A Note About This Blog

This blog is a sequel to my first KIRISUTO blog which I started in October '05.

The older version is still linked to this one through the sidebar menu.

Please take some time to enjoy it.

Truth

The Truth cries out
where the arrow strikes the target.
*
- Hui K'o

One Koan

Only one koan matters:

You

*

- Ikkyu

Love's Constancy

Anyone who has waded

Through Love's turbulent waters,

Now feeling hunger and now satiety,

Is untouched by the season

Of withering or blooming,

For in the deepest and most dangerous waters,

On the highest peaks,

Love is always the same.

*

- Hadewijch

Flames

What is important
In Infinity?
Smiling flames.
What is important
In Eternity?
Climbing flames.
What is important
In Immortality?
Glowing flames.
*
- Shri Chinmoy

One

Thou art One,

the beginning of all computation,

the base of all construction.

Thou art One,

and in the mystery of Thy Oneness

the wise of heart are astonished,

for they know not what it is.

Thou art One,

and Thou art exalted

high above abasement and falling --

not like a man, who falls when he is alone.

*

- Shelomo ibn Gabirol

Water

Don't say, don't say there is no water
to solace the dryness at our hearts.
I have seen the fountain
springing out of the rock wall
and you drinking there.
*
- Denise Levertov

Inter-are

You are me, and I am you.

Isn't it obvious that we "inter-are"?

You cultivate the flower in yourself,

so that I will be beautiful.

I transform the garbage in myself,

so that you will not have to suffer.

I support you;

you support me.

I am in this world to offer you peace;

you are in this world to bring me joy.

*

- Thich Nhat Hanh

First Love

The deep blue sky,

the snow-capped mountains painted against the horizon,

and the shining red sun sing with joy.

You, Blessed One, are my first love.

The love that is always present, always pure, and freshly new.

And I shall never need a love that will be called “last.”

*

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Freedom

Children I implore you
get out of the burning house now
three carts wait outside
to save you from a homeless life
relax in the village square
before the sky everything's empty
no direction is better or worse
east is just as good as west
those who know the meaning of this
are free to go where they want
*
- Han-shan (Cold Mountain)

White Beads

Look: a tortoise wearing a sword climbs the lampstand.

Should you desire the great tranquility,

Prepare to sweat white beads.

*

- Hakuin

Adoration

Adorning the highest part of my body,
my crown, with the jewel of your feet,
I recite these words of aspiration and prayer
with my palms folded at my heart.
*
- Chone Lama Lodro Gyatso

Pearl

Guard me, O Lord, from brooding

over the sin I have committed:

let not my thoughts sink into

the mire of my wrong-doing,

but free them to offer Thee

the pearl of good deeds.

*

-- Hasidic Prayer

Conversion

O Lord, convert the world--and begin with me.

*

-- A Chinese student's prayer

My Tribe

Humans are divided into different clans and tribes,
and belong to countries and towns.
But I find myself a stranger to all communities
and belong to no settlement.
The universe is my country
and the human family is my tribe.
*
- Kahlil Gibran

Never Forget

Never forget:
we walk on hell,
gazing at flowers.
*
~ Kobayashi Issa

Freedom

Thou art my munificent Lord.

Thou hast blessed me with Thy overflowing love within.

Through Thee have I experienced the glory of freedom.

*

~ Namdev

The Name

Thou art the Creator,

Thou alone art my friend;

Thou, O Lord, art all-pervading.

True meditation revealeth Thee

in all Thy perfection;

And the snares of illusion

are rendered ineffective.

Vast and vicious is this mesh of illusion,

Whose intricate tentacles suck one dry.

Sing with all thy heart, the Name of the Lord;

It costs thee nothing, O Nama,

to repeat His Name.

*

~ Namdev

Invisible

Lightning flashed in my eye, O friend, And brightly did shine the light of the moon.
I got a glimpse of the Invisible within, And thirst and longing for the Lord were aroused.
My ears received the boon of Unstruck Music,
And Knowledge came like the explosion of light, O Friend.

Dark clouds began to scatter and the sight
Of the Divine Mansion was revealed unto me.
Beyond the sun, the moon and the tunnel,
Tulsi beheld the abode of the Lord Almighty.
*
~ Tulsidas

Peace

When despair grows in me

and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down

where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water,

and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting for their light.

For a timeI rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

*

~ Wendell Berry

Miraculous

Everything is plundered, betrayed, sold,
Death's great black wing scrapes the air,
Misery gnaws to the bone.
Why then do we not despair?

By day, from the surrounding woods,
cherries blow summer into town;
at night the deep transparent skies
glitter with new galaxies.

And the miraculous comes so close
to the ruined, dirty houses --
something not known to anyone at all,
but wild in our breast for centuries.

*

~ Anna Akhmatova

The Shape of Love

What we see is not the most important.

Could dust rise without the invisible

hand of the wind?

Could a fan turn without any current?

Could lungs breathe without breath?

Tell me

What is the shape of Love?

How much does Joy weigh

when held in the palm of your hand?

Can you catch the Spirit of Life in a jar?

All things seen depend

upon the Unseen.

All sounds depend upon Silence.

All things felt depend

upon what is not felt.

*

~ Adyashanti

Enlightenment

Time to cash in your chips
put your ideas and beliefs on the table.
See who has the bigger hand
you or the Mystery that pervades you.

Time to scrape the mind's nonsense
off your shoes
undo the laces
that hold your prison together
and dangle your toes into emptiness.

Once you've put everything
on the table
once all of your currency is gone
and your pockets are full of air
all you've got left to gamble with
is yourself.

Go ahead, climb up onto the velvet top
of the highest stakes table.
Place yourself as the bet.
Look God in the eyes
and finally
for once in your life
lose.
*
~ Adyashanti

Everlasting Voices

O sweet everlasting Voices, be still;

Go to the guards of the heavenly fold

And bid them wander obeying your will,

Flame under flame, till Time be no more;

Have you not heard that our hearts are old,

That you call in birds, in wind on the hill,

In shaken boughs, in tide on the shore?

O sweet everlasting Voices, be still.

*

~ William Butler Yeats