“We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.
~ Hafiz, from ‘We Have Not Come to Take Prisoners’, ‘The Gift’, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
(Photo: ‘Take to the Sky’ by Alex Greenshpun)
all which isn’t singing is mere talking
and all talking’s talking to oneself
(whether that oneself be sought or seeking
master or disciple sheep or wolf)
gush to it as deity or devil
—toss in sobs and reasons threats and smiles
name it cruel fair or blessed evil—
it is you(ne i)nobody else
drive dumb mankind dizzy with haranguing
—you are deafened every mother’s son—
all is merely talk which isn’t singing
and all talking’s to oneself alone
but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence
~e.e. Cummings
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)
(Photo: ‘Rain’s Ephemeral Crown’ by Alex Greenshpun)
—- —- —-
sentences
by no means mention
what’s really
on your mind
nothing is
on my mind
don’t mention
it
—-
whatever you have
to say
will get itself
said
don’t worry
who worries?
that’s all i’m
telling
you:
don’t
—-
you go out
to the edge
of the universe,
it’ll still be
on your
mind
nothing
is
it’ll still
be there
—-
you don’t have to
try to remember
it
the fact is, you
can’t forget
forget what?
the nothing.
whatever it
is
-Robert Lax, from the journal A, p. 36
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)
Be Still, it is the wind that sings
I am a pipe the wind blows through,
Be still, it is the wind that sings.
The course of my life and the things that I do
And the seeming false and the seeming true
Are the tune of the wind that neither knows
Good and ill, nor joys and woes.
But the ultimate awe is deeper yet
Than song or pipe or storm;
For pipe and tune are the formless wind
That seemed for a while to take form.
And words are good to escape from words
And strife to escape from strife,
But silence drinks in all the waves
Of song and death and life
~Arthur Osborne
I like to wash,
the dust of this world
In the droplets of dew.
~Matsuo Basho
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)
How swiftly the strained honey
of afternoon light
flows into darkness
and the closed bud shrugs off
its special mystery
in order to break into blossom:
as if what exists, exists
so that it can be lost
and become precious
~Lisel Mueller
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)
William Stafford
Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.
~Ryokan
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)
Everything that you feel, hear, touch, smell and taste is maya.
Everything is maya, the grand illusion.
Most of us really do not understand what maya really is.
My trying to explain maya is maya.
Everything that your eyes behold,
that you believe is so important, is maya.
Everything that you hear,
Everything that you read,
Everything that you try to do to better yourself,
It’s all maya.
The water in the mirage, that is maya,
something that appears to be real,
but upon your investigation you find it’s not.
The whole world is like that.
The whole universe is like that.
Do not be fooled again.
Do not take anything seriously.
Turn within, do not react.
The turmoil, the chaos that appears to be in this world,
is not the truth. It is not Reality.
It is something that comes and goes.
This too shall pass.
But your center is God, Consciousness,
Absolute Reality, Brahman.
Those are all synonymous.
That is the Peace that exists.
Robert Adams (Thank you very much for sharing Tobiji!)
One Instant is eternity;
eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
you see through the one who sees.
Wu Men
(Translated by Stephen Mitchell, from The Enlightened Heart)
Everything is contained in these petals and in the space between them…
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
~William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
(Photo: Infinity by Alex Greenshpun)
Emily Bronte (from ‘No Coward Soul is Mine’)
Light Will someday split you open
Even if your life is now a cage.
… Little by little, You will turn into stars.
Little by little, You will turn into
The whole sweet, amorous Universe.
Love will surely burst you wide open
Into an unfettered, booming new galaxy.
You will become so free
In a wonderful, secret
And pure Love That flows
From a conscious, One-pointed, Infinite Light.
Even then, my dear, The Beloved will have fulfilled
Just a fraction, Just a fraction!
Of a promise He wrote upon your heart.
For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You hold the title to.
O look again within yourself,
For I know you were once the elegant host
To all the marvels in creation.
When your soul begins
To ever bloom and laugh
And spin in Eternal Ecstasy-
O little by little, You will turn into God.
Hafiz (Translated by Daniel Ladinsky)
(Source: angall413, via bhavikchitalia)
But the mind always
wants more than it has —
one more bright day of sun,
one more clear night in bed
with the moon; one more hour
to get the words right; one
more chance for the heart in hiding
to emerge from its thicket
in dried grasses — as if this quiet day
with its tentative light weren’t enough,
The moon’s the same old moon,
The flowers exactly as they were,
Yet I’ve become the thingness
Of all the things I see!
~Shido Bunan (1602-1676)
(Photo: ‘If the Moon Had a Crown by Alex Greenshpun)
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