Quotes & Poetry
Threshold
If you knew you were about
To step off the cliff of the known,
To slip from the safety of the familiar
Into the womb of darkness
That has no names,
Would you still cross that threshold
With confident steps,
Or hasten back to the old small house
That lies tight and cramped
Like an old snake skin around you?
The call of the abyss
Looms like a reapers shadow
And looks annihilating
From the telecope of the mind,
But there secret treasures
Are sewn in the fabric of your skin.
To cross that line
Sometimes we have to trip and fall,
Lose ourselves like mist at dawn
Or take the hand of a friend
As we enter uncharted realms.
What happens there is hard to say,
Layers of silt are removed,
Our palette gets washed away
And the house of familiarity
Feels hauntingly different.
Roles and routines no longer fit
As we cast like spawn
Into the ocean's mouth
Or like light hurled in a starless sky,
Where there is nothing to do but
Yield to the tug of waves
Trust the path that takes us to the edge,
To the place where we can break open
And discover ourselves anew.
—Mark Coleman
GENTLE
A gentler world begins
in the way you touch your heart.
Be soft with the light inside you.
Caress your body with this breath.
God is nothing else
but the place where the sun comes up
in your chest.
You are the glimmering destination.
You are the golden honey daubed
on the bread of the ordinary.
Whatever is perfect,
whatever is heavenly,
begins here.
~Fred LaMotte
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~ Anais Nin
In any quiet moment when you are breathing,
The breath may flow out and pause of itself,
Or flow in and pause of itself.
Here experience opens into exquisite vastness
With no beginning and no end.
Embrace this infinity without reservation.
Dive into it,drink deeply, and emerge renewed.
~
Breath flows in filling, filling,
Then surrenders to flow out again.
Breath flows out, emptying, emptying
Offering itself to infinity.
Mind dissolves into heart
Heart dissolves into space
Body becomes a shimmering field
Pulsating between fullness and emptiness.
~ The above are excerpts from The Radiance Sutras, translated by Lorin Roche, PHD.
WILD GEESE
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
- Mary Oliver
Threshold
If you knew you were about
To step off the cliff of the known,
To slip from the safety of the familiar
Into the womb of darkness
That has no names,
Would you still cross that threshold
With confident steps,
Or hasten back to the old small house
That lies tight and cramped
Like an old snake skin around you?
The call of the abyss
Looms like a reapers shadow
And looks annihilating
From the telecope of the mind,
But there secret treasures
Are sewn in the fabric of your skin.
To cross that line
Sometimes we have to trip and fall,
Lose ourselves like mist at dawn
Or take the hand of a friend
As we enter uncharted realms.
What happens there is hard to say,
Layers of silt are removed,
Our palette gets washed away
And the house of familiarity
Feels hauntingly different.
Roles and routines no longer fit
As we cast like spawn
Into the ocean's mouth
Or like light hurled in a starless sky,
Where there is nothing to do but
Yield to the tug of waves
Trust the path that takes us to the edge,
To the place where we can break open
And discover ourselves anew.
—Mark Coleman
GENTLE
A gentler world begins
in the way you touch your heart.
Be soft with the light inside you.
Caress your body with this breath.
God is nothing else
but the place where the sun comes up
in your chest.
You are the glimmering destination.
You are the golden honey daubed
on the bread of the ordinary.
Whatever is perfect,
whatever is heavenly,
begins here.
~Fred LaMotte
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~ Anais Nin
In any quiet moment when you are breathing,
The breath may flow out and pause of itself,
Or flow in and pause of itself.
Here experience opens into exquisite vastness
With no beginning and no end.
Embrace this infinity without reservation.
Dive into it,drink deeply, and emerge renewed.
~
Breath flows in filling, filling,
Then surrenders to flow out again.
Breath flows out, emptying, emptying
Offering itself to infinity.
Mind dissolves into heart
Heart dissolves into space
Body becomes a shimmering field
Pulsating between fullness and emptiness.
~ The above are excerpts from The Radiance Sutras, translated by Lorin Roche, PHD.
WILD GEESE
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
- Mary Oliver
WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
~ Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
~ Mary Oliver
Not causing harm requires staying awake.
Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.
The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work,
the easier it is to refrain.
It becomes a way of life to stay awake,
slow down and notice.
~Pema Chodron
WHAT IF
What if our religion was each other?
If our practice was our life?
If prayer was our words?
What if the temple was the Earth?
If the forests were our church?
If holy water the rivers, lakes & oceans?
What if meditation was our relationships?
If the teacher was life?
If wisdom was self-knowledge?
If love was the centre of our being?
What if God was oneself & all?
~ Ganga White
"Maximum snuggling
Minimal struggling"
~ Swami Vagashananda
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
~ Rumi
Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.
The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work,
the easier it is to refrain.
It becomes a way of life to stay awake,
slow down and notice.
~Pema Chodron
WHAT IF
What if our religion was each other?
If our practice was our life?
If prayer was our words?
What if the temple was the Earth?
If the forests were our church?
If holy water the rivers, lakes & oceans?
What if meditation was our relationships?
If the teacher was life?
If wisdom was self-knowledge?
If love was the centre of our being?
What if God was oneself & all?
~ Ganga White
"Maximum snuggling
Minimal struggling"
~ Swami Vagashananda
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
~ Rumi
