...

@hakima said
I need this reminder every so often:

I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. It is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will allow it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
---Frank Herbert

HAMSA

I Am THAT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa

I prefer the Native American Dreamcatchers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher

I suspect the symbolism is similar.


And as for the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, like Paul Atreides, I find myself repeating the Litany when faced with fearful moments. This has resulted in minimizing my PTSD symptoms.

"Only I will remain."

Yes.

@hakima said
You and Art

Your exact errors make a music
that nobody hears.
Your straying feet find the great dance,
walking alone.
And you live on a world where stumbling
always leads home.

Year after year fits over your face—
when there was youth, your talent
was youth;
later, you find your way by touch
where moss redeems the stone;

and you discover where music begins
b ...[text shortened]... tains where canyons go
still as the always-falling, ever-new flakes of snow.

by William Stafford

My Art is my music.

If I had to stop playing and never play again, a little part of me would die inside.

After nine years’ study,
Mind’s completely free,
Words come forth completely unbound.
By what is the body supported;
Upon what do the feet walk?
Blown away, east and west
As a dry leaf torn from a tree;
Is the wind riding on me
Or am I riding on the wind?

- Lieh Tzu

From the very beginning
All things are in nirvana.
Here’s spring with its hundred blossoms,
A yellow warbler singing in the willow.

- Anonymous

The clouds emerge from the Mountain of Chung
And then return to the Mountain of Chung.
I would like to ask the dweller in this mountain,
Where are the clouds now?

Clouds emerge from No mind
And then return to No mind.
No mind is nowhere to be found.
We need not seek the home of No mind.

- Wang An-shih (1068-1076)

Rivers in the east flow eastward,
Rivers in the west flow westward,
And they all enter the sea.
From sea to sea they pass,
The clouds lift them to the sky
As vapor and send them down as rain.
And as these rivers,
When they are united with the sea,
Do not know whether they
Are this river or that,
Likewise all creatures do not know
From whence they come.

- Chandogya Upanishad

Those who speak do not know;
Those who know do not speak.
This is what we were told by Lao Tze.
Should we believe that he himself
Was the one who knew?
How could it then be that he wrote
No less than five thousand words?

- P’o Chu-I (9th c)

Devote yourself to Absolute Emptiness;
Contemplate earnestly in Quiescence.
All things are together in Action,
But I look into their Non-action,
For things are continuously moving, restless,
Yet each is proceeding back to its origin.
Proceeding back to the origin means Quiescence.
To be in Quiescence is to see “Being-for-itself.”

- Lao tzu

In Spring when all the
Flowers are in bloom,
The evening river appears
Smooth and motionless.
Suddenly the tidewater
Comes with the reflection
Of glittering stars;
The ebbing waves carry away
The image of the moon.

- Yang Kwang

@rookie54

Do you have anything more atmospherically appropriate to like the Bronx in New York City or maybe Brooklyn ?

@sonship said
@rookie54

Do you have anything more atmospherically appropriate to like the Bronx in New York City or maybe Brooklyn ?

when observed dispassionately, all places are the same...
take a ride (or climb, you healthy dog) to the top of a tall building of yer choice and then meditate amongst the clouds...



There is a meditative terrace
Left by the ancient Master Chi.
It is so high that it is always
Covered with white clouds.
Should the woodcutter see it,
He would not recognize it;
The mountain monks, however,
Were glad to find it.
They thought it would interest me
And took me there to see it.
Throughout the night dew drops
Fall leisurely from the bamboos;
During the day pure breezes
Blow from the pine grove.
Meditation is what I used to do
As the first thing;
The terrace of Master Chi
Inspires me even more.

- Meng Hao-jan

@rookie54

Thanks.

Very beautiful spiritual poetry.

https://www.dailyzen.com/

If one has realized
Oneness which alone is
And which alone has always been,
It cannot be described in words.
One can be That.
We loosely call it
Self-realization
For want of a better term.

- Ramana Maharshi (d. 1950)

For about thirty years I wandered,
Searching for the real Tao everywhere.
How many times did I see the trees
Grow new branches and watch
The old leaves fall?
But at this moment,
Seeing the peach blossoms,
Suddenly, there are no more doubts.

- Huang Shan-ku (1045–1105)

Although the marvelous
Lines are difficult to trace,
Still I can make out
Several layers of mountains,
A jumble of peaks,
Like shell-spiraled locks of hair.
Faraway streams and mountains,
Peaks swathed in clouds,
Just like a painting,
Have captured the essence.
Gazing into emptiness,
I long to ask the monk about it.
If I don’t learn the meaning
Of the reclusive life,
I can but sigh with regret until the day I die!

- Su Shih