Hafiz, “This Place Where You Are Right Now”

I could tell you a priceless secret about

Your real worth, dear pilgrim,

But any unkindness to yourself,

Any confusion about others,
 
Will keep one 

From accepting the grace, the love,

The sublime freedom

Divine knowledge always offers to you.

Awaken

“Your vision will become clear only

when you look into your heart.

Who looks outside, dreams.

Who looks inside, awakens.”

~ Carl Jung

Thinking

The primary cause of unhappiness is never 

the situation but your thoughts about it.

~ Eckhart Tolle

Alan Watts

Alan Watts was a spiritual teacher in the sixties and early seventies (he died in his sleep in 1973). I honestly don’t know how to describe him. I want to say that he was so cool (because he was!), but that sounds trite and childish. I heard about him early last year through some talks that I was transposing for a former Buddhist monk. My local library has a copy of Om: Creative Meditations—a superbly edited compilation of some of his lectures—and I was blown away by this little masterpiece. It was the beginning of my Watts fascination. Audio collections of his lectures are available for purchase on the Alan Watts website, which is managed by his son Mark Watts; however, you can listen to hours upon hours of Watts’ lectures for free on YouTube. His famous book, The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing WhoYou Are is also available to download for free online. I’m looking forward to obtaining and reading The Way of Zen. I’ve heard it’s very good...

There has been a resurgence of interest and popularity in Watts’ work. I would say Watts is similar to spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle; although, I prefer Watts because of his bohemian lifestyle, sense of humour, and organic nature. (Tolle has become too commercial in my opinion.) Listening to Watts’ lectures will transform, entertain, and enlighten you. I’ve always been fairly open-minded, but Watts has helped me to clear away false beliefs that I was holding on to and wasn’t even aware of. It’s amazing how much damage our spiritual upbringing can have. How much needs to be unlearned to even catch a glimpse of what is truth and find the freedom that we are seeking. Watts has done this for me and I am eternally grateful. Whenever I need a shift in thinking, I turn to his lectures. He has become a part of my consciousness in an intimate and crucial way.

Becoming Water

Photo: Toni Frissell

Now then, if one must try to say something about what Zen is, and I want to do this by way of introduction, I must make it emphatic that Zen, in its essence, is not a doctrine. There’s nothing you’re supposed to believe in. It’s not a philosophy in our sense, that is to say a set of ideas, an intellectual net in which one tries to catch the fish of reality. Actually, the fish of reality is more like water—it always slips through the net. And in water you know when you get into it there’s nothing to hang on to. All this universe is like water; it is fluid, it is transient, it is changing. And when you’re thrown into the water after being accustomed to living on the dry land, you’re not used to the idea of swimming. You try to stand on the water, you try to catch hold of it, and as a result you drown. 

The only way to survive in the water, and this refers particularly to the waters of modern philosophical confusion, where God is dead, metaphysical propositions are meaningless, and there’s really nothing to hang on to, because we’re all just falling apart. And the only thing to do under those circumstances is to learn how to swim. And to swim, you relax, you let go, you give yourself to the water, and you have to know how to breathe in the right way. And then you find that the water holds you up; indeed, in a certain way you become the water.

—Alan Watts

It Is a Lie

It is a lie—any talk of God

that does not

comfort

you.

—Meister Eckhart

The Sky's Sheets

When He touches me I clutch the sky’s sheets,

the way other 

lovers 

do

the earth’s weave

of clay.

Any real ecstasy is a sign 

you are moving 

in the right

direction,

don’t let any prude tell

you otherwise.

~ St. Teresa of Avila

I Am

“I am not my thoughts, emotions, 
sense perceptions, and experiences. 
I am not the content of my life. I am Life. 
I am the space in which all things happen. 
I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

Let It Snow

The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place.

~ Zen saying

“Split a piece of wood; I am here. 

Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.” 

~ Gospel of Thomas

The quieter you become, 
the more you are able to hear.

~ Zen saying

Live in Your Heart

click to enlarge & breathe...

On Forgiving

Photo: Rick Wilson

To forgive is merely to remember

only the loving thoughts you gave in the past,

and those that were given you.

All the rest must be forgotten.

~ A Course in Miracles

The Way

One who lives in accordance with nature 

does not go against the way of things.

He moves in harmony with the present moment,

always knowing the truth of just what to do.

~ Lao-tzu