of creation.

~Mazie & b

Ring my friend, I said you call Doctor Robert

Day or night he'll be there any time at all, Doctor Robert

Doctor Robert, you're a new and better man,

He helps you to understand

He does everything he can, Doctor Robert

 

If you're down he'll pick you up, Doctor Robert

Take a drink from his special cup, Doctor Robert

Doctor Robert, he's a man you must believe,

Helping everyone in need

No one can succeed like Doctor Robert

 

Well, well, well, you're feeling fine

Well, well, well, he'll make you ... Doctor Robert

 

My friend works for the national health, Doctor Robert

Don't pay money just to see yourself with Doctor Robert

Doctor Robert, you're a new and better man,

He helps you to understand

He does everything he can, Doctor Robert

 

Well, well, well, you're feeling fine

Well, well, well, he'll make you ... Doctor Robert

~The Beatles

To love or fear –that's the test.At the core theheart knows best.Open

your eyes andyou will see,division's the malignancy.Conflicted mind's

ahurtful thing, obscuringsongs our silence sings.Let the healing begin

within, this is a warnobody wins.Give up the fight beforeit starts,

why struggle with your own dear heart?Our purpose is tobe at peace,

to know ourself, to let strife cease.Only we can liberate

thedifferences that we create.There is no place thatwe can go that

isdistinguishable fromthis --there is no otherwe can know thatwe

can't hug and kiss.~Mazie & b

Socrates: Does a man go to a pastry chef to cure what ails him?

No, he seeks out a doctor. So why shall he seek out a

rhetorician to heal his soul?

Callicles: Socrates, you truly are the Doctor of Soul.

Socrates: That’s funkin right.

~The Gorgias

Imagine space itself reaching into its own invisibilityfor some light

with which to form etheric masks of momentarily appearing shapes that

you and Iinnocently mistake to be ourselves, momentarily forgettingwe

are that space. That's the rascal play of living light -- it hides

itself in darkness just tomagnify the bright.~Mazie & b

STRANGE FEATHER

All

The craziness,

All the empty plots,

All the ghosts and fears,

All the grudges and sorrows have

Now

Passed.

I must have inhaled

A strange

Feather

That finally

Fell

Out.

~Hafiz/Ladinsky

If you're longing tonightfor this rapture,here –let me bring it to

you, toyour altar of desire.I will submit there bystretching myself

soplushly on your innocent yearning you will sayDon't stop.I won't.I

can't.You are too beautiful to resist,loving this suchness of youI am

slain by a smile,the eyes, the immensityof your serene

intensity,breathless magnetism,the call of that wanting, wantingto be

free of any wanting,not knowing any wanting but this --to never be

spilt from this drowningagain into solidity --some fragrance

inescapable,the touch indelible on the heart,the taste of fresh

spring water gushing,rushing into itself with arms open,heart

beating, pulsingPulsingLife,Life~Mazie & b

The Well Frog and the Great Turtle

Haven’t you ever heard about the frog in the caved-in well? He said to

the great turtle of the Eastern Sea, "What fun I have! I come out and

hop around the railing of the well, or I go back in and take a rest

in the wall where a tile has fallen out. When I dive into the water,

I let it hold me up under the armpits and support my chin, and when I

slip about in the mud, I bury my feet in it and let it come up over my

ankles. I look around at the mosquito larvae and the crabs and the

polliwogs and I see that none of them can match me. To have complete

command of the water of one whole valley, and to monopolize all the

joys of a caved-in well – this is the best there is! Why don’t you

come sometime and see for yourself?"

But before the great turtle of the Eastern Sea had even gotten his

left foot in the well his right knee was already wedged fast. He

backed out and withdrew a little, and then began to describe the sea.

"A distance of a thousand miles cannot indicate its greatness; a depth

of a thousand fathoms cannot express how deep it is. In the time of Yu

there were floods for nine years out of ten, and yet its waters never

rose. In the time of T’ang there were droughts for seven years out of

eight, and yet its shores never receded. Never to alter or shift,

whether for an instant or an eternity; never to advance or recede,

whether the quantity of water flowing is great or small – this is the

great delight of the Eastern Sea!" When the frog in the caved-in well

heard this, he dumbfounded with surprise, crestfallen, and completely

at a loss.

~ Chuang Tzu, Autumn Floods

Translated by B. Watson

Once ancient stars colluded, devisinga celestial scheme wherebythey'd

flow and merge together to combine their own great lightsfor sheer

delight!They spun and danced uncounted years until at last, as one,

they manifested in their joythis field of vast and verdant lushness,

blanket ofbrilliant emerald grass, wherein this glistening

pasturethey have become a single soaring Cypresswhose shade this noon

provides cool restfor winged as well as walking travelerswho find

right here is best.Light and dark weave playfully as

mountaincreatures follow their natural round,listening as one to the

sound ofancient stars,shining that same light,expressing in their

doing sothat very same delight!~Mazie & b

THE FOWLERS AND THE DOVES

"Once upon a time," priest Fotis began, "there were two fowlers. They

went up a mountain and spread their nets. Next day they came back,

and what did they see? The nets were full of ringdoves. The poor

creatures were fluttering about desperately to escape, but the meshes

of the nets were too fine—how could they have got through? Then in

terror they bunched together and waited. ‘Rotten birds, nothing but

skin and bones,’ said one of the hunters, ‘how are we to sell them at

the market?’ ‘We’ve only to feed them for a few days; they’ll fatten

up,’ said the other. So they threw them mash in plenty and brought

them water, and the ringdoves began to eat and drink for all they

were worth. Only one paid no attention and remained without eating.

"On the days that followed, more mash. The doves became fatter day by

day. There was only one who got thinner, and struggled obstinately to

get out of the net. This went on until one fine day the hunters took

them to the market. The ringdove who had remained without eating had

got so thin that, by a last effort, he managed to squeeze through the

meshes and flew away; he was free."

~Nikos Kazantzakis, The Greek Passion

Do you see,do you hear,do you smell,do you feel that anonymous, golden

leaf lifting on the wind now?We will be killed in this.It will not be

a deathunlike any other –every death is the same, everyleaf the same

leaf,swept into this sudden gust yetfalling each time in a

wayinimitable.The sense of self at the core of perceptionfloats on

the leaf of a consensus of ideasthat seem to add up to being a body,

where consciousness clashes images of separationtogether like slowly

sounding cymbals, a kind of noise is heard differently bybillions of

versions of ears, each tuned to their own vibrating frequency, each a

perfection harmonized exactly to the motion of perception exhausting

itself in empty space, the sense once regarded asself a smoke-like

echo trailing nowhere in particular, perhaps over a nameless

mirroring pond, wherefrom the inexhaustible Absolute the Relative is

spawned and everything finds itself, tossed out like bread crumbs to

feed the ducks of itself,bemused, at peace and in duck love.In the

air, ananonymous, golden leaflifts in the kindness of wind, barely

heard by the love birds.~Mazie & b

The Journey of the Magi

"A cold coming we had of it,Just the worst time of the yearFor a

journey, and such a long journey:The ways deep and the weather

sharp,The very dead of winter."And the camels galled, sore-footed,

refractory,Lying down in the melting snow.There were times we

regrettedThe summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,And the silken

girls bringing sherbet.Then the camel men cursing and grumblingAnd

running away, and wanting their liquor and women,And the night-fires

going out, and the lack of shelters,And the cities hostile and the

towns unfriendlyAnd the villages dirty, and charging high prices:A

hard time we had of it.At the end we preferred to travel all

night,Sleeping in snatches,With the voices singing in our ears,

sayingThat this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,Wet, below the snow

line, smelling of vegetation;With a running stream and a water-mill

beating the darkness,And three trees on the low sky,And an old white

horse galloped away in the meadow.Then we came to a tavern with

vine-leaves over the lintel,Six hands at an open door dicing for

pieces of silver,And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.But there was

no information, and so we continuedAnd arrived at evening, not a

moment too soonFinding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,And I would do it again, but

set downThis set downThis: were we lead all that way forBirth or

Death? There was a Birth, certainly,We had evidence and no doubt. I

had seen birth and death,But had thought they were different; this

Birth wasHard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.We

returned to our places, these Kingdoms,But no longer at ease here, in

the old dispensation,With an alien people clutching their gods.I

should be glad of another death.

