” Each beautiful thing, a flower, the song of a bird, awakens in our soul the memory of our origin.Learn how to listen to the voice of beautiful things,to make us understand the voice of our soul.”
Mevlevi Dervishes
I paraphrase Eckhart Tolle: “Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning, just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun…and suddenly there would have been an explosion of color and scent all over the planet-if a perceiving consciousness had been there to witness….The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness.”
“We must make room in oneself for the immensity of the Universe”
Teachers of South American Indians
I slip in and out of the Sea at night with this Amazed soul I have.
Follow my tracks in the sand that lead.
Beyond thought and space,
Join me with your hands, wings, hoofs of fins.
In my sublime applause.
Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude For life.
I slip in and out of the Moon each night
With a gracious ease
With the brilliant heart I have.
Hafiz
” Love is an infinite Sea whose skies are a bubble of foam. Know that it is the waves of Love that turn the wheels of Heaven, Without Love, nothing in the world would have life. How is an inorganic thing transformed into a plant? How are plants sacrificed to become rich with spirit? How is spirit sacrificed to become Breath, One scent is potent enough to make Mary pregnant? Every single atom is drunk on this Perfection and runs towards It And what does this running secretly say but ” Glory be to God.”
Rumi (Andrew Harvey “Light upon Light”).
“The reality of our own existence can be validated only in the context of honoring the larger communication that the natural world offers us in terms of wonder for the mind, beauty for the imagination and intimacy for emotions”
Thomas Berry
“The little prince crossed the desert and met with only one flower”
A flower with three petals
‘Where are the men?’ the little prince asked, politely.
Men? She echoed. ‘ I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes life very difficult.’.. “
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
“Can you find another market like this?
Where, with one rose you can buy hundreds of rose gardens.
Where, for one seed you get a whole wilderness?
For one weak breath, the divine wind?….”
Rumi
LOVE LETTER TO THE MILKY WAY
I want to tell you about love
There are approximately 1 trillion galaxies
I want to tell you about
In the Milky Way there are about 100 billion stars
I want to tell you
Love is the breath of the cosmos
I want to write a love letter to the Milky Way
Everything is an expression of the galaxy
My 30 trillion cells
The four noble truths
The eight – fold path
The five precepts
The seven energy centers of the body
Everything is the Milky Way
Including my lover,
and every kiss
of every lover that’s ever loved
Your skin
the texture of the cosmos
the religion beyond religion
I want to know you like the wind knows the canyon
or the rain knows the rivulets
Lightening is continuously striking in 100 places every moment
The universe spills through our dreams
The future belongs to the most compelling story
Even the word “love”
is not adequate to define
the force that wove
the fabric of space-time
If we could sense everything at once
like Krishna entering with all the memory of his past incarnations
then I could tell you about love.
Drew Dellinger
CHILDREN MEDITATION
May all beings of all kinds,
in all directions
be happy and in peace.
Above and below,
Near and far,
High and low.
All types of beings.
Humans and non-humans.
Seen and unseen.
All the animals, birds, and fishes.
All beings and creatures,
With no exceptions.
May they be happy.
May they be free.
I open my heart
and accept the loving-kindness
of every being and creature
in return.
I let that love into my heart.
And I share the benefits of this
meditation with every one
Gregory Kramer
” There are hundreds of thousands of stems linking us
to everything in the cosmos,
supporting us and making it possible for us to be.
Do you see the link
between you and me?
If you are not there, I am not there, “
Thich Nhat Han
“Every being exists in intimate relation with other beings and in constant exchange of gifts with each other. But this relationship is beyond pragmatic use. It is rather a mutual sharing of existence in the grand venture of the universe itself.”
Thomas Berry
“SINGLE- CELLED ELEGANCE
Successful microbes mutateThey see an evolutionary need,become the seed that spawns a different being. They seizechance opportunities, try newpaths, have no fear of changingappearances. These single cellshold the keys to transformation. They equate stagnation with deathand see that the releasing form is theonly way to enter into essence.”
Danna Faulds
TICKLED
This moment is a rosebud, and I am at the center of the bloom. Petals open one by one until I am in full sun, tickled by the tongues of butterflies.
Danna Faulds
” In the ever-changing presence of water In the inspiring presence of air In the transformative presence of fire in the nourishing presence of earth In the unifying presence of ether May all beings know their divinity.”
Russell Comstock
BEAUTY
How did the Rose Ever open its heart And give to this world All its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light Against its Being. Otherwise, we all remain too freightened.
It felt Love
Hafiz
“ Every one of us can do something to protect and for our planet. We have to live in such a way that a future will be possible for our children and grandchildren. Our own life has to be our message.
” Thich Nhat Hanh (from his new book: The World We Have).
IMPERMANENCE MAKES EVERYTHING POSSIBLE (as Fall sets in and the New Jewish New year just started)
We are often sad and suffer a lot when things change, but change and impermanence have a positive side. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible. If a grain of corn is not impermanent, it can never be transformed into a stalk of corn. If the stalk were not impermanent, it could never provide us with the ear of corn we eat. If your daughter is not impermanent , she cannot grow up to become a women.
Impermanence should also be understood in the light of inter-being. Because all things inter-are, they are constantly influencing one another. It is said that butterfly’s wings flapping on one side of the planet can affect the weather on the other side. Things cannot stay the same because they are influenced by everything else, everything that is not itself.
Thich Nath Hanh
INTERBEING
The sun has entered me. The sun has entered me together with the cloud and the river. I myself have entered the river and I have entered the sun with the cloud and the river.
There has not been a moment when we do not interpenetrate.
But before the sun entered me, The sun was in me-also the cloud and then river, I was already I it.
There has not been a moment when we have not inter-been.
Therefore you know that as long as you continue to breathe, I continue to be in you.
Thich Naht Hanh
Join me in the pure Atmosphere
I slip in and out of the Sea at night with this Amazed soul I have.
Follow my tracks in the sand that lead beyond thought and space,
Join me with your hands, wings, hoofs of finsIn my sublime applause.
Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude for life.
I slip in and out of the Moon each night
With a gracious ease
With the brilliant heart I have.
Hafiz
Keeping quiet…
Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still.
This one time upon the earth, let’s not speak any language, let’s stop for one second and not move our arms so much.
It would be a delicious moment, without hurry, without locomotives, all of us would be together in a sudden uneasiness.
The fishermen in the cold sea would do no harm to the whales and the peasant gathering salt would look at his torn hands.
Those who prepare green wars, wars of gas, wars of fire, victories without survivors, would put on clean clothing and would walk along side their brothers in the shade, without doing a thing.
What I want shouldn’t be confused with final inactivity: life alone is what matters, I want nothing to do with death.
If we weren’t unanimous about keeping our lives so much in motion,
if we could do nothing for once, perhaps a great silence would interrupt this sadness, this never understanding ourselves and threatening ourselves with death, perhaps the earth is teaching us when everything seems to be dead and then everything is alive.
Now I will count to twelve and you keep quiet and I’ll go
Pablo Neruda
From Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon Translated by Stephen Mitchell
Last night the rain spoke to me slowly, saying,
what joy to come falling out of a brisk cloud, to be happy again
in a new way on the earth that what is said as it dropped,
smelling of iron, and vanished like a dream of the ocean into the branches and the grass below. Then it was over.
The sky cleared
I was standing under a tree and there were stars in the skythat were also themselves at the moment
At which moment my right hand was holding my left hand which was holding the tree which was filled with stars and the soft rain—imagine! Imagine! The long and wondrous journey still to be ours.
Mary Oliver (What Do We Know)
“Listening to the bell, the wind, then water, the insects, and all living things is part of our practice.
When we know how to listen deeply and how to breathe deeply in mindfulness, everything becomes clear and deep.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
And who will care, who will chide you if you wander awayfrom wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly then get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!
To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!
Mary Oliver (new and selected poems).
Treading the path that leads to the moon, I look back and can’t stop marveling. I see a bubble of water on the immense ocean of space. It is the Earth, our green planet, Her sumptuous beauty sparkling and proud, Yet, oh so fragile. In her, I discover myself.
Thick Nhat Hanh (Morning of Peace).
OCEAN LIGHT
The moon at dawn stooped like a hawk and took me and flew across the sky. Traveling insight that light, so close, my body turned to spirit. I saw nothing but light. The secret of revelation came clear with my ship submerged in that. As it moved, consciousness rose into being and the voice of consciousness made every foam fleck a new bodying. Matter receives a signal from the sea it floats in. But without the sun, without the majesty of Shams, no one would see the moon or ever dissolve in ocean light.
