invitation to the bonfire...

Everybody is invited to this bon fire.
Throw all your questions.
Throw all the answers as well.
Throw all your cares.
Have that much courage.
Say I have no time for answers anymore.
Put everything into this fire.
And do it now also.
This is the instant way.
Throw everything now.
No practice,
No philosophy.
But who can do it, you see?
Be willing to be completely empty.
Don't even be a woman.
Don't be a seeker.
Don't be anything.
Don't say any more prayers.
Don't chant any more mantras.
Don't go on any more pilgrimages.
Leave everything, 

because up till now even your seeking is an avoidance, 

another excuse of your mind not to discover the ever-present truth.
Our minds want to say a lot about truth.
But nothing it says is true.
You are here before the mind.
You know it's ways.
This is why I say
throw everything in the fire right now.
It seems very drastic, my words,
but they are totally powerful.
Why keep walking around with the mind on your back?
Put him down and walk away free.

~ Mooji

_/l\_

Beach Chairs and Firepit - 

8x12 Fine Art Photographic Print

artwork by barbaragordon on etsy 

three questions...

 "The Three Questions" is a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy first published in 1885 as part of the collection What Men Live By, and other tales. The story takes the form of a parable, and it concerns a king who wants to find the answers to what he considers the three most important questions in life.

The_Three_Questions : (wikipedia)

The thought came to a certain king that he would never fail if he knew three things. These three things were

• When is the best time to do each thing?
• Who are the most important people to work with?
• What is the most important thing to do at all times?

Many educated men attempted to answer the king's questions, but they all came up with different answers. The king decided that he needed to ask a wise hermit in a nearby village. The hermit would only see common folk, however, so the king disguised himself as a peasant, left his guards behind, and went to see the hermit. The hermit was digging flower beds when the king arrived. The king asked his questions, but the hermit went on digging rather laboriously. The king offered to dig for him for a while. After digging for some time, the king again asked his questions. Before the hermit could answer, a man emerged from the woods. He was bleeding from a terrible stomach wound. The king tended to him, and they stayed the night in the hermit's hut. By the next day the wounded man was doing better, but was incredulous at the help he had received. The man confessed that he knew who the king was, and that the king had executed his brother and seized his property. He had come to kill the king, but the king's guards had wounded him. The man pledged allegiance to the king, and he went on his way. The king asked the hermit again for his answers, and the hermit responded that he had just had his questions answered.

• The most important time is now. The present is the only time over which we have power.
• The most important person is whoever you are with.
• The most important thing is to do good to the person you are with.

the chance to live a miraculous life...

"You have to see and meet God in this life.
Don’t let this life go by and miss discovering the Supreme One.
You will find him inside as your constant being.
Pray: Holy mother, holy father, holy spirit,
don’t give me the illusion that even one second belongs to me.
All is you. I, also, am you and yours.
For only like this 

does your life stand the chance to be miraculous."

~ Mooji
  
_/l\_

New England Fall-Scape print

available at WaterWorksbySumiyo on etsy 

the problem is the wanting an answer....

"We think we’re permanent, but we’re not. 

We think that by craving things we’ll find happiness, 

but we won’t. 

One after another 

the Buddha challenges our established views,

 our ways of constructing our version of the world, 

and takes them apart: 

you think it’s one way but it’s not; 

you want an answer, 

but 

the problem is your very wanting of an answer."

~Henry Shukman

_/I\_

Watercolor Inkblot Kaleidoscope Print

 

 

available at ImageDeSignStudio on etsy.com 

timelessness and joy vs time and suffering...

Mooji

(facebook link)

"I cannot relate to you as if you are someone with a problem.
That’s just too much of a miserable state for me.
If I do, I actually reinforce and perpetuate an identity 

in you that causes you continuous suffering.  

Nobody should want to go there with you.
Only by not supporting your delusion, will you hopefully come out of it. 

But I cannot guarantee.
Why this loyalty to your time-bound identity 

when you could remain joyfully in your timelessness?
If your master relates to you on the level of delusion, 

you are in master-trouble."

~ Mooji

Winter Pine Watercolor Christmas Cards 

// peace joy love // 5x7

available at OlliffStudio on etsy.com 

into the heart of being...

In any moment, you can bring every aspect of yourself home
 to the heart of being,
 the radiant, conscious awareness
 that is the truth of yourself.
~ Gangaji

Copper Infinity Bracelet

available at BellissimiOrnamenti on etsy 

be guided by calmness...

