Divine Nature

Self-transformation

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:33:00 +0000

A "meditation" by Lao Tzu:

"If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself; if you want to eliminate the suffering of the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation."

"A Just and Moral Society..."

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:36:00 +0000

"A just and moral society cannot be erected on a premise that some human beings are subhuman or perverted, not on the basis of their doing but on the basis of their being. It matters not what any source of ancient wisdom has previously declared. The Bible, for example, was once quoted to support slavery, to oppose science and to prevent women from achieving equality. On every one of those issues the Bible was quite simply wrong. To quote it now to uphold the evil of homophobia is no less wrong. These efforts will fail as they always do."

~Bishop John Shelby Spong

Finding Non-duality (Unity)

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:46:00 +0000

An excerpt from Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione

"Normally we empower our demons by believing they are real and strong in themselves and have the power to destroy us. As we fight against them, they get stronger. But when we acknowledge them by discovering what they really need, and nurture them, our demons release their hold, and we find that they actually do not have power over us. By nurturing the shadow elements of our being with infinite generosity, we can access the state of luminous awareness and undermine ego. By feeding the demons, we resolve conflict and duality, finding our way to unity."

Great interview with the author is found here:

http://www.befriend-your-fears.com/page8.htm

The Challenge of Awakening

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:16:00 +0000

Excerpt from Hakuin Ekaku's Talks Given Introductory to Zen Lectures on the Records of Sokko, 1740:

"Buddha means 'one who is awakened.' Once you have awakened, your own mind itself is Buddha. By seeking outside yourself for a Buddha invested with form, you set yourself forward as a foolish, misguided man. It is like a person who wants to catch a fish. He must start by looking in the water, because fish live in water and are not found apart from it. If a person wants to find Buddha, he must look into his own mind, because it is there, and nowhere else, that Buddha exists.

"Question: 'In that case, what can I do to become awakened to my own mind?'

"What is that which asks such a question? Is it your mind? Is it your original nature? Is it some kind of spirit or demon? Is it inside you? Outside you? Is it somewhere intermediate? Is it blue, yellow, red, or white?

"It is something you must investigate and clarify for yourself. You must investigate it whether you are standing or sitting, speaking or silent, when you are eating your rice or drinking your tea. You must keep at it with total, single-minded devotion. And never, whatever you do, look in sutras or in commentaries for an answer, or seek it in the words you hear a teacher speak.

"When all the effort you can muster has been exhausted and you have reached a total impasse, and you are like the cat at the rathole, like the mother hen warming her egg, it will suddenly come and you will break free. The phoenix will get through the golden net. The crane will fly clear of the cage...."

(As found in The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin, trans. by Norman Waddell. [Boston: Shambhala, 1994].)

Living a Life of Passion

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:16:00 +0000

A "meditation" by Skye Thomas--

"I was asked in an interview what advice did I have for entrepreneurs who are just starting their companies. I told them to 'make sure you really, really love what you are doing because you do not own the business, it owns you. You will work more hours for no pay than you ever would for any boss. You will dig, scrape, curse, and bite for quite awhile before it takes off. It is very rare that people make it big overnight. Plan to have another source of groceries and rent money for at least a year, maybe two years. If you won the lottery and never had to work another day, would you still do this work? If not, don't bother. You know you are in the right line of work when you would give it away for free just to get to be a participant.' As I reflect on what it means to follow a spiritual calling, I see that this advice really holds true for callings too. Perhaps it is true for anyone who wants to live a life of passion."

[emphasis added]

A Meditation for Taking Down the Christmas Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:54:00 +0000

"A Silent Promise"

A poem by Jay Emerson Johnson

Light comes back

as it always does

just before Christmas Day

like finding a treasured keepsake

forgotten in attic recesses

and I start to think about Hoovering up

brittle evergreen needles,

fingering the stubborn ones

out from a wooly carpet’s fibers.

Light comes back slowly

tracing an ancient arc

across the winter sky

and I kneel on hardwood

straining to scoop up

a stray ornament

from a dusty corner

just out of reach

with sunlight

dappling my vision.

Light comes back

with a promise

silent as the stars –

This simple, tender flesh

covering our hands

wrinkling our knees

layering our faces

shall be seen

revealed as a divine gift

for this world

indeed, an epiphany.

A meditation for the season

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:50:00 +0000

(Pre)Occupied

a poem by Jay Emerson Johnson

Few have been this preoccupied with tents

since you recklessly pitched one among us.

I would have chosen something more stable,

not quite so porous and vulnerable,

safe, secure, readily significant,

and missed the whisper of evening breezes,

the restless susurration of canvas,

and that one appearing in the shadows,

light flinting off flesh in a fading sun,

fireflies dancing in the night,

rousing my longing

to step into your own

luminous darkness.

See Jay's blog: peculiarfaith.com .

A Meditation on Connectedness

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:04:00 +0000

"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true."

--attributed to Buddha

On the Idea of "Incarnation"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:46:00 +0000

A meditation by Fahkruddin Iraqi:

Although you may not know it,

If you love anyone, it is Him you love;

If you turn your head in any direction,

it is toward Him you turn.

Let go of everything,

Completely lose yourself on this path,

Then your every doubt will be dispelled.

With absolute conviction you'll cry out--

I am God!

I am the one I have found!

In the light I praised you

And never knew it.

In the dark I slept with you

And never knew it.

I always thought that I was me,

But no, I was you

and never knew it.

(from The Essential Gay Mystics, ed. by Andrew Harvey)

About Wolves

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:56:00 +0000

"Wolves may feature in our myths, our history, and our dreams, but they have their own future, their own loves, their own dreams to fulfill."

--Anthony Miles

"Throughout the centuries we have projected on to the wolf the qualities we most despise and fear in ourselves."

--Barry Lopez

"We have doomed the Wolf not for what it is, but for what we have deliberately and mistakenly perceived it to be..the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer..which is, in reality no more than a reflexed images of ourself."

--Farley Mowat

Wolf at Beaver Creek

by Mike Burwell

(from The Cartography of Water)

This gray shape before me

not any known thing.

From twenty feet, my eyes slide

into other eyes, full

of wild streaks of darkening sky.

The creek rushes in its small calling.

He moves first, turns from the trail,

trots off, turns, stares,

trots, stops, stares

three more times before the willows

swallow him. I am rooted under clouds

ripping in winds too high to hear,

that other eye heaving in the heart.

"Wolf is the Grand Teacher. Wolf is the sage, who after many winters upon the sacred path and seeking the ways of wisdom, returns to share new knowledge with the tribe. Wolf is both the radical and the traditional in the same breath. When the Wolf walks by you-you will remember."

--Robert Ghost Wolf

From "My Glance Is Clear Like a Sunflower"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000

From "My Glance Is Clear Like a Sunflower"

by Fernando Pessoa

I believe in the World as in a daisy
Because I see it. But I don't think about it
Because thinking is not understanding...

The World was not made for us to think about
(To think is to be eye-sick)
But for us to look at and be in tune with...

I have no philosophy: I have senses...
If I speak of Nature, it's not because I know what Nature is,
But because I love it, and that's why I love it,
For a lover never knows what he loves,
Why he loves or what love is...

Loving is eternal innocence,
And the only innocence is not to think...

(translated by Alberto Caeiro)

Some quotes from Wayne Dyer

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:40:00 +0000

"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you."

--Wayne Dyer

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/wayne_dyer.html

Desert Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:14:00 +0000

Stories found in Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers, by Yushi Nomura:

"A philosopher asked Saint Anthony: Father, how can you be enthusiastic when the comfort of books has been taken away from you? He replied: My book, O Philosopher, is the nature of created things, and whenever I want to read the word of God, it is usually right in front of me."

"Abba Evagrius said that there was a brother, called Serapion, who didn't own anything except the Gospel, and this he sold to feed the poor. And he said these words, which are worth remembering: I have even sold the very word which commanded me: Sell everything, and give to the poor."

"There were two old men who had lived together for many years, and they never quarreled. Now one of them said: Let us try to quarrel once just like other people do. And the other replied: I don't know how a quarrel happens. Then the first said: Look, I put a brick between us, and I say, This is mine, and you say, No, it's mine, and after that a quarrel begins. So they placed a brick between them, and one of them said: This is mine, and the other said: No, it's mine. And he replied: Indeed, it's all yours, so take it away with you! And they went away unable to fight with each other."

"Abba James said: We do not want words alone, for there are too many words among people today. What we need is action, for that is what we are looking for, not words, which do not bear fruit."

"An old man said: If you have words, but no work, you are like a tree with leaves but no fruit. But just as a tree bearing fruit is also leafy, a person who has good work comes up with good words."

"A brother came to Abba Poemen and said: Abba, a variety of thoughts are coming into my mind and I am in danger. The old man took him out in the air and said: Open your robe and take hold of the wind. And he answered: No, I cannot do it. The old man said: If you cannot do it, neither can you prevent those thoughts from coming in. But what you should do is to stand firm against them."

Be Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:40:00 +0000

"If you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty."

--Matthew 23:12 (as translated in The Message, Eugene Peterson)

"My book ... is nature..."

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:45:00 +0000

--Yushi Nomura, Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers

"Fording a Stream"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:03:00 +0000

"For All"

a poem by Gary Snyder

Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up,
holding boots, pack on,
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel.

I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell

one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.

