Sonnet at Christmas This is the day His hour of life draws near, Let me get ready from head to foot for it Most handily with eyes to pick the year For small feed to reward a feathered wit. Some men would see it an epiphany At ease, at food and drink, others at chase Yet I, stung lassitude, with ecstasy Unspent argue the season's difficult case So: Man, dull critter of enormous head, What would he look at in the coiling sky? But I must kneel again unto the Dead While Christmas bells of paper white and red, Figured with boys and girls split from a sled, Ring out the silence I am nourished by. ~Allen Tate
From: 'I and Thou' by Martin Buber: Relation is mutual. My *Thou* affects me, as I affect it. We are moulded by our pupils and built up by our works. The 'bad' man, lightly touched by the holy primary word, becomes one who reveals. How we are educated by children and animals! We live our lives inscrutably included within the streaming mutual life of the universe.
From: 'Zen Seeds - Reflections of a Female Priest' by Shundo Aoyama Plum Blossoms Open the Early Spring When we talk about paradise or happiness, what generally comes to mind? First of all, we might think that money brings happiness. If only we had money, all of our difficulties would be solved. Money, money, money, all our life we chase after money. 1 wonder how many people end their lives having been slaves to money? Will we really be happy if we have money? I think not. Tragedies may even occur because of money. Goethe said that the amount of money indispensable to a human being is not really that much, and he concluded that it is part of human nature to long for money. The same is true for fame. If we equate the satisfaction of these ever-escalating desires for money and fame with happiness, we will never find true happiness anywhere. Everyone desires to be rich rather than poor. Everyone wishes to be healthy rather than ill. Everyone wants to be a success rather than a failure. No matter how hard you work during your lifetime, there may be times when you have to go without food for the day. No matter how much you complain of illness, you have to be ill when the tune comes. Even if it is an illness you will die from, you cannot escape it. No matter how much confidence or capability you have, there may be failures. Happiness that depends on what you acquire or become is only conditional happiness, not true happiness. No matter what happens, it is all right. If You become ill, then just be ill; if you are poor, then just be poor. Unless you accept your present circumstances, happiness cannot be attained. To face any situation and accept it with open arms if it cannot be avoided molds the attitude enabling you to see that such a wonderful way of living is possible This is indeed something of consequence. As soon as this attitude is achieved, you have reached paradise, anytime, anywhere, and in any circumstances. Zen Master Dogen's teacher, ju-ching, said, "blossoms open the early spring," not "blossoms open in early spring." It is the plum blossoms that bring the spring. Once this idea is accepted, spring must be everywhere.
From: 'Mysticism of Now' by Rafael Catala Silence in mysticism is not the absence of sound. It is rather the ego finding its place in the scheme of consciousness. We think that to interact we need sound and motion, and we are not comfortable with Silence. What we don't realize is that silence is also communication and interaction. If Silence happens when the ego has found its place in the scheme of consciousness, then Silence is a deep state of inner receptivity, a deep state of in-action out of which comes revelation. A revelation is not a passive endeavor as many believe. Many think that a revelation is like a video tape played in the mind's eye. What they do not realize is that a revelation is a call to work, to study, and more importantly, to transformation and service. The kingdom is for those who are ready to express it.
From: ' The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying' by Sogyal Rinpoche We all feel and know something of the benefits of compassion. But the particular strength of the Buddhist teaching is that it shows you clearly a "logic" of compassion. Once you have grasped it, this logic makes your practice of compassion at once more urgent and all-embracing, and more stable and grounded, because it is based on the clarity of a reasoning whose truth becomes ever more apparent as you pursue and test it. We may say, and even half-believe, that compassion is marvelous, but in practice our actions are deeply uncompassionate and bring us and others mostly frustration and distress, and not the happiness we are all seeking. Isn't it absurd, then, that we all long for happiness, yet nearly all our actions and feelings lead us directly away from that happiness? Could there be any greater sign that our whole view of what real happiness is, and of how to attain it, is radically flawed? To realize what I call the wisdom of compassion is to see with complete clarity its benefits, as well as the damage that its opposite has done to us. We need to make a very clear distinction between what is in our ego's self-interest and what is in our ultimate interest; it is from mistaking one for the other that all our suffering comes.
The Great Way The Great Way is very difficult to express in words. Because it is hard to speak of, just look into beginninglessness, the beginningless beginning. When you reach the point where there is not even any beginninglessness, and not even any nonexistence of beginninglessness, this is the primordial. The primordial Way cannot be assessed; there is nothing in it that can be assessed. What verbal explanation is there for it? We cannot explain it, yet we do explain it-where does the explanation come from? The Way that can be explained is only in doing. What is doing? It is attained by nondoing. This nondoing begins in doing. From 'The Spirit of Tao' Trans/ed Thomas Cleary
NEW YEAR
The year like a ship in the distance
Comes over life's mystical sea.
We know not what change of existence
'Tis bringing to you or to me.
But we wave out the ship that is leaving
And we welcome the ship coming in,
Although it be loaded with grieving,
With trouble, or losses, or sin.
Old year passing over the border,
And fading away from our view;
All idleness, sloth, and disorder,
All hatred and spite go with you.
All bitterness, gloom, and repining
Down into your stronghold are cast.
Sail out where the sunsets are shining,
Sail out with them into the past.
Good reigns over all; and above us,
As sure as the sun gives us light,
Great forces watch over and love us,
And lead us along through the night.
Look up, and reach out, and believe them--
Believe in your infinite worth.
Do nothing to wound or to grieve them,
And you shall find heaven on earth.
The body needs conflict and tussle,
To render it forceful and grand;
The soul, too, has sinew and muscle,
Which sorrow alone can expand.
Though troubles come faster and faster,
Rise up, brace yourself for each blow;
It is only Fate's great fencing Master
Instructing your spirit to grow.
The new ship comes nearer and nearer,
We know not what freight she may hold;
Hope stands at the helm there to steer her,
Our hearts are courageous and bold.
Sail in with new joys and new sorrows,
Sail in with new banners unfurled,
Sail in with unwritten to-morrows,
Sail in with new tasks for the world.
Yesterdays. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
London: Gay & Hancock, 1916.
NEW YEAR
Know this! there is nothing can harm you
If you are at peace with your soul.
Know this, and the knowledge shall arm you
With courage and strength to the goal.
Your spirit shall break every fetter,
And love shall cast out every fear.
And grander, and gladder, and better
Shall be every added new year.
Yesterdays. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
London: Gay & Hancock, 1916.
The Gazelle by Rainer Maria Rilke Enchanted thing: how can two chosen words ever attain the harmony of pure rhyme that pulses through you as your body stirs? Out of your forehead branch and lyre climb and all your features pass in simile through the songs of love whose words as light as rose- petals rest on the face of someone who has put his book away and shut his eyes: to see you: tensed as if each leg were a gun loaded with leaps but not fired while your neck holds your head still listening: as when while swimming in some isolated place a girl hears leaves rustle and turns to look: the forest pool reflected in her face.
In every community
There is work to be done
In every nation
There are wounds to heal
In every heart
There is the power to do it
~Marianne Williamson
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