He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—"The horror! The horror!"

– Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Happy Halloween!

Painting by Bill Matthews
congajoy.com

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche describes a yogi wandering through a garden. He is completely awake to the splendor and beauty of the flowers, and relishes their colors, shapes and scents. But there is no trace of clinging or any "after-thought" in his mind. As Dudjom Rinpoche says: "Whatever perceptions arise, you should be like a little child going into a beautifully decorated temple; he looks, but grasping does not enter into his perception at all. You leave everything fresh, natural, vivid and unspoiled. When you leave each thing in its own state, then its shape doesn't change, its color doesn't fade and its glow does not disappear. Whatever appears is unstained by any grasping, so then all that you perceive arises as the naked wisdom of Rigpa, which is the indivisibility of luminosity and emptiness."

Behold the glow of the moon

Behold the glow of the moon
illumine the world's four quarters
perfect light in perfect space
a radiance that purifies
people say it waxes and wanes
but I don't see it fade
just like a magic pearl
it shines both night and day

Shih-te ("Pickup")

The Way takes no action, but leaves nothing undone.
When you accept this
The world will flourish,
In harmony with nature.

Nature does not possess desire;
Without desire, the heart becomes quiet;
In this manner the whole world is made tranquil.

~Tao Te Ching

Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, . . . we shall harness . . . the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

At time's beginning
that beauty
which polished creation's mirror
caressed every atom
with a hundred thousand suns.

But this glory
was never witnessed.

When the human eye emerged,
only then was he known.

Abdul-Qader Bedil

The eye you see is not
an eye because you see it;
it is an eye because it sees you.

Narcissism
is an ugly fault,
and now it's a boring fault too.

This Narcissus of ours
can't see his face in the mirror
because he has become the mirror.

Don't trace out your profile,
forget your side view --
all that is outer stuff.

In my solitude
I have seen things very clearly
that were not true.

Beyond living and dreaming
there is something more important:
waking up.


I thought my fire was out,
and stirred the ashes...
I burnt my fingers.

On Inner Wakefulness, Dreams and Joy....

This place is a dream
only a sleeper considers it real
then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he's living in another town
in the dream he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in
he believes the reality
of the dream town
the world is that kind of sleep

Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream
and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are

Rumi~

You are happy, happy, but I am a thousand times happier!
Whom have I encountered in my dream last night? I know not.
I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world;
But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.
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.

Rumi~ (Divan 1740:1-3)

Where there are humans
You'll find flies,
And Buddhas.

~Kobayashi Issa