New Spiritualibus Blog Posts – Excerpts

One song
for life
so many
melodies
of harmony
improvised
or stabilized
each one is
quite different
matches more
or mostly less
therefore relish
also differences
nurture, treasure
the very rare one
that matches
first and last
for it can be
a one and only
as everyone is
finding a place
in the vastness
of a big heart
and if not one
then two for sure
together is infinite
boundless we are
in love and spirit.

“Yeshe Zangmo dream blues” — a consecration

Recall one song for life

Hold up tight and overfill, then better stop.
What is sharpened by hammer blows cannot endure long.
A room full of gold and jade — no one can preserve it.
Wealth, property, and arrogance vanish by themselves, of one’s own doing.
Do the work and then withdraw — that is the way of Heaven.

— Laotse / Laozi, Tao Te Ching / Dào Dé Jīng 道德经, #9, translation group with Elena Camesi Janke

A new day dawns every day with a song for life

May we all recall one song for life!

— inspired by the Śūraṅgama mantra

“Slip and slide to sail and soar” — portal to silence

The “Great Spirit Prayer” that comes blown in the wind

Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

— The Great Spirit Prayer, translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark, ca. 1887, web-source

The wind came with rain without object

May we all hear the voice of Great Spirit in the winds!

Polyamorous
monk and nun
along celibacy
multiple lovers
after lifetimes
on both sides
monogamous
or else celibate
let go exclusive
mono and poly
for good nature
to include it all
divine they are
animals of sorts
otter, fox, giraffe
cats and dogs
big elephants
snail and slug
turtle and lizard
as human being
can indeed let go
of all these games
of nuns and monks
masters and slaves
and finally wake up
to the emptiness
of the fullness
of the divine.

“Hear the cries of the world?” — Oṃ maṇi padme hūm̐

Polyamorous monk purged empty and still

“When one enters the monastic life, the first thing one is given to learn is a short verse to be recited every morning, as follows:
Do no evil deed with body, speech, or mind;
Give no trouble to any being in the world.
With right thought, see the emptiness of the realm of desire;
And keep your distance from unhelpful asceticism.“

“All is empty and also that what understands emptiness and the emptiness that is understood are empty as well… All phenomena are understood to be empty.”

“I began with a practice based on the enlightened nature of hearing. First I redirect my hearing inward in order to enter the current of the sages. Then external sounds disappeared. With the direction of my hearing reversed and with sounds stilled, both sounds and silence ceased to arise. So it was that, as I gradually progressed, what I heard and my awareness of what I heard came to an end. Even when that state of mind in which everything had come to an end disappeared, I did not rest. My awareness and the objects of my awareness were emptied, and when that process of emptying my awareness was wholly complete, then even that emptying and what had been emptied vanished. Coming into being and ceasing to be themselves ceased to be. Then the ultimate stillness was revealed.”

“Purge yourself… to the point that you have purged even the act of purging.”

— The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, A New Translation, Buddhist Text Translation Society, p. 211 commentary by Hsūan Hua 宣化, p. 215 Subhūti 须菩提, pp. 234-235 Avalokiteśvara / Guanshiyin 觀世音, p. 266

Polyamorous monks and nuns awakening

May our hearts be purged into empty stillness!

Sound of a flute
can you hear it
when present
or also absent
sound arising
and ceasing
do you hear
dependent on
sound coming
to be or ending
always hearing
independent of
a sound or silence
disengaged free from
perception and objects
from the same source
beyond separation
illusions, outflows
choosing one faculty
perception like hearing
with all attention focused
inward to what’s original
in and with all faculties
break through and enter
the current of realization
radiating spiritual freedom.

— inspired by The Śūraṅgama Sūtra,
Choosing One Faculty in Order to Liberate All Six
and The Example of the Bell’s Sound

“Wondrous suchness of reality” — holy awe

Practice awakening as in sound and silence

“To transform your … awareness into … purity … pull out the root of death and rebirth and rely on that pure and perfect nature that neither comes into being nor ceases to be. Use the purity of your true nature to make disappear the distinction between your original state of enlightenment and the illusory state of what comes into being and ceases to be. The original enlightened understanding, which neither comes into being nor ceases to be, must be the basis of your practice. Then you will attain the awakening that will be the result of your practice.”

“Choose one faculty [eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, cognitive] as a gateway to deep practice. If you take that path until you have left behind all distortion within that one faculty, then all other faculties will be purified as well.”

“Be/become patient with the state of mind in which no mental objects arise.”

— The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, A New Translation, Buddhist Text Translation Society, pp. 173, 179, and 229/232

Subtle layers of perception like sounds of a flute

May we all hear the pure sound and silence of a flute!