there is one clear truth


 

Anyone

can say anything.

Eyes look without obstruction,

And the nose, it sniffs everything.

Legs go where they want to.  Hands reach.

The mind respects nothing.  Even the heart

Is unsure where to stand.  This is how

Things are.  Is something missing?

A human being can walk in different ways,

Deliberately, as though going somewhere,

Or strolling with no purpose, or marching,

Or limping, or pretending to be a gorilla

With arms hanging down.

He or she can curse you or trust you, comfort you,

Or act without considering anything or anyone.

Truth and lies, both glitter in the eyes.

He or she can hear and enjoy and embrace

The language coming in, but to understand everything

With divine wisdom is hard.

There is one clear truth, the pure loving.

When people do not have that, they are

Disconnected.  Words are just words,

And good actions are done for wrong reasons.

Paint on a red dot like the dancing Shiva,

But if you don’t know how to open your heart

With modesty, dignity, and respect for others,

It’s just collecting more honors and robes.

It’s easy to explain the condition of being human,

What’s missing and what’s here, but if

You don’t know God exists,

It’s foolishness.

To know this and act accordingly is difficult.

Saying the words is easy.

                        

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

 

 

everything born in this world is empty

hasui kawase

 

Students,

sit earnestly in zazen,

and you will realize that everything

born in this world is ultimately empty,

including oneself and the original face of existence.

All things indeed emerge out of emptiness. This original

formlessness is “Buddha,” and all other similar terms — Buddha-

nature, Buddhahood, Buddha-mind, Awakened One, Patriarch,

God — are merely different expressions for the same

emptiness. Misunderstand this and you

will end up distracted

for eons.

 

Ikkyu

wikkyu

 

tao makes the whole world one

kevin peterson

 

Tao is a

whirling emptiness, yet

when used it cannot be exhausted.

Out of this mysterious well

flows everything in

existence.

 

Blunting

sharp edges, untangling

knots, softening the glare, it

evolves us all and makes

the whole world

one. 

 

Something is

there, hidden and deep.

But I do not know whose

child it is — icame

even before

God. 

 

Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 4

 

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real happiness is in the heart

hazrat inayat khan

 
Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of happiness. The real happiness is in the heart of man. But man does not look for it. In order to find happiness, he seeks pleasure. Anything that is passing and anything that results in unhappiness is not happiness.

In reality very few in this world know what happiness means. Pleasure is the shadow of happiness, for pleasure depends upon things outside ourselves; happiness comes from within ourselves. Happiness belongs to the heart quality; pleasure to the outer world. The distance between pleasure and happiness is as vast as that between earth and heaven. As long as the heart is not tuned to its proper pitch one will not be happy. That inner smile which shows itself in a man’s expression, in his atmosphere, that belongs to happiness. If position were taken away and wealth were lost in the outer life, that inner happiness would not be taken away. And the smiling of the heart depends upon the tuning of the heart, the heart must be tuned to that pitch where it is living.

There are a thousand excuses for unhappiness that the reasoning mind will make. But is even one of these excuses ever entirely correct? Do you think that if these people gained their desires they would be happy? If they possessed all, would that suffice? No, they would still find some excuse for unhappiness; all these excuses are only like covers over a man’s eyes, for deep within is the yearning for the true happiness which none of these things can give. He who is really happy is happy everywhere, in a palace or in a cottage, in riches or in poverty, for he has discovered the fountain of happiness which is situated in his own heart. As long as a person has not found that fountain, nothing will give him real happiness.

If there is any source from where one can get the direction on how to act in life, it is to be found in one’s heart. The exercises of the Sufi help to get to the source where one can get the direction, the right direction, where there is a spark of the Spirit of Guidance. Those who care to be guided by the spirit, they are always guided, but those who know not whether such a spirit exists or does not exist, they wander through life as a wild horse in the woods, not knowing where it goes, why it runs, why it stands. It is a great pity to be thirsty and remain thirsty when the spring of fresh water is within one’s reach. There can be no loss so great in life as having the spark glittering in one’s heart and yet groping in the darkness through life.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan