caigentan

Cultivating virtue is a matter of cultivating the most minute details. Bestowing kindness is a matter of bestowing on those who cannot repay you. Caigentan

Cold Mountain or Han Shan

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Synopsis: "Cold Mountain" is a film portrait of the Tang Dynasty Chinese poet Han Shan, a.k.a. Cold Mountain. Recorded on location in China, America and Japan, Burton Watson, Red Pine and the legendary Gary Snyder describe the poet's life and tell poems. A trickster, Han Shan wrote poems for everyone, not just the educated elite. A man free of spiritual doctrine, it is unclear whether or not he was a monk, whether he was a Buddhist or a Taoist, or both. It is not even certain he ever lived, but the poems do.

NYC cab driver

A NYC Taxi driver wrote: I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. ‘Just a minute’, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90′s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940′s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. ‘Would you carry my bag out to the car?’ she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. ‘It’s nothing’, I told her.. ‘I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.’ ‘Oh, you’re such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, ‘Could you drive through downtown?’ ‘It’s not the shortest way,’ I answered quickly.. ‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice. I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. ‘I don’t have any family left,’ she continued in a soft voice..’The doctor says I don’t have very long.’ I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. ‘What route would you like me to take?’ I asked. For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing. As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, ‘I’m tired. Let’s go now’. We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair. ‘How much do I owe you?’ She asked, reaching into her purse. ‘Nothing,’ I said ‘You have to make a living,’ she answered. ‘There are other passengers,’ I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.She held onto me tightly. ‘You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’ I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut.It was the sound of the closing of a life.. I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day,I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver,or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away? On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life. We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

paradox of our age

THE PARADOX OF OUR AGE We have bigger houses but smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement; more experts, but more problems; more medicines, but less healthiness; We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies then ever, but have less communication; We have become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are times of fast foods but slow digestion; Tall men but short character; Steep profits but shallow relationships. It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room. The 14th Dalai Lama

dao de jing

Credible words are not eloquent; Eloquent words are not credible. The wise are not erudite; The erudite are not wise. Dao De Jing, Lao Tzu

giving life

The meeting of the butterfly and the flower, the meeting of one person and another: in these is our karmic affiliation. We must give it life, and the doing of this needs our wisdom. Shodo Harada Roshi A Staff for the Mind at One Drop Zen: Click here

moon is in my hands

I play with flowers And their fragrance clings to my clothes. I scoop up water And the moon is in my hands. Master Kido

memory

Memory is a slippery customer.
You never know if you can trust it.

Jennie Erdal, The missing shade of blue

Elizabeth

I should tell you a story,
The night is already so late -
Do you want to torment me,
Lovely Elizabeth?

I write poems about that,
Just as you do;
And the entire history of my love
Is you and this evening.

You mustn't be troublesome,
And blow these poems away.
Soon you will listen to them,
Listen, and not understand.

Herman Hesse

don't lie to yourself

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

Fyodar Dostoyevsky

enantiodromia

I use the term enantiodromia for the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time.

C.G. Jung

Holes inside - Joe Brooks

When all that you've tried, leaves nothing but holes inside,
It seems like you're wired, to stay here held in time,
Cos nothing seems to change, oh no.
No nothing's gonna change, at all.
I can see it in your face, the hope has gone away.

If you hold tight, shadows will be lost in the light.
Oh cos sometimes, fate and your dreams will collide.
So don't walk away from me,
Don't walk away from me,
Don't walk away from me.

Your feet are stuck, no they cannot move,
Don't tell me that they're glued,
They should've far from.
At home, at ease but give sometime to breathe

But nothing seems to change, oh no.
No nothing's gonna change, at all.
I can see it in your face, the hope has gone away.

But if you hold tight, shadows will be lost in the light.
Oh cos sometimes, fate and your dreams will collide.
So don't walk away from me,
Don't walk away from me,
Don't walk away from me.

That everthing will be ok,
I know that it's so easy to say,
But the pain inside will fade,
Please tell me that you'll stay.

If we hold tight, shadows will be lost in the light.
Oh cos sometimes, fate and your dreams can collide.
When all that you've tried, leaves nothing but holes inside.

Joe Brooks

Aristophanes on love

Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the indenture of a man, and he is always looking for his other half... And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and will not be out of the other's sight, as i may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together: yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment. Suppose Hephaestus, with his instruments, were to come to the pair who are lying side by side and say to them, "What do you people want of one another?" They would be unable to explain. And suppose further, that when he saw their perplexity he said, "Do you desire to be wholly one; always day and night to be in one another's company, for it this is what you desire, I am ready to melt you into one and let you grow together....." There is not a man of them who when he heard the proposal would deny or would acknowledge that this meeting and melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, was the very expression of his ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.

Aristophanes

Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse

"Time and the world, money and power belong to the small people and the shallow people. To the rest, to the real men belongs nothing. Nothing but death."
"Nothing else?"
"Yes, eternity."
"You mean a name, and fame with posterity?"
"No, Steppenwolf, not fame. Has that any value? And do you think that all true and real men have been famous and known to posterity?"
"No, of course not."
"Then, it isn't fame. Fame exists in that sense only for the schoolmasters. No, it isn't fame. It is what I call eternity. The pious call it the kingdom of God. I say to myself: all we who ask too much and have a dimension too many could not contrive to live at all if there were not another air to breathe outside of this world, if there were not eternity at the back of time, and this is the kingdom of truth. The music of Mozart belongs there and the poetry of your great poets. The saints, too, belong there, who have worked wonders and suffered martyrdom and given a great example to men. But the image of every true act, the strength of every true feeling, belongs to eternity just as much, even though no one knows of it or sees it or records it or hands it down to posterity... Ah, Harry, we have to stumble through so much dirt and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only guide is our homesickness.


Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf

Jung on the unconscious

When people let their unconscious speak, they always tell us the most important things of their intimate selves - even the smallest details appears to have meaning.

Carl Jung

Kafka - axe for the frozen sea

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.

― Franz Kafka

A Dream Play - August Strindberg

The Poet: It seems to me that all this has happened before --
The Daughter: So it seems to me also.
The Poet: Perhaps I have dreamt it.
The Daughter: Or put it in a poem, perhaps.
The Poet: Or put it in a poem.
The Daughter: Then you know what poetry is.
The Poet: Then I know what dreaming is.
The Daughter: It seems to me that we have said all this to each other before, in some other place.
The Poet: Then you may soon figure out what reality is.
The Daughter: Or dreaming!
The Poet: Or poetry!

A Dream Play, August Strindberg

real but hidden story

Art reveals and expresses our real but hidden story: that which lies under the surface, in the realm of feeling, unavailable to the naked eye; that which still resonates, though long past, through memories or fantasies or the thoughts that course through our mind.

What literature teaches us about life, Arnold Weinstein

Jung on wisdom

Our knowledge has increased
but not our wisdom.

Carl Jung

Gurdjieff

All that I’ve hoarded is lost. All that I gave is mine.

~Gurdjieff

eternal recurrence - Jung

Just a moment ago we were given over to the noisy ephemeral life of the present, when something very far away and strange appears to us, which turns our attention to things of another order; a glimpse away from the incoherent multiplicity of the present to a higher coherence in history. Very likely it would suddenly occur to us that on this spot where we now run busily to and fro a similar life and activity prevailed two thousand years ago in somewhat other forms; similar passions moved mankind, and man was likewise convinced of the uniqueness of his existence.

Carl Jung, The psychology of the unconscious

TEDxMaribor - Neel Burton - The Anatomy of Melancholy: Can depression be...

art criticism

.. what is the use of art-criticism? Why cannot the artist be left alone, to create a new world if he wishes it, or, if not, to shadow forth the world which we already know, and of which, I fancy, we would each one of us be wearied if Art, with her fine spirit of choice and delicate instinct of selection, did not, as it were, purify it for us, and give to it a momentary perfection. It seems to me that the imagination spreads, or should spread, a solitude around it, and works best in silence and in isolation. Why should the artist be troubled by the shrill clamour of criticism? Why should those who cannot create take upon themselves to estimate the value of creative work? What can they know about it? If a man's work is easy to understand, an
explanation is unnecessary. . . .

Oscar Wilde, The critic as artist: with some remarks on the importance of doing nothing

those who were seen dancing - Nietzsche

And those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music.

Nietzsche

practice of patience

The practice of patience protects us from losing our composure. In doing that it enables us to exercise discernment, even in the heat of difficult situations. It gives us inner space. And within that space we gain a degree of self-control, which allows us to respond to situations in an appropriate and compassionate manner rather than being driven by our anger and irritation.

HH Dalai Lama

the infinite, the immeasurable

"We moderns, we half barbarians, we are in the midst of our bliss only when we are most in danger. The only stimulus that tickles us is the infinite, the immeasurable..."

