Crashingly Beautiful
June 2013
“When you go abroad, don’t turn around at the frontier.”
—Pythagoras
Sit for a short time; then take a break, a very short break of about thirty seconds or a minute. But be mindful of whatever you do, and do not lose your presence and its natural ease. Then alert yourself and sit again. If you do many short sessions like this, your breaks will often make your meditation more real and more inspiring; they will take the clumsy, irksome rigidity, solemnity, and unnaturalness out of your practice and bring you more and more focus and ease.
Gradually, through this interplay of breaks and sitting, the barrier between meditation and everyday life will crumble, the contrast between them will dissolve, and you will find yourself increasingly in your natural pure presence, without distraction.
Then, as Dudjom Rinpoche used to say: “Even though the meditator may leave the meditation, the meditation will not leave the meditator.”
–Sogyal Rinpoche. Rigpa: Glimpse of the Day
“A lifetime may not be long enough to attune ourselves fully to the harmony of the universe. But just to become aware that we can resonate with it - that alone can be like waking up from a dream.”
—David Steindl-Rast courtesy of my dear friend, Whiskey River.
The Gypsy Camp
Rod McKuen & Anita Kerr
Rod McKuen and Anita Kerr and San Sebastian Strings | “The Gypsy Camp” from the album, The Sea.
Sanya Sugagaki
Katsuya Yokoyama
Katsuya Yokoyama | “Sanya Sugagaki” from Art of the Shakuhachi, 1999
“Only now I know
that power–greater than storms–
a heart rending-awe
silencing all the pines
at nightfall on the mountain.” —Emperor Fushima (1265-1317) translated by Sam Hamill: The Poetry of Zen, (Shambhala Books, Boston, 2004)
that power–greater than storms–
a heart rending-awe
silencing all the pines
at nightfall on the mountain.” —Emperor Fushima (1265-1317) translated by Sam Hamill: The Poetry of Zen, (Shambhala Books, Boston, 2004)
“Settling, white dew
does not discriminate,
each drop its home.” —Nishiyama Sōin (1604-1682) translated by Sam Hamill: The Poetry of Zen, (Shambhala Books, Boston, 2004)
does not discriminate,
each drop its home.” —Nishiyama Sōin (1604-1682) translated by Sam Hamill: The Poetry of Zen, (Shambhala Books, Boston, 2004)
“Where you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.”
—Cormac McCarthy, The Road (via liquidnight)
