Uradiance

~from Thich Naht Hanh, August, 201l, University of British Columbia, Awakening the Heart and Healing the Body through Mindfulness of Breathing "When I look deeply, I see that the kingdom of God is a place where there is understanding and love. But there is something else: Suffering. If there is no suffering, how can you give rise to understanding and love? I do not want to send my children to a place where there is no suffering. Because in such a place they have no chance to learn how to understand and to be compassionate. That is why, in my definition of the kingdom of God, it is not a place without suffering. It is a place where people know how to make use of suffering to create love and understanding. It is like the mud and the lotus. If there is no mud, there is no lotus flower.... **** When you breathe in mindfully, you bring your mind home to your body, and you establish yourself in the here and now. And then you realize that there are so many conditions of happi...

True faith means not asking for any other blessing but this breath, at this moment, from the One who breathes you. And we don't even need to ask for that.   Caress your chest with this breath. Loving your own heart softens the whole world. A practice for any moment. Now gaze into the eyes of a friend, partner, child, or perfect stranger, and carry their gaze into your chest with this breath. Nourish your heart with the pain and beauty of the world. A practice for dissolving the illusion of separateness.

Desire is not a linear path that leads us toward a goal. Desire is circular. The fulfillment of a desire is not progress toward some end. Rather, it carries us back to the state we were in before the desire arose. In actuality, we are always there, in the same desireless place. We come from this space, we are destined for this space. And in this space there is no time. Yet through desire we create time. We make constant little excursions and side trips of desire, sensation, and return. Finally, we tire of desire-tripping and awaken to just being here. Now we desire one last thing: Fully awake, to explore this home space, this Om space, the unfathomable ocean of not wanting. I do not desire to go "beyond" desire. I desire to rest before desire, a priori desire, deeper than any sadness or joy. So I watch desire without suppressing it. I witness desire and the fulfillment of desire, remaining awake. Without judgment, I notice where I Am at the beginning and the end ...

"At this time, flares of Shiva from the stars leap down to kiss surges of Shakti from the earth. These polarities meet as lightning in the human nervous system, swirling up and down the subtle dimensions of the spine. The effusive delights of their union may feel like a dizzy opening of the crown, a radiant pressure in the brow, trembling romance in the heart, restless excitement in the solar plex us, or the stirring of Eros through the hips. "In meditation, there may be luminous golden supernovae, with the influx of celestial music. In the body, heightened sexual attraction. In large crowds, exhilaration, confusion, and possible violence. "Now it is essential to have a stable regular meditation practice, grounding and channeling these energies so that they remain creative, and do not become destructive or dissipated. Avoid practices of mere concentration, which at this time will only cause head-ache, repression, and frustration. Learn practices that...

  Buddha mind is neither liberal nor conservative.  Since clarity is always boundless, there is nothing to liberate.  Since awareness is always empty, there is nothing to conserve.  Radiating clear empty sapphire Buddha joy,  dissolve politics into Presence.  Earth is always perfect, just as it is.  Accepting it with every breath perfects it even more.

A great deal of this so-called "spirituality" consists of pretending, based on the desperate proposition that if we pretend to be happy, we will be. Look deeply into this. It is the basis of many rituals, spiritual practices, celebrations, satsangs, and even service projects. We so often attempt to create happiness through sympathetic magic. Are we spontaneously born each moment from a spring of original happiness inside, or are we just trying to act like it, trying to smile like it, under the assumption that everybody else seems happy, so I'm damn well going to act like I am too? Consider that no outward "spiritual" or "moral" behavior actually causes happiness or enlightenment to arise. Happiness arises un-caused, simply as the relaxed ease, the complete repose, of not pretending.

My gaze flows clear and translucent into the depths of eternal Presence. But from where does it flow? Every atom of my eye is made out of protons and stories that are billions of years old. This Now contains an infinite past. Is it not my freedom, my choice every moment, whether to let the past claim me, or to baptize time itself in eternity?

A profound poem by Guthema Roba... Consider the infinite opportunity of this ordinary moment from which you are tempted to be distracted by a mere image of some past futility. "I was going for a short walk - in our neighborhood, those long elegant trees were rising to touch the half dark sweet moon. Birds were singing of aliveness. In the highway People were speeding – they were running away from what expands them, what makes their hearts explode with joy." ~Guthema

Shhhh... It's OK not to forgive. Just don't harm anyone, don't seek revenge. That's all. Nothing could be crueler than telling someone they should forgive. Especially if they've been abused, violated, or betrayed. Hug your pain and your non-forgiveness, which has every right to be there. Keep hugging, cradling, and being real to yourself. Then some day, when it happens, it happens, because it feels OK in your heart. The fruit is ripe and it drops. So you let it go. No one can force it, and no one needs to make it a 'should.' I love you.

