Guides on A Well-Lit-Path

Building a True Home

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There is an assumption that we hold as we approach relationship. Or: an assumption that holds us, often so deep inside that it seems to be the fabric of our lives, woven into us, inextricable. Perhaps it arises from our earliest days after birth, when what we need is provided for us: our food, our shelter, our warmth and clothing - for most of us, all provided, after some fashion or another, by our mother and our father. Being nurtured is a “given”.

Thich Nhat Hahn and the Energy of Anger

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In 1995, one of America’s respected spiritual leaders, Ram Dass, interviewed Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh about anger, about violence, and about the simple ways (not easy, but simple) in which each of us may live better, supporting a peaceful home, peaceful neighborhood, and peaceful nation. While it lasts, the interview from YouTube is linked below. I have transcribed the text, which can be found after the video.

RD You spoke the other day about holding anger, and emotions like that, in a tender way. Could you speak a little bit more about that?

Inuksuit

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The inuksuit born of the weight in our hands as stone after stone they choose to stand their lives take form in the foundry of the heart they rise and arise on the bank of the fjord to wait in the wind for the one who returns they speak without speaking but when? but when? lighthouse without light that shines on the bay poem without words unwritten by hand sentinel to a moment that refuses death the spirit of the stone leans toward the south the spirit of my stone will not close its eyes as some leave their hearts and new stones arise our village of inuksuit grows and subsides they reach toward the sun and they bow to the tide.	Inuksuit sont nés du poids dans les mains pierre en pierre ils choisissent de se lever leurs vies en formant dans la fonderie d’un coeur ils se lèvent et se réveillent à la rive du fjord à attendre dans le vent pour lequel qui revient ils parlent sans parler -- mais lorsque? -- lorsque? un phare sans lumière que illumine la baie poème sans mots pas écrit à main sentinelle d’un moment que refuse de mourrir l’esprit de la pierre penche vers le sur l’esprit de ma pierre ne ferme pas ses yeux comme quelque-uns lèguent ses coeurs et pierres nouvelles se lèvent notre village de inuksuit s’agrande et diminue ils atteignent au soleil et s’inclinent aux marées.

Some inuksuit were used by those hunting caribous, when the caribous were coming the young ones were fed milk not to make noise. The land without trees was called The Place for Feeding by the elders.

Many inuksuit together are called nalluni. We placed nalluni where we would want the caribous to swim before they reach the end of the lake or reach the other side.

Almost all the land had inuksuit; all of them were useful. Some inuksuit were on the way where caribou herds were walking, beside lakes or at the end of big lakes.

When they start to swim, we will go to them by kayak. Before they reach the shore, they will be hunted with harpoon (kapuutinut) This was the way to get many caribous. In the summer the skin and the fur were good and used for clothes. The meat was buried underground, that way it would be the food for the winter, it was like that in the past.

Some inuksuit were there for people not to get lost when they were moving around; for example, inuksuit were followed to go to a lake or anywhere.

On lakes where there are fish, there are rocks who point to the lake. The two rocks are on top of the flat rock point to the fishing whole. We should try to fish where it is pointing. But we don’t even notice it because we don’t know what our ancestors did. Back then they built these pointers to a lake where there is fish. We never worry about them, we just hunt when we are camping.

All the big places have an inuksuit. We use them to recognize where we are. Even to this day, they are used. Inuksuit building was taken seriously by our ancestors, they were built to be used. If there were no inuksuit, many people would get lost, especially in the blizzard. When we see an inuksuit we are thankful and we feel more confident.

The Lovers (Notes on a Zen Tarot)

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

As metaphor (if you will) in the ancient system of Indian chakras, we humans wander through our days - some due east or due west, others in a sinuous trail to all the compass points - with a multiplicity of selves, meeting each event with मूलाधार survival instinct, स्वाधिष्ठान creative drive, मणिपूर reaching willpower, अनाहत passion and love, विशुद्ध communication and connection, आज्ञा wisdom, and सहस्रार relationship to the divine.

