Friday, October 10, 2014

Longchenpa - We are free from the start



"Freedom attends reality:
free at the core, any effort is wasted;
timelessly free, no release is needed;
free in itself, no corrective is possible;
directly free, released in the seeing;
completely free, familiarization is redundant;
and naturally free, freedom cannot be contrived.

"Yet 'freedom' is just a verbal convention,
and who is 'realized' and who is not?
How could anyone be 'liberated'?
How could anyone be lost?...
Reality is free of all delimitation!

"Freedom is timeless, so constantly present;
freedom is natural, so unconditional;
freedom is direct, so pure vision obtains;
freedom is unbounded, so no identity is possible;
freedom is unitary, so multiplicity is consumed.

"Conditions are released as conditions,
and so I am free of all constructs;
objects are released as objects,
so I am free of dualistic perception;
a cause is liberated as the cause itself,
so I am free of the duality of samsara and nirvana;
all events are released as phenomena,
so I am free of all verbal convention...

"Like washing off dirt with dirt,
purity is released by purity,
every poison cured by poison.
Iron bars are cut by iron,
stones smashed by stone,
wood burned by wood--
each is its own nemesis,
or there could be no release in the moment.

"There is no freedom through striving--we are free from the start."
From Old Man Basking in the Sun by Longchenpa, translated by Keith Dowman.


U.G. Krishnamurti - No Self



"There is no self, there is no I, there is no spirit, there is no soul, and there is no mind. That knocks off the whole list, and you have no way of finding out what you are left with. You may very well ask me the question, 'Why do you go on telling people about the way you are functioning?' It is only to emphasize that we have been for centuries using some instrument, that is, thinking or mind, or whatever you want to call it, to free ourselves from the whole of what you call the 'I' or the 'self', and all kinds of things. That is what the whole quest of spirit is all about. But once it dawns on you that there is nothing to be free from, then these questions don't arise at all. How that dawned on me, I have no way of finding out for myself." 

U. G. Krishnamurti, Thought is your enemy




Vicki Woodyard - I asked the sun



I asked the sun if it was enlightened,
its fire calling out the answer.
I asked myself if I was enlightened
and the silence told me who I was.
If the bird in the nest knows it is
enlightened, it is too busy to reply.

I asked my sofa it it was enlightened
but then I realized it didn’t speak at all.
Soon I asked my cup of tea and
relished each sip slipping down my throat.

I asked God about what enlightenment
really was and He was far too shy to
reply in human conversation.

I feel He knows but does not want to
burden us with such questions and quests.
He knows best.


J,Krishnamurti - Choiceless Awareness

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Amy Uyematsu - Tea


Tea

for Thich Nhat Hanh

How many years of suffering
revealed in hands like his
small and deliberate as a child's

The way he raises them
from his lap, grasps the teacup
with sure, unhurried ease

Yet full of anticipation
for what he will taste in each sip
he drinks as if it's his first time

Lifts the cup to his mouth,
a man who's been practicing all his life,
each time tasting something new.




Brother David Steindl‑Rast - Meditative moments





“You think this is just another day in your life.
It’s not just another day.
It’s the one day that is given to you today.
It’s the only gift that you have right now.
And the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”

Rumi - The drunkards and the tavern



I'm drunk and you're insane, who's going to lead us home?
How many times did they say,
"Drink just a little, only two or three at most?"


In this city no one I see is conscious;
one is worse off than the next, frenzied and insane.

Dear one, come to the tavern of ruin
and experience the pleasures of the soul.
What happiness can there be apart
from this intimate conversation
with the Beloved, the Soul of souls?


In every corner there are drunkards, arm in arm,
while the Server pours the wine
from a royal decanter to every particle of being.


You belong to the tavern: your income is wine,
and wine is all you ever buy.
Don't give even a second away
to the concerns of the merely sober.

O lute player, are you more drunk, or am I?
In the presence of one as drunk as you, my magic is a myth.


When I went outside the house,
some drunk approached me,
and in his eyes I saw
hundreds of hidden gardens and sanctuaries.

Like a ship without an anchor,
he rocked this way and that.

Hundreds of intellectuals and wise men
could die from a taste of this yearning.


I asked, "Where are you from?"
He laughed and said, "O soul,
half of me is from Turkestan and half from Farghana.

Half of me is water and mud, half heart and half soul;
half of me is the ocean's shore, half is all pearl.

"Be my friend," I pleaded. "I'm one of your family."
"I know the difference between family and outsiders."


I've neither a heart nor a turban,
and here in this house of hangovers
my breast is filled with unspoken words.
Shall I try to explain or not.

Have I lived among the lame for so long
that I've begun to limp myself?
And yet no slap of pain could disturb
a drunkenness like this.


Listen, can you hear a wail
arising from the pillar of grief?
Shams al-Haqq of Tabriz, where are you now,
after all the mischief you've stirred in our hearts?



(Translation by K. Helminski, A, Godlas, and  L. Saedin)

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Jane Goodall - “The Old Wisdom”


When the night wind makes the pine trees creak
And the pale clouds glide across the dark sky,
Go out, my child, go out and seek
Your soul: the Eternal I.

For all the grasses rustling at your feet
And every flaming star that glitters high
Above you, close up and meet
In you: the Eternal I.

Yes, my child, go out into the world; walk slow
And silent, comprehending all, and by and by
Your soul, the Universe, will know
Itself: the Eternal I.


Anamika - A bug in the system



Our view, our perceptions
are already Nondual,
are already direct and immediate.

Are already just happening,
just appearing
and just noticed.

They are already known for what they are.
Are already totally welcomed and accepted.
As this is what is happening.

Our perceptions and views, thoughts and feelings
do not need permission or
acknowledgment to do what they do.
Which is just appearing the way they do.

It is what is happening.

The apparent person is in no way needed or necessary
for any function to take place the way it does.

Like with babies, young children and with animals.
Things, life is happening just fine.

The person is an after thought.

A bug in the system.

A virus which has put a apparant screen between
the perceptions and the cognizing function.
And calls this Me.

Happening after the fact.

Out of sync.

And this is also noticed.

There is only Nondual perception
or if you will this mysterious happening.
As This is all there is.

This includes always All,
it is the totality.

And in This and as This
the dance of life plays out.

A person centred existence is
an aberration of perception as
in reality nothing is ever separate.





Sarah La Rosa - A voice



And you hear a voice that seems to originate in your belly, speaking a word that repeats, over and over and over until you know you will never again forget your name, your identity, your birthright.

There is a fierce calling-to in the blood that yearns to fullness. Any unattended corner of the soul left in open emptiness craves the satisfaction that comes with knowing one's name. One's true name, given before the edges of time and space, the name that sleeps restlessly in the bones, awaiting the release that comes only with your soul wakening.


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Virupa's Treasury of Doha's


Virupa's Treasury of Doha's

Homage to Sri Vajrasattva
 
Homage to Blessed Nairatma 
 
E ma ho! 
 
The mahamudra is completely pure by nature like space. 
 
Since the reality of the demonstrated object does not exist, 
it cannot be expressed through the medium of conventional words, 
the essence without proliferation by nature is free from all dependent phenomena, 
cannot be investigated or examined, free from demonstrative examples,
also not abiding in freedom from examples, beyond the domain of the mind, 
not eternal, not annihilated, not samsara or nirvana, 
not apparent, not empty, not real, not unreal, not non-arising, 
not the original dharmata, and also not beyond mind,
also not non-being because being and non-being cannot be expressed with the mind, 
not connected with any dualistic phenomena, originally homogenous. 
 
Even the explanation of the activities of defining the essence, 
equivalent with the fallacy of those false horns of a rabbit being sharp or dull, 
all phenomena are not different from that characterization.
 
The relative phenomena of the world however they appear 
are without essence, mere names, mere sounds, mere designations, 
not the slightest bit of difference between names and meanings exists,
innate from the beginning, not to be sought elsewhere, 
the nature of the mind, without a name, mahamudra free from proliferation, 
it is equivalent with the nature of space, without a name from the beginning, 
non-arisen by nature, free from the proliferation of signs, 
all-pervading, unmoving and unchanging like space, 
empty throughout all time and always selfless, 
not the characteristic of concept, like a mirage of a river, 
not bound, not liberated, having never moved from the original state. 
 
All sentient beings are emanations of mahamudra,
the essence of those emanations is the forever non-arising dharmadhatu,
also all characteristics of dualistic appearances, happiness, suffering and so on, 
are the play of mahamudra, the original dharmata.
 
Because there is no truth and nothing on which to rely in play itself, 
reality never transcends the seal of emptiness. 
 
Some are completely tortured with empowerment rites, 
some always count their rosary saying hum phat!
some consume shit, piss, blood, semen and meat, 
some meditate the yoga of nadi and vayu, but all are deluded.
 
E ma ho! 
 
Having been connected with a sublime Guru,
one should realize as follows: 
because there is some kind of delusion,
true realization does not exist, 
free from any extremes of partiality or bias
since there is nothing to realize and no realization, 
the homogenous original state is neither with nor without [extremes]. 
 
If one realizes in this way there is definitely no-one else to ask. 
 
Since diversity appears as the dharmakaya,
a mind that accepts and rejects never arises. 
 
There is nothing to meditate or not meditate, 
and nothing is covered with characteristics, 
one should never depend on apparent and non-apparent objects,
a mind with action and agent does not exist,
free from all objects,
a mind with hope and fear does not exist,
turned away from all attachments,
if one realizes the original reality shown by the Guru, 
the diversity of recollection and awareness 
automatically dissolves into the dharmadhatu,
consciousness does not remain on an object,
since one is free from all attachment and grasping, 
all phenomena are liberated
in the uncontrived original state.
 
If one is not attached to anything, 
free from the stain of pride and so on, 
devoted, totally connected with the sublime ones, 
and free from mental activity of any kind,
there is no doubt one will be immaculate,
because one is purified of a knower
and objects of knowledge,
the direct perception of dharmata will arise.
 
If one has not realized original mahamudra, 
since one is always attached to everything
because of the power of dualistic grasping, 
thoughts arise in the mind
like the stream of the variety of blurred vision, 
not abiding in the non-erroneous ultimate, 
one cycles and wanders in samsara. 
 
Because of attachment and grasping
to all the fame and offerings, 
and the arising of great hearing, reflection, 
and intellectual comprehension, good experience, 
siddhis, blessings, and the signs of power,
the contrived path is ultimately a stain,
the wise do not entrust their minds to them. 
 
If one is interested in those things
and falls into the two extremes,
because it is the root of cycling 
in the cycle of samsara, 
look, what is the mountain of the mind 
that is the root of everything? 
 
If one becomes free from the mind 
because it is not seen when looking, 
liberation is certain.
 
Since the mind does not indicate 
 
“The dharmadhatu is this”, 
both meditation and an object of meditation 
do not exist in that,
rest in the undistracted state 
without any concepts of existence and non-existence.
 
If one intellectualizes emptiness,
non-arising, beyond mind, 
freedom from extremes and so on in any way, 
not dwelling in actual reality, 
one will be very distracted. 
 
Rest in a relaxed state disregarding empty or not empty. 
 
Letting go in the state of independence 
without meditating or not-meditating, 
be just like a zombie, without a mind that accepts or rejects. 
 
If one dwells in my state through knowing reality as it is, 
the traces of the characteristics of dualistic appearances 
will be quickly destroyed. 
 
If one is distracted by characteristics 
without dwelling in the state of realization, 
one will not be able to avert the traces 
of the characteristics of dualistic appearances,
though it seems a particle
is in the eye of one with ophthalmia, 
the ophthalmic appearance cannot be repaired
without curing the eye disease. 
 
Intellectualizing reality, 
attachment to meditation experience, 
cultivating and meditating on the actual true state
are causes of deviation.
 
Because attachment and aversion arose
towards conducive conditions, 
one is bound. 
 
All negative disharmonious conditions are sublime siddhis,
since negative conditions intensify the yogin’s experience, 
since one understands the true state of negative conditions 
without avoiding them, train in them, 
maintain that, and practice until coming to the conclusion 
of experience and realization, 
just as a good horse is encouraged by a quirt. 
 
If yogis with good experience lack the companion of conduct, 
as that is not possessed, it is like people without feet. 
 
Train in the actual ultimate real state free from attachment, 
giving up nothing, accomplishing nothing, attached to 
nothing, purifying nothing, rejecting nothing, 
the best of the very best behavior is whatever feels good to one’s body. 
 
Though relatively, the Buddhas have the great confidence of a dead body, 
they diligently do whatever possible without abandoning 
the great mass of sentient beings. 
 
Though fearless, without fearful thoughts towards samsara, 
refrain from even the slightest wrong action. 
 
Though phenomena are realized to be empty like space, 
free from an origin, 
give up attachment and aversion 
having destroyed all strong attachment.
 
Though one realizes the meaning 
of the great transparent Dharmata free from extremes,
while one has not attained stability 
keep one’s experience and realization secret from others. 
 
Though one realizes that ultimately
both self and other do not exist, 
relatively, think on the great benefit of migrating beings. 
 
Though one has the confidence 
that does not depend on the guidance of others, 
place the very kind Guru on the crown of one’s head. 
 
The one with attachment and grasping will debate everyone, 
contrary conduct not in conformity with tradition is a deviation. 
 
Since there is no object of perception and no perceiver, 
difference is liberated in its own state. 
 
Since the experiencer is destroyed, 
one is free from all effort and practice.
 
Since the result to attain is destroyed, 
one is liberated from all hope and fear. 
 
Having totally uprooted I and mine, 
one is victorious in the war with Mara.
 
Since realism is destroyed in its own state, 
one is liberated from samsara and nirvana. 
 
Since Rigpa is pure in the basis, 
it is called “Perfect Buddhahood.” 
 
Since phenomena and mind are exhausted in the state of exhaustion, 
therefore it is explained as “nirvana”, 
uncontrived, unchanging,
totally liberated from everything 
to be given up or to attain.
 
E ma ho! 
 
That great profound term “mahamudra”,
whatever its basis of designation is, also has the label “empty”; 
as moments are empty by nature, who realizes selflessness? 
 
There is no realizer, just a name, a term, a label.
 
Also that is not perfect, a projection of disciples**, 
also in disciples there is no self, 
similar with illusions and emanations
 
“Mahamudra” is a mental imputation of the childish.
 
“Delusion” and “non-delusion” are mere names, mere labels,
who is the person to feel or be aware of delusion? 
 
If not even an iota of the result, nirvana, exists, and is not perceived, 
“liberation and non-liberation” is an adventitious reification, 
 
Nothing exists in peaceful and pure space, 
so what is the path of liberation?
 
“Ultimate and relative” are also just emphatic labels, 
but the two truths don’t exist in the dharmadhatu,
the dharmadhatu does not exist.
 
The Treasury of Dohas composed by the lord of Yogis, Virupa, is complete. 
 ( Doha: Song of Realization). 
Reproduced by kind permission of Lama Tseten Migmar
 
**"disciples" are a reference to Sravakas i.e. Hinayana.
 
 
Virupa's Treasury of Doha's | Translated by Lama Tseten Migmar and Loppön Malcolm

Siri Guru Granth Sahib - Self



Fearless.
Unchanging.
Unformed.
Unborn.
Imperishable.
Etheric.
Unbreakable.
Impenetrable.
Unseen.
Unaffected.
Undying.
Merciful.
Indescribable.
Uncostumed.
Nameless.
Desireless.
Unfathomable.
Incorruptible.
Unmastered.
Destroyer.
Beyond birth.
Beyond silence
Beyond love.
Beyond color
Beyond form.
Beyond shape.
Unconquerable.
Indescribable.



Monday, October 6, 2014

Chuck Surface - Love's Inward Turning


Turn Attention inward, my friend,
Not with the mind… 


But with the Heart. 

The mind may bestow “knowledge”,
Of what you are not. 


But the Heart will bring the “Experience”…
Of what you Are. 


For the Heart's Unbearable Longing,
Is “of” that which is Longed for. 


And becoming Love itself,
The Beloved will inhabit you so fully, 


That where She ends and you begin…
You will no longer be able to discern. 


And Lover and Beloved will Vanish,
In the Unalloyed Ecstasy of their Embrace. 



 
http://www.gardenofthebeloved.com/ 

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Fred LaMotte - No Affirmation



No Affirmation

To make affirmations of abundance expresses lack.
To pray for strength confesses weakness.
To ask for healing is to be sick.
But simply to embrace what is
may be a deeper prayer….



I embrace ‘poverty,’
I expand into emptiness,
I don’t ask for ‘more.’
Is the universe not born from a boundless vacuum?
Not fearing the void, I ripple with wealth.

I confess that I am powerless
in utter surrender.
I abandon striving, and discover
pre-existent fullness,
the immoveable strength that is nearer
than the next breath…

I accept my dis-ease,
I welcome brokenness,
I hug this body.
In non-resistance, unity.
In unity, healing.

This very moment I refuse
to generate conflict
by changing the suchness
into the ‘should.’

I nestle into wholeness
and little things begin to happen
majestically…

All that greens with nectar,
all that buzzes with life,
emerges from
what Is…

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Jean Klein - Exhausting the Mind



The following is a question posed to Jean Klein at Delphi, Greece about exhausting the mind.
When we say that we must come to the end of the mind, that we must exhaust the mind, is it a necessary process, something which must happen, or is it possible to have an insight without the mind being exhausted? And secondly, is this process itself a meditation, or does meditation begin at the end of the mind?
When the mind goes to its end – and it goes to its end when it thinks of the unthinkable – we can call it meditation, because in thinking the unthinkable, we are silent. Our thinking no longer starts from thinking, it starts from silence. When the mind comes to the end of its potentiality, it is a relaxed mind. This means that when there is something to think, it thinks, and the rest of the time it is in non-thinking, that is, a natural state of relaxed, non-directed attention. If we do not come to the end of the thinking mind, we will be bound to it, so that even when there are moments when there is nothing to think, we are still in the mind and live in constant agitation. The relaxed mind functions in discontinuity. Only when it functions like this can we be aware of the continuity behind all functioning. The continuity is timeless meditation. It is this presence which gives life and reality to all appearing. Any other so-called meditation you might do has no flavor. But really, meditation is praying, praying without someone who prays or is prayed to. Real praying is thanking for the joy of being. It is expressed at every moment. Experiences like joy, transcendence, peace and holiness, are all expressions borrowed from the mind. But the meditation we are talking about here is without any qualification. Its only quality is that it is without qualifications. It is the extinction of everything that could be a state.
As long as the mind is not exhausted, it will still be an obstacle to any real insight. Because the uninformed mind, that is, the mind which does not know its limits, will continue to try to understand what is beyond it. It will be driven by will or unconscious reflex, in the old patterns of becoming and attaining. The mind will still be looking for freedom, but in trying to attain it, it goes further away from it. Because there is no way to go to freedom, for there is nobody to go to it. When the mind remains in the reflex that there is something to attain, something to become, something to achieve, it cannot come to the only useful perspective for the mind, the perspective of living in not-knowing. When the mind abides in not-knowing, when it is, at every moment, open to the unknown, it is a tool of higher reasoning. Any other use of the mind is a nuisance.
The important thing is to realize that what we are looking for is the looker, is our presence. To achieve something in the phenomenal realm we must, of course, refer to something we already know. But regarding that which can never be an object, we can never go away from it. We must come to the organic memory of the body. This is important, because through this organic memory we will come to the absolutely relaxed state, where we have all our energy in our hand, so to speak. In this relaxed state the body and the mind come more or less together. There is no more duality. As we have said before, the relaxed body is dynamic, not passive. Passive relaxation is still in duality. It is not integrated because there is still emphasis on the object, relaxation.
Even in a relaxed state, the mind automatically creates pictures, or thoughts. How can we exhaust the mind?
These are residues, and these residues must also come to their exhaustion. When we let them come to their exhaustion, we have a forefeeling of the “I am.” Don’t go into the images or thoughts of these residues. Some teachers say to observe them, listen to them, but don’t go in, don’t follow them. My experience is that we must not observe or listen or follow them because the moment we look at them we feed them by creating a witness to them. Take your stand in the void, the “I am.” From here, you ignore them. But I think that when you become aware of the body, not the concept body but the feeling body, and you are at one with the feeling, in this becoming aware of the true body feeling, the residues of images and words and language have no more power. You are, of course, still in subject-object relation, the perceiver and the perceived body feeling, but there comes a moment where there is only the “I am.”
When we are living in our tactile, global body, we are no longer in our foreheads. Generally, we live in our foreheads, and this localization prevents all global sensation. When we remain in our foreheads, we are in the hands of the devil. So we must become free from the brain. In the beginning there may be some difficulty to be free from the brain, because it is partly activated by the taking and grasping of the eyes, which are very connected with the brain. It is important, therefore, to consciously relax the eyes, to sense the hollows of our eyes, their heaviness. When this part is sensitive, there is a deep relaxation in the brain. Some scientists don’t believe we can sense our brain, but they are studying medicine in a superficial way. We can sense and change our brain. For when the brain becomes relaxed, we feel ourselves no longer localized in the thinking factory of the forehead, but we feel ourselves behind, in the upper cervical vertebrae. When we feel ourselves behind, in our neck, we can no longer see from the point of view of the indivudual which projects individual objects. Because the individual is a thought construct which comes from the frontal area. From behind there is no longer any concretization. There is only a vague cloud of objectivity. Then this subtle localization behind the neck dissolves down into the heart, and the heart is the last door, the last expansion. Finally, we become free also from the heart. We become emptiness, emptiness without border and without center. We are the universe and the universe is us.
But I would say, take note of all this and immediately forget it.

-Jean Klein

taken from Open to the Unknown – Third Millennium Publications, 1992

To read more from Jean Klein see:  http://o-meditation.com/category/jean-klein/