heart : song

small voice

Our lives are really just a narrative that we hang on to. We remember what will like and try to forget and deny the things we don't like. This story of our past self that we carry on day by day changes over time and many of the experiences we have shape the way we might react to the present moment. Something might anger us or something might make us happy. We can get very caught up in this drama, so much so, that we become unwitting participants in an uncontrolled stream of hurt and worry, fear and desire, temporary happiness and a search for peace.

Sometimes, you may be lucky enough to catch this silly self and you can see it for what it is. Just a little melodrama, and as Ram Dass reminds us "grist for the mill".

The question always remains, who is the witness of all of this drama ? For me it is just this smallest voice, the sane observer who watches it all go by, and the one who remains when things like anger runs it's course.

We all have the same "small voice" of wisdom within us, and when we can listen to it and speak with it, our sense of peace and inner calm grows.

 

see everyone as God.

As we walk through the world we each have a self concept. We each believe ourselves to be a specific person. And as we interact we think of others as "other" specific beings. And as we setup this network of me and you, us and them,  we judge the world and we judge ourselves.

The judgments we make become the source of happiness or sadness to a large extent.

But in reality, all that we believe about ourselves and all that we believe about others is just a veil of delusion. Each of us is not deluded unto our own being, but rather each of us is in fact a delusion of god. Just like a caterpillar is deluded into his current crawling fuzzy state, he will soon become a butterfly, he just has no idea how magical he really is. In our process of metamorphosis, each us will someday find enlightenment.

Perhaps it is difficult to see ourselves as god, but I think it can be very helpful to see everyone else as god.

When we meet someone who is in pain or troubled, angry, difficult, abusive, neglectful,greedy,shallow etc.. we can understand this is only temporary. The seeds of the butterfly in these people has just yet to be watered. And perhaps when we make our mistakes, we can forgive ourselves too.

Surely we are not unhappy with plants that have yet to sprout. How can we be unhappy with ourselves in light of this view.

For me when I walk about and try to see everyone as god, it makes me smile. If it is really true, that everyone  is a "Buddha-to-be" , then all the suffering and turmoil, greed, materialism, wants, needs and desires... seem utterly ridiculous. How can we take any of this too seriously. This view draws me towards love and understanding and a willingness to give far more than I need to take, and it makes me realize my needs are for the most part, pretty silly.

one love,

trap or boat ?

We each are souls living out this lifetime as a karmic lesson. And when we begin to advance questions about our lives, like, "what does it all mean ?" or "why am I here ?", we are beginning a spiritual path of some sort. It might be agnostic , or atheist or in some form of religion of some kind. And as we begin to walk further along a spiritual path, we seek teachers and we find methods within these pathways and in a sense our soul (that which is witness to our lives).

But at the end of the day we do not want to become the pathways we are on , ie Buddhists, or Hindus or Christians, ... we want to become free.

The Buddha liked to talk about the eightfold path as like a boat crossing to the "other shore" of enlightenment. I think this is a very important thing to remember. We don't want the methods and the pathways we are on, to become traps. We don't want the boat to go on endless journeys up and down the river. We want to cross the river to freedom.

See your path and your practice and as beautiful boat towards enlightenment, but realize it is what it is, a means and not an end.

unity

As much as we like to delude ourselves (and there is no self to to delude !) none of us are separate beings. We are all one being, masquerading as multiple incarnations. We are relational fields of the divine caught in various forms of cosmic attraction. This attraction is desire, and desire is never full filled and thus our false self suffers.

When we delve into the unity of all, through the doorway of love, happiness begins to prevail. Our suffering dissolves.

You are not alone, you can never hide your lies, love and truth will always prevail.

And old Sikh story goes like this;

"A master has two followers and he gives each of them a chicken. The master then says, go to a place where you are certain no one is looking and kill the chicken and bring it back to me. The first follower spends several hours and finds a very secluded place and with quick mercy slays the chicken and brings it back to the master. The second follower is gone for three days then eventually returns with the chicken still alive. The master says " What happened, you failed to follow my instructions". The second follower then replied, "I did my best master, but everywhere I went, the chicken was still looking"

Poem for the spirit

In the Bhagavad GIta, Krishna describes to Arjuna ... the places you will find god and the nature of the supreme in a discriptive list. It is a very powerful verse.

I have taken a portion of this, and transformed into a poem. I like to think of these things as the guideposts and hooks upon which to hang your understanding of the supreme. Seeing divine nature in so many aspects, is very much the Buddha's view of the world.

Krishna Poem :

The Celestial Horse

and the ocean.

The mantra "aum"

and the himalayas.

The cosmic bird

and the mystic elephant.

Music itself

and the wind and the ganges.

The sacred cow

and a wish granting tree.

The perfect sage

and the monarch.

The begining, middle and end.

Logic and endless time.

Victory and goodness.

Death and the origin of the future.

Wisdom,

and silence itself.