Posts Tagged → light

let it go in all directions

 

When you hold on to something,

don’t let the smallest hair show. When you let go of

something, let it go in all directions. Meeting in heavy mist,

we turn out to be at the top of a thousand peaks.

Starting at the top of a thousand peaks we

turn out to be in heavy mist.

 

Today I am at Fuyuan Temple

inaugurating this hall and preaching the Dharma.

Yesterday I was outside my hut at Sky Lake ploughing in the clouds.

Thus it is said that the Dharma has no fixed shape but adapts to conditions.

It stirs the wind of perfect stillness and makes effortless

transformation possible. But at this moment,

what is it like?

 

Only after ninety thousand

miles does the P’eng unfold its wings.

Only after a thousand miles does

the crane take flight.

 

Shih-wu, or Stonehouse

Red Pine’s “The Zen Works of Stonehouse”

hard copy @ amazon

 

life has some possibility left

joy from the archives

 

If you suddenly

and unexpectedly feel joy,

don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are

plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed

or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often

kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some

possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes

something happened better than all the riches or power in the world.

It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant

when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.

Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid

of its plenty. Joy is not made

to be a crumb.

 

Mary Oliver