Thoughts Shared (June 1996)

From Steve Ridley, Denver, CO

I felt VFJ readers would appreciate this poem by Kabir, 15th Century mystic, which presents an enlightened view of our yin-yang universe:

Between the conscious and the unconscious,
the mind has put up a swing.
All earth creatures, even supernovas,
sway between these two trees,
and it never winds down.
Angels, animals, humans, insects by the million, also the wheeling sun and moon:
ages go by, and it goes on.
Everything is swinging: heaven, earth, water, fire, and the secret one slowly growing a body.
Kabir saw that for fifteen seconds, and it made him a servant for life.

– KABIR (1440 – 1518)

Also:

You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
and I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet:
it lives in the other world
which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom.
The water flows.

– Li Po (701 – 762)

From Mark Jones, Denver, CO

In the swimming sea of consciousness, there are many condensed expressions of pure consciousness, and these are going about activities of which the purpose might be considered to be merely the celebration of the pure “beingness” of All Things.”

From Lee Campbell, Phoenix, AZ

Their once was a man who came upon an old friend who had achieved immortality. When the immortal found that his friend was suffering hardship, he pointed to a brick by the roadside, turned it into gold and offered it to him. The friend was not satisfied and so the immortal pointed to a large statue of a stone lion and turned it into a solid gold lion. This he offered to his friend, who still seemed it was not enough.

“How can I satisfy you?” asked the immortal.

The man hesitated and then said, “I would just like your finger!”