darkness is always there

natalia jakubek

 

I have studied

and become intimate with

 the speed of darkness. It’s so fast it’s

always here. When the light withdraws

the dark comes from no place. It always lives

with us. Your heart and brain are black.

They never see the true light except in violence

or autopsy. Of course the brain can cast

its own blinding light that we wait for in a poem,

at least blinding to us. In our trances the loves

of long ago enter the room unescorted, silent

perhaps from the black bottom of the ocean

where we all die in perfect darkness, a sense

of whirling that recedes back to the time

the ocean swallowed the smallest stars

then heated us into our early life.

Darkness is always there,

it only stands

revealed.

 

Jim Harrison

 

the sage has no set mind

melt and let go and rest

 

The sage has no set mind.

She adopts the concerns

of others as her own.

 

She is good to the good.

She is also good to the bad.

This is real goodness.

 

She trusts the trustworthy.

She also trusts the untrustworthy.

This is real trust.

 

The sage takes the minds

of the worldly and spins them around.

People drop their ideas and agendas,

and she guides them like

beloved children.

 

The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 49

 

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interrelated in indra’s net

indra’s net

 

Causes are complex

and have different time scales.

The efforts of the individual are not

the sole determining factor in the individual’s

condition in life, because everyone is part of the

nexus of society and nature and the continuum

of time. It is common for people to attribute

causes wrongly because of misperception

of real relationships.

 

Every cause is the effect of

something else, and every effect is

the cause of something else. What may seem

like a curse may be a blessing, and what may seem

a blessing may be a curse. Hardship is a blessing

when it spurs effort and development; ease is

a curse when it increases complacency

and self-indulgence.

 

Muso Kokushi

 

you will often be thought crazy

in a great storm the wise bird

 

On

the road to

realization you will

will often be thought crazy. 

At times you may actually be

crazy. Both phenomena are

best endured with

stillness and

humor.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 62

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the lame goat finds herself in front

stefano zocca

 

Thought of worldly things

is an enemy to the sweetness of spiritual

consciousness. Silence your thoughts. Bewilder

yourself with God. Your mind will fall away

and your heart will open.

 

Forwardness in worldly

ways is backwardness in reality.

When the herd turns back toward God,

its leaders end up in the rear! The lame goat

that was hindmost finds herself in front, and the

ones who worried about her are ecstatic now.

How do saints and prophets get to

be  that way? By breaking

their own legs.

 

They make themselves

lame by renouncing expertise in

the ways of the world. Understanding that

it’s not the way home, they wash their hearts clean

of such knowledge. If you want to reach heaven,

follow the branches that lead to that root.  

Be the lame goat here, and

lead the herd home.

 

Jalal al-Din Rumi