May 30, 2009

Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore


Gift of love 2
 

I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life. 
What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like a bud in the forest at midnight? 
When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that I was no stranger in this world, 
that the inscrutable without name and form had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother. 
Even so, in death the same unknown will appear as ever known to me. 
And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well. 
The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away 
to find in the very next moment its consolation in the left one.


***

Thou art the sky and thou art the nest as well. 
Oh, thou beautiful, there in the nest it is thy love that encloses the soul with colors and sounds and odors. 
There comes the morning with the golden basket in her right hand bearing the wreath of beauty, silently to crown the earth. 
And there comes the evening over the lonely meadows deserted by herds, through trackless paths, carrying cool draughts of peace in her golden pitcher from the western ocean of rest.
But there, where spreads the infinite sky for the soul to take her flight in, reigns the stainless white radiance. 
There is no day nor night, nor form nor color, and never never a word.


***

Keep me fully glad with nothing. 
Only take my hand in your hand.
In the gloom of the deepening night take up my heart and play with it as you list. 
Bind me close to you with nothing.
I will spread myself out at your feet and lie still. 
Under this clouded sky I will meet silence with silence. 
I will become one with the night clasping the earth in my breast.
Make my life glad with nothing.        
The rains sweep the sky from end to end. 
Jasmines in the wet untamable wind revel in their own perfume. 
The cloud-hidden stars thrill in secret. 
Let me fill to the full of my heart with nothing but my own depth of joy.


***

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is Your same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. 
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.


***

Senses

Deliverance is not for me in renunciation. 
I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight.
You ever pour for me the fresh draught of Your wine of various colors and fragrance, filling this earthen vessel to the brim.
My world will light its hundred different lamps with Your flame and place them before the altar of Your temple.
No, I will never shut the doors of my senses. 
The delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear Your delight.
Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy, and all my desires ripen into fruits of love.


***

The Journey

The morning sea of silence broke into ripples of bird songs; 
and the flowers were all merry by the roadside; 
and the wealth of gold was scattered through the rift of the clouds 
while we busily went on our way and paid no heed. 

We sang no glad songs nor played; 
we went not to the village for barter; 
we spoke not a word nor smiled; 
we lingered not on the way. 
We quickened our pace more and more as the time sped by. 

The sun rose to the mid sky and doves cooed in the shade. 
Withered leaves danced and whirled in the hot air of noon. 
The shepherd boy drowsed and dreamed in the shadow of the banyan tree, 
and I laid myself down by the water 
and stretched my tired limbs on the grass. 

My companions laughed at me in scorn; 
they held their heads high and hurried on; 
they never looked back nor rested; 
they vanished in the distant blue haze. 

They crossed many meadows and hills, 
and passed through strange, far-away countries. 
All honor to you, heroic host of the interminable path! 
Mockery and reproach pricked me to rise, 
but found no response in me. 

I gave myself up for lost 
in the depth of a glad humiliation 
---in the shadow of a dim delight. 

The repose of the sun-embroidered green gloom 
slowly spread over my heart. 
I forgot for what I had traveled, 
and I surrendered my mind without struggle 
to the maze of shadows and songs. 

At last, when I woke from my slumber and opened my eyes, 
I saw thee standing by me, flooding my sleep with thy smile. 
How I had feared that the path was long and wearisome, 
and the struggle to reach thee was hard!


***

Let all the strains of joy 
mingle in my last song -- 
the joy that makes the earth flow over 
in the riotous excess of the grass, 
the joy that sets the twin brothers, 
life and death, dancing over the wide world, 
the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, 
shaking and waking all life with laughter, 
the joy that sits still with its tears 
on the open red lotus of pain, 
and the joy that throws everything it has 
upon the dust, and knows not a word.



***

Yes, I know, this is nothing but thy love,
O beloved of my heart --
this golden light that dances upon the leaves, 
these idle clouds sailing across the sky, 
this passing breeze leaving 
its coolness upon my forehead.

The morning light has flooded my eyes --
this is thy message to my heart.
Thy face is bent from above, 
thy eyes look down on my eyes, 
and my heart has touched thy feet.


***

Is it beyond thee to be glad with the gladness of this rhythm? 
to be tossed and lost and broken in the whirl of this fearful joy?

All things rush on, they stop not, they look not behind, no power can hold them back, they rush on.

Keeping steps with that restless, rapid music, seasons come dancing and pass away—colours, tunes, and perfumes pour in endless cascades in the abounding joy that scatters and gives up and dies every moment.