Rumi
John Charles Earle says: The Body is not bounded by its skin; Its effluence, like a gentle cloud of scent, Is wide into the air diffused, and, blent With elements unseen, its way doth win To ether frontiers, where take origin Far subtler systems, nobler regions meant To be the area and the instrument Of operations ever to begin A new and never end. Thus every man Wears as his robe the garment of the sky so close his union with the cosmic plan, So perfectly he pierces low and high Reaching as far in space as creature can, and co-existing with immensity.
” Each beautiful thing, a flower, the song of a bird, awakens in our soul the memory of our origin.Learn how to listen to the voice of beautiful things,to make us understand the voice of our soul.”
Mevlevi Dervishes
I paraphrase Eckhart Tolle: “Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning, just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun…and suddenly there would have been an explosion of color and scent all over the planet-if a perceiving consciousness had been there to witness….The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness..”
I slip in and out of the Sea at night with this Amazed soul I have.
Follow my tracks in the sand that leadBeyond thought and space,
Join me with your hands, wings, hoofs of finsIn my sublime applause.
Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude For life.
I slip in and out of the Moon each nightWith a gracious easeWith the brilliant heart I have.
Hafiz.
“ Love is an infinite Sea whose skies are a bubble of foam.Know that it is the waves of Love that turn the wheels of Heaven,Without Love, nothing in the world would have life. How is an inorganic thing transformed into a plant? How are plants sacrificed to become rich with spirit? How is spirit sacrificed to become Breath,One scent is potent enough to make Mary pregnant?Every single atom is drunk on this Perfection and runs towards ItAnd what does this running secretly say but “ Glory be to God.”
Rumi (Andrew Harvey “Light upon Light”).
“The reality of our own existence can be validated only in the context of honoring the larger communication that the natural world offers us in terms of wonder for the mind, beauty for the imagination and intimacy for emotions”
Thomas Berry
Rain I feel like earth Astonished at fragrance Born in then air, Made pregnant with mystery From a drop of rain.
Rumi
“Since the moon is full tonight, let us call the stars in prayer. The power of concentration, Seen though the bright, one-pointed mind,Is shaking the universe. Compassion springs from the heart,as pure refreshing water, Healing the wounds of life.
Thich Nhat Hanh (from Love Poem).
SOULSTICE
Every ounce of matter is frozen light roses, clouds, bones, tearsall slowly moving light
everything is shining in glory everything singing a story
every second in the universe a supernova is exploding every second a star is shattering and flames leaping off the moon last night
like binary stars we circle each other
and the more I see of you the more I love the view
let me be a fierce clear mirror in a cosmos made of passions
If love is a language then I am still learning to spell while there’s a story that the stars have been burning to tell.
Drew Dellinger
THE SUN NEVER SAYS
Even After All this time
The sun never says to the earth,”You owe Me.”Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the Whole Sky.
Hafiz (trans. Daniel Ladinsky)
The Sun incandescent sphere permanent explosion its core pouring itself out for us source to a hamlet of planets asteroids and comets human trajectory unfolds in this orbit between wandering stars and the invincible Sun…”
Drew Dellinger
“Every being exists in intimate relation with other beings and in constant exchange of gifts with each other. But this relationship is beyond pragmatic use. It is rather a mutual sharing of existence in the grand venture of the universe itself.”
Thomas Berry
“As humans awaken to this wonder that stands before us. We must discover our role in the grand spectacle”
Thomas Berry
“ The human emerges not only as an earthlink, but also as an worldling. We bear the universe in our beings as the universe bears us in its being. The two have a total presence to each other and to that deeper mystery out of which both the universe and ourselves have emerged.”
Thomas Berry
“ The reality of our own existence can be validated only in the context of honoring the larger communication that the natural world offers us in terms of wonder for the mind, beauty for the imagination and intimacy for emotions”
Thomas Berry
•••
“When we are truly alive, we can see that the tree is a part of Heaven, and we are also a part of Heaven. The whole universe is conspiring to reveal this to us.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“ ….Your eyes are beautiful. I am aware that they are impermanent. But what is wrong with impermanence? Without impermanence, could anything exists at all..”
Thich Nhat Hanh (from Love Poem).