Progress

I've been thinking about the U.S. presence in Iraq and the effort of so many to vote in the face of fear and danger. In 2005 we call ourselves homo sapiens sapiens. However, it seems to me that we should more appropriately be called homo faber faber. Our technology has evolved, in many instances outpacing our capacity to understand it, but our hearts are still the hearts that beat on that plane where first we stood battered by fear and cupidity.


****************************************************
1914
  
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.

For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.

Wilfred Owen

Reality

Water Lilies
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Reality

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
__1 Jn 1:1-3


 

Reality

"Faith is the most subtle thing, and it is also the most tangible. It is not imaginary. We must realize that it is reality, it is concrete, and not merely an abstract sentiment of mere individual consiousness."

__Swami B.R. Sridhar

Reality

"Emptiness:" this is one of the most subtle, elusive and widely misunderstood of all Buddhist ideas, sometimes summed up with the phrase "the unsubstantiality of all phenomena." Contrary to popular misconception, this is not a nihilistic philosophy, as it does not deny the very real existence of things -- it just asserts that things are not as they seem. The concept is that reality as we know it is illusory in many ways, and is actually empty of certain qualities we believe it to have, because our perceptions and conceptions are misleading. This is not to say that things don't really exist, but rather it is to say that they exist in a way that is vastly different to what our perceptions would lead us to believe. So in Buddhist thinking, our ordinary "reality" or "existence" is empty of certain qualities it appears to have. An example of a quality we mistakenly perceive in some things is permanence. Things are actually empty of permanence, because everything changes, and there are no exceptions to this. Even though a mountain might seem like a permanent feature of the planet, or even the universe, in fact the mountain, as well as everything else, is in a state of continuous flux and decay. It's just that we aren't aware of some of those changes which occur too slowly for us to notice. One of the most interesting examples of this principle of Impermanence is that the top of Mt Everest is made of the same stuff as the ocean floor -- limestone. That's because the top of Mt Everest once was the ocean floor! Due to the ongoing continental drift, the earth's crust is still buckling and pushing up the height of the Himilayas by a few centimetres each year. . . Other examples of apparent qualities that our existence is actually empty of are self-identity and inherent [ie, non-conditional] existence ."

__David Lourie

Freedom

Just another name for nothing left to lose...

Lacey

Lacey
Originally uploaded by vajra.

It's Cat Friday! This is my friend Suzanne's cat who is not too thrilled with cameras.

NONVIOLENCE

After a distressing disagreement with a friend tonight, I'm wondering in the abortion debate is the position of nonviolence more closely aligned with the pro-criminalization group or the pro-choice group? Nonviolence or ahimsa means not causing pain to any living being at any time through the actions of one's mind, speech or body. Which position does the most violence? One could say that the killing of the fetus is the most violent if one discounts the effect of forced child bearing, and the potential for violence perpetrated on the child after it is born.On the other hand, do I not by crimininalizing abortion cause pain to living beings? It is somehow unsatisfactory to assert that the fetus is innocent, as though the woman and the doctor who assists her are guilty in some way. What a puzzlement.

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom
Originally uploaded by vajra.

After the rain, the incredible sky.

WHAT TO DO WHEN ALL ABOUT YOU ARE LOSING IT

Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousity--these are the natural qualities by which the brahmanas work.
__Bhabavad Gita

NOBILITY

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. True nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
__Hindu Proverb

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Above Us Only Sky

Above Us Only Sky
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Today is completely different from the day I took this shot: cloudy and threatening rain. I've place the blueness on the page to warm the heart against despair.

DETERMINATION

Learn from the earth to be steadfast on your path, even though others disturb you. For the earth continues in her orbit though burdened by many creatures.
___Srimad Bhagavalam

A Winter's Day

A Winter's Day
Originally uploaded by vajra.

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.
__Paul Simon

CHARITY

Plum blossom
Originally uploaded by vajra.

What can be done for those in need? If we help them, do we not change them. And when we help them, what are our motives. Despite--or, perhaps, because of--Just Faith I think that the ideas for helping still boil down to money. Money being the easiest thing to parcel out. Much easier than time, for example. The swarms of missionaries (I can't help but think of them as swarms) preying on the grief-stricken make me sick. Actively trying to convert people in a state of complete shock and deprivation is the lowest of cons. But if they provide food and water and perhaps a safe place to rest are they not being charitable? Are they not helping?

From the Hill

From the Hill
Originally uploaded by vajra.

watch and rest
it's not the corners but
the curve
that draws you
in

ANGER

Oh You Are Coming
 
Oh you are coming, coming, coming,
How will hungry Time put by the hours till then? --
But why does it anger my heart to long so
For one man out of the world of men?

Oh I would live in myself only
And build my life lightly and still as a dream --
Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughts
And colored like stones in a running stream?

Now the slow moon brightens in heaven,
The stars are ready, the night is here --
Oh why must I lose myself to love you,
My dear?

