Come back again not to where I was in consciousness but to this world for yet another life not because I must but because I choose to celebrate life’s joy and give what I can see what’s going on and help as possible let an embryo grow not ever confined inside any womb raise a new baby not being stuck or locked inside in mind and spirit with a beating heart to give a helping hand to everyone and all sentient beings everywhere I wish and plan to come back again a possibility we create.
“Śūraṅgama mantra beginner’s blues” — all 554 lines
“The true reality that does exist, and that is who we really are, lies beyond our attachment to a duality of self and other and a duality of existence and nonexistence.”
“In enlightenment, how could there be identity or a lack if it?”
“Neither the affirmation nor the denial of the statement ‘That is [me]’ is true.”
“Neither affirm nor deny… All your various interpretations of… awareness and… objects are nothing but delusion, and in the midst of delusion one cannot avoid thinking ‘That is’ and ‘That is not.’ Only from within the true, essential, wonderfully understanding, awakened [heart-]mind can one escape the error of trying to point to what ‘is’ and what ‘is not.'”
— The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, A New Translation, Buddhist Text Translation Society, pp. xliii and 70-71
Come back to be — an invitation from Heaven to Earth
Earth entrance — June 2008 — Ladakh — photo by Michel A. Sacchet
Tranquility maybe wisdom no more striving for any state of being just be — so obvious you are, I am, we are nothing to resist at all nor attempt replacing look and see what is and taking it as such it becomes an object is no longer a subject thing to be addressed relative in full freedom detached as possible.
Too busy to meet yourself consequently wondering why’s there nobody coming like crossing to the other side pushing ahead gets carried away standing still results in drowning neither nor brings some balance from knowledge to experience from experience to knowledge where you are, not where you go feet on the earth, head in heaven there’s no schedule, no place to go but many paths going everywhere.
Does everyone sell themselves it seems in one way or another ask yourself what do you want how much ceremony may be in association and exchange actually I spent most this life chasing after enlightenment realization and mastership to find in the end simply being as good a human as ever possible can be is more than enough to keep very busy utterly fulfilled tranquil wise.
“Tranquility in action” — harmonics of the heart
primary harmonics, Ionian / diatonic major on G# (rel. A 438 Hz) —vichitra veena, tanpura — 7:33
Result of conduct — here and now, or later
“Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings…”
“When he says: ‘… everyone who …’ I do not grant him this. And when he says: ‘Those who know thus know rightly; those who think otherwise are mistaken,’ I also do not grant him this. And when he obstinately adheres to what he himself has know, seen, and discovered, insisting: ‘Only this is true, anything else is wrong,’ I also do not grant him this. Why is that? Because … knowledge of the great exposition of action is otherwise.”
“There is action that is incapable and appears incapable; there is action that is incapable and appears capable; there is action that is capable and appears capable; and there is action that is capable and appears incapable.”
— Majjhima Nikāya – the middle length discourses of the Buddha, translated from Pali by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi –Cūḷakammavibhanga Sutta, 135.4 & 20, p. 1053 & 1057 and Mahākammavibhanga Sutta, 136.13-16 & 21, pp. 1062-1065
Tranquility after the ice saints’ last stroke
First rays of sunlight on snowy mountain peaks conclude a tranquility retreat — May 2026 — Beatenberg, Switzerland
May you and I, may we all realize the results of our actions! — Therein, by depending on this, abandon that.
Looking beyond duality ends de-personification an experiment concluded with the crisp realization of personification in all while distracting issues are dishonest exclusivity whereas personification when all open and free in the sound of silence embodies not malice but maybe blindness when looking straight into a source of light not just reflections from formations but right into it will take time to balance then and see ever more what’s here and now in front of one’s nose the very divine always in one form or another personified or not present always.
“Saranam gacchami” — triple gem refuge
Mixolyd–Ionian (reduced) on F 172 Hz (rel. A 432 Hz) — chanting voices, tenor recorder, tanpura — 7:11
“The river cannot go back” by Khalil Gibran جبران خليل جبران
It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages. And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever. But there is no other way. The river can not go back. Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence. The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear, because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.
Looking beyond duality — stars faded for the sun to rise
Sunrise in the making over the horizon of the Swiss Alps — January 2026 — near Bern, Switzerland
A small child hides in my heart and firmly believes in fairies and gnomes in the good in people in everyone and all in peace and love recalling all good letting go the bad always open to give and receive what is without concepts plans or schemes free of I and mine dissolved the self to individualized consciousness spiritually free happy what is always best for you and all a small child in our heart.
“Iech körenes Glöggli” — I hear a little bell
PentaIon / PentaProLa (pentatonic major) on F and HexaMixLa on G# (rel. A 438.2 Hz) — sopranino recorder, crotales, voice — 7:26
Awareness, it’s like this — free from conditions
“Things change. So we are open to change. We’re not demanding that things change in any way that we want it to or that when it’s at a peak that we can keep it that way. That’s impossible. But you can be aware when you’re at your best or your worst, when you’re feeling good, inspired, and enthusiastic or despairing, depressed, and disheartened. This awareness is your refuge. Awareness of the changingness of feelings, of attitudes, of moods: stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is indestructible. It’s not something that changes. It’s a refuge you can trust in. This refuge is not something that you create. It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal. It is very practical and very simple but easily overlooked or not noticed. Whenever you’re mindful [aware], you’re beginning to notice: it’s like this.”