i awaken, with a thought

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

hold it gently in my hand, that my attention not disturb it the mind is a dry riverbed; it drinks the sound of water a dream is dispelled by a voice; a sudden flash of bedroom lights causes the lovers to pull apart, ashamed of their beauty a flower that is plucked can be shared, but no longer lives a friend asked me to consider her work: instead I consider myself her work asked me to consider World: inclusive, I consider Self to be complete, the spark must touch the wood and to be completed, the wood will be consumed so love will have a purpose and a consequence and action will find meaning out of love I draw out filaments of thought as a spider draws out gossamer from himself and hangs a thread in the middle of the air first he catches dew, then food ~ in the moment of surrender the lovers can create - the universe and Universal meet the fingertip of created will be touched by the fingertip’s Creator through this embrace life races the truest love is not for self, but Self and drawn like gossamer from the body is written like a shining Word mid-air the child of this union holds the world so love takes form in action in whispers, touches, lingered glances slow, then faster, then wilder dances where thought becomes no thinking spark touches wood and the fire chases electric Spirit licks the bodies’ fibers and burns them into ash in the void some new thing takes shape ~ our little human actions will be empty unless they are conceived in this embrace unless my call to effort comes of love it will not convince for every being is a gossamer thread and written from the same stuff as the sun knows when it greets the morning or when it faces night in every action ask your Self: does it reflect my love? my love, my love… the one pure act you have is giving birth to something that is greater than yourself

Happiness and the Art of Being

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Michael James, on the practice of Sri Ramana Maharshi. From the Introduction to Happiness and the Art of Being.

Happiness lies deep within us, in the very core of our being. Happiness does not exist in any external object, but only in us, who are the consciousness that experiences happiness. Though we seem to derive happiness from external objects or experiences, the happiness that we thus enjoy in fact arises from within us.

Whatever turmoil our mind may be in, in the centre of our being there always exists a state of perfect peace and joy, like the calm in the eye of a storm. Desire and fear agitate our mind, and obscure from its vision the happiness that always exists within it. When a desire is satisfied, or the cause of a fear is removed, the surface agitation of our mind subsides, and in that temporary calm our mind enjoys a taste of its own innate happiness.

Happiness is thus a state of being – a state in which our mind’s habitual agitation is calmed. The activity of our mind disturbs it from its calm state of just being, and causes it to lose sight of its own innermost happiness. To enjoy happiness, therefore, all our mind need do is to cease all activity, returning calmly to its natural state of inactive being, as it does daily in deep sleep.

Therefore to master the art of being happy, we must master the art and science of just being. We must discover what the innermost core of our being is, and we must learn to abide consciously and constantly in that state of pure being, which underlies and supports (but nevertheless remains unaffected by) all the superficial activities of our mind: thinking, feeling and perceiving, remembering and forgetting, and so on.

The art of just being, remaining fully conscious but without any activity of the mind, is not only an art – a practical skill that can be cultivated and applied to produce an experience of inexpressible beauty and joy – but also a science – an attempt to acquire true knowledge by keen observation and rigorous experiment. And this art and science of being is not only the art and science of happiness, but also the art and science of consciousness, and the art and science of self-knowledge.

The science of being is incredibly simple and clear. To the human mind, however, it may appear to be complex and abstruse, not because it is in any way complex in itself, but because the mind which tries to comprehend it is such a complex bundle of thoughts and emotions – desires, fears, anxieties, attachments, long-cherished beliefs and preconceived ideas – that it tends to cloud the pure simplicity and clarity of being, making what is obvious appear to be obscure.

The Bloodless Revolution

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Robin Chase, Founder of ZipCar and MIT-trained scientist, on transportation and communication networks.

It is a far greater challenge to have and to be without, to open the hands, than it is to live without and be without. The river of life sees scarcity, and through those eyes, the hands that claim a prize reluctantly release. The fingers must be pried apart. Spiritually it is the greater challenge. “It is harder for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of heaven…”.

Liquid Planet

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

… and so all follows water’s path, from cloud to peak, from heights to valleys, from valleys to the sea; follows through channels that life itself creates, in currents at times quickened at times slowed by degrees of its descent. The selfsame wave that rises, falls; the selfsame lightning separating droplet from the whole, sees droplet join the torrent, follow current with the urging of this gravity-constant hand until, to end a sinuous trackless trail, again it joins the whole.