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Ajahn Chah on the mind

"About this mind... In truth there is nothing really wrong with it. It is intrinsically pure. Within itself it's already peaceful. That the mind is not peaceful these days is because it follows moods. The real mind doesn't have anything to it, it is simply (an aspect of) Nature. It becomes peaceful or agitated because moods deceive it. The untrained mind is stupid. Sense impressions come and trick it into happiness, suffering, gladness and sorrow, but the mind's true nature is none of those things. That gladness or sadness is not the mind, but only a mood coming to deceive us. The untrained mind gets lost and follows these things, it forgets itself. Then we think that it is we who are upset or at ease or whatever.
But really this mind of ours is already unmoving and peaceful... really peaceful! Just like a leaf which is still as long as no wind blows. If a wind comes up the leaf flutters. The fluttering is due to the wind -- the 'fluttering' is due to those sense impressions; the mind follows them. If it doesn't follow them, it doesn't 'flutter.' If we know fully the true nature of sense impressions we will be unmoved.
Our practice is simply to see the Original Mind. So we must train the mind to know those sense impressions, and not get lost in them. To make it peaceful. Just this is the aim of all this difficult practice we put ourselves through."

Ajahn Chah

Read selected dhamma talks by Ajahn Chah A Taste of Freedom

Lao Tzu - thirty spokes

Thirty spokes converge at the wheel's hub,
to a hole that allows it to turn.
Clay is shaped into a vessel,
to enclose an emptiness that can be filled.
Doors and windows are cut into walls,
to provide access to their protection.
Though we can only work with what is there,
use comes from what is not there.

Lao Tzu

samsara

Samsara: entangled, ensnared, enamored.

(with apologies to Nietzsche)

who overcomes himself his freedom finds Goethe

All force strives forward to work far and wide
To live and grow and ever to expand;
Yet we are checked and thwarted on each side
By the world's flux and swept along like sand:
In this eternal storm and outward tide
We hear a promise, hard to understand:
From the compulsion that all creatures bind,
Who overcomes himself, his freedom finds.

Goethe

Aung San Suu Kyi Q&A On Buddhism

On beliefs and virtues:

where you stumble

It is by going down into the abyss
that we recover the treasure of life.
Where you stumble,
there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

first time i ever saw your face

The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love,
To the dark and the empty skies.

The first time ever I kissed your mouth
And felt your heart beat close to mine
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command.

And the first time ever I lay with you
I felt your heart so close to mine
And I knew our joy would fill the earth
And last till the end of time my love
It would last till the end of time my love

The first time ever I saw your face, your face,
your face, your face

Sung by Roberta Flack

desire and suffering

Desire and dukkha — are inseparable concomitants. At the moment desire springs up it creates in us a sense of lack, the pain of want. To end this pain we struggle to fulfill the desire. If our effort fails, we experience frustration, disappointment, sometimes despair. But even the pleasure of success is not unqualified. We worry that we might lose the ground we have gained. We feel driven to secure our position, to safeguard our territory, to gain more, to rise higher, to establish tighter controls. The demands of desire seem endless, and each desire demands the eternal: it wants the things we get to last forever. But all the objects of desire are impermanent. Whether it be wealth, power, position, or other persons, separation is inevitable, and the pain that accompanies separation is proportional to the force of attachment

Desire breeds fear and sorrow. Renunciation gives fearlessness and joy.


Bhikkhu Bodhi

John Steinbeck on love

There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable.

John Steinbeck

Albert Nobbs Trailer Official 2012 [HD] - Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska

I Ching

Contemplation of the divine meaning underlying the workings of the universe gives to the man who is called upon to influence others the means of producing like effects. This requires that power in inner concentration which religious contemplation develops in great men of faith. It enables them to apprehend the mysterious and divine laws of life, and by means of profoundest inner concentration they give expression to these laws in their own persons. Thus a hidden spiritual power emanates from them, influencing and dominating others without their being aware of how it happens.

I Ching, Wilhelm

The Dalai Lama's Talk to Westerners at the Kalachakra in Bodh Gaya

Pico Iyer on the joy of quiet

None of this is a matter of principle or asceticism; it’s just pure selfishness. Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” - Pico Iyer

the superior man

The superior man sets his life in order
And examines himself.

I Ching

wished it wasn't a dream

Woke up from a dream
and wished it wasn't.

quantum entanglement

"Indeed, the new study is just the latest to show how quantum mechanics applies in real-world, macroscopic systems. " Read full article at Scientific American

francis thompson

“All things by immortal power,
Near and Far
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star.”

