“Not doing, just being. Aware and watchful every second. And at the same time the abyss between what you are for others and what you are for yourself. The feeling of dizziness and the continual burning need to be unmasked. At last to be seen through, reduced, perhaps extinguished. Every tone of voice a lie, an act of treason. Every gesture false. Every smile a grimace. The role of wife, the role of friend, the roles of mother and mistress, which is worst? Which has tortured you most? Playing the actress with the interesting face? Keeping all the pieces together with an iron hand and getting them to fit? Where did it break? Where did you fail? You were left with your demand for truth and your disgust. Kill yourself? No—too nasty, not to be done. But you could be immobile. You can keep quiet. Then at least you’re not lying.” Persona, Ingmar Bergman (1966) Thank you, septembrist.

“Not doing, just being. Aware and watchful every second. And at the same time the abyss between what you are for others and what you are for yourself. The feeling of dizziness and the continual burning need to be unmasked. At last to be seen through, reduced, perhaps extinguished. Every tone of voice a lie, an act of treason. Every gesture false. Every smile a grimace. The role of wife, the role of friend, the roles of mother and mistress, which is worst? Which has tortured you most? Playing the actress with the interesting face? Keeping all the pieces together with an iron hand and getting them to fit? Where did it break? Where did you fail? You were left with your demand for truth and your disgust. Kill yourself? No—too nasty, not to be done. But you could be immobile. You can keep quiet. Then at least you’re not lying.”

Persona, Ingmar Bergman (1966)

Thank you, septembrist.

(Source: noruweinolove)

In a stroll through the temple grounds the two friends came across monks seated in meditation. Deeply impressed by the modesty, the concentration, and the repose they displayed, Xavier asked the abbot, “What are these monks doing?” The abbot laughed and said, “Some are calculating the contributions received from their followers during the past months. Others are thinking about how they might get better clothing and personal care. Still others are thinking of vacation and pastimes. In short, no one is thinking of anything important.

Heinrich Dumoulin: Ninshitsu Roshi, the abbot of Fukushoji in Kagoshima, talking to his friend Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary.

Thank you, Whiskey River & Monkey Mind.

René Daumal (16 March, 1908 - 1944, tuberculosis) was a French writer, philosopher and poet. He was born in Boulzicourt, Ardennes, France. In his late teens his avant-garde poetry was published in France’s leading journals, and in his early twenties, although courted by André Breton co-founded, as a counter to Surrealism and Dada, a literary journal, “Le Grand Jeu” with three friends, collectively known as the Simplists, including poet Roger Gilbert-Lecomte . He is known best in the U.S. for two novels A Night of Serious Drinking and the allegorical novel Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing both based upon his friendship with Alexander de Salzmann, a pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff. ********* René Daumal: Poem One cannot stay on the summit forever -One has to come down again.So why bother in the first place? Just this.What is above knows what is below -But what is below does not know what is aboveOne climb, one sees-One descends and sees no longerBut one has seen!There is an art of conducting one’s self inThe lower regions by the memory ofWhat one saw higher up.When one can no longer see,One does at least still know. Thank you, i12bent & lumpypudding. I had forgotten it was Daumal’s birthday today. More Daumal material here.

René Daumal (16 March, 1908 - 1944, tuberculosis) was a French writer, philosopher and poet. He was born in Boulzicourt, Ardennes, France.

In his late teens his avant-garde poetry was published in France’s leading journals, and in his early twenties, although courted by André Breton co-founded, as a counter to Surrealism and Dada, a literary journal, “Le Grand Jeu” with three friends, collectively known as the Simplists, including poet Roger Gilbert-Lecomte . He is known best in the U.S. for two novels A Night of Serious Drinking and the allegorical novel Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing both based upon his friendship with Alexander de Salzmann, a pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff.

*********

René Daumal: Poem

One cannot stay on the summit forever -
One has to come down again.
So why bother in the first place? Just this.
What is above knows what is below -
But what is below does not know what is above

One climb, one sees-
One descends and sees no longer
But one has seen!

There is an art of conducting one’s self in
The lower regions by the memory of
What one saw higher up.

When one can no longer see,
One does at least still know.

Thank you, i12bent & lumpypudding. I had forgotten it was Daumal’s birthday today.

More Daumal material here.

A Musical Bodhisatva: Photo by a Japanese photographer, from a 1966 portfolio of photos of “The Byodo-in.” Courtesy of Ohio State University. I think I got this link from couleurs. If so, thank you.

A Musical Bodhisatva: Photo by a Japanese photographer, from a 1966 portfolio of photos of “The Byodo-in.” Courtesy of Ohio State University. I think I got this link from couleurs. If so, thank you.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
e. e. cummings (via libraryland)
How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams. Thank you, hungryhearted, randomlottery & saturnrising
Todd Webb, Wall in Warminster, Wiltshire, England, 1982. Thank you, melisaki.

Todd Webb, Wall in Warminster, Wiltshire, England, 1982. Thank you, melisaki.

We are, I know not how, double within ourselves.
Montaigne from Sarah Bakewell: How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (via johnsparker)
One instant is eternity; eternity is the now. When you see through this one instant, you see through the one who sees.
Wu Men (Hui-k’ai) (1183-1260), English version by Stephen Mitchell. Thank you to The Fernwood Zendo.
When you notice that you’re taking something personally, be aware of that, because chances are—it’s not personal.
Jon Kabat-Zinn in discussing the crux of the Buddha’s teachings lying in the instruction to not cling to I, me, or mine… (via sharanam)