...

Under evergreens
I walk along a pathway
Now gone to sight
Beneath autumn leaves strewn there
By winter’s mountain winds.

~ Tonna (1289-1372)

@rookie54 said
Toward the One,
the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being,
United with all the Illuminated Souls,
Who form the Embodiment of the Master,
the Spirit of Guidance.

opening invocation - pir vilayat inayat khan




Some people can see clearly that the mind is lucid and pure like a bright mirror.
Some need a year of practice and then the mind becom ...[text shortened]... the pearl becomes hidden.
When the water is pure, the pearl is revealed.”

~ Tao-shin (580-651)

A DAY’S PLAN
March 12
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 86

Every day I ask God to kindle within me the fire of His love, so that love, burning bright and clear, will illuminate my thinking and permit me to better do His will. Throughout the day, as I allow outside circumstances to dampen my spirits, I ask God to sear my consciousness with the awareness that I can start my day over any time I choose; a hundred times, if necessary.




NEW DAY
God bless everyone
no exceptions

I don’t crave fame and profit or care that I’m poor;
Living in the depths of the mountains
I keep far away the world’s dust;
The year has waned and the skies are cold:
Who’d be my companion?
The plum blossoms are adorned in moonlight
One branch-new.

Jakush-tsu Genko (1290-1367)

March 13
We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness.
This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84

The word “entered” . . . and the phrase “entered into the world of the Spirit” are very significant.
They imply action, a beginning, getting into, a prerequisite to maintaining my spiritual growth,
the “Spirit” being the immaterial part of me.
Barriers to my spiritual growth are self-centeredness and a materialistic focus on worldly things.
Spirituality means devotion to spiritual instead of worldly things, it means obedience to God’s will for me.

I understand spiritual things to be:
unconditional love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control and humility.
Any time I allow selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear to be a part of me, I block out spiritual things.
As I maintain my sobriety, growing spiritually becomes a lifelong process.
My goal is spiritual growth, accepting that I’ll never have spiritual perfection.



NEW DAY
God bless everyone
no exceptions

March 13 Bowl of Saki Commentary

As life unfolds itself to one, the first lesson one learns is humility.
~Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary:
This living unfoldment is a process, not an accomplishment. It does not come from book learning or prayer or asceticism or from change in regimen or vain breathing exercises. It comes only through the grasping of life. And how is life grasped? It is either through actual pain and suffering, or worldly experience, or inner awakening through the Grace of God, as in meditation and Zikr.
~Murshid Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti)

A student’s first task should be to abandon your idea of your self.
To abandon your idea of your self means that you should not be attached to this body.

Even if you have understood the sayings of the ancients and sit all the time like iron or stone,
if you remain attached to this body, it is impossible to attain the way of the buddhas and enlightened ancestors,
even in myriad eons over a thousand lifetimes.

~ Dogen (1200-1252)

If you can see a thought as it arises
This awareness will at once destroy it.
Whatever state of mind should come,
Sweep it away, put it down.

Both good and evil states
Can be transformed by mind.
Sacred and profane appear
In accordance with thoughts.

~ Han Shan Te Ch’ing (1546-1623)

Far up this cold mountain,
A steep rocky trail
Leads to places people dwell
In white clouds.
I stop my horse-drawn cart,
Sit and enjoy sunset through the maples,
Whose frosted leaves are redder
Than early spring flowers.

~ Tu Mu (803-852)

At a private gate,
A light snow falls;
Here the quietist’s aim
Is perfectly achieved.
Meditation proceeds
Through the day;
Only lone peaks
Compare in purity.
I’m at ease
In this insignificant dream;
Fir and bamboo
Stir in the cold.
There’s only one old man
On West Peak,
And when we meet,
His eyes shine clear.

~ Kuan Hsiu (832-912)

Meditation will not carry you to another world, but it will reveal the most profound and awesome dimensions of the world in which you already live.

Calmly contemplating these dimensions and bringing them into the service of compassion and kindness is the right way to make rapid gains in meditation as well as in life.

~ Hsing Yun

He lives in a thatched hut
In Ling Mountain Valley;
Studies diligently by oil lamp
The Way of Nature.
In this still world without people,
His rustic door’s half shut;
Only white clouds go with him
Through the night.

~ Hsieh Ling-chih (8th c)

In meditation we leave
The fires of worldliness
For the coolness of clear samadhi.
And this feels just like the joy
Of falling into cool, clear water
After burning in the heat of the sun.

Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom

When one contemplates
Sickness, old age, and death,
One sees that no one and nothing
Can escape them.
When compassion is born
In the heart,
One sees that there is no reason
To add to the evil and pain.

Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom