Whatever I do,
the responsibility is mine,
but like one who plants an orchard,
whatever comes of what I do,
the fruit, will be for
others.
I offer the actions
of this life to the God within,
and wherever I go, the
way is blessed.
Whatever I do,
the responsibility is mine,
but like one who plants an orchard,
whatever comes of what I do,
the fruit, will be for
others.
I offer the actions
of this life to the God within,
and wherever I go, the
way is blessed.
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.
When the water returns
to its original oneness with the river,
it no longer has any individual feeling to
it; it resumes its own nature, and finds
composure. How very glad the
water must be to come
back to the original
river!
If this is so,
what feeling will we have
when we die? I think we are like the water
in the dipper. We will have composure then, perfect
composure. It may be too perfect for us, just now, because
we are so much attached to our own feeling, to our
individual existence. For us, just now, we have
some fear of death, but after we resume
our true original nature,
there is Nirvana.
It certainly wasn’t
fish who discovered water or
birds the air. Men built houses in part
out of embarrassment by the stars and raised
their children on trivialities because they had butchered
the god within themselves. The politician standing on
the church steps thrives within the grandeur
of this stupidity, a burnt out lamp
who never imagined
the sun.
Whatever state you’re in,
remember you are inside the presence.
Out looking for pleasure, there especially —
I have found no delight better than the mix of touch
with love. That taste is the sweetest. When you are tranced
in that, recall who gave you these pleasurable forms and
inclinations. Even when having a brain seizure,
remember how earthquake energy pries
apart mountains and zigzags a stone
wall. Let that core-energy break
your convulsion.
When you’re afraid
of a certain man in power, of some
authority binding you, in these anxieties,
as well as in prostration prayer,
taste the presence.