Weekly Reading

The Old Poets of China
Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
~Mary Oliver

Weekly Reading

One
The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles harsh, beneficent rain.
How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and the sky.
Imagine it!
A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination.
~Mary Oliver

Chant

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Salutations to One of Great Splendor

Weekly Reading

Untitled

Let us swing wide all the doors and windows of our hearts on their rusty hinges so we may learn how to open in love.

Let us see the light in one another and honor it, so we may lift one another on our shoulders and carry each other along.

Let holiness move in us so we may pay attention to its small voice and give ourselves fully with both hands.
~Dawna Markova

Weekly Reading

Miracles In The Minutia
Tiny, little specks of
white flecks…
flowers poking
through the crevice
of the public transportation train station.

I was filled with judgment
until that moment…
the things things that were not going right,
the person who had not set me up
for success…
the list of my complaints long.
Until that moment.

The flowers were not complaining
that they had to grow
in a crack,
in a crevice
on the edge of concrete
at a station
instead of in a beautiful field
with room to breathe and grow.

They were just being flowers.
Being beautiful
whether anyone cared
or noticed
at all.

I was one big complaint…
until that moment…
when I stooped down
and touched their magnificence
and was humbled to my core.
~Julia Butterfly Hill

Weekly Reading

My Religion
"When I do good, I feel good.
When I do bad, I feel bad.
That is my religion."
~Abraham Lincoln.

Weekly Reading

"Three things in human life are important:
The first is to be kind;
the second is to be kind;
and the third is to be kind."
~Henry James

Weekly Reading

How would you life then?

What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
flew in circles around your head?

What if the mockingbird came into the house with you
and became your advisor?

What if the bees filled your walls with honey
and all you needed to do was ask them
and they would fill the bowl?

What if the brook slide downhill just past your bedroom windows
so you could listen to its slow prayers as you fell asleep?

What if the stars began to shout their names,
or to run this way and that way above the clouds?

What if you painted a picture of a tree,
and the leaves began to rustle,
and a bird cheerfully sang from its painted branches?

What if you suddenly saw that the silver of water was brighter than the silver of money?

What if you finally saw that sunflowers,
turning toward the sun all day and every day – who knows how,
but they do it – were more precious,
more meaningful than gold?
~Mary Oliver

Weekly Reading

Choice II
I do not respond
in predictable ways,
like a rat in a maze.

I am not controlled
by people or events.

I make conscious choices
that put me
in control of my life.

I think, then act,
and watch my life transform.

Spirit turns
the darkness before me
into light.

When blind to solutions at hand,
when the way seems blocked,
I trust divine intelligence
to reveal answers
and show the way
to paths I have not known.
~Gabriel Halpern

Weekly Reading

8. The Garden
What I want to know, please, is
what is possible, and what is not.
If it is not, then I am for it.
My heat is out of its flesh-phase.
I am done with all of it, the habits, the patience.
Whoever I was, it is growing hazy and forgettable.

Whoever I am it is for mere appearance's sake.
It is for coin, and foolishness,
and I am thinking of something better.
All morning it has been raining.
In the language of the garden, this is happiness.
The tissues perk and shine.
Truely this is the poem worth keeping.
A mossy house anyone with any sense would enter
as soon as the soul begins
to desire the impossible.
~Mary Oliver

Weekly Reading

Grammar
Maxine, back from a weekend with her boyfriend,
smiles like a big cat and says
that she's a conjugated verb.
She's been doing the direct object
with a second person pronoun named Phil,
and when she walks into the room,
everybody turns:

some kind of light is coming from her head.
Even the geraniums look curious,
and the bees, if they were here, would buzz
suspiciously around her hair, looking
for the door in her corona.
We're all attracted to the perfume
of fermenting joy,

we've all tried to start a fire,
and one day maybe it will blaze up on its own.
In the meantime, she is the one today among us
most able to bear the idea of her own beauty,
and when we see it, what we do is natural:
we take our burned hands
out of our pockets,
and clap.
~Tony Hoagland

Weekly Reading

What I Believe
I believe there is no justice,
but that cottongrass and bunchberry
grow on the mountain.

I believe that a scorpion's sting
will kill a man,
but that his wife will remarry.

I believe that, the older we get,
the weaker the body,
but the stronger the soul.

