Because the flowers blooming
In our original home
Are everlasting,
Though springtimes may come and go
Their colors do not fade.

Dogen

Hungry Ghosts 2007

Six realms of existence are identified in Buddhism: gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells. They are each the result of one of the six main negative emotions: pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and anger.

Looking at the world around us, and into our own minds, we can see that the six realms definitely do exist. They exist in the way we unconsciously allow our negative emotions to project and crystallize entire realms around us, and to define the style, form, flavor, and context of our life in those realms. And they exist also inwardly as the different seeds and tendencies of the various negative emotions within our psychophysical system, always ready to germinate and grow, depending on what influences them and how we choose to live. -SR

This is a painting I made last year. At the time, I just thought 'Hungry Ghost' was a cool name for the painting. Now it occurs to me that what I was really expressing was a part of my greed. I was greedy for something but I did not know what...and now I know.

Love
Human Connection
Safety
Honesty

Greed gets a bad rap in the Buddhist tradition. At a point, greed can deteriorate our lives and leave us feeling empty. But there is a different kind of greed that I am willing to live with. One that is affirming and real.

I can accept that I desire and deserve all the above things and when I don't get them I feel very, very Hungry.

Happy Birthday to me....

Yesterday was my birthday and yes, i guess i was feeling a bit more reflective, introspective and just plain emotional. Had brunch with friends, saw a local play about addiction and then ate dinner with a most kind hearted man.

Some could say that this was a challenging year: a move to New Mexico, a year of school, the turbulent transitions of staring over. Compared to others, however, life has been (mostly) smooth sailing. If there were just one lesson the Universe had for me this year it was one of perseverance.

i am so grateful for so many things right now.

May the next year bring more of the same.

Look at the birds. Even flying
is born

out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open

at either end of day.
The work of wings

was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.

-Li-Young Lee

The King Milinda once asked the Buddhist sage Nagasena: "When someone is reborn, is he the same as the one who just died, or is he different?"

Nagasena replied: "He is neither the same nor different. . . . Tell me, if a man were to light a lamp, could it provide light the whole night long?"

"Yes."

"Is the flame then which burns in the first watch of the night the same as the one that burns in the second . . . or the last?"

"No."

"Does that mean there is one lamp in the first watch of the night, another in the second, and another in the third?"

"No, it's because of that one lamp that the light shines all night."

"Rebirth is much the same: One phenomenon arises and another stops, simultaneously. So the first act of consciousness in the new existence is neither the same as the last act of consciousness in the previous existence, nor is it different."

You glide between the heart and its casing as tears glide from the eyelid.

You dwell in my inwardness, in the depths of my heart, as souls dwell in bodies.

Nothing passes from rest to motion unless you move it in hidden ways,

O new moon.

Often it is only when people suddenly feel they are losing their partner that they realize how much they love them. Then they cling on even tighter. But the more they grasp, the more the other person escapes them, and the more fragile the relationship becomes.

So often we want happiness, but the very way we pursue it is so clumsy and unskillful that it brings only more sorrow. Usually we assume we must grasp in order to have that something that will ensure our happiness. We ask ourselves: "How can we possibly enjoy anything if we cannot own it?" How often attachment is mistaken for love!

Even when the relationship is a good one, love can be spoiled by attachment with its insecurity, possessiveness, and pride; and then when love is gone, all you have left to show for it are the "souvenirs" of love, the scars of attachment.

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Maya Angelou

The Pathway Finally Opened

When my heart came to rule in the world of love, it was freed from both belief and from disbelief. On this journey, I found the problem to be myself. When I went beyond myself, the pathway finally opened.

~Mahsati Ganjava

Guardian Angel

I am the bird that flutters against your window in the morning,
and your closest friend, whom you can never know,
blossoms that light up for the blind.

I am the glacier shining over the woods, so pale,
and heavy voices from the cathedral tower.
The thought that suddenly hits you in the middle of the day
and makes you feel so fantastically happy.

I am the one you have loved for many years.
I walk beside you all day and look intently at you
and put my mouth against your heart
though you're not aware of it.

I am your third arm, your second
shadow, the white one,
whom you cannot accept,
and who can never forget you.

~Rolf Jacobsen