***

Maya  


That I should make much of myself and turn it on all sides,
thus casting colored shadows on thy radiance
---such is thy Maya. 
Thou settest a barrier in thine own being
and then callest thy severed self in myriad notes.
This thy self-separation has taken body in me. 
The poignant song is echoed through all the sky in many-coloued tears
and smiles, alarms and hopes; waves rise up and sink again,
dreams break and form.
In me is thy own defeat of self. 
This screen that thou hast raised is painted with innumerable figures
with the brush of the night and the day.
Behind it thy seat is woven in wondrous mysteries of curves,
casting away all barren lines of straightness. 
The great pageant of thee and me has overspread the sky.
With the tune of thee and me all the air is vibrant,
and all ages pass with the hiding and seeking of thee and me. 


***

Innermost One 

He it is, the innermost one,
who awakens my being with his deep hidden touches. 
He it is who puts his enchantment upon these eyes
and joyfully plays on the chords of my heart
in varied cadence of pleasure and pain. 
He it is who weaves the web of this maya
in evanescent hues of gold and silver, blue and green,
and lets peep out through the folds his feet,
at whose touch I forget myself. 
Days come and ages pass,
and it is ever he who moves my heart in many a name,
in many a guise, in many a rapture of joy and of sorrow. 


***

Ocean of Forms 

I dive down into the depth of the ocean of forms,
hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless. 
No more sailing from harbor to harbor with this my weather-beaten boat.
The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves. 
And now I am eager to die into the deathless. 
Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss
where swells up the music of toneless strings
I shall take this harp of my life. 
I shall tune it to the notes of forever,
and when it has sobbed out its last utterance,
lay down my silent harp at the feet of the silent. 


***

Sit Smiling 


I boasted among men that I had known you.
They see your pictures in all works of mine.
They come and ask me, `Who is he?'
I know not how to answer them. I say, `Indeed, I cannot tell.'
They blame me and they go away in scorn.
And you sit there smiling. 
I put my tales of you into lasting songs.
The secret gushes out from my heart.
They come and ask me, `Tell me all your meanings.'
I know not how to answer them.
I say, `Ah, who knows what they mean!'
They smile and go away in utter scorn.
And you sit there smiling. 


***

Mind Without Fear 

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; 
Where knowledge is free; 
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls; 
Where words come out from the depth of truth; 
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; 
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; 
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--- 
Into that
 heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. 


***

Journey Home 

The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it long. 
I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light, and pursued my
voyage through the wildernesses of worlds leaving my track on many a star and planet. 
It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself,
and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune. 
The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own,
and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end. 
My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said `Here art thou!' 
The question and the cry `Oh, where?' melt into tears of a thousand
streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance `I am!' 


***

Who is This? 

I came out alone on my way to my tryst.
But who is this that follows me in the silent dark? 
I move aside to avoid his presence but I escape him not. 
He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger;
he adds his loud voice to every word that I utter. 
He is my own little self, my lord, he knows no shame;
but I am ashamed to come to thy door in his company. 


Teachings: Dalai Lama Quotes

http://www.bamboointhewind.org/teaching_dalaiquotes.html

May 27, 2009

YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 4




YouTube - Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason With Pema Chodron - Part 1




The Point of Existence- transformations of narcissism in self-realization

Rating:★★★★★
Category:Books
Genre: Other
Author:A. H. Almaas
In this book, the author explores the underlying spiritual understanding of narcissism. He presents a detailed map of the steps involved in working through barriers that prevent us from recognizing the most essential nature of our true identity.

Definitely not a book that you just breeze through and forget. Every chapter is detailed, deep and meticulously well thought out, and you want to read many things over and over. An absolute classic in understanding psychology, the most potentially helpful book for anybody, whether they are on a spiritual path or not.

May 26, 2009

One truth, just in many different languages :). Fascinating trip into a mind of an aware physicist!


Physicist and consciousness researcher, Thomas Campbell, discusses the nature of reality in terms of consciousness -- this video logically and scientifically explains the normal and the paranormal, mind and matter, physics and metaphysics, philosophy and theology.





