En amour, il est plus facile de renoncer à un sentiment que de perdre une habitude.

The term of death

Between the falling leaf and rosebud's breath;
the bird's forsaken nest and her song
(And this is all the time there is for Death);
The worm and butterfly- it is not long!

Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt

Kakua was the first Japanese to study Zen in

China, and while he was there he accepted the

true teaching.

When he was in China he did not travel. He lived

in a remote part of a mountain and meditated

constantly.

Whenever people found him and asked him to

preach, he would say a few words and then move

to another part of the mountain where he could be

found less easily.

When Kakua returned to Japan, the emperor

heard about him and asked him to come to court

to preach Zen for the edification of himself and his

subjects.

Kakua stood before the emperor in silence.

He then produced a flute from the folds of his

robes, blew one short note, bowed politely, and

disappeared.

No one ever knew what became of him.

The real teaching cannot be taught but still it is

called a teaching. It cannot be taught but it can be

shown, indicated. There is no way to say it

directly, but there are millions of ways to indicate it

indirectly.

Lao Tzu says that the truth cannot be said, and

the moment you say it you have already falsified it.

The words, the language, the mind, are utterly

incapable. It defies reason, it defies the

head-oriented personality, it defies the ego. It

cannot be manipulated. It is utterly impossible for

reason to encounter it...

OSHO

"The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before."

Albert Einstein

A prayer - Sara Teasdale

When I am dying, let me know

That I loved the blowing snow

Although it stung like whips;

That I loved all lovely things

And I tried to take their stings

With gay unembittered lips;

That I loved with all my strength,

To my soul's full depth and length,

Careless if my heart must break,

That I sang as children sing

Fitting tunes to everything,

Loving life for its own sake.

"A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes."

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

The Practice of Compassion

Some mistakenly think that zen soars high above any need for compassion. Don't be one of them. Since I have compassion for you, I'll try to set you straight on this point right now! Open your minds:

Universally in Buddhism, and Zen as well, we find the ideal of Compassion firmly entrenched. Compassion is personified in Buddhism by the bodhisattva Kannon, who is the "Hearer of Cries" of all the suffering in the world. When we too decide to listen and become receptive to the ubiquitous suffering, we become another ear of the Hearer. When we are further moved to compassion via this receptivity, we then become as an arm of the bodhisattva, ready to turn compassion into action, utter the compassionate word, or simply send our loving kindness radiating toward all beings.

Compassion provides us with a concrete way to make the world a better place, and this alone is entirely worth its development. Everyone recognizes the innate value of kindness. This is not news. After death, a compassionate person is lauded: "Her kindness touched all who met her" "His compassion healed many wounds." Very seldom do we read on a tombstone how clever someone was, or how rich or successful! Kindness, however, seems to touch a universal chord in us all. It's hard to imagine a world devoid of the simple, powerful trait of compassion.

In Zen, wisdom (prajna) is often made out to be king. But if that is true, then it is compassion that is the sole queen of zen, and no less important at all. Perhaps that is why Avalokiteshvara morphed from male to female over the course of centuries, in order to express this steady, unwavering compassion akin to a mother's love for her child. Strength and wisdom are completed by the addition of compassion and are not necessarily positive traits by themselves.

The pure act of compassion provides us with a powerful, twofold means of practice. It is both a means of turning emptiness into form by giving (dana) toward all sentient beings while realizing at the same time the Buddhist principle that there is no set rigid identity; and it is also a means of turning form into emptiness by overcoming the "form" of the ego (ours!), when we ourselves forget that very same principle (anatta)!

When we suffer due to our own deluded view of "self" it does no good at all to tell us that there is really no one there to suffer. I hurt, therefore I am! Conversely, when we are able to turn form into emptiness by leaping over ourselves and our petty sense of "me and mine," then we are truly practicing a tangible form of zen compassion. Jumping over ourselves, we save all sentient beings; jumping over our pride, we save all sentient beings; jumping over our own difficult situations, we save all sentient beings! Only to the extent that we're able to jump over our limited sense of self for the sake of others do we gain in the tangible power of the Way; the power of virtue.

To whatever extent that we discover this innate, universal compassion, our own troubles proportionately shrink. And to the extent that we share in this power, shrinking our estimation of our own troubles, we can remain serene in the face of life's inevitable hardships. And of course, becoming compassionate, powerful and serene we then have more to give to others. We become benefactors whose fortune is in the currency of kindness. Thus, the cycle of compassion turns and becomes exceedingly deep and strong. And so incidentally, without greed for our own growth, our practice becomes just as deep and strong!