A prayer

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

In simple faith the kingdom is won. What money buys is bread alone. What money buys are the works of women and the works of men; with a simpler faith you win the spirit’s coin.

One teacher said, the heart can see the kingdom on earth, if the guise of maturity is stripped away. If the fears and angers we don like dust-filled clothing is cast away, we will be as naked of mistrust as young children. Then our actions are pure; then the whole world is ahead of us, and every beauty will have its day.

Sri Aurobindo: the Genius of India

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

A beautiful (public?) video from the Aurobindo Press in Pondicherry. My gratitude and acknowledgement to Richard Pettinger (WriteSpirit.net) for finding this entry on YouTube, and sharing with us.

"[Ancient India] saw that the complexity of the Universe could not be explained in the present terms of Man, or seen by his superficial sight: that there were other powers behind; other powers within Man himself, of which he is normally unaware. That he is conscious only of a small part of himself; that the invisible always surrounds the visible; the suprasensible, the sensible; even as infinity always surrounds the finite. She saw, too, that Man has the power of exceeding himself…" ~ Sri Aurobindo, early 1900s

The great silence

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Silence is usually understood to be something negative, something empty, an absence of sound, of noises. This misunderstanding is prevalent because very few people have ever experienced silence.

All that they have experienced in the name of silence is noiselessness. But silence is a totally different phenomenon. It is utterly positive. It is existential, it is not empty. It is overflowing with a music that you have never heard before, with a fragrance that is unfamiliar to you, with a light that can only be seen by the inner eyes.

Becoming Human

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

There are so many useful goals for a life. There seems to be one for every occasion, all so very useful. To be a success, to raise fine children, to travel the world, to follow pleasure where it leads, to save souls…

My goals have been high, now they are not so lofty: to write one beautiful poem; to avoid hurting those I love; to smile more often; to become human before I die.

That something greater exists

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

I find in my readings that many of the experiences I have had, many of the thoughts to which I have been exposed – to which I have exposed myself – along my seeking path, have been spoken before. Some of them in ancient texts, whose context and imagery demand a certain patience and quiet of mind to embrace; others whose proponents are recent, almost contemporaries. These voices have of course fed many seekers and writers, and the most current theories and practices usually owe a great debt to a long lineage of similar travelers, each one standing on the well-lit path of someone who had spoken before.

The Bhagavan

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Rama, an Italian friend we have made, lived at the ashram for five years. He now lives in and runs a retreat center in Costa Rica, Montana Azul, the blue mountain, with his wife and partner Adelaida.

Rama related this story of the Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi: the young man came to the mountain in 1900, at the age of sixteen, after a near-death experience. The near-death was not a physical death, but the sudden and complete realization that his body would perish – a complete understanding which left him immobilized for some time. He understood the central question of his existence – perhaps of all of our existence – and left home to study it deeply, left the noise and intrusions of the mundane life to dedicate himself to meditation, to insight into this life.

Sri Aurobindo: Spirit in Action

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

“Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for education and in 1890 went up to King’s College, Cambridge. Here he stood in the first class in the Classical Tripos and also passed the final examination for the Indian Civil Service. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in Baroda College. During this period he also joined a revolutionary society and took a leading role in secret preparations for an uprising against the British Government in India.

“After the Partition of Bengal in 1905, Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he soon became one of the leaders of the Nationalist movement. He was the first political leader in India to openly put forward, in his journal Bande Mataram, the ideal of complete independence for the country. Prosecuted twice for sedition and once for conspiracy, he was released each time for lack of evidence.

“Sri Aurobindo had begun the practice of Yoga in 1905 in Baroda. In 1908 he had the first of several fundamental spiritual realisations. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in order to devote himself entirely to his inner spiritual life and work. During his forty years in Pondicherry he evolved a new method of spiritual practice, which he called the Integral Yoga. Its aim is a spiritual realisation that not only liberates man’s consciousness but also transforms his nature. In 1926, with the help of his spiritual collaborator, the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Among his many writings are The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo left his body on 5 December 1950.”

~ from sriaurobindoashram.org

Who Am I?

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0000

“The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five cognitive sense-organs, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and enjoying, I am not; the five vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is endowed only with the residual impressions of objects, and in which there are no objects and no functionings, I am not.”

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?