“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)
‘Daughter of the Wind’ by Alex Greenshpun
“These flowers are like the pleasures of the world.” ~W. Shakespeare
![“I am not telling you to grapple with the thoughts. There will be no end if you do it that way. Here lies the secret: there is the ‘I’, the source of all thoughts, and we have to catch it and see from where it arises. This is absolutely necessary. As a dog traces his master by following the track of his smell, you have to follow the inner development of the ‘I’ to reach its source, which is the [true] soul.”
~Sri Ramana Maharshi
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/674126d5e5c5bb9580ef761d5b153982/tumblr_migl33G8OQ1qdoln8o1_1280.jpg)
“I am not telling you to grapple with the thoughts. There will be no end if you do it that way. Here lies the secret: there is the ‘I’, the source of all thoughts, and we have to catch it and see from where it arises. This is absolutely necessary. As a dog traces his master by following the track of his smell, you have to follow the inner development of the ‘I’ to reach its source, which is the [true] soul.”
~Sri Ramana Maharshi
(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
I like to wash,
the dust of this world
In the droplets of dew.
~Matsuo Basho
(Photo by Alex Greenshpun)
Swami Ramanagiri was born into an aristocratic Swedish family in June 1921. Though he was related to the king of Sweden, it was the ‘royal’ yoga of Patanjali that finally claimed him. In his youth he came across Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga and found he had an immediate affinity with the subject matter, so much so that he began to develop yogic siddhis soon after beginning the practices.
In early 1949 he came to Tiruvannamalai to meet Bhagavan for the first time. Though he had a natural inclination for raja yoga, having practised it for years, Swami Ramanagiri felt an immediate attraction to atma-vichara, the path of Sri Ramana. Since this was a departure from the practical teachings he had been taught by his diksha guru, Swami Ramanagiri felt that he should consult him about this change of direction. The diksha guru let him know that Bhagavan was his true Guru, and he encouraged him to follow the teachings he was being given at Ramanasramam. Swami Ramanagiri did self-enquiry intensively for forty days in Bhagavan’s presence and was rewarded, on Sivaratri day 1949, with a direct experience of the Self. When asked later about what had happened on that momentous day, he would usually say, ‘On that day I became a fool’. For the rest of his life he referred to himself in the third person as ‘this fool’.
Adyashanti (via ashramof1)
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!)
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