love letters

Every day, priests minutely examine the Law

and endlessly chant complicated sutras.

Before doing that, though, they should learn

how to read the love letters sent by the wind

and rain, the snow and moon. 

Ikkyu 

photo:  Peter Bowers

big question

There will be marriage, there will be children,

there will be earning money to maintain a family;

all this will happen in the natural course of events, 

for destiny must fulfill itself; you will go through it without resistance,

facing tasks as they come, attentive and thorough,

both in small things and big. 

But the general attitude will be of affectionate detachment,

enormous goodwill, without expectation of return,

constant giving without asking.

In marriage you are neither the husband nor the wife; 

you are the love between the two.

You are the clarity and kindness that makes everything orderly and happy.

It may seem vague to you, but if you think a little,

you will find that the mystical is most practical,

for it makes your life creatively happy.

Your consciousness is raised to a higher dimension,

from which you see everything much clearer and with greater intensity.

You realize that the person you became at birth

and will cease to be at death is temporary and false.

You are not the sensual, emotional and intellectual person,

gripped by desires and fears.  Find out your real being.

What am I?

is the fundamental question of all philosophy and psychology.

Go into it deeply.

Nisargadatta

Their Secret Was

A married couple used to come see me once in

a while.  Among the many I knew who were wed,

they appeared the most happy.

One day I said to them, "What marital advice

could you offer to others that might help them

achieve the grace you found?"

And the young woman blushed and so did her

husband; so I did not press them to answer.

But I knew.

Their secret was this:  That once every day, for 

an hour, they treated each other as if they were 

gods and would, with all their heart, do anything, 

anything, their beloved desired.

Sometimes that just meant holding hands and

walking in a forest that renewed their souls.

Rumi

translation:  Daniel Landinsky

the same as everything

We are the same as plants, as trees, as other people, 

as the rain that falls. 

We consist of that which is around us.

We are the same as everything. 

Buddha

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Beside the Waterfall

At dawn

the big dog - 

Winston by name - 

reached down

into the leaves - tulips and willows mostly - 

beside the white 

waterfall, 

and dragged out, 

into plain sight, 

a fawn, 

it was scarcely larger

than a rabbit, 

and thankfully,

it was dead.

Winston

looked over the

delicate, spotted body and then

deftly

tackled

the beautiful flower-like head,

breaking it and

breaking it off and

swallowing it.

All the while this was happening

it was growing lighter.

When I called to him

Winston merely looked up.

Grizzled around the chin

and with kind eyes,

he, too, if you're willing

had a face like a flower; and then the red sun

which had been raising all the while anyway,

broke

clear of the trees and dropped its wild, clawed light

over everything. 

Mary Oliver

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Do you think I know what I'm doing?

Do  you think I know what I'm doing? 

That for one breath or half-breath that I belong to myself? 

As much as a pen knows what it's writing, 

or the ball can guess where it's going next? 

Rumi

photo:  Peter Bowers

Wildflowers

You have travelled up ten thousand steps in search of the dharma.

So many long days in the archives, copying, copying, copying. 

The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung

make heavy baggage.  

Here ! I've picked you a bunch of wildflowers.

Their meaning is the same

but they're much easier to carry.

Xu Yun