you are not so soft after all

7

 

Depending

on where you look,

what you touch, you are changing

all the time. The carbon inside you, accounting

for about 18 percent of your being, could have existed in any

number of creatures or natural disasters before finding

you. That particular atom residing somewhere

above your left eyebrow? It could well have

been a smooth, riverbed pebble

before deciding to call

you home.

 

You see,

you are not so soft after

all; you are rock and wave and

the peeling bark of trees, you are ladybirds

and the smell of a garden after the rain.

When you put your best foot forward,

you are taking the north side

of a mountain with

you.

 

Ella Frances Saunders

 

sever the attachments of mind and self

this mysterious place

 

To

realize the Way you

must die and stay dead and

go on living. With one mighty blow,

sever the attachments of mind

and self and dwell in

emptiness.

 

Pouring

emptiness into emptiness

like waves coming to shore,

you become quiet,

luminous,

still.

 

Where

before there were

ten thousand entanglements, now

there is undifferentiated

Oneness, clarity,

peace.

 

Wei wu Wei Ching, Chapter 3

i ching / hexagram 3 ☯️ difficulty at the beginning

 

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the thousand-stringed instrument

our own heart must teach us

 

The heart is

The thousand-stringed instrument.

Our sadness and fear come from being

Out of tune with love.

 

All day long God coaxes my lips

To speak,

So that your tears will not stain

His green dress.

 

It is not that the Friend is vain,

It is just your life we care about.

 

Sometimes the Beloved

Takes my pen in hand,

For Hafiz is just a simple man.

 

The other day the Old One

Wrote on the Tavern wall:

 

“The heart is

The thousand-stringed instrument

That can only be tuned with

Love.”

 

Hafiz

the gift