seize the day gently as if you loved her

jim harirson dog river

 

…We

drove her aqua

Ford convertible into the country

with a sack of red apples. It was a perfect day

with her sun-brown legs and we threw ourselves into

the future together seizing the day. Fifty years later we hold each

other looking out the windows at birds, making dinner, a life

to live day after day, a life of dogs and children and the

far wide country out by rivers, rumpled by

mountains. So far the days keep

coming. Seize the day gently

as if you loved

her.

 

Jim Harrison

 

be conscious of who draws you


 

A sea-cow, a dugong, finds a special pearl
and brings it up on land at night. By the light it gives off
the dugong can graze on hyacinths and lilies.

The excrement of the dugong is precious ambergris
because it eats such beauty. Anyone who feeds on Majesty
becomes eloquent. The bee, from mystic inspiration,
fills its rooms with honey.

So the dugong grazes at night in the pearl-glow.
Presently, a merchant comes and drops black loam
over the pearl, then hides behind a tree to watch.

The dugong surges about the meadow like a blind bull.
Twenty times it rushes at nothing, passing the mound
where the pearl is.

So Satan couldn’t see
the spirit-center inside Adam.

God says, Descend,
and a huge pearl from Aden gets buried under dirt.
The merchant knows,
but the dugong doesn’t.

Every clay-pile with a pearl inside
loves to be near any other clay-pile with a pearl,
but those without pearls cannot stand to be near
the hidden companionship.

Remember the mouse on the riverbank?
There’s a love-string stretching into the water
hoping for the frog.

Suddenly a raven grips the mouse and flies off.
The frog too, from the riverbottom,
with one foot entangled in the invisible string,
follows, suspended in the air.
Amazed faces ask, “When did a raven ever go underwater and catch a frog?”

The frog answers, “This is the force of Friendship.”
What draws friends together
does not conform to Laws of Nature.
Form doesn’t know about spiritual closeness.
If a grain of barley approaches a grain of wheat,
an ant must be carrying it. A black ant on black felt.
You can’t see it, but if grains go toward each other,
it’s there.

A hand shifts our birdcages around.
Some are brought closer. Some move apart.
Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious
of who draws you and who not.

Gabriel was always there with Jesus, lifting him
above the dark-blue vault, the night-fortress world,
just as the raven of longing carries the flying frog.

 

Jalal al-din Rumi

 

the value of poverty

 

A certain man

was constantly bewailing his poverty.

Ibrahim ibn Adham said to him, “My son, perhaps

you paid little for your poverty.” “You are talking nonsense,”

said the man, “You should be ashamed of yourself.

Does anyone buy poverty?”

 

Ibrahim replied,

“For my part I chose it of my own free will;

moreover, I bought it at the price of this world’s sovereignty

and gave up my kingdom and my ruling over others. I would buy

one instant of this poverty again with a hundred worlds, for every moment

it becomes worth more to me. When I found this precious merchandise,

I gave my final farewells to royalty. Without any doubt I know

the value of poverty. While you remain in

ignorance of it, I give thanks

for it.

 

Ibrahim ibn Adham

 

embrace the oneness


 

What good

is it to spend your life 

accumulating material things? 

It isn’t in keeping with the Tao. What

benefit in conforming your behavior to someone’s

conventions? It violates your nature and dissipates 

your energy. Why separate your spiritual life

and your practical life? To an integral

being, there is no such 

distinction. 

 

Live simply

and virtuously, true to

your nature, drawing no line

between what is spiritual and what is

not. Ignore time. Relinquish ideas and

concepts. Embrace the Oneness. 

This is the Integral

Way. 

 

Hua hu Ching, Chapter 50

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