On the Wisdom of Knife Wielding
The wise take
a knife,
cut the cord,
& free themselves
from the fools.
The master takes
a knife
and butters her toast;
she creates no attachments
to fools,
or the wise.
Travel with us and learn.
Jane Mooney wrote to Doris Lessing after reading Shikasta, a science fiction novel with spiritual overtones and themes. Mooney would later say,
Darkness, Light and Love
Until I have forgiven that darkness,
I cannot fully express my light.
Just let it go
Yesterday I made a mistake at work. A bad one. Nothing that couldn’t be repaired, but the repair took time and put an entire film production on hold while that repair was made. A fairly bad mistake in the film biz, and one easily avoided with a little more attention to detail, and being more attentive to a fundamental step in my job.
But I tend more to learn and hold on. Read more »
Weapons are the tools of violence
The obscenity of war
has many faces:
Some face down and dead
in awful places.
Some, thumbs up and beaming
like a boy
In some dark death machine
posed like a toy.
Read more »
Unconscious Fate
This insight alone, ultimately, is what Laozi wrote 81 chapters about in his Dao de Jing.
Except that Laozi wouldn’t quite mean ‘know the unconscious’ the way we think about it … he does not want us to know with the ‘reasonable’ consciousness of a thinker — say, a scientist — but the mindful awareness of a master.
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Watching Karma
Karma doesn’t discriminate, unfortunately. Karma isn’t a mechanism for making the world right for me by punishing others. Wishing ill on others, even those I might feel richly deserve it for wronging me, has a tendency to draw Karma’s attention. When I’ve taken a seat in the theatre to watch Karma at work, I’ll usually find myself on the stage rather than in the audience.
So I remind myself: Karma is a bitch, but only when I am.
Don Cherry, Jazz Legend, Quote
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Meditation vs Google
I don’t mean listen to my mind, nor look into it. I wrote once, with uncanny insight, “Your body knows more about your spiritual well-being than your mind does; Teach your mind to listen to it.” Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi: these practices are all about getting to know your body while quieting the mind so the mind can listen rather than create all that chatter noise.
Even when I was meditating, which was quite a number of years ago, well, I wouldn’t ever have called it “a practice”. Still, meditation calls to me, along with Tai Chi and, perhaps, yoga, other practices which enlighten us in ways Google can’t. I don’t understand what blocks me from practicing these.
But, that does not matter.
I do understand the call. It’s my body speaking to my mind.
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