~T.S. Eliot

A winter moon tonight,shivering cold,yearning --one with yearning's

end.Questions and answersforsaken, no fire to make tea,all that's

left –Cold Mountain and me, until only Cold Mountain.~Mazie & b

The Sermon on the Mount"If it weren’t for the message of mercy and

pity in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn’t want to be a human

being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake."

~Kurt Vonnegut

 

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what

you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body,

what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body

more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor

gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are

you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span

of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of

the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed

like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is

alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much

more clothe you, O men of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or

'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly

Father knows that you need them all.

 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be

anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the

day.

 

~Matthew 6Smear of light against ablack background, itselfwoven with

light,my beginning and endin one streak –light out of mind, silence

of some silent somethinggradually vanishing at dusk.~Mazie & b

While they were singing, Jesus appeared with his train. The virgins

turned. As soon as they saw Magdalene, their song came to an abrupt

standstill and they recoiled, glowering. What business had this slut

among virgins? The wedding was soiled! The married women turned also

and eyed her fiercely; wave after wave of movement could be seen in

the murmuring crowd of guests, the respectable householders, who were

also waiting outside the door. Magdalene, however, was resplendent, a

lighted torch. Standing by Jesus’ side, she felt her soul newly

virgin and her lips unkissed. Suddenly the crowd made way and the

village chief, a tiny, desiccated old man whose nose dripped venom,

came up to Magdalene, touched her with the end of his staff and

nodded for her to leave.

Jesus felt the envenomed glances of the people on his hands, face and

uncovered chest. His body became inflamed, as though pricked by

countless invisible thorns. The murmur had grown intense; the first

threats already resounded in the darkness. Nathanael went up to speak

to Jesus, but the teacher calmly pushed him aside and, making his way

through the crowd, approached the virgins. Lamps swayed; room was

made for him to pass. He stopped in their midst and raised his hand.

"Virgins, my sisters, God touched my mouth and confided a kind word

for me to present to you on this holy wedding night. Virgins, my

sisters, open your ears, open your hearts; and you, my brothers, be

quiet, for I shall speak!"

They all turned, uneasy. From his voice, the men divined that he was

angry, the women that he was sad. No one spoke.

Jesus raised his hand. "Virgins, my sisters, what do you suppose the

kingdom of heaven is like? It is like a wedding. God is the

bridegroom, and the soul of man is the bride. A wedding takes place

in heaven, and the whole of mankind is invited. Forgive me, my

brothers, but God speaks to me thus, in parables, and it is in

parables that I shall speak now.

"There was to be a wedding in a certain village. Ten virgins took

their lamps and went out to receive the bridegroom. Five were wise

and took along flasks filled with oil. The other five were foolish

and carried no extra oil with them. They stood outside the house of

the bride and waited and waited, but the bridegroom was late and they

grew tired and slept. At midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the

bridegroom is coming! Run to receive him!’ The ten virgins jumped up

to fill their lamps, which were about to go out. But the five foolish

virgins had no more oil. ‘Give us a little oil, sisters,’ they said to

the wise virgins, ‘for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied,

‘We haven’t any left for you. Go and get some.’ And while the foolish

virgins ran to find oil, the bridegroom arrived, the wise virgins

went in, and the door was shut.

"A little while later the foolish virgins returned, their lamps

lighted, and began to pound on the door. ‘Open the door for us!’ they

cried and pleaded. But inside, the wise virgins laughed. ‘It serves

you right,’ they answered them. ‘Now the door is closed. Go away!’

But the others wept and begged, ‘Open the door! Open the door! Open

the door!’ And then…"

Jesus stopped. Once more he surveyed the old chief, the guests, the

honest housewives, the virgins with the lighted lamps. He smiled.

