when the weather grew cold
she came to me
trailing freshly
fallen leaves
crisp from morning frost
with hot tea and
warm bread
the sunlight golden on her
wind-blown head
her eyes all bright with
new welcome and
desire
I clung to her like moss
on a stone
inseparably grown with
ages of time
“you’ll always be mine”
she whispered
and the trees bowed
in solemn witness
to her words
and my heart bent
with those ancient woods
toward her
in the Fall
you fell
like a majestic oak
like Hadrian’s Sycamore
you were cut by indifference
to your majesty.
it’s not fair
that fate refused to
spare me
this awful day.
but how can i complain
when others feel
more pain and
loss?
Master: Wake up!
Student: I’m tired
Master: You have yet to live a single day, how can you be tired?
—
One day while walking along the green bank of the lake I asked my Master, why is it so hard to be enlightened?
He only smiled.
—
One day during morning meal the Master watched us with eyes half closed. He didn’t touch his food.
“Why aren’t you eating Master?” asked a sister.
“I was experiencing deep gratitude for this new day, and for this delicious food,” he said.
The rest of us slowed our eating and bowed to him in thanks for the lesson.
—
“There are 4 pillars of Being Meditation,” the Master said.
“One is the awareness of Being itself, that is space/time, the fabric of Being.
Two, is the ten thousand things, but especially living and sentient beings.
Three, is consciousness.
Four, is transience, the folding and unfolding of Being. These are the key to true meditation practice.”
—
Once when walking through a nearby town we observed a man kicking a dog. Someone asked the Master, “Why does he kick the dog?”
“There are many reasons why men harm others. Ultimately it is because he has forgotten the miraculous nature of existence. If he had remembered, he never would have harmed that other being.”
I saw a woman today at the local coffee shop. She had a very large diamond ring on her finger and drove an expensive car. I held the door for her. She seemed nice. While we waited for our order she asked the employee if she could have hers faster because she had an appointment to get to. There were perhaps 5 of us waiting. The employee agreed to finish the woman’s order first. When the drink was handed to her, she turned and stormed out saying, “It’s not even a fucking grande like I asked, you fucking bitch.” Then she stood in the parking lot on her phone for some time before driving away.
It is possible to have compassion for such a woman, without relinquishing the sense of injustice we all feel when hearing the story. Justice and compassion are not incompatible.
I suspect that if she could practice even a little Being meditation her perspective might change, or at least her anger be tempered.
Many times such anger is habitual, having been reinforced by an unchecked expression of it many times before.
Perhaps her ego felt entitled. Do all our egos not feel entitled?
Through Being meditation our ego slowly (but sometimes in a flash) realizes its place in the cosmos. What destruction will we cause until then?
Sky in Your Eyes 