Close To Being True How can we know the divine qualities from within? If we know only through metaphors, its like when children ask what sex feels like and you answer, "Like candy so sweet." The suchness of sex comes with being inside the pleasure Whatever you say about the mysteries, I know, or I don't know, both are close to being true. Neither is quite a lie. Coleman Barks (2003) Rumi the Book of Love: poems of [...]

An Egypt that doesn’t exist anymore I want to say words that flame as I say them, but I keep quiet and don’t try so make both worlds fit in one mouthful. I keep secret in myself an Egypt that doesn’t exist Is that good or bad? I don’t know For years I gave away sexual love with my eyes. Now I don’t. I’m not in any one place. I don’t have a name for what I give [...]

On Religious Freedom ~Thomas Jefferson The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of [...]

Merging of Difference and Unity ~ Sekito Kisen The mind of the great sage of India is intimately communicated between East and West. People's faculties may be keen or dull, but in the Path there are no southern or northern ancestors. The spiritual source shines clearly in the light. Branching streams flow in the darkness. Grasping things is basically delusion. Merging with principle is still not enlightenment. Each sense and every field interact and do not interact. When [...]

joyful sorrow The first step to the knowledge of the wonder and mystery of life is the recognition of the monstrous nature of the earthly human realm as well as its glory, the realization that this is just how it is and that is cannot and will not be changed. Those that think that they know ---and their name is legion --- how the universe could have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, [...]

Kuan Yin's Prayer for the Abuser To those who withhold refuge, I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being. To those that cause a child to cry out, I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony. To those that inflict terror, I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns. To those who would confine, suppress, or deny, I offer the limitless expanse of the sky. To those [...]

R.D. Laing, quoted in Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television The environment we live in is no longer connected to the mix of planetary processes which brought us all into being. It is solely the product of human mental processes. It is real, but only in the way that a theatrical play or a fun house is real. Our artificial environment is there and we can experience it, yet it has been created on purpose by other [...]

Beginning Anew To begin anew is to look deeply and honestly at ourselves, our past actions, speech and thoughts and to create a fresh beginning within ourselves and in our relationships with others. At the practice center we practice Beginning Anew as a community every two weeks and individually as often as we like. We practice Beginning Anew to clear our mind and keep our practice fresh. When a difficulty arises in our relationships with fellow practitioners and [...]

The Virtuous Man The leaves of the pine gate fall shut. A shimmering arrow leaves the bow, speeds upward, splits the sky, and explodes the sun. The blossoms of the orange trees fall, until the courtyard is carpeted--- flickering reflection of infinity. Thich Nhat Hanh (1990) Call Me By My True Names

The Sun My Heart from Thich Nhat Hanh's book, The Sun My Heart (new edition): When we speak of mind, we usually think of psychological phenomena, such as feelings, thoughts, or perceptions. When we speak of objects of mind, we think of physical phenomena, such as mountains, trees, or animals. Speaking this way, we see the phenomenal aspects of mind and its objects, but we don't see their nature. We have observed that these two kinds of phenomena, [...]