and so, it all comes 'round to this.

I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow,
and I called out,
     It tastes sweet, does it not?
You have caught me

     grief answered,
and you have ruined my business.
How can i sell sorrow
     when you know it is a blessing?

Love lit a fire in my chest,
and anything that was not love left

- rumi

from Rumi: the Big Red Book, translations by
Coleman Barks

le bon mot du jour: open

"Nothing is true that forces me to exclude."

- Albert Camus, 1913 - 1960







photo made available for artistic consideration by: By farfallemeccaniche

being. schooled. [and thank you, stars, for reminding me to give what little i may have to give]

Instructions
. . .

So here are my instructions: Eyes,
do not dry up. Lungs, breathe deep,
give strength to shouts and songs.

And you, my heart, you have a lifelong task
to be a gate. Closing. Opening.
No matter what, no matter who

demands to be let in. You are only
the gate. No judgment. no questions,
no fear, my heart, but courage.


- Ilze Klavina Mueller

dear,God.

what to do with
these tears?

and whatever work, you are doing in me, i say, please, do it...[what is good to remember]

because You believe in me
i have grace to greet each morning sun with joy,
even when my heart is broken,
even when it seems i don't know which way to go.
i will continue on
putting one step before the other.
and i know,
you know
what it is like to walk alone,
even yet -
you are always with me.

and though i see with such limited sight,
i know,
even when my vision grows dim...
that there is a cloud of wise counselors about me,
and unseen angels who lift me up.
i have seen you move heaven and earth on my behalf.
i have seen you touch hearts and change circumstances
that seemed too hard for me to bear.
and i have seen you stand with me
through storms i feared were too great for me to endure.
therefore, i will not fear -
even when it seems i cannot see any hope for a future.

i know each moment is the whole of my life,
and it is holy.
and it is blessed.
and it is good.
it is as simple as that.

so i thank you for this moment,
for this life that you grant me,
breath by breath.
and with each inhale, i breathe in your spirit,
and with each exhale, i breathe out your love.
may it always be thus,
as i am your child.

and to love you,
and to love your world,
with a child's heart is
a great and wondrous gift.
[selah]

it's pretty simple.

that nifty poet John Keats, and some thoughts on suffering.

"In a letter written back in 1819, the British poet John Keats refers to the world not as a vale of tears, but as "the vale of soulmaking." He says, "Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and Troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a Soul? A Place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways!"

i am so struck by how similar this is to Jung's concept of the Soul's path toward individuation by facing and incorporating its 'shadow side.' we all have a shadow side...and it is a sacred duty toward adulthood to hold no illusions about that reality within us...and in facing the darker places within us, we are inevitably opened up to pain and grief...how interesting that, especially in this culture, we are conditioned to think that pain and suffering are a result of something having gone wrong in our journey...of having, perhaps, taken a wrong turn...but the reality is...pain and suffering are universal...and a wholehearted acceptance of this truth is so often the key that can unlock and open our heart to a more encompassing love and compassion than we could ever imagine. As the writer Ram Dass expressed when discussing the spiritual lessons found in suffering a stroke:

"Greater suffering elicits higher consciousness."

and so it is, wisdom and maturity is found in not shutting down, but opening ever wider your heart.

why i will gladly be undone by You, Beloved, over and over, again.

HOLY GROUND

Let the vision
of the vastness
you are
leave you
in glorious
ruins.

Pilgrims will come
to imagine
the grand temple
that once stood,
not realizing

the wreck
made this empty plain
holy ground.

IVAN M. GRANGER

more beautiful with salt.

metempsychosis

Some stories last many centuries,
others only a moment.
All alter over that lifetime like beach-glass,
grow distant and more beautiful with salt.

Yet even today, to look at a tree
and ask the story Who are you? is to be transformed.

There is a stage in us where each being, each thing, is a mirror.

Then the bees of self pour from the hive-door,
ravenous to enter the sweetness of flowering nettles and thistle.

Next comes the ringing a stone or violin or empty bucket
gives off —
the immeasurable’s continuous singing,
before it goes back into story and feeling.

In Borneo, there are palm trees that walk on their high roots.
Slowly, with effort, they lift one leg then another.

I would like to join that stilted transmigration,
to feel my own skin vertical as theirs:
an ant-road, a highway for beetles.

I would like not minding, whatever travels my heart.
To follow it all the way into leaf-form, bark-furl, root-touch,
and then keep walking, unimaginably further.

- Jane Hirshfield -

le bon mot du jour: beyond fear lies a state of openheartedness and tenderness.

Confess your hidden faults.

Approach what you find repulsive.

Help those you think you cannot help.

Anything you are attached to, let it go.

Go to places that scare you.

- Advice from her teacher to theTibetan Yogini

Machik Labrön -

ye tang che.

some days i just want something to last.
i want to look into the eyes of a lover, or the eyes of a friend,
and know.
they will always be there.
i want to stop time for a minute.
i want to not feel the slight vertigo of a perpetually spinning
earth beneath my feet.
i want to be still and quiet and infinite
inside the earthly shell of this dirt-and-spittle fashioned body.
and then i remember.

the beauty.
the compassion.
the birth of wisdom.
comes out of the uncertainty.
out of the brokenness.
out of abandoning hope.
and welcoming with an open heart
whatever
arises along the path.

thank you, biggity smalls for reminding me...even as i am destroyed, i am healed.

[...in pursuit of wholeness,
i seek wholeness for all others,
what inspired me today...]

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

In Buddhism it is taught that everything has the power to
heal and cure.
That means that anything we encounter in our lifetimes can serve as beneficial medicine. This is an important concept because it reminds us that so often our well-being is in our own hands.
We can use our environment and our world
to help us heal our hearts and restore our health.
We can be healed by words;
we can be healed by relationships;
we can be healed by medication;
we can be healed by the diet;
we can be healed by friends;
we can be healed by touch and massage;
we can be healed by nature.
Crystals have healing properties as does music.
Prayer helps us heal and visualizations help us heal.
Studies have shown that animals and pets help us heal and shorten recovery periods.
We can be healed by everything we touch and everything that touches us.
We are all healers;
we can learn to heal ourselves;
we can help in the healing of others.
Healing energy takes place through an agency
far greater than, yet immanent in,
each of us.

The healing mantra of the Medicine Buddha is:

TA-YA-YA OM BEKANZÉ BEKANZÉ MAHABEKANZÉ
RADZA SUMUD-GATÉ SOHA

Roughly translated, it says:
"Oh healing Buddha, reliever of all suffering,
relieve my pain and all suffering. Relieve the roots of suffering.
So be it!"

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

- from "Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be" byLama Surya Das -

open wider. your heart.

"Opening to all aspects of our experience is what is asked of us if we want our hearts to grow, if we want a difference. This means looking at the world with honesty, unflinchingly and directly, and then looking at ourselves and seeing that this sorrow is not just out there, but also within ourselves. It is our own fear and prejudice and hatred and desire and wanting and neurosis and anxiety. Our own sorrow. We have to look at it and not run away from it. In opening to suffering, we discover that we can connect with and listen to our own hearts."

- Jack Kornfield -

from "Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path"

edited by John Welwood