The Seer

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The sky has never won a prize.
The clouds have no careers.
The rainbow doesn’t say ‘my work’,
thank goodness.

The rock in the creek’s not so productive.
The mud on the bank’s not too pragmatic.
There’s nothing useful in the noise
the wind makes in the leaves.

Buck up now, my fellow superfluity,
and let’s both be of that worthless ilk,
self-indulgent as shooting stars,
self-absorbed as sunsets.

Who cares if we’re inconsequential?
At least we can revel, two good-for-nothings,
in our irrelevance; at least come and make
no difference with me.

Stephen Cushman

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Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
doesn’t make sense any more.

by Jelaluddin Rumi, in Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi p. 36.

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Water symbolizes the Tao in many ways. Here, in the Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu refers to its nourishing qualities. As we know only too well in Australia, all life depends on water. It has supreme power over all living things, yet it makes no claim

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There is a very famous poem written by the third patriarch of Zen, Seng-ts’an, called the Hsin-Hsin Ming, which translates as Verses in Faith Mind. In this poem Seng-ts’an writes these lines: “Do not seek the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.” This is a reversal of the way most people go about trying to realize absolute truth.

Most people seek truth, but Seng-ts’an is saying not to seek truth. This sounds very strange indeed. How will you find truth if you don’t seek it? How will you find happiness if you do not seek it? How will you find God if you do not seek God? Everyone seems to be seeking something. In spirituality seeking is highly honored and respected, and here comes Seng-ts’an saying not to seek.

The reason Seng-ts’an is saying not to seek is because truth, or reality, is not something objective. Truth is not something “out there.” It is not something you will find as an object of perception or as a temporal experience. Reality is neither inside of you nor outside of you….

This article by Adyashanti is continued on his Web page.

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BOAT, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July–

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear–

Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream–
Lingering in the golden gleam–
Life, what is it but a dream?

by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

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I died as a mineral and became a plant;
I died as a plant and rose to animal;
I died as animal and I was a man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man to soar
With angels blest. But even from an angel
I must pass on: all except God must perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.

Jelaluddin Rumi ~ Sufi Poet and mystic, born 1207.

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The great Sufi poet and teacher, Jalaludin, Rumi was born on Sept. 30, 1207 in Balkh in modern Afganistan; he died on Dec. 17, 1273 in Konya, Turkey, where he is commonly known as, Mevlana. UNESCO designated 2007, the 800th anniversary of his birth, the international year of
Rumi.

A brilliant mystic, theologian, and one of Persia’s greatest poets, he was also a Sufi Master who gave spiritual instruction to several hundered disciples. A great number of these were transcribed and survive today amidst his vast body of works. A collection of Rumi’s poetry is available from Gurukula. Here are just couple of his observations:

Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it’s a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame’s core.

The ground’s generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty!. Try to be more like the ground.

The universe and the light of the stars come through me.

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

Like a thief (Divine) insight stole silently in and sat amongst the devotees eager to give them advice. They were unwilling to listen, so insight kissed their feet and went on its way.

If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?

If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me.. For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.

Sufi teaching and counselling is available in Sydney, Australia, from Sheikha Fleur Bonnin, who is originally from Persia (Iran).

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Fresh, newly born, each moment I am alive.

Bubbling volcano, vibrant light.

Knowing nothing, I am the child’s eye,

In awe, amazed, wondering.

I am the heart, beating rhythmically.

Breathing in and out, I am.

Born again, a single point of eternity,

Shining bright, lighting the world, the universe, my creations.

And again born anew, without a clue, I witness the play.

I am alive, I am.

by Stephen WIngate

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The ego is nothing
Is no thing at all
Like an eddy in a river
It’s a swirl of consciousness
When shrunk by a spell
Of belief in a ‘me’And behind the appearance

It’s easy to see
That the eddy’s just water doing a dance
And the ego’s just boundlessness caught in a trance
So kick up your heels
And dance the good dance
But never forget to constantly glance
Back at the source from which it all springs
And rest in the stillness that silently sings

Written by Chris Irving (after doing a Headless workshop at Gurukula)

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When time brings its own message

That the way to truth is there,

The feeling is not to be found

The sight cannot be sought.

The void of time and thought

Brings its own clarity

The way is not there, not here

It is all things, every moment.

The joy of finding it

The bliss of knowing it

Dissolves into infinity

Along with the seeker.

Beyond all knowing and seeing

Where self cannot reach,

Living in the still void

We exist for all time.

by Larry Davis