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What’s to be made of sea and silt, and of obstruction of the porous and eroding?
What of an indisposed Atlantic coast, left with nothing, nothing but names natively engraved though permanence has no favor here among the drifts?
I have taken a tally of fingers in their testing the wind,
felt coercion as a passerby, to move, to follow, to heed,
yet the bottoms of my feet are rough from this directionless roaming.
I have whispered breathy sonnets in smoke-filled exhortations of wild plumes,
risen with rapid nature of currents, to seek, speak, to hope
yet even still coal is not of my makeup to shrivel just to be desired,
to be fuel, to be consumed. What’s to be made of fire and ember?
of discord?
of what is left dry?
I will not be left to burn.
- Sarah Maria
Sweet Christ discovers diamonds and sapphire in my verse
While I burn the sap of my pine house
For the praise of the ocean sun.
My worship is a blue sky and ten thousand crickets in the deep wet hay of the field
My voice is the silence under their song
The inscape is the sanctity.
It is the imprint of His wisdom and His reality in them.
The special clumsy beauty of this particular colt on this day in this field under these clouds is a holiness consecrated to God by His own creative wisdom, and it declares the glory of God.
The pale flowers of the dogwood outside this window are saints.
The little yellow flowers that nobody notices on the edge of the road are saints, looking up into the face of God, without interruption in her majestic dance.
The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another of God’s saints. There is no other like him. He is alone in his own character; nothing in the world ever did or ever will imitate God in quite the same way.
That is his sanctity.
But what about you? What about me?
- Thomas Merton
Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live.
So when you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal or bird without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless. There is an inner opening, however light, into the realm of the spirit.
- Eckart Tolle
How can you say, I have kept the law and the prophets, when it is written in the law: You shall love your neighbor as yourself? And look, many sons of Abraham, your brothers, are clothed in filth and dying of hunger, while your house is full of good things, none of which goes to them.
- Jesus
Behold the orb that shines with the rays of the sun, which the cross of salvation spreads from its height, embracing the earth, the sea, the winds and the sky.
- Esther deWaal
One look at plum blossoms opened Reiun’s eyes
old Tan recites poems
is often in his cups.
Want meaningless Zen?
Just look - at anything!
- Old Shoju
You must be prepared to endure the hardships involved in a genuine spiritual pursuit and be determined to sustain your effort and will.
The key to a successful practice is to never lose your determination.
- Dalai Lama
The essence of yoga is union or becoming one with the universe -”unified consciousness comes with the cessation of thoughts.” Quieting the mind allows the natural depth of the spirit to manifest.
The reality of oneness is greater than what is available to you through your own senses and thoughts.
- Ram Dass
Do other notice if you are absent? Do they miss your warmth, you presence?
We should radiate the presence of Christ by our compassion;
Let us be his presence to others.