New Spiritualibus Blog Posts – Excerpts

Please forgive
if I ever hurt you
or even hit you
made mistakes
now I do apologize
but we can’t be sorry
for lessons learned
at long last maybe
a heart a little wiser
after all the letting go
a pair of thistle-finches
come share breakfast
as rains flush the past
holding on in dreams
a mini statue broken
to fix it all personally
like a great equivalent
incense bowl cleaned
all pressures released
moments of being home
with trees as living guardians
contemplating where we are
at home in the loving heart
please forgive that I ask
that you forgive me all
as I work on the same

“Nirodha blues” — dance of the trees

Words of a wise heart

To be wise, we have to examine our intention to ensure that it is free from delusion. The ends do not justify the means. If our actions will bring harm to others, even in the service of some “good”, they are almost certainly deluded… If they are based on a distinction between “us” and “them”, they stem from delusion. Only to the extent that we act from the wisdom of no separation, understanding how we are woven together, will our intention bring benefit.

The Buddha instructs its followers, “Like a skilled carpenter who removes a course peg by knocking it out with a fine one, so a person removes a pain-producing thought by substituting a beautiful one.” …
“And when there still arise patterns of unskillful thought, the danger that thoughts will cause pain and suffering should be clearly visualized. Then, naturally, like the abandonment of rotting garbage, the mind will turn from these thoughts and become steady, quiet, clear.”

— The Wise Heart, Jack Kornfield, p. 264 & 301

Shack and clouds high above the worldly jumble

May we — you, and I, and all — be well, safe, and happy!

From the other side
we all come from there
and we return there too
sooner or maybe later
when it’s time for that
or rather we’re there
and here all in one
but tend to split it
to here and there
it actually just is
as we observe life
being in the present
when coming or going
into or out of our body
we are all the same
and still all different
individual mixtures
boasting protagonists
criticizing antagonists
and indecisive chaotics
each with great potential
qualities and drawbacks
well fed by our attention
one, the other, or all three
which one do you feed
pleasant we may like
unpleasant for contrast
neutral to open potential
concepts of understanding
basics of any fundamental
each sounding in its octaves
doubling to accommodate
the first other harmonic
the tripling quint or fifth
plus the next one then
still clearly perceptible
shakes up some more
from doubling, tripling
to quintling major third
uplifting and upsetting
go on more and more
pleasant, unpleasant
and neutrally chaotic
through given cycles
as far as you can go
until coming back
to the very start
from an other side
one way all around
or maybe one other
more at once or none
perhaps all or nothing
there’s no difference
just a loving heart.

“Another day breaks” — from dark to light

The wise heart

“Aggression, anger, and aversion are built into our universal heritage… After we learn how to face them directly, to see how they arise and function in our life, we must take a revolutionary step. Through the profound practice of insight, through non-identification and compassion, we reach below the very synapses and cells and free ourselves from the grasp of these instinctive forces. With dedication, we discover it is possible to do so.

“Aversion and anger almost always arise as a direct reaction to a threatening or painful situation. If they are not understood they grow into hatred. As we have seen, pain and loss are undeniable parts of human life…

“Fortunately, we can train ourselves… to meet fear and pain with wisdom instead of with the habits of aversion and anger. When a painful or threatening event arises, we can open our eyes to it. When we learn to bear our own pain and face our own fears, we will no longer blame and inflict it on others, neither family members nor other tribes… Instead of reacting, we can respond with spacious clarity, purpose, firmness, and compassion. A wise response includes whatever action, fierce at times, is the most caring toward life, our own and others’.”

— The Wise Heart, Jack Kornfield, p. 209 & 210

A view from the other side

Emptiness.
Nothing to say.
Just sweet silence.
Stillness and calm.
Finally at peace.
With room for all.

Still, here we are.
Words, thoughts.
Being in this body.
Living in this world.
While there’s breath.
In and out, in duality.

Growing and unfolding.
In body, mind, and spirit.
Cruising along conscious.
More or less alert and aware.
Then slowing and shrinking.
Fading away in old age?

When the body declines.
Spirit can keep soaring.
With new insights ever.
In silence and calm.
Not much to say.
In emptiness.
All free.
Now.

“Vibhas dawn” — daybreak raag

Who looks in the mirror — at the movies or in life

“At some moments there are also gaps in the action; the show gets a bit slow, even boring. We might shift in our seats, notice the people eating popcorn around us, remember we’re in a movie. In the same way we can notice that there are gaps between our thoughts, gaps in the whole sense of our self. Instead of being lost in ideas and the problems in front of us, creating the whole drama of ourself, there are moments when we sense the space around our experience, let go, and relax. ‘These gaps … are extremely good news.’ They remind us that we can always rest in awareness, that freedom is always possible.”

“Awareness has no shape or color. It is beyond presence or absence, coming or going. Instead there is only a clear space of knowing, of consciousness, which is empty and yet cognizant at the same time.”

“When we learn to rest in awareness, there’s both caring and silence, There is listening for what’s the next thing to do and awareness of all that’s happening, a big space and a connected feeling of love. When there is enough space, our whole being can both apprehend the situation and be at ease. We see the dance of life, we dance beautifully, yet we’re not caught in it. In any situation, we can open up, relax, and return to the sky-like nature of consciousness.”

— The Wise Heart — Jack Kornfield — pp. 44-47

Emptiness fulfilled