create from joy

hamid sardar-afkhami

 

The most

beautiful paintings and

sculptures, the greatest poetry,

have not always been born from torment

or bitterness. Often they have sprung from

contemplation, from joy, from an instinct or wonder

toward all things. To create from joy, to create from wonder,

demands a continual discipline, a great compassion…With time

and sincerity, you will discover a way to work and write that does

not harm you spiritually, that does not tempt you to vanity,

that is the deepest expression of your spirituality. You

will find a voice that is not your voice only, but the

voice of Reality itself. . . If you can be empty

enough, that voice can speak through you.

If you can be humble enough, that

voice can inhabit you

and use you.

 

Thuksey Rinpoche

 

the path to the buddha’s table

ansel adams

 

Life is a dream,

the years pass by like flowing waters.

Glamour and glory are  transient as autumn smoke;

what tragedy — for with the sun set deeply in the

west, still there are those lost among

paths of disillusionment.

 

Our heart

should be clear as ice.

Forget all the worldly nonsense.

Sit calmly, breathe quietly, heart bright

and spotless as an empty mirror.

This is the path to

the buddha’s

table.

 

Loy Ching-Yuen

the book of the heart

 

your spiritual light

joel belmont

 

Your 

spiritual light 

can be compressed into 

a pinpoint, or it can flood and

wash the known and unknown universe.

The principal task of a master is to respect 

the oneness of her spiritual light with

all spiritual light and to care for

 it accordingly.

 

Where is 

the best place to do this? 

In quiet simplicity. 

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 33

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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