Yin to my father's Yang: Polly Carmona..

Graceful mother,
inspired author..
a gem of a paintress,

i love you!

 

Are you looking for me?

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.

When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.

Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.


~Kabir

 

Be With Those Who Help Your Being

Be with those who help your being.
Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.
Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.

A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don't try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it's too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

~Rumi 

Fresh

To move
Cleanly.

Needing to be
Nowhere else.

Wanting nothing
From any store.

To lift something
You already had
And set it down in
A new place.

Awakened eye

Seeing freshly.

What does that do to
The old blood moving through
Its channels?

~ Naomi Shihab Nye  

The Blossom Never Knows

The blossom never knows the fragrance sweet
That in its blossom's mystery lies,
The deeps that mirror forth the Infinite
Question its secrets with their sighs.

For whom throng still the murmuring bees,
Restless amid the perfumed trees?
Whose memory thrills the impassioned breeze
And paints the magic skies?

Whose one lamps through the way-lost night
Glimmer in moon and starry light?
Whose glory in the dawn breaks bright?
For whom yearns all and cries?
For whose greatness down the ages long
Are the wide heavens a sapphire song?
For whom runs the stream with bablling tongue,
Repeats whose harmonies?

Whose breath perfumes trees, flower and grass,
Inspires the atoms's dance in space?
Whose trailing robes in twilight pass,
A shadow in longing eyes?

Oh, if thou never wilt appear,
Why are thy masks of Beauty here?
Why sound thy anklets everywhere,
The spell that never dies?
My heart forgets that in my heart
Thy throne for ever lies.


~Dilip Kumar Roy

 

It is never too late..

It is never too late.
Let us go forth and live
into the very fullness of our being,
with love for ourselves and our world.

Pack nothing. Bring only your determination to serve
and your willingness to be free. Don't wait for the bread to rise.
Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing,
be ready to move at a moment's notice.

Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind -
fear, silence, submission.
Only surrender to the need of the time -
to love justice and walk humbly with your God.

Begin quickly, before you have time to sink back into old slavery.
Set out in the dark. I will send fire to warm and encourage you.
I will be with you in the fire and I will be with you in the cloud.
I will give you dreams in the desert to guide you safely home
to that place you have not yet seen. ...

I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way
and to learn my ways more deeply....
Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wandering
that even your closest friends will have to learn
your features as though for the first time.

Some of you, will not change at all.
Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves
and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth
and feel abandoned by you. Some will find new friendship
in unlikely faces, and old friends as faithful and true
as the pillar of God's flame....

Sing songs as you go, and hold close together. You may at times
grow confused and lose your way.... Touch each other
and keep telling the stories..... Make maps as you go,
remembering the way back from before you were born....

So you will be only the first of many waves
of deliverance on these desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings - your Paschaltide.
Remain true to this mystery.

Pass on the whole story..... Do not go back.
I am with you now and I am waiting for you.

~ Rumi
 

A Sharing Moment

That which is not pouring out every essence of my be-ing will find it surface within your embrace.


 

original oneness

Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from you own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.

~Lao Tzu

 

Let the Healing Start

In the Desert of the heart,
Let the healing start;
In the prison of his days,
Teach the free man to praise.

~W.H.Auden

 

This is the time of Fire

There is a time of Water and a time of Wind.
This is the time of Fire, and Fire eats time.
The sands of the desert are uncountable!
Let go of the reckoning! Let go of time!
Let go of rain! Let go of forgiving!

Fire eats rain and Fire eats trees. Fire eats
The leaves of corn. Fire is the grain and the husk
Of corn. Fire is the raging of Water. Fire is the roar,
the hum, the sting of Wind. Fire is the pepper
pulsing
from the flower.
Fire is the frenzied volcano
dancing.
It is the lightning's blitz, the drumming, the singing,
The beat of tribes, telling their story all night,
Piercing the bottom of dark, birthing the light.

Fire is the Earth exhausted, folding, sleeping
from days and nights of love, til there is no
counting.
When flowers bleed, when lions sleep,
when angels sigh, oh bleed, oh
sleep, oh sigh then! Oh, burn with mountains!
When leaves flame and fall to the ground,
When grass grows brown then gray, grieve not.
Grieve not, but follow the eagle and follow the
grass.

Weep not for the Earth. Weep not for the corn.
The Earth is the lover who gives all to love.
The Earth makes a bed of Love and the Sun
knows.
The Earth makes a table of Love and the Fire
knows.
The Earth feeds Fire. The Earth gives all to Love.
Follow the Earth. Look beyond your eyes as you
go!
Follow the Earth to the beat of the Fire!
Open your thighs. Give all to Love!

~Elaine Maria Upton
 

There is Nothing New to Get

There is nothing new to get.
You have on the other hand,
to get rid of your ignorance,
which makes you think you are other than Bliss.
For whom is this ignorance?
It is to the ego.
Trace the source of the ego.
Then the ego is lost and Bliss remains over.
It is eternal You are That, here and now...
This is the master key for solving all doubts.
The doubts arise in the mind.
The mind is born of the ego.
The ego rises from the Self.
Search the source of the ego
and the Self is revealed.
That alone remains.
The universe is only expanded Self.
It is not different from the Self...

- Ramana Maharshi  

O Love

O Love, O pure deep Love, be here, be now,
Be all - worlds dissolve into your
stainless endless radiance,
Frail living leaves burn with your brighter
than cold stares -
Make me your servant, your breath, your core

~Rumi
 

I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the far-away sea
with its waterfall.

The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.

Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
and give you illumined freedom.

Love remains a secret even when spoken,
for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil
is no freedom for the tree.

In love I pay my endless debt to thee
for what thou art.

~Rabindranath Tagore 

Love adorns itself;
it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.

~

Love does not claim possession,
but gives freedom.

~

Love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.

~

Love's gift cannot be given,
it waits to be accepted.

 

The Great Way has no gate;
there are a thousand paths to it.

If you pass through the barrier,
you walk the universe alone.

~Wu men

 

Freedom!

Uru nastanve tan
Uru ksayaya naskrdhi
Uru no yandhi jivase

For our body give us freedom.
For our dwelling give us freedom.
For our life give us freedom.

~from the Upanishads