the spirit is attracted to humility


 

Rumi

advised me to keep my spirit

up in the branches of a tree and not

peek out too far, so I keep mine in the very tall

willows along the irrigation ditch out back,

a safe place to remain unspoiled by

the filthy culture of greed

and murder of the

spirit.

 

People

forget their spirits

easily suffocate so they must

keep them far up in tree branches where

they can be summoned any moment. It’s better

if you’re outside as it’s hard for spirits to get into houses

or buildings or airplanes. In New York City I used to reach

my spirit in front of the gorilla cage in the children’s zoo in

Central Park. It wouldn’t come in the Carlyle Hotel, which

was too expensive for its taste. In Chicago  it won’t

come in the Drake, though I can see it out the

window, hovering over the surface of Lake

Michigan. The spirit above anything 

else is attracted to humility.

If I slept in the streets

it would be under 

the cardboard

with me.

 

Jim Harrison

Complete Poems

 

there will come a time

buddhabrot

 

A horse strays

into a cave of lions. You move

deeper into your desire for sex, for art

and wealth. There will come a time when your

life is a blank, but has there ever really been a time

when human beings were not cared for? For thousands

of years we had no identity, yet we managed to arrive

in this amazing moment, this brightly conscious

lifespan. Who gave us such restlessness

to know and be?

 

Bahauddin, father of Rumi

The Drowned Book

 

step back from conventional perceptions

demand justice for the beautiful soulful human that was tyre nichols

 

You

must constantly step

back from conventional perceptions and

worldly entanglements to move along on your own

and reflect with independent awareness. Cleanse and purify

your karma of mind, body, and mouth, sit upright

and  investigate reality, until you arrive

at subtle insight and clear

liberation.

 

Right in your own life,

detach from conditioned views and cut off

sentiments. Stand like a wall a mile high…spend twenty

or thirty years doing dispassionate and tranquil meditation

work, sweeping away any conditioned knowledge and

interpretive understanding as soon as it arises,

and not letting the traces of the

sweeping itself remain

either.

 

Yuanwu

happiness in the morning

khashif chaudhry

 

Happy in the morning,

I open my cottage door; a clear breeze

blowing comes straight in. The first sun lights

the leafy trees, the shadows it casts are crystal clear.

Serene, in accord with my heart, everything merges

in one harmony. Gain and loss are not my

concern; this way is enough to

the end of my days.

 

Wen-siang