Sara Teasdale

THE PATH

Isabella
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Six things will assure spiritual success: acting with enthusiasm, with confidence, and with patience, adopting a spiritual path, avoiding worldly company, and following in the footsteps of the saints.
__Upadeshamrita

******


"Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."

IMPEDIMENTS

In the teachings of Buddhism there are five mental and physical states which hinder progress and success in the practice of Buddhism. They are:
1. Ill – will
2. Sensual desire
3. Restlessness and worry
4. Sloth and torpor
5. Doubt
******




"There are six things which will block spiritual progress: eating or accumulating too much, working too hard for mundane rewards, speaking of useless things, following a spiritual path without understanding it or not following one at all, keeping worldy company, and being greedy for wealth and recognition."
__Upadeshamrita
******





In a letter from Ignatius Loyola to Teresa Rejadell, a Benedictine nun who sought spiritual guidance from Ignatius, there is a section where he counsels her about three tricks the enemy uses to foil a beginner’s attempts to draw closer to God. This letter is dated June 18, 1536.

"As for the first: The enemy’s general practice … is to throw up obstacles and impediments. … He tells us we will have to live a longer life than any human being ever lived amid the hardships he pictures to us. He refrains from telling us about the great comfort and consolation which our Lord is accustomed to give to such souls when the new servant of the Lord breaks through all these obstacles and chooses to suffer along with his Creator and Lord.

Then the enemy tries his second weapon: pride and vainglory. He tells the person that he possesses much goodness and holiness, and exalts him higher than he deserves.


If the servant of God resists these arrows by humbling and abasing himself and refusing to consent to the enemy’s suggestions, the enemy comes with his third weapon. This is false humility. When he sees how good and humble the Lord’s servant is … the enemy inserts the suggestion that, if the person adverts to anything that God our Lord has given him by way of deeds or resolves and desire, he sins through another species of vainglory because he speaks approvingly of himself.


This is how the enemy tries to get the person not to talk about the good things he has received from his Lord, so that he will not produce fruit in others or in himself."
******

Wedding-Ring

 
My wedding-ring lies in a basket
as if at the bottom of a well.
Nothing will come to fish it back up
and onto my finger again.
                    It lies
among keys to abandoned houses,
nails waiting to be needed and hammered
into some wall,
telephone numbers with no names attached,
idle paperclips.
          It can't be given away
for fear of bringing ill-luck.
          It can't be sold
for the marriage was good in its own
time, though that time is gone.
          Could some artificer
beat into it bright stones, transform it
into a dazzling circlet no one could take
for solemn betrothal or to make promises
living will not let them keep? Change it
into a simple gift I could give in friendship?

Denise Levertov

FRIENDSHIP

I'm lucky in my friends. Time to draw them closer after this long winter of sinking and falling and silence.

CHILDREN

Teach Your Children

You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father's hell did slowly go by,
and feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
so just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of the tender years can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
and so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children's hell will slowly go by,
and feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
so just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

___Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Evil

As the inauguration approaches the distaste, nay, abhorrence, I feel toward this administration grows, despite my efforts to ignore the event and the thought of another disastrous four years. Hannah Arendt, of course, said it much better than I could, when she wrote of the banality of evil. In fact, it's the lack of glamour, the ordinariness of the thinking, the clichéd language, the appeal to sentimental shibboleths like flag, children, homeland, that cloaks the evil understood and executed by George W. Bush and his cronies. They are not grand figures like Milton's Lucifer, nor conflicted heros like Shakespeare's Macbeth. The Busheviks are sounding brass: they do not think outside certain patterns and their rhetoric, if believed either makes thinking unnecessary or impossible or appeals to those who are willing to avoid thinking and to let others [here insert the pulling of a forelock or the tipping of the hat to one's betters] to think for them. The use of clichés and sentiment actually prevents thought, prevents analysis. The sign is substituted for the thought so often that thought becomes impossible.

"Evil be thou my good."
__John Milton

Destiny

There are certain people in my life who swim in and out of time with me. We always step into the same river although time and the water have sped on. These days, I'm often numbed to silence; these dear ones overlook and understand. We are destined, one to the other to be "in life" together; working, as it were, toward understanding, knowledge and compassion.

Today at dream group was such a day. These lovely, strong women. My friends.

 
Sonnet LXXXI
 
 
And now you're mine. Rest with your dream in my dream.
Love and pain and work should all sleep, now.
The night turns on its invisible wheels,
and you are pure beside me as a sleeping amber.

No one else, Love, will sleep in my dreams. You will go,
we will go together, over the waters of time.
No one else will travel through the shadows with me,
only you, evergreen, ever sun, ever moon.

Your hands have already opened their delicate fists
and let their soft drifting signs drop away; your eyes closed like two gray
wings, and I move

after, following the folding water you carry, that carries
me away. The night, the world, the wind spin out their destiny.
Without you, I am your dream, only that, and that is all.

Pablo Neruda

Reincarnation?

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
              To me did seem
          Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore; --
          Turn whereso'er I may,
              By night or day.
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.





