The fun of roaming free
is endless, hard to exhaust. When tired
I sit on a mossy bank, unaware of the cold sun falling
in my love for the cool of the breeze in the pines. Deer descend
to drink of the valley streams; monkeys arrive to pick of
the mountain fruits. What I originally valued were
freedom and quietude; why should
I require that people
know of me?
In times past
there was a monk who asked
an old adept, “The world is so hot, I don’t know
where to escape.” The old adept said, “Escape into a
boiling cauldron, into the coals of a furnace.
The multitude of sufferings cannot
reach there.”
This is my
own prescription for
getting results.
Haven’t you
read the ancient worthy’s saying?
“The white clouds are clear and still, and the rivers
flow into the blue sea. The myriad things are
originally peaceful, but people
make trouble for
themselves.”
After all,
this statement is completely
accurate and true. If you know what it means
as soon as you hear it mentioned, you can use it to pass
through birth and death to freedom and no longer be obstructed
by the psycho-physical nexus. You will be like a bird getting
out of a cage — independent and free. With a single
stroke you put a stop to all other actions and
talk, and you no longer fall into
secondary views.
Gently I weep for my mind,
caught in its illusion of ownership.
Mind, you’re not who you think you are.
You’re dancing over a pit. Soon you’ll fall through,
and these things you’ve valued and collected will
be left behind. My sweet dear, do you
understand this, and if you do,
how does your food
taste?
Rory James Andrew Young
21 May 1972 Lusaka, Zambia
26 April 2021 Fada N’gourma, Burkina Faso
🐆
As good a man
as I have ever known or am likely to
was killed on this day two years ago. Please
read about his monumental life,
and please send him
your love.
Prayers for the dead
are on the same footing as gifts for the living.
The angel goes in to the dead with a tray of light, bearing a cloth of light,
and says, ‘This is a gift for you from your brother so-and-so,
from your relative so-and-so.” And he delights in
it just as a living man rejoices
in a gift.
Ibn al -Ghazali
🕊