Posts Tagged → greed

there are few that find the path

ernst haas

 

Friend,

please tell me what

I can do about this world I hold to,

and keep spinning out! I gave up sewn clothes,

and wore a robe, but I noticed one day the cloth was

well woven. So I bought some burlap, but I still throw it

elegantly over my shoulder. I pulled back my sexual longings,

and now I discover that I’m angry a lot. I gave up rage, and

now I notice that I am greedy all day. I worked hard at

dissolving my greed, and now I am proud of myself.

When the mind wants to break its link with

the world it still holds on to one thing.

Kabir says: Listen, my friend,

there are very few that

find the path!

 

Kabir

 

an object of esteem becomes a nest

giuseppe palmisano

 
Haven’t you seen the saying of Master Yantou that whenever you have an object of esteem, it becomes a nest?…

Those who get a taste for the sayings of people of old make extraordinary sayings and wonderful statements into a nest…Those who get a taste for a state of quiescent silence without words or speech make a nest of closing the eyes and sitting in a ghost cave in a mountain of darkness on the other side of the prehistoric Buddhas. Those who get a taste for the goings-on of daily activities make a nest of raising their eyebrows, blinking their eyes, and alerting attention…

If you do not have a strong will and discipline to step back and realize your error, you will imagine what you esteem to be extraordinary, imagine it to be mysterious and marvelous, imagine it to be peace and security, imagine it to be ultimate, imagine it to be liberation.

Those who entertain such imaginations could not be helped even if the Buddha appeared in the world. In the teachings this is called the confusion of ignorance and benightedness. Why? because you are ignorant you cling to error and consider it right. Because you are benighted you remain plunged into what you esteem and cannot budge.

If you do not produce anything in your mind, and are not fixated on anything, then you have no object of esteem. When you have no object of esteem, you naturally have no greed and no dependence on things, independent in the midst of things, with bare-boned strength. 

If you want such accord right now, it is not difficult; just be equanimous in mind, unaffected by anything. What is affectation? Formulating concepts of sentient beings, concepts of Buddha, concepts of the mundane, concepts of the transcendental, concepts of seeking detachment, concepts of seeking enlightened knowledge. Those are all called affectations.

Just concentrate intensely on the brink of arousal, and leap out in one jump — this mind will be clear, independently liberated. Then as soon as you sense this, turn upward, and you will spontaneously be lucid everywhere; it will be evident in everything. 

When you manage to reach such a state, don’t keep taking note of it. If you keep taking note of it, then you’ll have an object of esteem.
 

Dahui

treasury of the eye of true teaching

 

this whole universe is the Beloved

tim mckenna / julian herbrig

 

If you try to

pour the whole ocean into a pot,

it doesn’t work. You can’t put enough in to

satisfy even one human being for a single day.

The eye of a greedy person is the same: always full,

never satisfied. Only when an oyster becomes

content and stops trying to drink

the whole sea can it settle

down and make a

pearl.

 

Whoever

is torn by spiritual love

is cleansed of greed – this and every

other weakness. Be happy with this love!

It’s a very good deal – the cure for

all pain, the medicine for our

arrogance, the great

teacher.

 

Bodies

made of earth ascend

to heaven because of love.

Mountains walk and dance

because of love. Mount Sinai got

drunk with love, and Moses’s

donkey exploded

into light!

 

Like nay,

the reed flute, I have

stories to tell you. Anyone separated

from the Friend has hundreds of stories, too,

but no tongue to tell them. If you let the flowers wilt

and the garden die, there aren’t any more

songs from bolbol, the

nightingale.

 

This

whole universe, every

thing and not-thing, is the Beloved.

The lover, just a reflection of that. It’s God’s face

that’s alive, not the mirror! If a person doesn’t have the

courage to love, he’s a bird without wings. No one

can be conscious without the light of the

Friend, but with that love, you can

see truth.

 

If

your mirror

isn’t reflecting the

Beloved, then

polish it.

 

Jalal al-Din Rumi

the essential rumi

translated by Brian Browne Walker, Behzad Ghorbani, & Shahla Ghorbani