What if our religion was each other


If our practice was our life

If prayer, our words.

What if the temple was the earth

If forests were our church......

If holy water - the rivers, lakes, and oceans

What if meditation was our relationships

If the Teacher was life

If wisdom was self-knowledge

If love was the center of our being



~ Ganga White

Deepening

"Often our fear misleads us to stay close to the shore, when the safest place is in the deep, if we can get there. Any swimmer knows: Stay to close to the shore and you will be battered by the surf and undertow. We must swim past the breakers if we are to know the hammock of the deep. Stay on land or make it to the deep. It is the in-between that kills." Mark Nepo

Transformation

As a frightened man in a burning boat
has only one way to the rest of his life,
we must move with courage
through the wall of flame
into the greater sea. 

Mark Nepo

This body is not me
I am not limited by this body.
I am life without boundaries
I have never been born,
And I have never died.


Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
Manifestations from my wondrous mind.
Since before time, I have been free.


Birth and death are only doors through which we pass
Sacred thresholds on our journey
Birth and death are a game of hide and seek.


So laugh with me,
Hold my hand,
Let us say goodbye
Say goodbye to meet again soon.
We meet today
We will meet again tomorrow
We meet at the source every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.

I am Not My Body

This body is not me.

I am not limited by this body.

I am life without boundaries.

I have never been born,

and I have never died.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars, manifestations from my wondrous true mind.

Since before time, I have been free.

Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide- and seek.

So laugh with me,

hold my hand,

let us say good-bye,

say good-bye, to meet again soon.

We meet today.

We will meet again tomorrow.

We will meet at the source every moment.

We meet each other in all forms of life.

~By Thich Nhat Hanh

Paradise

"Humans are just inches away from paradise, but that last inch is as wide as an ocean."  Elizabeth Lesser

Please Call Me By My True Names

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow --
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.

1989

Healing

The cloud does not insist upon it's form,
The wave does not force it's way over the ocean,
So why should you clutch so tightly your little map?

Follow your heart
And know joy in all things.
The path of freedom
has no markers,
Yet leads to fulfillment;
The path of confusion
Is crowded with signs,
Pointing in different directions.

The Great Way is a humble, solitary path
Leading home;
Follow it closely and be guided.
How do you know you are on the Way?

When your map no longer serves you.

Havin Travino, "The Tao of Healing"

Openness

"All of your experiences are temporary and unique waves in this ocean of openness.   The raggedness of your sadness, the perkiness of your lover's nipple, the smell of coffee - all experiences wash through this openness coming and going, tragic and ecstatic, remembered or forgotten, and yet the openness remains, always and only, a home from which you cannot leave because it is your very nature." David Deida

The Ocean

"The ocean is one of the delights for the human eye.   The seashore is a theater of fluency.   When the mind is entangled, it is soothing to walk by the seashore, to let the rhythm of the ocean inside you.   The ocean disentangles the netted mind.   Everything loosens and comes back to itself.   The false divisions are relieved, released and healed."    John O' Donahue

Nature

"Amongst nature we come to remember the wisdom of our own inner nature.  Nature has not pushed itself out into exile.   She remains there, always have in the same place.  Nature stays in the womb of the Divine, of the one pulse-beat with the Divine Heart.   This is why there is great healing in the wild...you bring your clay body back to it's native realm.   A day in the mountains or by the ocean helps the body unclench.   You recover your deeper rhythm.   The tight agendas, tasks and worries fall away and you begin to realize the magnitude and magic of being here."   John O' Donahue