Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. I feel the embrace of freedom in

a thousand bonds of delight.

  Thou ever pourest for me the fresh draught of thy wine of various colors and

fragrance, filling this earthen vessel to the brim.

   My world will light its hundred different lamps with thy flame and place

them before the alter of thy temple.

   No, I will never shut the doors of my senses. The delight of sight and

hearing and touch will bear thy delight.

   Yes,all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy, and all my desires

ripen into fruits of love.

                                       Tagore

                                      

The whole serenity prayer . .

       Prayer for Serenity

 

God grant me serenity to accept

the things I cannot change, courage

to change the things I can and wisdom

to know the difference. Living one day

at a time, enjoying one moment

at a time. Accepting hardship as a

pathway to peace. Taking, as Jesus

did, this sinful world as it is, not

as I would have it. Trusting that You

will make all things right if I

surrender to Your will. So that I

may be reasonably happy in this

life and supremely happy with You

forever in the next. Amen.

               Reinhold Niebuhr 

Spirit food

Spirit food is so hard to find,

No one seems to have the time.

 

Most people are afraid of death, except for those

who know that death is only a transition.

Once you know right down to your toes

you are spirit;

Life gets easier,

Death is a crossing,

death poems are fun.

 

Life is difficult 

To Press us.

...not to fear,

But to consciousness

 

You are a spirit in 

In one organic Earth Suit

Hungry to Fly.

(Enter Hungry Ghost),

by shedding your body

to go naked.

 

Personally I am more afraid of pain then death, which to

me is a gasp and a blink. Ram Dass used to say heaven & hell

are right here on earth. When you're in the flow, thats

heaven and when you're stuck, thats hell. I once had a dream

of dying. I was tumbling thru endless space, disoriented and

afraid and suddenly the face of  the Dali Lama was up close

to my face and as I tumbled his face stayed in front of mine

and I felt safe and secure. This went on for a long long time,

then suddenly again I was standing on the plains of Tibet 

outside of Llasa where festivities were happening all around me.    

Is Life the Incurable Disease?

Is life the incurable disease?

The infant is born howling

and we laugh,

the dead man smiles

and we cry,

resisting the passage,

aways resisting the passage,

that turns life

into eternity.

 

Blake sang alleluias

on his deathbed.

My own grandmother,

hardly a poet at all,

smiled

as we'd never seem her smile

before.

Perhaps the dress of flesh

is no more than a familiar garment

that grows looser as one diets

on death, and perhaps we discard it

or give it to the poor in spirit,

who have not learned yet

what blessing it is

to go naked.

                    Erica Jong

                 

 

"There's only one way...."

If you think there is only one way to solve a problem, you

are in a trap. If you think there is only one way to live, you

are in a trap. If you think there is only one way to heal, you

are an addict, etc. etc. If you choose a way because it

seems to fit you better at this time,and you do not 

condemn other ways,you are free, because the freedom

to choose is the greatest gift we have ever been given.

 

Those of us who have found a way that is harmful to

other people or to ones self can upgrade their

addictions to preferences and by doing so, begin to be

fully human- aware of choices we are free to make.

 

Some folks think addictions to substances like drugs,

coffee, food, alcohol, sugar, sex, money, are inferior

to addictions like power, prestige, competition, 

religion,

gossip,controlling others, infantalizing others,

manipulating others, or the many other variations.

The DMS diagnostic manual for psychiatry

 will tell you which ones are currently 

considered 'sick'. The ones most common

are the addictions to 'being right' and to

 'being the-one-who-knows' or 'knowing the 

one- who-knows'.

 

You can always tell an addicted person by their

refusal to believe there are other ways, to get the

same thing,or in combination,or refuse to believe

there are other wonderful ways to be..

 

There is one simpler way to tell an addicted 

person..by the way they look down on other

folks' addictions. 

 

 

Psychotherapy-The 12 steps-Religion

What do the 12 steps, religion, and psychotherapy have in common?

1. Self-knowledge : Working on oneself towards self-realization or
God consciousness.

2. Confessional: Telling someone about our imperfections confidentially and
seeing our own part in difficulties (doing one's own inventory.)

3. Deflation of Ego: Elimination of egocentricity, arrogance,
disruptive emotions,etc.
Ram Dass says ,"enlightenment is the ego's
greatest disappointment."

4. Replacement with humility, love and soul connectedness with others,
awareness that we are ALL one...no one and nothing in earth or heaven is excluded.

this moment is all . . .

What an assignment....living in the moment without
yearning for something else, without clinging to feelings
or people , even letting go of people we love. Making this
moment be everything and then letting it go, no matter how
wonderful or fullfilling or exciting.

William Blake wrote:

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy
As it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise."

death poems . .

There's a Zen Buddhist sect where the monks have to write a
death poem on their death bed. Here are some samples : some of
these are koans, some are haikus.

I have seen moon and blossoms; now I go
To view the last and loveliest: the snow.
Rippo

When I leave
these eyes of flesh, I wish to see
the lotus.
Tesshu

Such is the world's way
in fall..the willow
sheds its' leaves.
Tanehiko

Till now
I thought that only others die--
that such happiness
should fall to me!
Ryoto

I go back to the void
where frost and snow
won't bother me.
Tojaku

Seen from outside creation,
earth and sky aren't worth
a box of matches.
Vajiro

One monk forgot to do his death poem and shortly
after his brother whispered in his ear to remind him, he
leaped out of bed and wrote at the desk, returned to the
bed and died. This is what he wrote:

Birth is thus
Death is thus.
Verse or no verse.
What's the fuss.

fear talk . . .

"Jonah and Jacob lay in their beds, thinking.
"Jacob," asked Jonah across the dimness, " are you ever afraid
of the dark?"
"The darkness illuminates our fears," said Jacob.
"How can the darkness be a light?"
"It shows you your fears," said Jacob.
"Then it is a trap!" stated Jonah, sitting up in his bed.
"We are the trap," said Jacob.
"How is that?" asked the boy.
"All of us have caught ourselves being afraid," said Jacob.
"All of us, at some point, have taken our fears to bed
with us."
"But, Jacob, even you?"
"All of us take our fears to bed with us," said Jacob.
"Especially when we grow up."
"Then how do grown-ups ever fall asleep?"
"By remembering," said Jacob, closing his eyes, "that
even our fears need their rest."
Noah benShea

thorns . . . .

The same old village: here

 where I was born,

Every flower I touch . . a

    hidden thorn.

 

            Issa