a darkness as much of the womb as the grave

hevrin khalaf, unifier, hero

 

Anything could happen,

and whether we act or not has everything

to do with it. Though there is no lottery ticket for the lazy

and the detached, for the engaged there is a tremendous gamble

for the highest stakes right now. I say this to you not because I haven’t

noticed that this country has strayed close to destroying itself and everything

it once stood for, in pursuit of empire in the world and the eradication of democracy

at home, that our civilization is close to destroying the very nature on which we

depend—the oceans, the atmosphere, the uncounted species of plant and

insect and bird. I say it because I have noticed: wars will break out,

the planet will heat up, species will die out, but how many,

how hot, and what survives depends on whether

we act. The future is dark, with a

darkness as much of

the womb as the

grave.
 
 
Rebecca Solnit

 

the tao of jesus


 

There

are three miracles of our

Brother Jesus not yet recorded in the Book:

the first that he was a man like you and me; the second that

he had a sense of humor; and the third that he

knew he was a conqueror though

conquered.

 

Kahlil Gibran

 


 

Why do

people hate Jesus,

or at least prefer the ethereal dead

version known as Christ? Because Jesus made

outrageous demands: Love your enemy,

renounce material possessions,

give all you have to

the poor.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich

 


 

A

conservative is

someone who admires radicals

centuries after they’re

dead.

 

Leo Rosten

 

what it means to be a great saint

herself

 

Once you

merge your tracks

into the stream of zen,

you spend your days silencing

your mind and studying with your

whole being. You realize that this Great Cause

is not obtained from anyone else but is just a matter

of taking up the task boldly and strongly, and making constant

progress. Day by day you shed your delusions, and day by day you

enhance your clarity of mind. Your potential for enlightened perception

is like fine gold that is to be refined hundreds and thousands of times.

What is essential for getting out of the dusts, what is basic for

helping living creatures, is that you must penetrate

through freely in all directions and arrive at

peace and security free from doubt and

attain the stage of great

potential and great

function.

 

This work

is located precisely in

your own inner actions. It is just

a matter of being in the midst of the interplay

of the myriad causal conditions every day, in the confusion

of the red dusts, amid favorable and adverse circumstances and

gain and loss, appearing and disappearing in their midst,

without being affected and turned around by

them, but on the contrary, being able

to transform them and turn

them around.

 

…When you

go on grinding and polishing

like this for a long time, you are liberated

right in the midst of birth and death, and you look upon

the world’s useless reputation and ruinous projects as mere dust

in the wind, as a dream, as a magical apparition, as an

optical illusion. Set free, you pass through the

world. Isn’t this what it means to be a

great saint who has emerged from

the dusts of sensory

attachments?

 

Yuanwu

 

a joy free of any impulse to act

 

Flowers,

sesame seed, bowls of

fresh water, a tuft of kusa-grass,

all this altar paraphernalia is not needed

by someone who takes the teacher’s

words in and honestly

lives them.

 

Full of longing

in meditation, one sinks into

a joy that is free of any impulse to act

and will not enter a human

birth again.

 

Lalla