03/01/2023
The peace that knows itself
emerges without seeking it.
A cloud unfolding above
allowing sunlight to shine through.
We ended February with Verse #32 from “Song of Myself” from Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” and we shall kick off March with Whitman’s tribute to the Hindu concept of Maya…
“Are you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning – I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
At least consider the possibility that all you perceive is Maya, an illusion, whether it be a person, an object or even a thought, consider that on the phenominal level all is an illusion.
Before Whitman there was Longfellow. We shall take a look at some Longfellow’s enlightened work tomorrow.
Today’s Video: “O Me! O Life! – Walt Whitman”
02/28/2023
The amused laughter of a child,
an innocent sense of awe,
the piqued gaze of wonderment,
forgotten long ago, burried
by the ponderous task of mindfulness.
We close out February with an excerpt of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” from his epic work “Leaves of Grass.” How do you feel about animals? Do you think they may be enlightened? Here’s how Whitman felt…
“I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d, I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: The Death-Bed Edition
Today’s Video: “Whitman, from Song of Myself, #6
02/27/2023
How can you find emptiness
when you are full of the Self?
As I mentioned this past weekend, we will spend a few days reading what one of America’s greatest poets, essayists and philosophers, the Father of Free Verse, Walt Whitman, has to say about leading an enlightened life. Here’s what he feels we should do…
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
― Walt Whitman
You may not agree with every one of Whitman’s points, but certainly there are a few that are worthy of your cultivation, especially those that encourage service and taking an active role with regards to our fellow beings whether they be wealthy, poor, educated or not, and human or not. More from Uncle Walt tomorrow.
Today’s Video: “Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman | Song of Myself”
02/25/2023
You will find the Truth
of your Reality
when you stop seeking it.
Today we venture to America and its first truly great poet and, I dare say, saint, the Father of Free Verse, Walt Whitman. His work combined both Transcendentalism and Realism, and there are so many rays of spiritual light emanating throughout his works that we will spend the better part of next week looking at a few major ones. Here’s an example from his epic work “Leaves of Grass.”
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Here Whitman is true on both accounts: no one else can travel that road for you and you have been on it since birth but, like most of us, did not realize it.
We will return to Whitman next week. Enjoy your weekend and keep practicing.
Today’s Video: Song of the Open Road – Walt Whitman (Powerful Life Poetry)
02/24/2023
Trying to become or be
what you already are is futile.
Allow it to arise
in the openness of your heart.
Today’s quote is from Atmananda Krishna Menon, whose spiritual teachings set the foundation for what has been called the Direct Path. Sri Atmananda was known as the Sage of Higher Reasoning. Today’s quote is Note #120 from “Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda,” taken by NITYA TRIPTA, entitled “TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE WITNESS’ AND ‘TO BE A WITNESS.” It is of such importance to anyone wishing to study the Direct Path that I have included the Note in its entirety.
“TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE WITNESS’ AND ‘TO BE A WITNESS.’ These are entirely different things. But you should not try to know that you are the knower. Both together are impossible. Your knowership is objectless and can never be objectified.
You are always the witness. But you need not attempt deliberately to take the role of a witness. Only take note of the fact that you are always the witness.
You are asked to strengthen the conviction that you are the knower, in order to counteract the old samskaras that you are the doer, enjoyer etc. Though the substance of doership and enjoyership is effaced, the samskaras might still remain as shadows.
You are only to argue in your mind how you are always the real knower, and repeat the arguments over and over again. The time will come when the arguments will become unnecessary, and a mere thought will take you to the conclusion. Gradually, you will find that even when you do not think about the Truth, and whether you are engaged or not engaged in activities, you will feel without feeling that you are always the witness and that you are not affected by any activity or inactivity of the mind and senses in the relative sphere.
Witnessing is silent awareness. Do not try to make it active in any way. Consciousness never takes any responsibility for proving the existence or the non-existence of an object.” – Atmananda Krishna Menon, (NOTE 120, 6th April 1951, from “Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda,” taken by NITYA TRIPTA
The point of Note 120 is simply what I have stated in my opening verse at the top of this page: For one to try to become or be the witness is futile because one is already the witness. And as Sri Atmananda states: “You are alway the witness. But you need not attempt deliberately to take the role of a witness. Only take note of the fact that you are always the witness.” I would add that since witnessing is silent awareness, it is not an object and therefore cannot be objectified.
Today’s Video: Atmananda Krishnamenon – Spiritual Discourse on Traffic Noise & Pure Consciousness
02/23/2023
What is it that I am?