So, within the Bodhisattva ideal of compassion lies a two fold path for deepening our practice while helping others bear the unavoidable burdens of life on this plane. Thus the world becomes a concretely better place, by just that much more compassion. In a world where might becomes justification, this balm of kindness is more necessary than ever before. Then, over and over, day in and day out, the continuity of this powerful practice of compassion unfolds, drawing us deeper into actually seeing the essential emptiness of our own ego while leading others still clinging to that illusory view to a newfound place of buoyancy and strength. Exponentially, candles light other candles, endlessly supplying light and care to all.

I vow to save all sentient beings, even though there are no separate individualities!

Make sense? No, not really… except through the heart of compassion — then it does! There we surpass the definition and discover Being in the bargain. The value of compassion in today's world is obvious; and the value of the practice of compassion is a two way street of depth without which zen practice might become merely a selfish charade.

May all beings be happy and may they then share that happiness with others via the twofold action of compassion!

Ji Aoi Isshi

For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

Audrey Hepburn

Numbers - Mary Cornish

I like the generosity of numbers.

The way, for example,

they are willing to count

anything or anyone:

two pickles, one door to the room,

eight dancers dressed as swans.

I like the domesticity of addition--

add two cups of milk and stir--

the sense of plenty: six plums

on the ground, three more

falling from the tree.

And multiplication's school

of fish times fish,

whose silver bodies breed

beneath the shadow

of a boat.

Remember - Christina Rossetti

La Torre dell' Orologio - Venezia

Remember me when I am gone away,

gone far away into the silent land,

when you can no more hold me by the hand,

nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more, day by day,

you tell me of our future that you planed:

Only remember me; you understand

it will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

and afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

a vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

better by far you should forget and smile

than you should remember and be sad.

A king's riches cannot buy an extra year.

May - Christina Rossetti

I cannot tell you how it was;

But this I know: it came to pass

Upon a bright and breezy day

When May was young; ah, pleasant May!

As yet the poppies were not born

Between the blades of tender corn;

The last eggs had not hatched as yet,

Nor any bird foregone its mate.

I cannot tell you what it was;

But this I know: it did but pass.

It passed away with sunny May,

With all sweet things it passed away,

And left me old, and cold, and gray.

Dancing is a poem of which each movement is a word.

Mata Hari

Το προνόμιο του να προσφέρουμε χαρά σε κάποιον, μας εκχωρείται σπανιότερα απ' ότι πιστεύουμε, εν μέρει εξαιτίας της συχνά τόσο πεισματικά ανεπαρκούς δεκτικότητας μας, εν μέρει επειδή η ανεπάρκεια και η ασάφεια στις ανθρώπινες σχέσεις (που μπορεί ανέκαθεν να αποτελούσαν εμπόδιο) αυξάνονται ακόμη περισσότερο σε καιρούς σύγχισης. Σε τελική ανάλυση, ακόμη και το πιό ταιριαστό δώρο δεν παύει να απαιτεί μεγάλη προσαρμοστικότητα από τον αποδέκτη. Οταν, αντίθετα, η προσφορά βρίσκει αρμονικά το στόχο της, τούτη η επίτευξη εμπεριέχεται στη φυσική κίνηση του δωρεοδόχου.

Ο οδηγός του ποιητή γιά την ζωή

Η σοφία του Ρίλκε - μετάφραση Αλεξάνδρα Νικολακοπούλου

Εκδόσεις Πατάκη

I am a woman who enjoys herself very much; sometimes I lose, sometimes I win.

Mata Hari

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.

Sleepless - Sara Teasdale

If I could have your

arms tonight-

But half the world and the broken sea

Lie between you and me.

The autumn rain reverberates in the courtyard,

Beating all night against the barren stone,

The sound of useless rain in the desolate courtyard

Makes me more alone.

If you were here, if you were only here-

My blood cries out to you all night in vain

As sleepless as the rain.

Anna Pavlova

Όνειρα κι όνειρα ήρθανε

Στα γενέθλια των γιασεμιών

Νύχτες και νύχτες στις λευκές

Αϋπνίες των κύκνων

Η δροσιά γεννιέται μες στα φύλλα

Όπως μες στον απέραντο ουρανό

Το ξάστερο συναίσθημα.

Οδ. Ελύτης

The Dying Swan / Anna Pavlova from Atavisme on Vimeo.

Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."
— Bob Marley

There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and in being nothing, you are everything.

Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche

Blessed is he who finds happiness in his own foolishness. For he will always be happy.

When I can look life in the eyes, grown calm and very coldly wise, life will have given me the truth, and taken in exchange, my youth.

Sara Teasdale

Move and the way will open.

Όνειρα της άμμου - Αλκηστις Πρωτοψάλτη - Άμμος

Αλκηστις Πρωτοψάλτη-Πές μου θάλασσα

"The map is not the territory."

"When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man."