posted January 07, 2009 03:18 PM         

Miracle doesn't lie only in the amazing
living through and defeat of danger;
miracles become miracles in the clear
achievement that is earned.

To work with things is not hubris
when building the association beyond words;
denser and denser the pattern becomes
being carried along is not enough.

Take your well-disciplined strengths
and stretch them between two opposing poles.
Because inside human beings
is where God learns.

posted January 07, 2009 03:29 PM         

The flow vs. Definite Purpose

"The river is your lifeblood..."

...it is carving your purpose to make a concrete statement of your presence. Your presence is identified by your purpose. Once your purpose, your major reason for existing, is established--your spirit must be released from the dam to flow free and create.

We often hear of some people identified as "free spirits," moving about capriciously, whimsically, without any rhyme or reason. These types of free flowing souls are much like a floodwater that fills the lower recesses of whatever it approaches. This is quite the opposite of the persistent, purposeful roar of a mighty and free flowing river whose power with intelligence and creativity might be harnessed for the benefit of millions.

One leaves only mud and mess in its wake, the other an awe inspiring spectacle that electrifies our spirit. The difference between destruction and creation is our defining purpose for being. Once your purpose is clearly established, your spirit must be released to give life to it. It must have free flow for you to evolve in the direction of growth and life.

Why would one remain undefined as a wandering generality, opposed to making a powerful statement with your life? Like electricity requires a conduit and your nerves a myelin sheath, your spirit requires the pipe of purpose to concentrate it to full intensity. It is a definiteness of purpose that defines and cultivates personal greatness. I realize only too well that many people have set a goal to become a zero, a nobody, a nothing and hold as their highest ambition to blow out the candle flame of life.

In the words of one of my favorite poets, Robert Service, "...Just have one more try. It's dead easy to die. It's the keeping-on-living that's hard." And you can't do that without a major purpose for being. Listen, it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees! You owe no one an apology for following your own dreams, hopes, and aspirations. Define yourself by something much larger than simply taking up space and air. Live with passion, purpose, and courage! Fire all the negative people from your life and live! Whose life is it anyway?

Much Love and Success,

posted January 07, 2009 03:34 PM         

I understand what he is saying, but I still think it is onesided. People find what works for themselves, and, often, they infer universal laws of what works for everybody else. They fashion their worldviews without taking others into account. Those flooding waters are also part of Nature's cycles, and man should be careful not to take a heavy hand in his own destiny. I think it is presumptuous to be so sure of ourselves. They say, "If you want to make God laugh, make plans". And the Native American teachings speak of the white man's ambition, and how he would level the mountains, and change everything to suit him. I dont want to harness nature, so much as abandon myself to Her will. And I realize that chaos is scary to others whose paths require more structure.

Call me a dilletante, call me a Sagittarian, but I like to wander. I get inspired by everything, and everything is suited to my purpose. My path is like an invisible thread that winds through all things, making use of all things, and nothing is wasted. Where I do not go deep, I enlarge my circumference. Where I do not climb, I encompass. And while I respect the way of patient, single-pointed devotion, I do not believe that it is the only tree bearing good fruit. For me, there must be jungles; wild, untended, uncultivated, and brimming with undiscovered medicines and intoxicants. What I value is not a safe, concise and well-directed journey, or even a peaceful night's sleep, but, rather, the freedom to overrun my banks, and encircle the roots of the next plant that catches my eye and ignites my curiosity. I do not lack vitality for this.

And if the results of my honest play are not so concretely verifiable as the results of another's honest labour, I cannot easily conclude that they are any less real. I see how my freedom inspires others, and I dare to imagine that my flimsiest actions must bear significant fruit, when they are themselves the fruit of a free and playful spirit. Time enjoyed is never squandered. And I dont need Peter Ragnar to define for me what it means to be alive, or free. For some, there is context, ritual, structure, deliberate creation, and the conservative maintanace of traditional order. For others, there is the Dionysian overabundance of life that must overrun its banks; that cannot and will never be controlled by the single-minded will of man.

Does it have to be one "vs." the other?

Love has taken away my practices and filled me with poetry.
I tried to keep quietly repeating,“No strength but yours,”
but I couldn't. -- I had to clap and sing.
I used to be respectable and chaste and stable,
but who can stand in this strong wind and remember those things?

... Advice is not for lovers;
This is not the kind of mountain stream you can build a dam across!

posted January 07, 2009 03:46 PM         

Its just me repeating my tune.

What broken records we all are.

And what a curious harmony, when we all play at once.

posted January 07, 2009 04:56 PM         

ying/yang. darkness/light

without both there is no balance.

posted January 07, 2009 05:21 PM         

forgot what this thread was about.
anyway, here are some more disconnections:

“The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish; the impressions remain flat and unconnected in the soul."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a
lamp in a windless place. In the still mind, in the depths of meditation,
the eternal Self reveals itself. Beholding the Self by means of the Self,
an aspirant knows the joy and peace of complete fulfilment. Having at-
tained that abiding joy beyond the senses, revealed in the stilled mind,
he never swerves from the central truth. He desires nothing else, and
cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow."
Bhagavad Gita 6.10-27

Though I dont practice meditation daily, I still know this. Oftentimes, anyway. Then forget it again. I guess that's another way of practicing.

"To discover what is eternal, the process of the mind must be understood. You cannot think about the unknown; you can think only about the known, and what is known is not the real. Reality cannot be thought about, meditated upon, pictured, or formulated; if it is, it is not real, because it is merely the projection of the mind. It is only when the thought process ceases, when the mind is literally and utterly still - and stillness can come about only through self-knowledge - , that reality is understood; and it is the real that resolves our problems, not our cunning distractions and formulated escapes."
Jiddu Krishnamurti

The flame of a lamp sheltered from wind does not flicker. This is the comparison used to describe a Yogi's mind that is well under control and united with Atman.
(Gita 6.19)

posted January 07, 2009 05:31 PM         

After whose stroke the wood rings,
And the echoes!
Echoes travelling
Off from the center like horses.

The sap
Wells like tears, like the
Water striving
To re-establish its mirror
Over the rock

That drops and turns,
A white skull,
Eaten by weedy greens.
Years later I
Encounter them on the road–

Words dry and riderless,
The indefatigable hoof-taps.
While
From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars
Govern a life.

posted January 07, 2009 05:32 PM         

quote:

---

We live very similarly.

Structure calls to me, but ultimately I live in and am content in this chaos. It has become the norm and what makes sense while making no sense at all. I'm comforted in the fact that I know nothing and never will. I've somehow skipped over the "practice" part and live life unrehearsed, unpracticed, floating. It seems this is the end result for many and why I was not at home at the ashram. Being caged and free at the same time seems to be life's long song wherever you are. It's a constant mixed episode of mania and depression. And mostly I am just removed from it all; watching. Mostly in Is-ness.

It's strange to see the truth and falseness in every single thing. To resonate with everything and nothing at all.

---

posted January 07, 2009 05:48 PM         

For the writer, writing is doing zen.

Even the thinker is doing zen when he thinks.

Is there anything that is not doing zen?

Can anything unreal exist?

Everything is, and everything is doing zen.

The trees, when they grow, are doing zen.

You are doing zen when you read this.

"The sea is raging. Everything is in the sea." (Nietzsche)

"Everything is in the sea." And everything is doing zen.

Sidewalks are doing zen, when they are walked upon, and when they are deserted.

Basketballs are doing zen, when they are bounced or discarded; deflated or disintegrated; not even basketballs.

The teachings of the wise are doing zen, whether we hear them, or they wait for ears to hear them.

You are doing zen, whether or not your life has the appearance of harmony to you.

You are that consciousness beyond consciousness.

But you want to see it.

You think you only have it when you see it.

posted January 07, 2009 07:49 PM         

quote:

---

For the painter, painting is doing zen.

For the writer, writing is doing zen.

Even the thinker is doing zen when he thinks.

Is there anything that is not doing zen?

Can anything unreal exist?

Everything is, and everything is doing zen.

The trees, when they grow, are doing zen.

You are doing zen when you read this.

"The sea is raging. Everything is in the sea." (Nietzsche)

"Everything is in the sea." And everything is doing zen.

Sidewalks are doing zen, when they are walked upon, and when they are deserted.

Basketballs are doing zen, when they are bounced or discarded; deflated or disintegrated; not even basketballs.

The teachings of the wise are doing zen, whether we hear them, or they wait for ears to hear them.

You are doing zen, whether or not your life has the appearance of harmony to you.

You are that consciousness beyond consciousness.

But you want to see it.

You think you only have it when you see it.

"Blessed are those who believe without seeing." ~ ?

---

A quote in one of my favorite songs by Kim Boyce is "blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe" and she is Christian genre musician so it is probably from a bible verse. ♥

I LOVED reading that. I thought it was an excerpt out of some fabulous book. It should be.

posted January 07, 2009 08:40 PM         

The last quote is from Jesus.

At least, its attributed to him.

posted January 08, 2009 05:12 PM         

And nice writings yourself.

posted January 09, 2009 02:01 PM         

Yes, "Axes" is phenomenal, I think.

Strange, coming upon the echoes of one's own words, "dry and riderless";
faint and stranded; fleshless and feeding on dead pastures.

Meanwhile, the axe, like an asp, rears her head and prepares to strike; --
wood to feed the fire; the flame; the living brain; mad fountain of word-sparks.