A human, a man,
or a child
dreaming he is a man?
Am I in this world
or is this world in me?
To know what I know
makes little difference.
But to know that I don’t know
brings absolute freedom.
Today’s quote is from the Ceylonese-born pioneer historian of Indian art and foremost interpreter of Indian culture to the West, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.
“All that is best for us comes of itself into our hands-but if we strive to overtake it, it perpetually eludes us.”
― Ananda Coomaraswamy
This meaning here is much like that of the famous Chuang Tzu quote: “Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.” To Coomaraswamy, ignorance is thinking that you can actually force outcomes when the wise sage knows that only the flow of grace or nature can bring them into our lives.
Today’s Video: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Reading List
02/22/2023
The gentle child-like innocence of not knowing
shines with a warm presence
that reliance on one’s acquired knowledge
can never attain.
Yesterday we posted a quote from Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Today we look at a verse from a close friend of Goethe, Friedrich Von Schiller.
“There are three lessons I would write-
Three words, as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light,
Upon the heart of men.
Have hope! though clouds environ round,
And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow,
No night but hath its morn.
Have love! not love alone for one,
But man as man thy brother call,
And scatter like the circling sun,
Thy charities on all.”
― Friedrich Von Schiller
Here Schiller is calling on us to have hope though gladness hides her face in scorn and not to fret and worry over our problems but to remember disappointments cannot last forever as suredly as a new day will dawn. Most importantly, we must express charity to all not just a select few for all are our brothers and sisters. For Schiller these were the keys to leading an enlightened life. It would do us good as well to heed Schiller’s advice.
Today’s Video: “Do you Know Friedrich Schiller?”
02/21/2023
Space,
the new frontier, really?
and the old frontier,
the one we live in,
walk in, drive in, fly in,
the one we pile on
with concrete, steel, cement,
the one we pollute,
fill with trash, garbage, toxins
and greenhouse gases?
Humans fill Space with artificiality;
Nature fills it with Life.
Today we journey back to Europe as the Industrial Era was plodding along, and one Johann Wolfgang Goethe emerged as one of Germany’s foremost poets, authors, and philosophers.
“At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Of all the myriad quotes of Goethe, I chose this short, simple one because of its prime importance. When you truly commit to the Path, the Universe in the form of grace truly conspires to assist you in every way possible.
But committment, though extremely vital, it is also confusing and frightening. Which path is the right path? Which one should I take? What will happen to me if I choose the wrong path? It’s doubts like these that have prevented so many from discovering their true nature.
Today’s Video: LITERATURE – Goethe
02/20/2023
Borderless
sensations run freely,
spilling everywhere
bursting from this bag of skin
split open by a Cosmic Breath.
Perceptions no longer matter,
only the intimacy between
inside and outside,
unbinding one
from this self-made prison.
To all my U.S. friends, Happy President’s Day. And a special Happy President’s day to my friend, President Joe Biden.
As we begin this new week, we turn again to another English author, William Wordsworth. and his enlightened poem “It is a Beauteous Evening.”
” It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea:
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.
Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
And worship’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.”
– by William Wordsworth
“A Beauteous Evening” is indeed a beauteous poem and, even more so, an enlightened poem. Wordsworth is telling us that even if we are not praying (“solemn thought”), the Divine is still with us, and we are with the Divine, lying “in Abraham’s bosom all the year.” When we are in solemn thought (prayer), we are worshipping “at the Temple’s inner shrine (our heart). He concludes by affirming that God is with us even if we don’t realize it.
Today’s Video: “Introduction to William Wordsworth”
02/18/2023
Be like the Earth
that nurtures us as we grow,
that sustains us throughout life,
that supports and grounds us
in all we do.
Be the Earth to all beings.
Rounding out this week’s quotations on Music and Enlightenment, we return to William Shakespeare and the closing lines from his play, “The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene 1.
“The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus;
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”
– The Merchant of Venice; Act V, Scene 1
by Willliam Shakespeare
So, get some music in your life and have a great weekend. If you’re in the U.S., it’s a 3-day weekend. Keep practicing and I’ll see you Monday.
Today’s Video: “The Enlightenment of William Shakespeare”
02/17/2023
Trust your body.
It is your friend.
Relating intimately
as though a close friend.
Trust it,
Be intimate,
But don’t identify with it.
The body is not who your are.
Again we look at the harmony between Music and Enlightenment, today with the Indian musicologist, singer, philosopher and spiritual teacher who established Sufism in the West. Hazrat Inayat Khan.