“There is the unconditioned; therefore there is an escape from the conditioned. So then apply that to the here and now, to this moment. Time is an illusion, the past is a memory, the future is a possibility, but now is the knowing. In this knowing position, … escape from the conditioned is possible. We’re not getting rid of the conditioned, but we no longer react out of fear and desire to the conditions that are impinging on [us].”
— Ajahn Sumedho, The Sound of Silence, p. 209 & 244
Once upon a time a small child, and still a little kid at heart…
Ulrico as a small child — some time ago — Gstaad, Switzerland
Sound of silence to be heard and seen one for all and all for one he or she who hears will see the light and the love in all life a passing show on Earth all changing evolving in oh so many ways just as it is.
She or he who sees can hear it clearly the sound of silence in her or his heart while ‘his or hers’ dissolves as an illusion for in the end possession belongs to nature as he and she and all are learning to see.
One who hears and sees will value high the qualities and divinity of all others while most who don’t will look down upon the others as inferior beings to be controlled by power plays in megalomaniac possession.
How far does this have to go to dissolve itself eventually in all the space given to dry up as one hears the sound of silence sees and can step out of the way let it flow freely and resolve the way it is no matter what illusion and impermanence as one may see and hear the sound of silence to be heard and seen one for all and all for one he or she who hears will see the light and the love in all life.
“Permanent impermanence” — heart remediation blues
PentaBlue on D (rel. A 438.2 Hz) — 8-string guitar, crotales, nepali cymbals, tanpura — 7:43
The way it is — a closer look
“I was standing out on this evening and looking at the dusk, at the trees, … just contemplating … that trees are conscious. There is a certain level of consciousness in all life, in the fact that there is receptivity to the environment; and trees are very receptive to the environment they are in. One begins to change the perception of mind to one of a consciousness that pervades everything. Then it’s not just a human mind, there’s something more to it. But in Buddhism it is never named, you never try to form a concept about it. Instead you contemplate the totality, the whole sensitivity, the sensory realm and what it is really about. And that we have to contemplate from our own ability to be conscious and to feel but not see it in terms of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ — …”
Do you hear the sound of silence?
“With the sound of silence, some people hear fluctuations of sound or a continuous background of sound. So you can contemplate it, you notice that — can you notice it…? You’re using this sound of silence as something to remember to turn to and notice — because it’s always present here and now. And there’s that which notices it.
“There is the desire of the mind to call it something, to have a name for it, have it listed as some kind of attainment or project something on to it. Notice that, the tendency of wanting to make it into something. Somebody said it’s probably just the sound of your blood circulating in your ears, somebody else called it ‘the cosmic sound’, ‘the bridge to the Divine’. That sounds nicer than ‘the blood in your ears’. It might be the sound of the Cosmos or it might be that you’ve got an ear disease. But it doesn’t have to be anything; it’s what it is, it’s ‘as that’. Whatever it is, it can be used as reflection because when you’re with that, there is no sense of self, there is mindfulness, there is the ability to reflect.
“So it is more like a straight edge that you can go to, to keep you from going wobbly. It is something you can use to compose yourself in daily life…”
Do you listen to the sound of silence?
“The significant offering of the Buddhist teaching lies in what we call non-dualism. It’s the ‘neither-nor’ approach to philosophical questions. … “Now what does that do, as a practical experience, when you let things go and they cease? What’s left, what’s the remainder? … “When the perception of self ceases and all the doctrines, all the inspired teaching, all the wise sayings cease, there is still the knower of the cessation. And that leaves us with a blank mind. What is there to grasp?”
“Open to the silence and contemplate it, learning from it rather than running away from it to look for a warm mother or a safe father. “Then one way you can describe this Holy Life is a growing up of an individual being to that maturity where we no longer linger in the warmth of adolescence or childhood, or in the pleasures of the world.”
The shining through of the divine
“In our lives as separate beings, we relate to things. As individual beings, we have relationship to things, we have to meet and contact and react or respond to objects all the time for the rest of our lives. On the physical level, we have to respond to each other’s presence in some way, either ignoring or embracing or paying respects or cursing. In relationship, when there’s no self, then there is this divinity that manifests. So you can see that the human form is a form for the divine.”
“Five billion human beings who can manifest the divine in their daily lives, through metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Sounds rather nice. “But five billion human beings manifesting greed, hatred and delusion is a pretty grim picture. Yet we don’t have the right to comment on them: this one here, this is what we have, this is what we can work on. Don’t worry about the others. This one here is what you can actually develop through reflection and through meditation.”
— The Way It Is, Ajahn Sumedho, pp. 102-103, 109, 115, 117, 157, 165
Mostly silent songs of the trees
Rising sun behind silent trees casting their shadows — March 2025 — Chanhassen, Minnesota
