All In the Heart

"it's all in the heart, she said.

open it and you get magic.

close it and you don't.

it's not rocket science, she laughed,

but it will get you to another space and

time

in a heart beat."

 

~terri st cloud

Accept That You Are Accepted

You are accepted. 

You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, 

and the name of which you do not know. 

Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. 

Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. 

Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything;

do not intend anything. 

Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!

-Paul Tillich, 'The Shaking of the Foundations'

Love

Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills--
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.

Then he wants to use himself and things
So that they stand in the glow of ripeness.
It doesn't matter whether he knows what he serves:
Who serves best doesn't always understand.

~Czeslaw Milosz

Beyond Belief

"Beyond the beliefs of any one religion, there is the truth of the human spirit. Beyond the power of nations, there is the power of the human heart. Beyond the ordinary mind, the power of wisdom, love, and healing energy are at work in the universe. When we can find peace within our own hearts, we contact these universal powers. This is our only hope." -Tarthang Tulku

Courtesy Lisa Bonner

Time

Attachment

According to Buddhist psychology, most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for, attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities. The pursuit of the objects of our desire and attachment involves the use of aggression and competitivenessThese mental processes easily translate into actions, breeding belligerence. Such processes have been going on in the human mind since time immemorial, but their execution has become more effective under modern conditions. What can we do to control and regulate these poisons—delusion, greed and aggression? For it is these poisons that are behind almost every trouble in the world.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Sacred Vessels

“it was when she dipped deep inside,

and scooped out her very essense –

and then stretched her arms outwards

with her hands full of stars –

it was when those stars passed thru

her fingers and out to the world –

it was then she understood she was a sacred vessel,

that we are all sacred vessels –

with the entire universe flowing thru us –

and all we need to do is open and be”

~terri st cloud

In the beginning...

Only Breath

ONLY BREATH

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.
~ Rumi

Resurrection

Long, long, long ago;
Way before this winter’s snow
First fell upon these weathered fields;
I used to sit and watch and feel
And dream of how the spring would be,
When through the winter’s stormy sea
She’d raise her green and growing head,
Her warmth would resurrect the dead.

Long before this winter’s snow
I dreamt of this day’s sunny glow
And thought somehow my pain would pass
With winter’s pain, and peace like grass
Would simply grow.  (But) The pain’s not gone.
It’s still as cold and hard and long
As lonely pain has ever been,
It cuts so deep and fear within.

Long before this winter’s snow
I ran from pain, looked high and low
For some fast way to get around
Its hurt and cold.  I’d have found,
If I had looked at what was there,
That things don’t follow fast or fair.
That life goes on, and times do change,
And grass does grow despite life’s pains.

Long before this winter’s snow
I thought that this day’s sunny glow,
The smiling children and growing things
And flowers bright were brought by spring.
Now, I know the sun does shine,
That children smile, and from the dark, cold, grime
A flower comes.  It groans, yet sings,
And through its pain, its peace begins.

~Mary Ann Bernard