“Sound is the force of creation, the true whole. Music then, becomes the voice of the great cosmic oneness and therefore the optimal way to reach this final state of healing.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
This one short quote out of hundreds, epitomizes Hazrat Inayat Khan’s main philosophy and approach to reaching enlightenment – it is in the music – the voice of the great cosmic oneness.
Today’s Video: Hazrat Inayat Khan
02/16/2023
Suspended in stillness,
one waits uncertainly,
while Life strips away
the molting layers
of separateness until
Stark naked,
one is enwrapped
in an envirobody of sentience,
a chrysalis of borderless vibration,
an ever-expanding metamorphosis
evolving in an Holistic Communion.
Continuing with our study of the relationship between Enlightenment and Music, today the focus is on a contemporary artists from Sicily, Laura Inserra, a sound alchemist. What is a sound alchemist? An artists who works with and blends all sorts of vibrations. Check out more on her website.
“The essence of the Universe is vibration,
quenchless energy in motion, e-motion.
My work is about experiencing the Source and its manifestation
through sound, emotions, and body awareness.” ~ Laura Inserra
Laura believes that her work with sound and vibration can heal as well as lead one to a higher source.
Today’s Video: Lullabies for the Soul
https://www.youtube.com/live/h4GTwR_Ev20?feature=share
02/15/2023
In Meditating, there’s
no breathing,
Only breath,
no stilling thoughts,
Only mind,
no perceiving,
Only perceptions
no Meditator,
only Meditation
Today we continue with our study of the relationship between Enlightenment and Music with yet another German author, this one a theoretic physicist by the name of Albert Einstein.
“We are slowed down sound and light waves,
a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos.
We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.” ~ Albert Einstein
Yes, even Einstein had something to say about Music and Enlightenment addressing us as “souls dressed up in sacred bochemical garments and our bodies ar ethe instruments through which our souls play their music.”
Notice that Einstein addressed us as “souls” not “bodies.” He did not consider the body as a part of us but as tools or instruments which we as souls use to play our music, namely our experiences and reactions to them.
Today’s Video: Albert Einstein “Quotes you should know before you get old.”
02/14/2023
In true surrender,
No one surrenders.
In ending the effort
of seeming to be separate,
we are surrendered
by Life, itself, into
the arms of Infinite Oneness.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. My Love to each of you. Today’s quote is a follow up to yesterday’s quote on the power of music by Schopenhaur. This one is from a fellow German philosopher,
“God has given us music so that above all it can lead us upwards. Music unites all qualities: it can exalt us, divert us, cheer us up, or break the hardest of hearts with the softest of its melancholy tones. But its principal task is to lead our thoughts to higher things, to elevate, even to make us tremble… The musical art often speaks in sounds more penetrating than the words of poetry, and takes hold of the most hidden crevices of the heart… Song elevates our being and leads us to the good and the true. If, however, music serves only as a diversion or as a kind of vain ostentation it is sinful and harmful.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
As I mentioned yesterday, and Nietzsche reaffirms today that music has an uplifting quality and leads our thoughts to higher things. Thus, we can understand why it is an integral part of religious worship, spanning many cultures and many religions.
Today’s Video: PHILOSOPHY – Nietzsche
02/13/2023
Sweet Surrender,
Sweet Giving Up,
The Fear and Resistance vanished
like the ghosts they are;
leaving an openness
infused with the nectar of freedom.
Today’s quote on Enlightenment or Noumenality comes from the 19th-Century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhaur, whose book, “The World as Will and Representation,” characterizes the phenominal world as a product of a blind noumenal Will and music as the one art that seemed to Schopenhaur as an embodiment of that Will, that is, besides Buddhism and Schopenhaur’s beloved Buddha.
“Music … stands quite apart from all the [other arts]. In it we do not recognize the copy, the repetition, of any Idea of the inner nature of the world. Yet it is such a great and exceedingly fine art, its effect on man’s innermost nature is so powerful, and it is so completely and profoundly understood by him in his innermost being as an entirely universal language, whose distinctness surpasses even that of the world of perception itself, that in it we certainly have to look for more than that exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi [“an unconscious exercise in arithmetic in which the mind does not know it is counting”] which Leibniz took it to be… We must attribute to music a far more serious and profound significance that refers to the innermost being of the world and of our own self.” – Arthur Schopenhaur, “The World as Will and Representation”
This would seem to explain why so many of the world’s religions incorporate music into their ritual worship with chorals, hymns and chants, thus bringing us away from the phenominal objects of our outerworld into the noumenal world of our innermost being and our true self.