William Wordsworth, Ode: Imitations of Immortality [1802-04 (1807)]   

You Were Always On My Mind

Maybe I didn't love you
Quite as often as I could have
Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have
If I made you feel second best
Girl I'm sorry I was blind

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

Maybe I didn't hold you
All those lonely, lonely times
And I guess I never told you
I'm so happy that you're mine
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

Tell me, tell me that your
Sweet love hasn't died
And give me
Give me one more chance
To keep you satisfied
satisfied

Little things I should have
Said and done
I just never took the time

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind....


__Willie Nelson

Isabella

Isabella
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Plum blossom

Plum blossom
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Eternity

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
  And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
  And Eternity in an hour
     __William Blake
from Auguries of Innocence. c. 1800

Words

No enemy, weapon, poison, or terrible illness can upset somone like harsh words. No moon, water, sandalwood paste, or cool breeze can refresh someone as sweet words can.

__Subhashitarnara

Creative

You are feeling highly sensitive today, dear Virgo, and you may find yourself wanting to rescue injured birds and take home lost dogs. Combine this nurturing, loving instinct with your action-oriented warrior drive that urges you to take charge and lead the fight. This combination of energies is very powerful! Send your loving instinct out into the world today, to do great things.



The Creative works sublime success. Furthering through perseverance.

Surrender

Surrender
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Generosity

Generosity
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Surrender Dorothy

All day I've been thinking about what it means to surrender. It's all about giving, isn't it? Giving up. Giving in. Giving over. Somehow in every act of surrender there's an element, however small, of generosity. It is this quality that I want to focus on this year. Generosity.


If I had more generosity in my being, how would it feel?

Twelfth Night

or close enough for government work. Delicious dinner: grilled salmon, scalloped potatoes. Lovely presents: earrings, calendar, book of poems, gift card, and other great loot. I'm just a happy miser.






Defense.
The unending war.
Offensive.

Virtue

Assume a virtue if you have it not.
__Wm. Shakespeare





In retrospect, it's amazing how dark Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is. Completely different from the cheerful gemütlikeit of the Scharffenberger factory: cheerful and dedicated to the rediscovery of this incredible bean.

We were all in bliss. The chocolate bread pudding! Wow! Nothing better for a stormy day. Even the bathroom smelled (beautifully) of chocolate.

The Word For the Day

CHOCOLATE!






"The people of Bellingham call themselves Bellinghamsters."
__A. Gubins

HUMILITY

Listen to nature's teachings be humbler than a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree. Giving up worldy prestige, offer all respect to other and expect none in return.
__________Sri Chaitanya

Isabella
Originally uploaded by vajra.

The little princess.

Meditation

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.
Isaiah: 55

C'est moi!

C'est moi!
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Choose your guru:

Deciduous Magnolia

Deciduous Magnolia
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Spring is a pink season.

Guidance

Direction.
Instruction.
Teaching.




disciple...

Despite my best efforts...

Which HP Kid Are You?

Moonlit Night

Tonight at Fu-chou, this moon she watches
Alone in our room. And my little, far-off
Children, too young to understand what keeps me
Away, or even remember Chang'an. By now,

Her hair will be mist-scented, her jade-white
Arms chilled in its clear light. When
Will it find us together again, drapes drawn
Open, light traced where it dries our tears?

Tu Fu

The Antidote for Greed

Behold the lilies of the field. They sow not;neither do they spin. Yet, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

The only real pornography is interior design: it's a fantasy, it's costly and takes up lots of time. I can spend endless hours "trying out" duvet covers, frames, collections...Well, at least it keeps me off the street. I regularly visit a number of blogs that are devoted to modern design. Design*Sponge is one of them: opinionated and DEVOTED to modern design. See the rant on bent ply to get a feel for what I mean.



design*sponge

I read the news today oh boy

Tsunami. One week. Yet life goes on.


"but I just had to look, having read the book..."



The shot of the Caucasian tourists sunbathing as distraught Thais pulled bodies onto the shore.

Pensée

Pensee
Originally uploaded by vajra.

To everything there is a season. And a time for every purpose under heaven.


The Guide:
A traveler journeyed through a foreign land with a map given by a friend who had been there. Each time he recognized a landmark from the map his faith grew, both in the map and in his wise friend. Have faith in one who has traveled the way before you.
-A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Rainy Day Woman

Despite the cold rain, I walked my mile. Could anything be weirder than a woman shrouded in black, waterproof hat, jacket and pants, carrying a pastel umbrella covered in hummingbirds? Nevertheless, I'm keeping my commitment to walk.


It's Sunday and truly a day of rest. The only productive thing I did all day, besides the walk, was sync all my computers. Oh, and try to get the hang of this blog thing...

Look homeward, Angel

PC210011
Originally uploaded by vajra.

The Middle Way

Today is the first day of the year. The first day of the rest of my life. A day spent with friends. Beginning a new practice. Taking the auguries. Starting this blog. Open. Expansive. New.

The word for the day is "dharma."

The outcome is open. Abundant. Generous.






Welcome.