I am utterly convinced that Abraham (A-brahm, "from-Brahman"), Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, Buddha, Shankara, Mahavira and Guru Nanak, all revealed the same divine Source, each through their own culture and epoch. That Source is the light that shines eternally in the human heart. All religious scriptures, stories, rites and symbols are metaphors, pointers to that Source. As the stuff of ecstatic poetry, these symbols profoundly enrich us. But when priestly authorities turn them into doctrine, mistaking pointers for the ineffable radiance toward which they point, their authority becomes a great evil, their doctrine a vicious obstacle to our happiness. Gently, resolutely, abandon the tribal cult of the past, embrace the ancient Light now, and reveal pure beauty on the alter of this heartbeat. Then you will know what Jesus meant by the words, "Amen, Amen, I say unto you: before Abraham was, I Am." (John 8:58) You too may say those words. Reveal your Self. Anoi...

"Every kind of sin can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." (Matthew 12:31) Jesus made the remarkable statement that there is only one unpardonable sin: to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. What does this mean?  The Spirit is my very life-breath. If I blaspheme against myself, if I belittle my own life, not even God can help me. The unpardonable sin is to think so little of myself that I give away my spiritual authority to another.  Whether I go to Church or don't go to Church, whether I follow one religion or another, or none at all, doesn't matter at all. What matters is to pray this prayer for absolution of all my sins:  "O My Self, have mercy on me. Forgive me for placing my faith in anyone else, forgive me for forfeiting my spiritual authority to another, priest or pope, savior or guru. Forgive me for doubting the audacious humility of my perfection. For it is only when I embrace my unfalleness, that I may ignite p...

Ora et labora , said Saint Benedict,  pray and work. So we became holy monks.   Then Love whispered, Ora et salta,  pray and dance. So we became fools   neither holy nor unholy,  just drunk on raindrops and sunbeams. Can we work and dance at the same time? Tribal people teach us how. Pre-colonial Africans had work dances and work songs, which slaves brought to America. In parts of Africa, they still sing and dance while working. I have seen them do it...  Even African longshoremen working on American ships. Thus the African American term "Worksong," like the jazz classic by Nat Adderly, embedded below. But white Euro-culture divorced work from prayer, work from dance, work from song. We filled work with a sense of dread and anxiety. Why? Marx wrote all about that...  When I was a Merchant Marine seaman, I was on a freighter in the port of Dakar, Senegal. The officer directed me to supervise African workers who were trying to move a hug...

Silence echoes out of Depth, gazing at the stars in a mirror of Wonder. That Gaze is a Wordless flower, lasting but an instant, then sinking down again into the seedless groundless abyss, ever reverberating, ever blossoming in astonishment. This pulsation of Silence is energy: giving birth to consciousness, then to thought, then to nutrinos, suns and galaxies, which are just waves of emptiness collapsing into spheres. You are Silence. You are the groundless Depth. You are the vibration of Shakti dancing in Shiva, undulating in nakedness and purity. Beloved, we've been whirling through ourselves like this, all day and all night, eternally. That is why I place this diadem of suns and moons on your forehead, then bow to you and shatter my mind against your little brown toes!

I died this morning, leaving only ripples of my disappearance to wash over you, and bless you, and cover you with abundance. I died, and now there are no beings, only Being, rolling through multitudes like one vast wave in an ocean of broken shells. I died this morning, now I understand the Cross: don't worship Jesus, crucify him. Knock down the Buddha if you meet. Whirl with Shiva till Shiva dissolves into your whirling. Slay every God but the one who awakens from your little dream, opening this sun-flooded eye, your empty center, among these ripples of disappearance - Washing, healing the creatures, covering all your lovers with light.

Distance is a gift to those who learn the art of sighing. I'll breathe you in someday, if I ever end my dying - my breathing out toward memory, a raindrop, and a scattering of leaves, a silence shattering on wet stones, and a faded rose... Autumn now, I miss you Friend, here where you loved and dreamed upon my shoulder, and it seemed that Summer could not end.

I have been up all night monitoring credible reports from around the world indicating that nothing is certain. Given the fluidity of the situation, it is highly advised to postpone your hostilities. And if you must act now, please, do something kind, or at least something that doesn't kill anybody. I will give you an update if I learn something new, which is highly unlikely. The truth is, the world "out there" is a random chaos of information bytes. We select the bytes of "evidence" that tend to support the narrative we have already begun telling ourselves, even before we see it in the world. Chaos always provides enough information to support any number of alternate and conflicting narratives. All wars and human conflicts arise through these conflicting narratives, which are neither true nor false. So why not stop telling stories to ourselves and simply observe the silence within, where the narrative arises?  Rest there, in that silence, before the...

In silence there is no time. In stillness there is no thought. This bell was struck ten million years ago. Now its beauty falls on us. Because there is hearing, there is a sparrow this morning. Because there is seeing, there is blue flecked with rose falling inward and outward toward the first sound. Let every heavenly wedding burst from its seed!

If it comes from a sincere heart, anyone's opinion is as good as mine, and has an equal right to sparkle for its moment in the clear night sky of Bodhichitta, which is just awareness. To someone fixed in a point of view, this democracy of truth is disturbing. But to one whose thoughts immediately dissolve into pure space, it is freedom, it is peace.