Today’s Video: PHILOSOPHY – Schopenhauer
02/11/2023
Opening of the heart
Welcoming whatever Grace brings,
be it good or not.
Allowing life to decide
how it will flow,
not the limited knowledge
of the conditioned mind.
Opening, Welcoming, Allowing,
this is meditation.
A few days ago, we posted a quote from the 20th-Century Indian guru and mystic, Nasargadatta Maharaj. Today’s quote on approaching Enlightenment is from Nasargadatta’s disciple, H. W. L. Poonja, affectionately called “Papaji.”
“If there is peace in your mind you will find peace with everybody. If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. So first find peace within and you will see this inner peace reflected everywhere else. You are this peace!” – H.W.L. Poonja Poonjaji or Papaji
So how do we find this peace? We don’t. No, it’s the other way around. Peace must find us. So, how does that happen? By Opening the heart. By welcoming whatever Grace brings, whether positive or negative. Accept it. Allow it to flow on its own accord. Allow it to change you without interference. In other words, just be open, welcoming and allowing, and Grace will one day bring you to the Peace that you are.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! And keep Practicing!
Today’s Video: “PAPAJI – Neither Inside or Outside”
02/10/2023
Striving
to slow the breath
Striving
to ease bodily sensations
Striving
to calm the mind
and stop thoughts
Striving
is not meditation.
Striving
to stop striving
is still Striving, not meditation
We remain in England but move forward in time from Shakespeare’s England to the Romantic Era and a poem by William Wordsworth that illustrates the A-ha! moment.
“My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.” – The Rainbow, William Wordsworth
While true realization happens in a flash, it is usually built upon these little break-throughs, these A-ha moments of grace over the years that connect to one another growing deeper and deeper until finally one realizes one’s true nature. It may be a startling, explosive moment or one quietly sensitive and evoking. But it is the connected of these moments, like beholding a rainbow, over time that, should that connection not exist, Wordsworth cries out “let me die!”
Today’s Video: Wordsworth Documentary
02/09/2023
Enlightenment doesn’t have a calendar.
It happens when it happens.
Grace doesn’t run on a timetable.
A Guru cannot say
when the next measure will be through.
Today we return to Western ideas on Enlightenment and journey back to the Renaissance and Stratford-upon-Avon, England, the home of the Bard, William Shakespeare, and his Sonnet #62.
“Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
And all my soul, and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass shows me myself indeed
Beated and chopp’d with tanned antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read;
Self so self-loving were iniquity.
‘Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy days.”
– Sonnet #62, William Shakespeare
The sonnet starts with Shakespeare seemingly chastizing himself for the sin of self-love. If it were truly himself, William Shakespeare,the man, that he loved so deeply, it would be a sin of the highest magnitude. But then he informs us that it is not the “self,” which he actually holds far less than dearly, “Beated and chopp’d with tanned antiquity,” Instead it is the Self, his true nature, the “beloved,” as rumi often calls it, that he holds so near and dear. The Sonnet can be construed as a Western Renaissance model of Bhakti.
Today’s Video: “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 62”
02/08/2023
Presence,
Breath in, It is full.
Breath out, It is empty.
In fullness, it is empty.
In emptiness, it is full.
Twentieith-Century India was a prime time and place for spirituality and mystics like Ramana Maharshi, Anandamayi Ma, Atmananda Krishna Menon and many more. Nisargadatta Maharaj, a contemporary of Ramana Maharshi, was one of the most prominent.
“Do not be afraid of freedom from desire and fear. It enables you to live a life so different from all you know, so much more intense and interesting that, truly, by losing all you gain all.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj
Here, in this quote, Nisargadatta hit the realization nail squarely on the head. It is fear of our total freedom that keeps us from realizing our true nature. It is our egoic mind that clings to desires for the fear that it will be lost forever by giving up worldly objects and ambitions. It would rather be bound to objects and desires rather than be lost in freedom.
Today’s Video: “I am only the Self – Nisargadatta Maharaj”
02/07/2023
Allowed to Be
I am thankful,
Allowed to Breathe,
I am thankful,
Allowed to thank
I AM.
Today’s word on Enlightenment comes from one of the strongest yet gentlest voices ever heard in the search for realization and Self-Cultivation, the Bengali saint and prominent mystic of the last century, Sri Anandamayi Ma.
“Enquire: ‘Who am I?’ and you will find the answer. Look at a tree: from one seed arises a huge tree; from it comes numerous seeds, each one of which in its turn grows into a tree. No two fruits are alike. Yet it is one life that throbs in every particle of the tree. So, it is the same Atman everywhere.
All creation is that. There is beauty in the birds and in the animals. They too eat and drink like us, mate and multiply; but there is this difference: we can realize our true nature, the Atman. Having been born as human beings, we must not waste this opportunity. At least for a few seconds every day, we must enquire as to who we are. It is no use taking a return ticket over and over again. From birth to death, and death to birth is samsara. But really we have no birth and death. We must realize that.” – Sri Anandamayi Ma
Anything I could add to the words of Sri Anandamayi Ma would only detract from them.
Today’s Video: Guru Ganesh Singh – Snatam Kaur – Ma – Anandamayi Ma
02/06/2023
The individual sees himself
as a separate entity interacting
with other separate entities;
Sages see themselves
interacting with their self.
We ended last week’s quotes on Enlightenment with Chuang-Tzu, and we will start this week with another of his quotes. Although not a famous one, it is nonetheless, one of Cjuang-Tzu’s most important…
“The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.” – Chuang-Tzu
This is called ignorance. Society has conditioned us to turn away or ignore the most important aspect of our life – our inner spiritual cultivation – while teaching us to accept what should be igonored, namely, phenominal worldly objects and ambitions, all of which lead to bondage.
Today’s Video: Serenity – Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi)
02/04/2023
The Beholder that beholds
is not Itself a beholding
The Beholder and not the beheld
is that which is the Beloved.
Yesterday we looked at a quote on Enlightenment from Confucius. Today it is Confucius’ best known critic and my favorite Daoist sage, Chaung-Tzu, who gives us his thought on Enlightenment.
“When a man does not dwell in self, then things will of themselves reveal their forms to him. His movement is like that of water, his stillness like that of a mirror, his responses like those of an echo.” – Chuang-Tzu (Zhuangzi)
Simple, huh? Then why can’t we do it? Because we think we are the self, which we have been told over and over again from our earliest days. But if we realize that we have no actual proof that we are a separate entity like we have been told and we can drop this idea altogether, then Grace in time will reveal our True Nature.
Have a great weekend, everyone, and keep up the practice!
Today’s Video: Chuang-Tzu – The Great Awakening
02/03/2023
Grace like a steady rain
that washes the dust from the air
washes away the ignorance
that clouds the mind.
Today we return to China for our next quote on Enlightenment. This is a short but important quote from one of the most influential of all ancient Chinese philosophers, Kungfuzi (Confucius).
“The superior man is universally minded and no partisan. The inferior man is a partisan and not universal.” – Confucius.
In this brief two-short sentence quote, Confucius illumines a vital point in striving for Self-Cultivation. Our attitude toward life must be one of openness. To be universally-minded means to feel that everything is connected and that we are not separate entities. The inferior man, on the other hand, feels that he has a separate human existence and thus will have partisan biases, prejudices, likes and dislikes, even outright hatred toward other humans, both individuals and groups.
Today’s Video: Who was Confucius? – Bryan W. Van Norden
02/02/2023
The space within and the space without
are not different.
Dissolve the borders
and there is oneness.
Today’s quote on Enlightenment is from the Lebanese-American poet and author, Kahlil Gibran, author of “The Prophet.”
“And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fullfilment. you should be free indeed when your days are not without care nor your nights without a word and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked unbound.”
Gibran’s lesson here is two-fold. First, you cannot seek freedom or Self-realization. That desire will bind you rather than free you. It cannot be your goal or something you are trying to achieve. This alludes to the Daoist principal of wu-wei, uncontrived, ungoverned action. The attitude must be one of openness to whatever life brings. Welcome it into your life. This, in turn, leads to Gibran’s second point. What life brings may seem painful, obstructive. Life has brought it so you can “Rise Above” it, naked and unbound.
Today’s Video: “Defeat – Kahlil Gibran”
02/01/2023
The Reality that perceives
is not a perception.
The flame that sautes
is not the meal.
Keeping with Indian poets and mystics on Enlightenment, today we feature a quote from Rabindranath Tagore
“Only those of tranquil minds, and none else, can attain abiding joy, by realizing within their souls the Being who manifests one essence in a multiplicity of forms.” – Rabindranath Tagore
Here Tagore points to the Universal Truth, that within and throughout the multiplicity of forms that we see, there is but one essence, known by a multiplicity of names: Reality, Consciousness, Awareness, Truth, Love, Brahman, God, Dao, Oneness.
Today’s Video: No Fear – Rabindranath Tagore
