Quotations June 10, 2007

Lilies of the Field passage from Matthew 6:25-34:

"I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat of drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will God not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

The self . . . is the fortress you create to protect yourself from experiencing the pain of loss and impermanence. It is your greatest defense mechanism. It is also your prison.

Caroline Braizer

Listen down.

What is it?

A current of air?

Vibrating vocal cords?

Your own ear drums?

Something running in your head?

Iťs a& of these.

This sound is you vibrating.

This sound is you.

-Alan Watts,

I am of the nature to grow old.

There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill-health

There is no way to escape having ill-health

I am of the nature to die

There is no way to escape death.

And that dear to me and everyone I love

Are of the nature to change:

There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings.

I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.

My actions are the ground on which I stand.

The Buddha

Image of God
born of God's breath
vessel of divine Love
after his likeness
dwelling of God
capacity for the infinite
eternally known
chosen of God
home of the Infinite Majesty
abiding in the Son
called from eternity
life in the Lord
temple of the Holy Spirit
branch of Christ
receptacle of the Most High
wellspring of Living Water
heir of the kingdom
the glory of God
abode of the Trinity.
God sings this litany
eternally in his Word.
This is who you are.

a litany of the person - anonymous Trappist monk

In Zen Buddhism the student-teacher interview is the core of koan practice, the moment when the student must ‘answer the koan’ or be tossed out unceremoniously.

When my turn came, I went upstairs to the little room above the meditation hall, knocked, was invited in, entered, and sat down. A few moments of silence passed. I imagine that [Jiyu Kennett Roshi] was giving me the opportunity to begin. I stayed silent. She must have sensed my embarrassment. I was shy.

She looked at me in a very direct way. It was impossible to divine her mood, but I sensed a kindness in her eyes. After what seemed like an age, but could only have been a minute or so, she helped me out:

“Is there anything to report?” she asked.

In the context, this was a very open question. I could have used it almost any way. It could have been a basis for talking about technicalities of meditation practice. I could have used it as a springboard for a report upon my life. However, I was now even more paralyzed than before.

There was something about her whole way of being which prevented me from saying anything trivial, and in that moment everything seemed to fall into that category. All the things which had seemed so important about my life before I entered the room now no longer seemed consequential at all. This seemingly simple question, “Is there anything to report?” somehow demanded more than a commonplace response. It seemed to demand: “Can you say something which is ultimately true? Can you say it now?” Although a thousand things flashed through my mind, nothing in my life seemed to pass the test.

Then, it was as though the universe rescued me. My life dropped away, all that remained was the two of us sitting face to face, in a room on a cold day with the window open on to the frozen garden.

“The birds are singing,” I said.

She smiled.

It was an exchange of nine words in all, yet it contributed substantially to changing he direction of my life. (1995, p.11-12)

David Brazier

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed and growing sweet-
all this universe, to the furthest stars
and beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow,
Illuminated in your infinite peace.

A billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Quotations June 3, 2007

Opening Prayer

O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Envision your potential now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment's bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others' faults.
Help us not forget our Source,
Yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every Vision, Power and Song
from gathering to gathering.
May our future actions grow from here!

Amen

the lord's prayer - from the original Aramaic

“We begin by coming here, to this moment.”

Jack Kornfield

Have you ever gone to a stream and tried to grasp a bubble in the water with the hope of holding into it?.

Goldstein and Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

Empower

me to be a bold participant,

rather than a timid saint in waiting,

in the difficult ordinariness of now,

to exercise the authority of honesty,

rather than to defer to power,

or deceive to get it;

to influence someone for justice,

rather than impress someone for gain;

and by grace, to find treasures

of joy, of friendship, of peace,

hidden in the fields of the daily

you give me to plow.

Ted Loder

As it was in the beginning is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen

Christian traditional

Quotations Easter April 8, 2007

Opening Prayer

O God!
Refresh and gladden our spirits.
Purify our hearts.
Illumine our powers.
We lay all our affairs in Thy hands.
Thou art our Guide and our Refuge.
We will no longer be sorrowful and grieved;
We will be happy and joyful beings.
O God! We will no longer be full of anxiety,
nor will we let trouble harass us. …
O God! Thou art more friend to us than we are to ourselves.
I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.

