the way it is

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In the very earliest time, when both people and animals lived on earth, a person could become an animal if he wanted to and an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference. All spoke the same language.

That was the time when words were like magic. The human mind had mysterious powers. A word spoken by chance might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive and what people wanted to happen could happen—all you had to do was say it.

Nobody can explain this:

That's the way it was.


–Nalungiaq

Nalungiaq was an Inuit woman interviewed by ethnologist Knud Rasmussen in the early twentieth century.

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Alex Saberi
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the difference between water and the waves on it

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I have been thinking of the difference between
water and the waves on it.

Rising, water's still water, falling back, it is water.
Will you give me a hint how to tell them apart?

Because someone has made up the word "wave,"
do I have to distinguish it from water?

There is a Secret One inside us; the planets in all the galaxies pass through his hands like beads. 

That is a string of beads one should look at
with luminous eyes.


–Kabir

.
david sanger
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today

  .

Admit something.

Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.”

Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
Someone would call the cops.
Still though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives
With a full moon in each eye that is always saying
With that sweet moon language
What every other eye
In this world
Is dying to hear?


–Hafiz 

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you know ...

.

I have been loving you a little more every minute since this morning.


–Victor Hugo

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only love

.
 

There is some kiss we want with our whole lives,

the touch of spirit on the body.

Ocean water begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild darling!

At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine,

Breathe into me,
Close the language-door and open the love-window.

The moon won't use the door, only the window.

–Rumi

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for your Sunday

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vivre !
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how it works

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Those doing soul work, who want the searing truth more than solace or applause, know each other right away.

Those who want something else turn and take a seat in another room.  

Soul-makers find each other’s company.

—Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

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The Great Learning - The Testament of Confucious, 4 - 6

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4. Wanting equilibrium in the empire, that light which comes from looking straight into her and acting, they first set up good government in their own states.

Wanting good government in their states, they first established order in their own families; wanting order in the home, they first disciplined themselves; desiring self-discipline, they rectified their own hearts; and wanting to rectify their hearts, they sought verbal definitions of their inarticulate thoughts (the tones given off by the heart); wishing to obtain precise verbal definitions, they set to extend their knowledge to the utmost. This completion of knowledge is rooted in sorting things into organic categories. 

When things had been classified in organic categories, knowledge moved toward fulfillment; given the extreme knowable points, the inarticulate thoughts were defined with precision (the sun’s lance coming to rest on the precise spot verbally).

Having obtained this precise verbal definition (aliter, this sincerity), they then stabilized their hearts, they disciplined themselves; having obtained self-discipline, they set their own houses in order; having order in their own homes, they brought good government to their own states; and when their states were well governed, the empire was brought into equilibrium.


5. From the Emperor, Son of Heaven, down to the common man, singly and all together, this self-discipline is the root.


6. If the root be in confusion, nothing will be well governed. The solid cannot be swept away as trivial, nor can trash be established as solid. It just doesn’t happen.

–Confucius
Ezra Pound translation

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note to self

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It is not the work that hinders (peace) but the idea that it is you who are doing it.


—Sri Ramana Maharshi

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deep listening for your Saturday

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i am so glad and very

.

i am so glad and very
merely my fourth will cure
the laziest self of weary
the hugest sea of shore

so far your nearness reaches
a lucky fifth of you
turns people into eachs
and cowards into grow

our can'ts were born to happen
our mosts have died in more
our twentieth will open
wide a wide open door

we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunful
i am through you so i

–E. E. Cummings

.

today

 

.

If you're lugging a heavy bag,
don't fail to look inside it
to see whether what is inside is bitter or sweet.

If it's really worth bringing along, bring it;
otherwise, empty your sack
and redeem yourself from fruitless effort.

Only put into your sack
that which is worth bringing.

–Rumi

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the ultimate Tao

.

People may sit till the cushion is worn through,

But never quite know the real Truth:

Let me tell about the ultimate Tao:

It is here, enshrined within us.


–Lu Tung Pin (775-805)

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truly

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There is no alternative for you but to accept the world as unreal, if you are seeking the Truth and the Truth alone.

–Ramana Maharshi

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james dean
largerloves 
ashramof1
.

what is called mind, what mind is called

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What is called ‘mind’ is a wondrous power residing in the Self.
It causes all thoughts to arise.
Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind.
Therefore, thought is the nature of mind. 

Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world.
In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world.
In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts,
and there is a world also. 

Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself.

When the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears.
Therefore, when the world appears (to be real), the Self does not appear; and when the Self appears (shines) the world does not appear. 

When one persistently inquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will end, leaving the Self (as the residue).
What is referred to as the Self is the Atman. 

The mind always exists only in dependence on something gross;
it cannot stay alone.

It is the mind that is called the subtle body or the soul (jiva).


–Ramana Maharshi

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today

 .

Just be the Self.