"Discovering the World"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:32:00 +0000

"After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color and bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?"
--Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow

"Refugia"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:22:00 +0000

"We can create small pockets of flourishing, and we can make ourselves into overhanging rock ledges to protect their life, so that the full measure of possibility can spread and reseed the world. Doesn't matter what it is; if it's generous to life, imagine it into existence. Create a bicycle cooperative, a seed-sharing community, a wildlife sanctuary. Write poems for children. Sing duets to the dying. Tear out the irrigation system and plant native grass. Imagine water pumps. Dig a community garden in the Kmart parking lot. Learn to cook with the full power of the sun at noon.

"We don't have to start from scratch. We can restore pockets of flourishing lifeways that have been damaged over time. Breach a dam. Plant a riverbank. Vote for schools. Introduce the neighbors to each others' children. Celebrate the solstice. Write a story in an old language. Slow a rivercourse with a fallen log.

"Maybe most effective of all, we can protect refugia that already exist: they are all around us. Protect the marshy ditch behind the mall. Ban poisons from the edges of the road. Save the hedges in your neighborhood. Boycott what you don't believe in. Refuse to participate in what is wrong. There is power in this--an attention that notices and celebrates thriving where it occurs, a conscience that refuses to destroy it. These acts will be the wellspring of the new world. From sheltered pockets of moral imagining, and from protected pockets of flourishing, new ways of living will spread across the land.

"Here is how we will start anew: not from the edges over centuries of invasion, but from small pockets of good work, shaped by an understanding that all life is interdependent and driven by the uniquely human gift--practical imagination, the ability to imagine that things can be different from what they are now. 'Your calling,' philosopher Frederick Buechner said, 'is at the intersection of your great joy and the world's great need.' Go to that place. Do that work."

--Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril

Lifeways

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:32:00 +0000

"...those lifeways that are most destructive of the world often turn out to be exactly those lifeways that are most destructive of the spirit."

--Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril

The full expression of Absolute Spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:40:00 +0000

"Our goal is unreachable because we have always been where we long to be. As the philosopher Hegel once told his classes, in essence, the only thing that keeps us from seeing the world as the full expression of Absolute Spirit is our belief that this has yet to be accomplished."

--Michael Steinberg, A New Biology of Religion

A poem by Hafiz

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:08:00 +0000

I am

a hole in a flute

that the Christ's breath moves

through--

listen to this

music!

--Hafiz

"One with the One"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:56:00 +0000

"Gnomic"

--a poem by St. John's College tutor Charles G. Bell (1916-2010)

The night each plows

A furrow of death

In the field of stars

Who calls?

I am nothing

But one with the one

That makes the nothing

All.

"In love with places"

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:34:00 +0000

"What ... does it mean to love a place? We do fall in love with places, there is no doubt. The crest of a mountain, the childhood shelter behind the hedge, the rockwrack shore of the sea, the lilac in bloom by the bus stop--each of us has a place that makes us feel whole and happy and alive. Sometimes we fall in love with the entirety of these, the global home so beautiful from space, with its glowing blue skin and soft clouds. Loving a place is a way of feeling, connected and at peace. But loving a place is also a way of acting. Can we claim to love a place if we skim it for our own gain, or slash it and leave it to die? Just as in loving a person, loving a place means being kind to it, protecting it, caring about its well-being as much as your own."

From Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson (Trinity University Press, 2010).

"Choose one virtue."

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:28:00 +0000

"To be the sort of person who helps move the world toward shared, sustainable flourishing will require a strong set of virtues:

"A sense of wonder, to perceive and value the extraordinary beauty and mystery of the thriving world.

"Compassion, to feel the suffering of both human and nonhuman animals caused by climate change and ecological collapse.

"Imagination, to envision new and sustainable ways to provide for human needs without plundering the planet.

"Independence of mind, to distinguish true from false, to distinguish real needs from created markets, to understand how to make good moral decisions under conditions of uncertainty.

"Integrity, to do what one thinks is right, even if it means making decisions that are radically different from the decisions one's friends and neighbors make, decisions contrary to what is well-advertised or easy.

"Justice, to honor the needs of other people and other species as highly as one's own, and to respect in others the rights one claims for oneself.

"Courage, to do what needs to be done even if the lonely odds are against you."

"...Choose one virtue. Make a decision ... that embodies that virtue. Now choose another virtue. Make a decision that embodies both of them. Continue. Virtues are habits of the mind and heart. Habits are developed by practice, over time."

From Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson. (Trinity University Press, 2010)

"You are what you do."

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony F. Chiffolo) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:18:00 +0000

"Ask not, What shall I do? Ask, What kind of person do I want to be? Then act as that person would act. You are what you do."

From Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson. (Trinity University Press, 2010)