You
could become a
great horseman and help
to free yourself and this world though
only if you and prayer become sweet lovers.
It is a naive man who thinks we are not engaged in a
fierce battle, for I see and hear brave foot soldiers
all around me going mad, falling on the ground
in excruciating pain. You could become a
victorious horseman and carry your
heart through this world like a
life-giving sun though only
if you and God become
sweet lovers.
Put aside the
crazy and false mind that
has been concocting your knowledge
and understanding, and make it so that
nothing whatsoever is weighing
on your mind.
🪷
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
There will be prayer, too,
but to a different god,
and dread will lurk
in the songs we sing.
Doom in the timpani
no matter what the tune,
the tune a variation
on the theme of doom.
We will sing in the dark
and try to forgive
and try not to dwell
on the lives we lived.
The music we play
will be a funeral song,
the poetry we speak,
that ancient tool
we used to believe
was the vital spark,
or if not the spark,
will be the match we strike
again and again
in the darkest dark.
Whatever you are doing,
twenty-four hours a day, in all your
various activities, there is something that transcends
the Buddhas and Zen Masters; but as soon
as you want to understand it,
it’s not there.
As soon as you try
to gather your attention on it,
you have already turned away from it.
That is why I say you see but cannot
do anything about it.
Foyan
The greater your love,
the greater your moral. If we are forced
to be virtuous according to a certain principle,
a certain regulation, certain laws or rules, then that
is not real virtue. It must come from the depths
of our heart; our own heart must
teach us the true moral.