I believe that if you roll over at night
in an empty bed,
the air consoles you.

I believe that no one is spared
the darkness,
and no one gets all of it.

I believe we all drown eventually
in a sea of our making,
but that the land belongs to someone else.

I believe in destiny.
And I believe in free will.

I believe that, when all
the clocks break,
time goes on without them.

And I believe that whatever
pulls us under,
will do so gently.

so as not to disturb anyone,
so as not to interfere
with what we believe in.
~Michael Blumenthal

Weekly Reading

Only as a spiritual warrior can one withstand the path of
knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything.
His life is an endless challenge and challenges cannot
possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.
The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior
is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an
ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.
- Don Juan

Weekly Reading

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
~ Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet/Saint

Weekly Reading

Care

Spirit takes care of
all that concerns me.
All situations in my life
resolve themselves.
Spirit knows the way
Spirit knows the solution.
I give up all worry to spirit's keeping.
I have the assurance
of answered prayer.
Spirit does not fail me
or forsake me.
I am relaxed
and anxiety free.
~Gabriel Halpern

Weekly Reading

If the philosopher is right
If the philosopher is right,
that all we are
and all the earth around us
is only a dream,

even if a bright, long dream-
that even is nothing
but what sits in the mind,

that the trees, that the red bird
are all in the mind,
and the river, and the sea in storm
are all in the mind,

that nothing exists fierce or soft or apt to be
truly shaken-
nothing tense, wild sleepy-nothing
likes Yeats' girl with the yellow hair-
then you too are a dream

which last night and the night before that
and the years before that
you were not.
~Mary Oliver

Weekly Reading-Chant

Kaayena Vacha Manasendriyar Va
Buddhyatmanava Prakriteh swabhaavat
Karomi Yadyat sakalam Parasmai
Narayanayeti Samarpayami

Whatever actions I may perform
Impelled by the forces of nature
By body, word, mind, senses, intellect, soul,
I offer to the feet of Narayana (direction of a human)-the one that helps a human to his/her goal, i.e. towards moksha or liberation.

Weekly Reading

I have learnt silence from the talkative,
toleration from the intolerant,
and kindness from the unkind; yet strange,
I am ungrateful to these teachers.
~Kahlil Gibran

Weekly Reading

There once lived a man of great knowledge. His reputation as a scholar spread throughout the land and still he longed for recognition. And so it came to pass that this scholar sought out a Zen Master in a nearby monastery asking to be shown the true nature of the universe. But part of him wanted and expected the Zen Master to acknowledge his wisdom. The scholar was granted an interview and seated at a low wooden table. The Zen Master entered the room in silence, placed a tea cup before the scholar and proceeded to fill it with tea. The cup filled up and began spilling over the table, and still the Zen Master continued pouring. The scholar cried out in alarm "My cup is overflowing!" The Zen Master answered "Precisely!" and so ended the interview.

The story of the Tea Cup to demonstrates that knowledge without humility is in fact a handicap to learning. Complete beginners start with an open mind and listen to every word because it is all new to them. They know they are ignorant and so they do not fear to ask questions. The experienced student has heard most of it before, and not listening, misses the little that he did not already know, and so the beginner passes him by. A full cup can receive no tea.

Therefore, when breathing empty your lungs, when learning empty your mind; when loving empty your heart; and when worshiping empty your soul.
~Unknown

Weekly Reading

The Five Remembrances

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

~Buddha (offered by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Weekly Reading

Katie's Poem
I bristle and I bluster
when the woman ten years younger
Says
“I am getting old”

I hear a ticking clock
in yoga
And then bird sounds and a chime
And I want songs
And not ticking
To accompany my dance

A ray of sun
A messy house
Opportunities
And choices
And wisdom, which I may choose
To listen to
Or not.

How will I hold these precious things?
How will I laugh through my frustration?
See how I chafe when someone treats me as ignorant
How often have I done the same to another?
Do I value the divine spark within
Every one?

Can I model grace?
Or is there something else
Wordless
That is mine to model?
Not seeking to become
But knowing
Like Ken said
I amPerfect.
~Kathryn Mansfield

Weekly Reading

Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
~David Wagoner

Weekly Reading

PEACE.
It does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, no trouble
or hard work. It means to be in
the midst of all those things and still
be calm in your heart
(unknown)