Francis Thompson

RSA Animate - The Divided Brain

true love

True love never dies,
it only gets stronger with time.

untold love story of Aung San Suu Kyi

Read here at:
at The Telegraph

i have loved you a thousand years

A Thousand Years

Heartbeats fast
Colors and promises
How to be brave
How can I love when I’m afraid to fall
But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow
One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
What’s standing in front of me
Every breath
Every hour has come to this
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed that I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more
One step closer
One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more
And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more

Christina Perri

Review of Owen Flanagan's "The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism naturalized"

Book review at The Existential Buddhist blog:

Owen Flanagan [1], is my favorite living analytical philosopher because he writes clearly, deals with topics (theory of mind, ethics, what it means to live well) that I actually care about, is what smart would be if smart was on steroids, and has a wonderfully dry sense of humor. He’s a Naturalist, which is to say, he eschews supernatural explanations, dislikes dualism, and is disinterested in questions that are unfalsifiable by either logic or empirical observation. He’s not a Buddhist, but he has a keen interest in (and sufficiently deep understanding of) Buddhism, as well as recent efforts to test Buddhist claims using scientific methods. He wonders whether Buddhism can be tamed sufficiently to be of interest to Naturalists. He also wonders, once one has stripped Buddhism of everything supernatural or dualistic, whether what remains is recognizably Buddhist, and whether it is philosophically deep, interesting, or useful.

Continue reading here at The Existential Buddhist

Bhikkhu Bodhi on craving

By its own nature craving is insatiable, and thus the more our personal lives are governed by the assumption that the gratification of craving is the way to happiness, the more we are bound to reap disappointment.


Bhikkhu Bodhi, Walking even amidst the uneven

HH Dalai Lama on Dealing With Anger

Herman Hesse on love

If I know what love is,
it is because of you.

Herman Hesse

Bhikkhu Bodhi's audio and video teachings

Click here

Happy birthday.

footfalls echo in the memory

Footfalls echo in the memory
down the passage which we did not take
towards the door we never opened
into the rose garden. My words echo
thus, in your mind.

Four Quartets, T S Eliot

no longer a need to say it

So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years-
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres—
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it.

Four Quartets, T S Eliot

in a dark time

In a Dark Time by Theodore Roethke

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood--
A lord of nature weeping to a tree,
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,
That place among the rocks--is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is--
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

cyclic existence

...as attachment develops for one desire, ends, and then develops for another desire.

painting

Painting’s analogy to skin isn’t new:
the painted surface is a hide where battle-scars remain as a record of its experiences.

Hanneline Rogeberg

life goes on

Oh when the day is gone
Oh when the nights are long
Life goes on
Life goes on

Gym Class Heroes

Mind and Life XXIII - Session 9 - Ecology, Ethics and Interdependence

true interiorization

The deepest subjective experiences are also the most universal, because through them one reaches the original source of life. True interiorization leads to a universality inaccessible to those who remain on the periphery.

E. M. Cioran - On the Heights of Despair

Mind and Life XXIII - Session 1 - Ecology, Ethics and Interdependencece

Helen Mayberg at Nobel Conference 47

George Harrison - While my guitar gently weeps antology

knocking heads

That's when you know you're in love.

A Tribute to Love: Steve and Laurene Jobs
A most intimate kind of touch.

A Tribute to Love Steve and Laurene Jobs

The Power of Forgiveness - The Dalai Lama at the University of Limerick

not apart

a part, not apart.

love is an end unto itself - Tagore

For love is an end unto itself. Everything else raises the question "Why?" in our mind, and we require a reason for it. But when we say, "I love", then there is no room for the "why"; it is the final answer in itself. Tagore - The Problem of Self

an eternity with you

When everything is held still, it feels like an eternity with you.

Tagore - ruins of the years

One sad voice has its nest among the ruins of the years. It sings to me in the night - "I loved you." Tagore

the in-between state

We are told about the pain of chasing after pleasure and the futility of running from pain. We hear also about the joy of awakening, of realizing our interconnectedness, of trusting the openness of our hearts and minds. But we aren't told all that much about this state of being in-between, no longer able to get our old comfort from the outside but not yet dwelling in a continual sense of equanimity and warmth.
Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It's the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access our inner strength.
Yet, it seems reasonable to want some kind of relief. If we can make the situation right or wrong, if we can pin it down in any way, then we are on familiar ground. But something has shaken up our habitual patterns and frequently they no longer work. Staying with volatile energy gradually becomes more comfortable than acting out or repressing it. This open-ended tender place is called bodhichitta. Staying with it is what heals. It allows us to let go of our self-importance. It's how the warrior learns to love.
Pema Chodron, The Places That Scare You

Path of Purification or Visuddhimagga pdf

The Path of Purification or Visuddhimagga translated by Bhkkhu Nanamoli now available online in pdf.

Dalai Lama audio and video | The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama audio and video | The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama

drop in the unfathomable abysss

However deep one's knowledge of abstruse philosophy, it is like a piece of hair flying in the vastness of space; however important one's experiences in things worldly, it is like a drop of water thrown into an unfathomable abyss. - D T Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Matter of Heart: Carl Jung [FULL DOCUMENTARY]

duende

“Hemingway gave us a haunting clue to it [charisma],” she replied. “In his obsession with the Spanish bullfights, he spoke of the lust of the crowd and its desire to feel something special, a raw authenticity, even in so brutal a setting. What he mentions is the hush that would come over the crowd at the entrance of the toreadors. The people could sense the difference between those who did it for the fame, the paycheck, and those who had the old spirit: the nobility, bravery, heart, ‘duende.’ I believe this also happens in the theater. The crowd can sense the one with the authentic message, the connection to the truth.”

-Soprano Aprile Millo

at that hour when all things have repose

AT THAT HOUR WHEN ALL THINGS HAVE REPOSE - James Joyce

At that hour when all things have repose,
O lonely watcher of the skies,
Do you hear the night wind and the sighs
Of harps playing unto Love to unclose
The pale gates of sunrise?

When all things repose do you alone
Awake to hear the sweet harps play
To Love before him on his way,
And the night wind answering to antiphon
Till night is overgone?

Play on, invisible harps, unto Love,
Whose way in heaven is aglow
At that hour when soft lights come and go,
Soft sweet music in the air above
And in the earth below.

Wittgenstein - Sea of Faith - BBC documentary (Part 1 of 2)

"Silence tells no lies. Silence does not deceive."

self

The answer lies within.

spiritual life

The spiritual life can be accurately represented by a diagram of a large acute triangle divided into unequal parts... At the apex of the topmost division there stands sometimes only a single man. His joyful vision is like an inner, immeasurable sorrow. Those who are closest to him do not understand him and in their indignation, call him deranged: a phone or a candidate for the madhouse. Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art

true love

True love overcomes time and distance.
If it doesn't, then it never was.

Anton Zeilinger Double Split Experiment

Prof Anton Zeilinger Shows the Double-slit... by blindwatcher

perfect losing

The greedy man who is fond of his fish stew has no compunction in cutting up the fish according to his need. But the man who loves the fish wants to enjoy it in the water; and if that is impossible, he waits on the bank, and even if he comes back home without a sight of it he has the consolation of knowing that the fish is all right. Perfect gain is the best of all; but if that is impossible, then the next best gain is perfect losing.

Tagore, The home and the world

no fire like passion

There is no fire like passion,
there is no grip like hatred,
there is no net like ignorance,
there is no river like craving.


Dhammapada

Bridging the Faith Divide

HH Dalai Lama's talk on 17 July, 2011 at the University of Illinois.

Dalai Lama on what surprises him the most

When The Dalai Lama was asked what surprised him most, he said, “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

Cherokee legend

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

realization of Self

This Self is not realizable by study nor even by intelligence and learning. The Self reveals its essence only to him who applies himself to the Self. He who has not given up ways of vice, who cannot control himself, who is not at peace within, whose mind is distracted, can never realize the Self, though full of all learning in the world.

Katha Upanishad

this truth is to be lived

This truth is to be lived,
it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth...


Hui Neng

Dr B Alan Wallace Part 1

Other parts can be found on youtube.

arising and cessation

Whatsoever is of a nature to arise,
all that is of a nature to cease


Buddha

Harry's Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life: The Dalai Lama

HH 14th Dalai Lama lecture at Stanford.

Harry's Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life: The Dalai Lama

HH 14th Dalai Lama lecture at Stanford.

Bodhidharma

The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma
translated by Red Pine aka Bill Porter

Read here

A Talk for World Peace

Birthdays

meditation on death

"The disciple who devotes himself to this contemplation of death is always vigilant, takes no delight in any form of existence, gives up hankering after life, censures evil doing, is free from craving as regards the requisites of life, his perception of impermanence becomes established, he realizes the painful and soulless nature of existence and at the moment of death he is devoid of fear, and remains mindful and self-possessed. Finally, if in this present life he fails to attain to Nibbana, upon the dissolution of the body he is bound for a happy destiny."

Visuddhimagga

Ideas in Action - HH Dalai Lama

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

the cord of communion

"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you - especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I have a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that the cord of communion will snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, you'd forget me."

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre