The Honored Guest

    

The Honored Guest

Outside my window 

An invitation to dance

Sways in the wind and
The warm hand of that light
Smooths rough linear bodies
Stretching up and out to endless blue where
Wet lambits of cloud
Catch wildly in the
Bony extremities of branch

O! To become once again
A lover of trees!

O! To feel that strength inside
My own feeble bones

And stretch my body
Along those soaring flanks
To drink the rising sap

And so,  loved once more
By forest glade,
Become the honored guest 

WPS. Hawkscry 7/7/2010

Candy for Gold; A commentary on ego development

   

The following article from Tricycle Magazine discusses the healthy functioning of the ego and contrasts this with the concept of egolessness prevalent in Western Buddhist thought. Thanissaro Bhikkhu unties this tricky knot brilliantly. Years back, many Buddhist teachers in the West began using the term “egolessness” to explain the Buddha’s teaching on not-self. Since then, egolessness has come to mean many things to many people. Sometimes egolessness is used to mean a lack of conceit or self-importance; sometimes, a pure mode of acting without thought of personal reward. In its most extended form, though, the teaching on egolessness posits a fundamental error of perception: that despite our sense of a lasting, separate self, no such self really exists. According to this view, to provide for the happiness of this illusory self, we not only place our hopes on an impossible goal but also harm ourselves and everyone around us. If we could only see the fallacy of the ego and understand its harmful effects, we would let it go and find true happiness in the interconnectedness that is our true nature. Read more here.

Meditation on Hatching Bird

Birdsong From Inside The Egg

 
Birdsong From Inside The Egg


Sometimes a lover of God may faint
In the presence. Then the Beloved bends
And whispers in his ear, “Beggar, spread out
Your robe. I’ll fill it with gold.
I’ve come to protect your consciousness.
Where has it gone? Come back into awareness.”

This fainting is because
Lovers want so much.

A chicken invites a camel into her hen house,
And the whole structure is demolished.
A rabbit nestles down
With its eyes closed
In the arms of a lion.

There is an excess
In spiritual searching
That is profound ignorance.

Let that ignorance be our teacher!

The Friend breathes into one
who has no breath.

A deep silence revives the listening
And the speaking of those two who meet on the riverbank.
Like the ground turning green
in a spring wind.
Like birdsong beginning inside the egg.
Like this universe coming into existence,
The lover wakes, and whirls
in a dancing joy,
then kneels down in praise.


- Rumi   

Commentary on Walking Like A Buddha

photo source www.dreamstime.ocm

In the hyperbolic society we live in it is easy to feel bored with doing nothing. The endless distractions that offer themselves up to us beckon from every corner. Indeed it is more of a bombardment than an offering! And the cultural message is often clear, though at times subtle, which is that if you are not participating in some way in the frenetic, distractive energy of consumption, you are a loser.

So we tap into the energy that swirls around us like a hurricane. And when we are not able to do that we often feel bored or even depressed, often feeling that something is wrong with us or that we are in some way less worthy  than those who seem happily caught up in doing.

This is how we lose touch with the inner life and the richness that comes from quieting the mind enough to allow our innate inner wisdom to bubble up from the center of our being. It is only with this knowledge that we can begin to see  how everything is forever engaged in a connected and intimate dance. Thich Nhat Hahn calls this inter being. .

Driving through the lovely Sandy Mush Valley of North Carolina on the way to Hawkscry, I frequently see  solitary figures sitting on their front porch, rocking back and forth for long spells. What a wonderful contrast to the frenetic pace of the city! Some might call it a waste of time and apply a negative label.  But I think otherwise on the matter. I can imagine there are numerous little epiphanies that spring forth as a result of overhearing the chatter of house sparrows or the quiet song of the breeze as it caresses the long-needled pine or gently embraces the tall poplar in an intimate dance. How many of these little voices in nature are missed in the great "doing" of our so called civilized life? What precious messages are being obliterated by modern life?

We are not being encouraged to cultivate a taste for the quiet life anymore, or even to remain patient with ourselves in quiet moments of "down time". In our quest for ever greater productivity as a measure of our success as a nation we require more and more from fewer and fewer people resulting in the gradual elimination of "down time". Every moment is filled leaving one exhausted and depleted. We are living in a time of spiritual impoverishment as a result, not to be confused with religion which is doing quite well in that it appeals to such depleted souls as a source of relief. But this does not satisfy our inner yearning to return to something more fundamental, more elemental, even more connected to star dust. That is what I call the feeling of Homecoming. A return to what lies behind all the noise and which is untouched by it.

WPS

A Solitary Existance in the Taiga

Fascinating story of Agafia, a 70 year old woman who has lived in the Siberian wilderness her entire life. Her family fled Stalin and religious persecution. Her parents hiked more than 160 miles into the wilderness to live apart from civilization and persecution. They were unaware of the second world war. She lived for 40 years with hardly and outside contact.The resilience of the human spirit is in full view as she struggles to maintain her solitary life in light of the increased difficulties brought on by aging.  https://youtu.be/tt2AYafET68dFCC

Harry Manx: Death Have Mercy