"And then?" said Nathanael, who was listening with gaping mouth. His

simple, sluggish mind had begum to stir. "And then, Rabbi, what was

the outcome?"

"What would you have done, Nathanael, if you had been the bridegroom?"

Jesus asked, and slowly, persistently, his beseeching eyes caressed

the cobbler’s simple, guileless face. "I would have opened the door,"

the other answered in a low voice so that the old chief would not

hear.

"Congratulations, friend Nathanael," said Jesus happily, and he

stretched forth his hand as though blessing him. "This moment, though

you are still alive, you enter Paradise. The bridegroom did exactly as

you said: he called to the servants to open the door. ‘This is a

wedding,’ he cried. ‘Let everyone eat, drink and be merry. Open the

door for the foolish virgins and wash and refresh their feet, for

they have run much.’"

Tears welled up between Magdalene’s long eyelashes. Ah, if she could

only kiss the mouth that uttered such words! Simple Nathanael glowed

from head to toe as though he were actually in Paradise already. But

old poison nose, the village chief, lifted his staff.

"You’re going contrary to the Law, son of Mary," he screeched.

"The Law goes contrary to my heart," Jesus replied.

~Gospel of St. Nikos

Everything that appears disappears –nothing here is real.Futile to

seek it,futile to grasp it,futile to cling to it,futile to release

and thengo back looking for it.Stay as you are, juststay as you are

--all is well.At the spiritual game I'm likely a failure,

speakingsuccinctly.Here's the trick –fail completely.Be a fool, a

ridiculouslout –don't hold back --Honk your snout!Why meditate with

such a pout?Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water--simply let it all hang

out.Feel the sting whenit falls apart –let that arrowpierce your

heart.Give up the struggle,relax, get lazy –if you fancy yourselfa

child of the gods, considerthe gods themselves areutterly crazy.We

stand alone as this perfectionmuttering versions of the same old

question.The more that's learnedthe less is known till we can't tell

a friend from foe.If you fix your gaze on the sunyou'll go blind

–blink your eyes andshow me mind.Wherever you roam, whatever you

find,to all you meet at the least be kind.~Mazie & b

Hide and Seek

God likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside

God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this

difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of

hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the

people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks,

and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful

adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are

just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it

so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he

hid himself. But that’s the whole fun of it – just what he wanted to

do. He doesn’t want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil

the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out

that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when

the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop

pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self – that God

who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.

God is the Self of the world, but you can’t see God for the same

reason that, without a mirror, you can’t see your own eyes, and you

certainly can’t bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your

self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.

You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or

pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember,

first, that he really isn’t doing this to anyone but himself.

Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to

be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to

find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It’s the

same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle

them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but

the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one

who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more

and play again, and so it goes with the world.

~Alan Watts, The Book

Forcing the narcissus to flowerbefore its natural unfolding

byimitating the dark and cold of winterproduces a pretty, fragrant

blossomyet there is evidence of weakness,a nearly undetectable odor

of an early death, death's face stretched across pale petalsin rictus

grin.The fullness of life will not be given in true measure if bound

up in the desire for results.The seasons of man and nature, when no

longer compelled by appearancesand arbitrary reason,are then set free

from the restrictions of time and space ideas.They are bound by sun

and moon's communing until they are not.Early forcing produces

inherent weaknesses,returning again and againin the strain.To bear

true beauty full strength,just witness and thenstep totally out of

the way.Beauty will always find a wayto increase until it exceedseven

itself and thenwho can say what will be?~Mazie & b

We're quite addicted to subtle discussions;we're very fond of solving

problems.So that we may tie knots and then undo them,we constantly

make rules for posing the difficultyand for answering the questions

it raises.We're like a bird which loosens a snareand then ties it

tighter againin order to perfect its skill.It deprives itself of open

country;it leaves behind the meadowland,while its life is spent

dealing with knots.Even then the snare is not mastered,but its wings

are broken again and again.Don't struggle with knots,so your wings

won't be broken.Don't risk ruining your feathersto display your proud

efforts.

~Rumi

The senses are not separate fromTrue Mind in the same way thebreeze is

not separate from sky.Whether in motion or at rest, thebreeze reveals

the play of sky assenses reveal the play of Mind.Beyond motion and

rest, let the winds of sensation sift through theSky of Mind without

restriction,filling the hollow bamboo flute ofExistence with

exquisite notes of a music no heart can contain.Such music has never

been theproblem – only the effort to claim it is.~Mazie & b

My Master once entered a phase That whenever I would see him He would say,

"Hafiz, How did you ever become a pregnant woman?"

And I would reply,

"Dear Attar, You must be speaking the truth, But of what you say is a mystery to me."

Many months passed by in his blessed company. But one day I lost my

patience Upon hearing that odd refrain And blurted out,

"Stop calling me a pregnant woman!"

And Attar replied, "Someday, my sweet Hafiz, All the nonsense in your

brain will dry up Like a stagnant pool of water Beneath the sun,

Though if you want to know the Truth I can so clearly see that God has

made love with you And the whole universe is germinating Inside your

belly

And wonderful words, Such enlightening words Will take birth from you

And be cradled against thousands Of hearts." ~Hafiz/Ladinsky

 

Out, been flying towards Night with black crowsacross golden

skies.Mother's singingand the mountain sighs.A heart left behind

-tears feeding earth for the love of the moon.Hear this mountain cry

now.Let yourself down.Rest a while longer on the breast of this

tear-filled world, butleave sighing to the sky --we are not of this

worldnor the next.~Mazie & b

some things just arethe moon doesn't worry about the pond, and so the

pond reflects selflessly. the flame doesn't worry about the moth, and

so the moth dances in rapture all around. the rose doesn't worry about

the thorn, and so the thorn protects in happy silence. the dew doesn't

worry about the blade of grass and so the blade of grass cups it

gently. the heart doesn't worry about the breath, and so the breath

breathes life so fully. some things just are... a matter of trust.

Forget the shameAnd when you gave up your rib for medid it hurt?Were

you frightened?Do you ache still from that missing sliver of bone?Do

you want your marrow back?Is this what drives us together,as it

brings us apart?The Bible talks aboutthe shame of our nakednessthere

in the Garden...Forget the shame...Talk to me about Fear,Talk to me

about Pain,Talk to me about Love.~Joyce

Resistance creates a sense of time by first implying a sense of a self

subject to a sense of time.This seems irresistible.Standing in the

wind onefeels just like themselves --which one is never certain.Cause

is debated, but effect is felt in a specific way by everything

–becoming the cause of anything.Even the concept of infinitycannot

account for what is -- it's simpler than that.When resistance arises

to this, pause for a moment andinquire exactly to what?The view

tonight from Cold Mountain --the luxurious viscosity of a full moon

sliding, playing hide and seek with storm clouds, appearing when we

look its way, vanishing when we're not.Who could resist such a

marvelous moon -- the light that just wants to play with us?~Mazie &

b

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is

happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make

anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest. ~Tilopa

Feng Kan died this morning. What connects us never ends, since that is

what we are. Whatever has an end is not that. There is no depth to

this, no place where this falling ends, this falling into what we

are, what we always have been, prior to what come and goes, after

what begins and ends –a seed perpetually exceeding itsshell to birth

a new seed to exceed its shell.This intimate connection includes

everyone and everything, since that is what we are. The visible and

invisible, the dark and light, the born and dead, all are

inextricably woven into this vast threshold at the House of Heaven,

eternally being welcomed Home, no longer resisting this mysterious

Communion with the Source of our own being, grateful beyond words

that it be so.This is the destiny of us all, when that which seems to

be a separate thing is at last exceeded by the remembrance this is not

so, that what we are is this vastness itself, before any memory, after

any sense of self and other evaporates in winking bliss. The silent

solar smile of our natural peace is always brightly shining,

regardless of times it seems to be obscured by the clouds of our

fixations.Today Feng Kan stepped out of time, right across that

threshold, and what is now embracing him is that which now embraces

us – all we need do is let it.

~Mazie & b

LoveEternal.

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