stop the sound - zen

"step by step

I stop the sound

of the murmuring brook."

 

Shunryu Suzuki

How can I stop the sound of the tumultuous river we are now immersed in and find Peace, if I cannot stop the sound of the murmuring brook of my own thoughts? Peace is the key to freedom. 

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In my experience I don't so much "stop" my thoughts as that I step out of the stream of conditioned consciousness, of the dualistic perspective as me and objects that surround me. Stepping out of this "murmuring brook" I simply release my interest in any thoughts and where they might lead me. Any "problems" to solve are left for later, and soon I find myself in a space of peace. This space is always available and it is for me always a new experience to find myself in it. I do know that I am never in that space when there is much tension built up in my mind-body-spirit complex, so to relax is always good.

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We say, “Step by step I stop the sound of the murmuring brook.” When you walk along the brook you will hear the water running. The sound is continuous, but you must be able to stop it if you want to stop it. This is freedom; this is renunciation. One after another you will have various thoughts in your mind, but if you want to stop your thinking you can. So when you are able to stop the sound of the murmuring brook, you will appreciate the feeling of your work. But as long as you have some fixed idea or are caught by some habitual way of doing things, you cannot appreciate things in their true sense.

source: Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, p. 112

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Into Thin Air

Artwork Images Copyright Dave Goldman

Into Thin Air

We interface into this world out of nothing

Like a hand into the glove

We fit inside it like we were made for it

Made of it and we are but

We come from somewhere else

That is not this world

It is thin

And this world is thick

It is light and this world is heavy

It is of nothing and here everywhere there is something

What a longing to be so thin thinner than the air

Or the breath or thoughts or even thinner than light

He vanished into thin air and he came out of it again

In the morning after waking up out of it

He is now in the thick of it again

Up from a deep deep well at the bottom of nothing

He came up up up up up until he was in it again

Like the hand in the glove

Only the glove is the whole world

And it feels really does feel like he is it

This thickness dense and full of always something

Nowhere empty but he knows empty so somewhere empty is also

He slides into the in-between of the everywhere-something

Letting himself become thin very very thin

Like the finest sheet of nano-film

To slip into the in-between of all of this

Thin fine finest very slight and subtle most subtle hardly noticed

And so so so smooth silky infinitely delicate

Any thought disrupts its space in-between thoughts

Here is the birthplace and the peaceful dwelling of his in-dweller

So peaceful untouched never been touched and so pure

Pure beingness without being this or that

My salvation my sustenance

My essence

How can I forget Thee?

12/2/12

Unconditional Love

Light Baby (source unknown)

All Voices are my Self speaking to me

Mind creates all forms desired by Itself to show Itself to Itself

Myriad entities stand at the ready in my mind’s Eye

To appear and give voice to that which “I” desires to hear

In order to better see and understand Itself

What Love! to bring any form into Being that is desired needed wanted!

Asked for, yearned for, even before any word sprouts in the depths

I will hear and see that Word made flesh

Over and over and over

Whether I am ready to receive it or not

This Love Heart that is all that is

Keeps on cranking out more and more of Itself without reserve

Generous is such a trivial concept compared to this outpouring

Reckless Abandon!

Then the Organ of Perception that we and all forms are

Begins to piece together the picture to connect the pixel dots

! ! ! THIS IS I ! ! ! THIS WE ARE ! ! ! YOU ARE THAT ! ! ! I AM THAT ! ! !

T A T   T W A M   A S I

Once I felt the small child that felt the cutting whip of the harsh word the disapproving look the judgment the repulsion the cold shoulder oh so cold

I felt it from inside – I was the child defenseless innocent open fresh tender

Like the first sprouting green of the simple weed trampled by the hard heel

Callouses grew and grew thicker blocking the Light from Inside and Within

The first few years did the trick I was deaf and dumb for Self’s Love

Callouses covered my senses ears tongue eyes fingertips taste made bitter

At eighteen years rebellion –

"DON'T TAKE THAT IT WILL LEAD YOU TO DAMNATION AND RUIN" 

That was my code: 

I took it Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

20–30 µg (micrograms) barely an energetic signature in the world of matter

Catapulted me outside of the veil of the dusty calloused tired world of despair

I looked around and noticed the sense of me the individual with biography and name

Gone gone far far far gone Om Gate Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!

All was embracing Itself as All Breathing ItSelf as All Seeing only Itself with Deep Love

Never-ending Love fathomless Love without reason without cause or conditions

Forty-Four years ago that was and started the odyssey of the heart to the Heart

Finding traces of my Self like fluorescent specks along the path of life

Sometimes covered with grime in the gutter

and yet still shining glinting in the rays of Sunlight or Streetlight

showing me the Way back to that child’s world

untouched opening like the petals of the rose covered with fine dewdrop diamonds

Now I am touched again by that energetic that signature of Love

no this time around no chemical catalyst just Life’s Urgent Call: Change NOW!

Who is the Master of My Destiny the Master of my Words Feelings Thoughts Actions?

Who is responsible for war peace hate love?

NOW NOW and NOW die to the past

WAKE UP to this NOW of LOVE

It’s what you want your deepest desire most secret secret fondest cherished dream

I take this in this voice of Mine

I rest in quietude in peace in knowing

I let this energetic transform strike into my core my cells my genes

This is who I am how I am NOW

See that child vulnerable everywhere in each ones eyes

Be kind whenever possible it is always possible said His Holiness

11/11/2012 Arizona Beach Retreat

The Golden Egg – Hiranyagarbha

The Cosmic Egg

This is what it feels like

To sit in the middle of the Golden Egg

Hiranyagarbha

An energy quantum, miniscule and infinite

Beingness pure like the very first atom

In an intensely tremendous dance around itself with itself

Creating creating creating

Wave upon wave of scintillating something

Sparkling and tingling into the finest depths

Into the innermost of what can be felt

Warm and loving, suffused and penetrating

Deeper and deeper and deeper

Yes, we love ourselves anyway…

Nothing that was matters

We are fresh, washed clean of all impurities all past

Bathing in our own soothing essence

In this endless pool of NOW-ness

Embraced by the radiance dancing

Like fine pink bubbles of pure Heart

Emerging from the Mother Self

Infused with the power of Father Self

Do The Right thing!

Stay Close To Spirit!

Forgive all especially yourself

Leave aside all judgment of people, places and situations

Allow all to be – Let It Be

And It reveals Itself as You and Me

Rest in peace beyond birth and death

Hiranyagarbha, meaning the "golden fetus" or "golden womb", in one hymn of the Rigveda (RV 10.121) is a name for the source of the creation of the Universe. (http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v550/__show_article/_a000550-000048.htm)

The Cosmic Egg

FREE

source: http://www.digitalblasphemy.com

click on Hammock youtube at bottom while reading:

The yearning of humanity to be free

Welling up from our visceral depths

Free of greed free of jealousy free of fear free of need

Free of judgment of ourselves feeling not good enough

Free of the stain of the past free of guilt pain darkness shadow effort

Free of all burdens free of separation loneliness torment vexations secrets

To be light shining pure fresh young innocent open loved and loving freely

http://youtu.be/iuyMFOfXVtw