May 22, 2009

All that will ever make sense

Sickened by sense, enraged by reason
Did we die when we were born
Did we abandon and undo the magic of being
Mindlessness is a game and all games are generated by players
You minx
So futile
Make-believe sand-castles on the ocean floor, hurricanes on moons and microphones
We put a veil on a shadow and trust a flickering hair on our heads to show us where the wind comes from and where it will go
Faith in the unfaithful will make you faithless
Head on a pillow makes a perfect match but only for the light-headed
Freedom loves ambiguity
Lies love the astute
Mesmerizing flies are disease-filled and fertile
To follow is to die, to swallow is to burn in desire and fake hope
Greyness is vast and solacing to most but not to the ones who are alive
Even love and truth are permeable to a smoky sexy voice
To hate is to fail to see
To fail to see is to believe that the world was created in seven days and only for humans
Only for mortals perfection is just a word
Are you a mortal
Are you sure
The conception of time makes perfection a word while our souls will rot in neglect
Pride will catch you and press your face against your own burning heart and infection of thought
Rectangular in shape and close to apology
Jesting in nature
Most unusually tragic
A formidable effort to hide
Despair
A recipe for release my arse
Throw it all up cause nothing lasts and everything is shot at constantly with guns and stupidity
All I want to do is to feel and to love and to see and to say
But what is there to say if nothing can be said that is true
Truth is meaningless to us is it not seen and tasted and sworn to by all
On a point of madness you can feel the click
You can see the future and it will scare you to death
Flowers from heaven sink into your brain as rabbits rise up from hell
But all I think is this
If the snakes from the unconscious mind shed their skin and roll over needles
If the birds devour their wings for the lack of worms in the ground and fall flat
And butterflies wake up for the second time and then die of depression
And we as humans get all our dreams that we ever dreamt and all the answers to questions we asked
Then the sun will rise and set and rise again
And no-one will be there taking pictures
The miracle has gone
And so has our heart
Let me be, let me lie in the utter hopelessness and I can learn how the world can be changed
Throw a stone in the fabric of life and watch the ripples unwind your very soul
And stop, for gods sakes stop
the winding of clock
it doesn't matter
don't give time a time of day
it will deceive you and confuse you and you know better
you are already better than you hope to become
To be human IS the perfect condition
To be at war with ourselves at all times means to be at peace with chaos
Though there is no proof of anything meaningful in life
Only words and conceptions and opinions and sermons
Only our hope in hopelessness
Belief in the unbelievable
Struggle in the mundane
And substitutes of love
For we know what love is and isn't
Isn't that the greatest gift
All the people in the streets are walking around with the hugest diamond in their pockets and they don't even realise
We die, we loose, we cry, we bruise
But we love, we still love
And always will
Stand still me heart for you rock my boat and I love it when you do
I love it when you kill me day by day
You kill me with your openness and capacity to love
Your vulnerability and trust in goodness unbound
So comfort yourself and wish upon a star
Cause you are one and so am I
May the mornings shine on the emblem of pain and solitude
All that will ever make sense is the chaos
And the screams of new-born children
They don't lie
They have no teeth to lie through

May 16, 2009

YouTube - 12 Transforming Problems - Discovering Buddhism




Awakening the limitless potential of your mind, achieving all peace and happiness. This thirteen-part teaching series touches on all the vital points of Tibetan Buddhism as presented in the Gelug Lineage of the Dalai Lama's tradition. Hosted by Richard Gere and Keanu Reeves, the series includes teachings with some of the great Tibetan lamas of our time as well as experienced Western teachers. Each video also contains personal interviews with student practitioners. A clear and accessible presentation of the Mahayana path for both beginners and experienced students, the series is an excellent resource whether it is used on its own, in conjunction with the Discovering Buddhism courses taught at FPMT centers, or with Discovering Buddhism at Home: An FPMT Correspondence Program. It is also a perfect gift for friends and family who may want to learn more about Buddhism.

YouTube - Dalai Lama - Exclusive Interview 2 (TWO) on april 8th




YouTube - Dalai Lama - Exclusive Interview 1 (ONE) on april 8th




YouTube - 'Serving the Emerging Paradigm' - Rev Michael Beckwith




YouTube - Eckhart Tolle on Being Yourself




May 13, 2009

The Wind

The Wind


I am a pipe the wind blows through,

Be still, it is the wind that sings.

The course of my life and the things that I do

And the seeming false and the seeming true

Are the tune of the wind that neither knows

Good and ill, nor joys and woes.

But the ultimate awe is deeper yet

Than song or pipe or storm;

For pipe and tune are the formless wind

That seemed for a while to take form.

And words are good to escape from words

And strife to escape from strife,

But silence drinks in all the waves

Of song and death and life.



Arthur Osborne

May 11, 2009

"The broken people"


Reporter Ramita Navai and producer Siobhan Sinnerton travel through India exposing the horrific plight of the country's 170 million Dalits: literally "the broken people", and previously called "the untouchables"; who are at the bottom of India's caste system and are some of the most oppressed people on Earth. Economic growth has done little to improve the Dalits' lot; despite legislation, they still form 60 per cent of all those below the poverty line. Now, as Unreported World reports, Dalits are starting to fight for political power in an Indian civil rights movement.









Backpacking: Budget Independent Travel - Advice, guide & packing help

http://travelindependent.info/
One of the best sites for everything an independant traveller needs to know before hitting the road.

Watch Planet Earth online episodes streaming full for free | Free Online Episodes

http://www.freeonlineepisodes.net/watch-planet-earth-online-episodes-streaming-full-for-free/#more-179
David Attenbourgh's "Planet Earth" series