The ultimate truth is so simple; it is nothing more than being in one’s natural, original state.

It is a great wonder that to teach such a simple truth a number of religions should be necessary, and so many disputes should go on between them as to which is the God-ordained teaching. 

What a pity!
Just be the Self, that is all.


–Ramana Maharshi

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today

.
 

Be with those who help your being.
Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.

Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.
A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don't try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it's too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?


–Rumi
Ode 2865
Coleman Barks translation

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today

.

Light the fire.

This is now. Now is
all there is. Don't wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved's table,

feast with gusto, drink your fill

then dance

the way branches

of jasmine and cypress

dance in a spring wind.

The green earth

is your cloth;

tailor your robe

with dignity and grace.

–Rumi

.
 

Who, then, is breathing?

 .

Observe your own body. It breathes. 

You breathe when you are asleep, when you are no longer conscious of your own ideas of self-identity. 

Who, then, is breathing? 

The collection of information that you mistakenly think is you is not the protagonist in this drama called the breath. 

In fact, you are not breathing; breath is naturally happening to you. 

You can purposely end your own life, but you cannot purposely keep your own life going. 

The expression, ‘my life’ is actually an oxymoron, a result of ignorance and mistaken assumption. 

You don’t possess life; life expresses itself through you. 

Your body is a flower that life let bloom,
a phenomenon created by life.


–Ilchi Lee 

.

listen

.

The flute of the Infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is Love.


–Kabir

.

like this

.

If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.

Keep your face there close.
Like this.

–Rumi

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for your Sunday

.

not to worry

.

We love like the earth and the sky. 

We were planted inside each others lives
to blossom like flowers beneath the sun.


—Pavana
पवन

.

blessing

.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

—John O’Donohue

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datura
.

headphones recommended ...

.

the Great Self

.

The universe must be experienced as the Great Self. 

Each is fulfilled in the other: the Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self, the individual self is fulfilled in the Great Self. Alienation is overcome as soon as we experience this surge of energy from the source that has brought the universe through the centuries.

New fields of energy become available to support the human venture. These new energies find expression and support in celebration. For in the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration. 

It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself.


—Thomas Berry

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thingsthatsing
.

who am I if I was not I while I slept?

.

Mondays are meshed with Tuesdays
and the week with the whole year.
Time cannot be cut
with your weary scissors,
and all the names of the day
are washed out by the waters of night.

No one can claim the name of Pedro,
nobody is Rosa or Maria,
all of us are dust or sand,
all of us are rain under rain.

They have spoken to me of Venezuelas,
of Chiles and of Paraguays;
I have no idea what they are saying.
I know only the skin of the earth
and I know it is without a name.

When I lived amongst the roots
they pleased me more than flowers did,
and when I spoke to a stone
it rang like a bell.

It is so long, the spring
which goes on all winter.
Time lost its shoes.
A year is four centuries.

When I sleep every night,
what am I called or not called?
And when I wake, who am I
if I was not I while I slept?

This means to say that scarcely
have we landed into life
than we come as if new-born;
let us not fill our mouths
with so many faltering names,
with so many sad formalities,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much of yours and mine,
with so much of signing of papers.

I have a mind to confuse things,
unite them, bring them to birth,
mix them up, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the oneness of the ocean,
a generous, vast wholeness,
a crepitant fragrance.


–Pablo Neruda
Too Many Names

.

the law that marries all things

.

The cloud is free only
to go with the wind.

The rain is free only
in falling.

 

The water is free only
in its gathering together,

in its downward courses,
in its rising into air. 

 

In law is rest
if you love the law,
if you enter, singing, into it
as water in its descent. 

  

Or song is truest law,
and you must enter singing;
it has no other entrance.

It is the great chorus
of parts. The only outlawry
is in division. 

 

Whatever is singing
is found, awaiting the return
of whatever is lost.

Meet us in the air
over the water,  

sing the swallows

Meet me, meet me,
the redbird sings,
here here here here.


–Wendell Berry

.

words

.

They can be like a sun, words.

They can do for the heart
what light can
for a field.


–St. John of the Cross

.

 

For days the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree without moving, without any urge to teach. The gods came and encouraged him but he replied, “What I have discovered will not be wanted by almost anyone. Those who are not ready can not be swayed with words and those who are ready can discover it for themselves.” 

One of the gods pondered this for days and then returned and said “Great Buddha, what of those with only a little dust covering their eyes? What of those who are almost ready but only held back by a small hindrance? If you teach then these ones will enter the stream of wisdom.” 

After a moment the Buddha rose from his seat and went to give his first teaching.

–Traktung Rinpoche

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ashramof1
.

 

today

.

Leave it all behind you. Forget it. Go forth, unburdened with ideas and beliefs.

Abandon all verbal structures, all relative truth, all tangible objectives.


–Nisargadatta Maharaj

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