Baha'i prayers - `Abdu'l-Bahá

Come Lord Jesus,
Be our guest,
And let thy gifts
To us be blessed.

Attributed to Martin Luther - 16th century

Silently a flower blooms,

In silence it falls away;

Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,

The world of the flower, the whole of

the world is blooming.

That is the talk of the flower, the truth

of the blossom;

The glory of eternal life is fully shinning here.

Zenkei Shibayana

When Jesus spoke the whole world was hushed to listen. His words were not for our ears but rather for the elements of which God made this earth.

He spoke to the sea, our vast mother, that gave us birth. He spoke to the mountains, our elder brother whose summit is a promise.

And he spoke to the angels beyond the sea and the mountains to whom he entrusted our dreams ere the clay in us was made hard in the sun.

And still His speech slumbers within our breast like a love-song half forgotten, and sometimes it burns itself through our memory.

His speech was simple and joyous, and the sound of His voice was like cool water in a land of drought.

Once He raised His hand against the sky, and His fingers were like the branches of a sycamore tree; and He said with a great voice:

“The prophets of old have spoken to you, and your ears are filled with their speech. But I say unto you, empty your ears of what you have heard.”

And those words of Jesus, “But I say unto you,” were not uttered by a man of our race or of our world; but rather by a host of seraphim marching across the sky of Judea.

Again and yet again He would quote the law and the prophets, and then would say, “But I say unto you.”

Oh, what burning words, what waves of seas unknown to the shores of our mind, “But I say unto you.”

What stars seeking the darkness of the soul, and what sleepless souls waiting the dawn.

To tell of the speech of Jesus one must needs have His speech or the echo thereof.

I have neither the speech nor the echo.

I beg you to forgive me for beginning a story that I cannot end. But the end is not yet upon my lips. It is still a love song in the wind.

Kahlil Gibran

What if the “resurrection of the body” were not seen as the resurrection of particular bodies that ascend, beginning with Jesus of Nazareth, into another world, but as God’s promise to be with us always in God’s body, our world? What if God’s promise of permanent presence to all space and time were imagined as a worldly reality, a palatable, bodily presence? What if then we did not have to go somewhere special (church) or somewhere else (another world) to be in the presence of God, but could feel ourselves in that presence at all times and in all places? What if we imagined God’s presence as in us and in all others, including the last and the least?

Sallie McFague

The small plot of ground

on which you were born

cannot be expected

to stay forever

the same.

Earth changes,

and home becomes different

places.

You took flesh

from clay

but the clay

did not come

from just one

place.

To feel alive,

important, and safe,

know your own waters

and hills, but I know

more.

You have stars in your bones

and oceans

in blood.

You have opposing

terrain in each eye.

You belong to the land

and the sky of your first cry,

you belong to infinity.

Alla Renee Bozarth

Water Blessing –

Rechatz.*

The cleansing power of water.

Moisture.

The essence of life.

Washing away hurts,

ways of thinking,

ways of being,

the things we want to let go of right now.

Allowing through that which has yet to emerge.

Making the way

for sacred space.

*Hand-washing

From the Santa Cruz Haggadah

Great Spirit, Divine One, Creator
who is heaven earth rock wind insect tree fox
human of every size shape color

Holy are your infinite names chanted sung whispered
shouted in every language, tongue.

We will midwife the rebirth of Gaia
as best we can
restoring the Great Law of Peace.

Guide our hands to the soil and seed
honoring the alchemy of food.
Let us remember your abundance
and share the bread of life with any who hunger.

We are forgiving
and giving and giving.
We trust in the give-away.
We give and receive.

Let us be humble before the darkness and the light
walking in harmony amidst them.
Give us courage to know them intimately
both within and without.

For you have breathed it all---
the behind, the above, the below, the beyond.
Your awesome power courses in our veins
and animates our hearts.
You are the Great Drum.

We thank you.

Translation of the lord's prayer
from King James to Gaian - Claudia L'amoreaux