"Be guided absolutely and entirely by the vision of calmness,

 and not by the shadows of anxiety. 

The hour of calmness 

is the hour of illumination and correct judgment."
~ James Allen

"Peaceful" - Print

available at KristinLeeHagerArt on etsy 

honoring the space between us...

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, 

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. 

Love one another but make not a bond of love: 

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. 

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. 

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. 

Sing and dance together and be joyous, 

but let each one of you be alone, 

Even as the strings of a lute are alone 

though they quiver with the same music. 

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. 

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. 

And stand together, yet not too near together: 

For the pillars of the temple stand apart, 

And the oak tree and the cypress 

grow not in each other's shadow.” 

~Khalil Gibran~ 

Seattle Print

available at TalulaChristian on etsy 

losing it, on purpose...

"It is not our job to remain whole.
We came to lose our leaves
Like the trees, and be born again,
Drawing up from the great roots."
~ Robert Bly ~

~o~

"Fall Aspen Tunnel"

 available at TerriRobertsonArt on etsy

you yourself are the path...

"Have you understood, yet,
that you are the path that
takes you beyond yourself?"
~ Dennis Lewis ~

~o~

 

Woodland Scenic Art Print

available at BrazenDesignStudio on etsy 

light the lamp of Mindfulness...

"Continue making connections with all the good
things around, you will see that the outside world
is brighter and more beautiful than before, because
you have put an end to forgetfulness and have lit
the lamp of mindfulness. You have begun again
to be nourished by what is wonderful in life."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~

"A Little Spot on Green St."

available at VibrantBrushStrokes on etsy 

all one in Spirit...

"I am one with the Earth,
with the Water, with the Fire,
with the Air that I breathe,
with all Living Things,
and we are all one with Spirit."

~Jonathan Lockwood Huie

~0~

 

"All Wrapped up into One"

by CarianneMackGarside on etsy 

I am myself my own unique door...

"The way to find the real ‘world’ is not merely 

to measure and observe what is outside us, 

but to discover our own inner ground. 

For that is where the world is, first of all: in my deepest self. 

This ‘ground,’ this ‘world’ where I am mysteriously present at once to my own self 

and to the freedoms of all other men,

 is not a visible objective and determined structure with fixed laws and demands.

 It is a living and self-creating mystery 

of which I am myself a part, 

to which I am myself my own unique door."

~Thomas Merton,

Contemplation in a World of Action 

~0~

 

purple sky waterfall over a doorway

 by DMParnellArt on etsy

such Love does the sky now pour...

"Such love does
the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,

I have to wring out the light
when I get Home."

~St Francis of Assisi 

Blue sky watercolor print

 by stelladottir1 on etsy.com

finding our true home...

"Our practice is to find our true home. 

When we breathe, 

we breathe in such a way that we can find our true home. 

When we make a step, 

we make a step in such a way

 that we touch our true home with our feet."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

"Ocean" Painting Print

for more info see TheColorfulCatStudio on etsy 

I am a recovering Higher Power...

Anne Lamott:

"I surrendered. 

 I lay down my weapons 

and went over to the winning side. 

 I am a recovering Higher Power."

excerpted from Anne's facebook post

when making a profit no longer makes sense...

"The One, or Oneness,

 as we might say in Zen, 

never tries to turn a profit from anything at all. 

It wouldn’t even make sense. 

We, on the other hand, 

are always trying to turn a profit from every human exchange. 

We are always trying to get something—

admiration, love, recognition, praise, 

acknowledgment, even just staying connected. 

Think how we manipulate and bargain

 and negotiate to turn a profit from every interaction. 

Much of this is subtle, unconscious habit. 

Even when we give, or serve, or love, 

or pay attention, we’re trying to get something. 

Sometimes it’s just to get back some of what we give. "

~Sensei Nancy Mujo Baker

deliberately irrelevant...

"Are monastics and hippies and poets relevant? 

No, we’re deliberately irrelevant.

 We live with an ingrained irrelevance 

which is proper to every human being. 

The marginal person accepts the basic irrelevance 

of the human condition, 

an irrelevance 

which is manifested above all by the fact of death."

~Thomas Merton

in the house of Love be the instrument..

~ Rumi

"In the house of lovers,
the music never stops,
the walls are made of songs
and the floor dances."

~o~

 

the three greatest treasures...

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, 

you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.” 

~Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching