Only Love

In the end there is only love 

and love can never die, 

can never be born, 

can never die.  

Jean Klein

Photo:  Peter Bowers

sit and be still

Sit and be still

until in the time

of no rain you hear

beneath the dry wind's

commotion in the trees

the sound of flowing

water among the rocks,

a stream unheard before,

and you are where

breathing is prayer.

Wendell Berry

Photo:  Peter Bowers

All This Nonsense

Gautama experienced a profound shift,

In the nature of his Experience of Being,

And, responding to questions about it…

Gave birth to Buddhism.

But when Gautama died, in no time at all,

There arose debate and disagreement,

About this, that, and the other…

About “true” Buddhism…

And there arose, from one View, many.

So it seems, with all great teachings,

The Master's passing, and in no time at all,

Disagreement and debate…

And the arising, from one View, of many.

How vast and varied, expressions of “truth”,

Each indicative of the utter futility,

Of describing the Indescribable…

Of capturing The Great Mystery in a jar.

All in the nature of things, it appears,

But oh, so very wearying,

Wearying enough to drive one…

Within.

Within… where long ago in distant lands,

In the experiences of those long dead,

All of this nonsense began…

Within.

Perhaps we, too, should venture There,

And enjoining both Heart and Mind,

In that Inward Journey…

Find out what all this nonsense is about.

Chuck Surface

Photo:  Peter Bowers

beauty

Be helpless, dumbfounded,

Unable to say yes or no.

Then a stretcher will come from grace

to gather us up.

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.

If we say we can, we're lying.

If we say No, we don't see it,

That No will behead us

And shut tight our window onto spirit.

So let us rather not be sure of anything,

Beside ourselves, and only that, so

Miraculous beings come running to help.

Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,

We shall be saying finally,

With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.

When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,

We shall be a mighty kindness.

Rumi

Translated by Coleman Barks

Photo:  Peter Bowers

great self

The universe must be experienced as the Great Self. 

Each is fulfilled in the other: the Great Self is fulfilled in the individual self, the individual self is fulfilled in the Great Self. Alienation is overcome as soon as we experience this surge of energy from the source that has brought the universe through the centuries.

New fields of energy become available to support the human venture. These new energies find expression and support in celebration. For in the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration.

It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself.

Thomas Berry

Photo:  Peter Bowers

unbelief

Unbelief is good medicine, undoing belief

better:

all beings free to leave their being

and enter silence.

The nameless tree with its forest

of green,

the endless expanse called

sky, beaks and

feathered wings with their urgent

conversations;

all around, the light that sets the vital body

to humming,

and the dark of re-creation:

the world held for us in promise

until it is loosened from

our thinking.

Andrew Colliver

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Silence

Silence is our real nature. What we are fundamentally, is only silence. Silence is free from beginning and end. It was before the beginning of all things. It is causeless. Its greatness lies in the fact that it

simply is.

In silence all objects have their home ground. It is the light that gives objects their shape

and form. All movement, all activity is harmonized by silence.

Silence has no opposite in noise. It is beyond positive and negative. Silence dissolves all objects. It is not related to any counterpart which belongs to the mind. Silence has nothing to do with mind. It cannot be defined but it can be felt directly because it is our nearness. Silence is freedom without restriction or center. It is our wholeness, neither inside nor outside the body. Silence is joyful, not pleasurable. It is not psychological. It is feeling without a feeler. Silence needs no intermediary.

Silence is holy. It is healing. There is no fear in silence. Silence is autonomous like love and beauty. It is untouched by time. Silence is meditation, free from any intention, free from anyone who meditates.  Silence is the absence of oneself. Or rather, silence is the absence of absence.

Sound which comes from silence is music. All activity is creative when it comes from silence. It is constantly a new beginning. Silence precedes speech and poetry and music and all art. Silence is the home ground of all creative activity. What is truly creative is the word, is Truth. Silence is the word. Silence is Truth.

The one established in silence lives in constant offering, in prayer without asking, in thankfulness, in continual love.





Jean Klein

Photo:  Peter Bowers

teaching silence

I teach silence

in all languages

through intensive examination of:

the starry sky,

the Sinanthropus’ jaws,

a grasshopper’s hop,

an infant’s fingernails,

plankton,

a snowflake.

Wislawa Szymborska

Classifieds

photo:  Peter Bowers

Thanking

I think as long as you are a human being 

there is thanking, gratitude for being, 

not for being human, 

but for being

what you fundamentally are.

Thanking for the sake of thanking.

Jean Klein

Transmission of the Flame 

Photo: Peter Morgan

thanks giving

Wonder, as the child of mystery, is a natural source of prayer.
One of the most beautiful forms of prayer is the prayer of appreciation.  This prayer arises out of the recognition of the gracious kindness of creation.  We have been given so much.  We could never have merited or earned it.  When you appreciate all you are and all you have, you can celebrate and enjoy it.  You realize how fortunate you are.  Providence is blessing you and inviting you to be generous with your gifts.  You are able to bless life and give thanks to God.  The prayer of appreciation has no agenda but gracious thanks.  Nothing is given to you for yourself alone.  When you receive some blessing or gift, you do it in the name of others; through you, they, too, will come to share in the kindness of Providence.




John O'Donohue
from Eternal Echoes
Photo: Peter Morgan

Lake and Maple

I want to give myself

utterly

as this maple

that burned and burned

for three days without stinting

and then in two more

dropped off every leaf;

as this lake that,

no matter what comes

to its green-blue depths,

both takes and returns it.

In the still heart that refuses nothing,

the world is twice-born—

two earths wheeling,

two heavens,

two egrets reaching

down into subtraction;

even the fish

for an instant doubled,

before it is gone.

I want the fish.

I want the losing it all

when it rains and I want

the returning transparence.

I want the place

by the edge-flowers where

the shallow sand is deceptive,

where whatever

steps in must plunge,

and I want that plunging.

I want the ones

who come in secret to drink

only in early darkness,

and I want the ones

who are swallowed.

I want the way

the water sees without eyes,

hears without ears,

shivers without will or fear

at the gentlest touch.

I want the way it

accepts the cold moonlight

and lets it pass,

the way it lets

all of it pass

without judgment or comment.

There is a lake,

Lalla Ded sang, no larger

than one seed of mustard,

that all things return to.

O heart, if you

will not, cannot, give me the lake,

then give me the song.

Jane Hirshfield

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Cream, Two Sugars, Please

Within… Fullness, Completion, and Bliss,

Without… She prefers milk chocolate to dark.

Within… nothing can be added, nothing taken away,

Without… everything comes to Her, and goes.

Within… Unmoving, Ineffable Sublimity,

Without… She experiences ever changing manifestation.

Within… joy and sorrow have never been,

Without… She Shines, even in the midst of tears.

Within… time and space have never existed,

Without… She is born, grows old, and dies.

Within… within and without never were,

Without… within and without ever are.

Within… no preferences, propensities, proclivities,

Without… cream, two sugars, please.

Within… The Sun Shines,

Without… All is Illumined.

Chuck Surface