breathe, you are alive

Breathe and you know that you are alive.
Breathe and you know that all is helping you.
Breathe and you know that you are the world.
Breathe and you know that the flower is breathing you.
Breathe for yourself and breathe for the world.
Breathe in compassion and breathe out joy.

Breathe and be one with the air that you breathe.
Breathe and be one with the river that flows.
Breathe and be one with the earth that you tread.
Breathe and be one with the fire that glows.
Breathe and you break the thought of birth and death.
Breathe and you see impermanence is life.

Breathe for your joy to be steady and calm.
Breathe for your sorrow to flow away.
Breathe to renew every cell in your blood.
Breathe to renew the depths of consciousness.
Breathe and you dwell in the here and now.
Breathe and all you touch is new and real.

Breathe.



from the Plum Village Chanting Book. This song can be heard at the page below (just click on the green button under A Basket of Plums to start the song):
http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/news/music.html

Photo ©Tijen Inaltong; and I dedicate this post to you, my dearest: breathe, we are alive!

looking at your hand

Whose hand is this
that never died?
Who is it who was born in the past?
Who is it who will die in the future?

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.

To be born means that something that did not exist comes into existence. But the day we are 'born' is not our beginning. It is a day of continuation. But that should not make us less happy when we celebrate our 'Happy Continuation Day.'

Since we are never born, how can we cease to be? This is what the Heart Sutra reveals to us. When we have a tangible experience of non-birth and non-death, we know ourselves beyond duality. The meditation on 'no separate self'' is one way to pass through the gate of birth and death.

Your hand proves that you have never been born and you will never die. The thread of life has never been interrupted from time without beginning until now. Previous generations, all the way back to single-cell beings, are present in your hand at this moment. You can observe and experience this. Your hand is always available as a subject for meditation.


an excerpt from Present Moment, Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness Verses For Daily Living by Thich Nhat Hanh



I dedicate this post to Denise Sanematsu Kato, dear friend and sister of the Heart, may your Path be clear and full of light, may you be happy and peaceful, may you live in joy and kindness, may your practice bloom into compassion and understanding.

Thank you for being there. Breathing in, breathing out, we are always together.

so that you can feel as I do

We share the same time - as far as I know
I imagine I would be a beautiful moment
and with this I am sending myself to you right in this second
so that you can feel as I do,
so that you can feel as I do...



These are words from the happy, beautiful song Uhlala by MIA. It is a heartwarming song about the Earth, the water, the sky, the light, clouds, stones, sand, soul, time, immortality... And a video on joy, on freedom, on rainbows and butterflies -- and I dedicate this video and song to Matthias (who actually first showed it to me, and made me feel exactly this happy):

Dear friend and brother of the heart, I wish that all your dreams come true, to the highest and the better. May you be with joy, love, peace, good health, kindness, now and ever along your path.


Lyrics are in German (I thank Christine for the translation), and can be seen at: http://www.songtexte.tv/mia/songtext/479199_uhlala.htm

If the link above does not work, please watch this video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBN2zWZ4vfA

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


e e cummings (1894-1962)

if you would like to read more of e e cummings, please refer to:
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/by/e%20e%20cummings?order=title


Photo ©ubiquity_zh, from the wonderful photolog The Best of Lonely Tree.

the compass of meditation (part 1)

I'd like to dedicate this post - a video on vipassana meditation for children - to Maria Luiza, Luis Alberto, Caio, Maya, Nora, Nina, Pedro, Rebekka, and new born Vinícius.



Please note that part two is shown on the post below. Thank you.

May all beings be happy and peaceful.

the compass of meditation (part 2)

three problems ago

Mooji, I hear all you say and I agree with it all. But right now I'm unable to get this problem of holding my relationship together out of my head. I can't move beyond it. What should I do? I'm sorry to introduce a personal issue in all these deep talks on the impersonal reality and all that, but I sincerely feel I must tackle my stuff before more serious matters. So, please show me a way to solve this problem, I'm sure you've got one!


Okay, very well. May I ask you what was your problem three problems ago?

[Questioner looks thoughtfully at the ceiling, but remains silent]

Mmm... Okay, a little closer than that, what was your problem two problems ago? Do you remember?

[The questioner looks more puzzled, and stays silent]

Okay, surely this will be easy for you, what was the problem one problem ago? Surely you can remember...

[Silence]

No?

[The questioner looks bemused and a little embarrassed, but still lost for words]

You see, such is the nature of all thoughts and sensations, they come and go. Your previous problems seemed equally as pressing and important in their time as your current problem now does, but they are no more; absent from the present by the force of nature. If such is the nature of thoughts and feelings, surely your present difficulties share the same destiny. Why worry about it? All these movements are witnessed in you and by you as pure awareness. Stay as That!


excerpt from a Satsang with Mooji (photo above). To learn more about Mooji, please refer to:
http://www.mooji.org/

as you could ever hope to be

When you’re trained as a Buddhist, you don’t think of Buddhism as a religion. You think of it as a type of science, a method of exploring your own experience through techniques that enable you to examine your actions and reactions in a nonjudgemental way, with the view toward recognizing, “Oh, this is how my mind works. This is what I need to do to experience happiness. This is what I should avoid to avoid unhappiness.

At its heart, Buddhism is very practical. It’s about doing things that foster serenity, happiness, and confidence, and avoiding things that provoke anxiety, hopelessness, and fear. The essence of Buddhist practice is not so much an effort at changing your thoughts or your behavior so that you can become a better person, but in realizing that no matter what you might think about the circumstances that define your life, you’re already good, whole, and complete. It’s about recognizing the inherent potential of your mind. In other words, Buddhism is not so much concerned with getting well as with recognizing that you are, right here, right now, as whole, as good, as essentially well as you could ever hope to be.

You don’t believe that, do you?

Well, for a long time neither did I.



With this confession, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche starts his precious book, The Joy of Living (Harmony Books, New York, 2007). To learn more about Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, please refer to The Yongey Foundation at:

http://mingyur.org/index.html

love invincible

I dedicate this song to all my friends, of all times.






When I fall down, I need a helping hand.
And when I lose my head, it's cause it's always buried in the sand.
When I get stuck on myself, feelin' sorry for myself
Will you help me grab a hold and please don't patronize my soul.
When I start to lose control, when I get irrational, when I start to get too high,
you see me come floating by, I say

Touch me in the morning sun, when I feel impossible.
Touch me in the morning sun, show me what is possible.
Touch me in the morning sun when I feel impossible, show me what is possible.
Teach me love invisible,
Teach me love invincible,
Teach me love invisible,
Teach me love invincible.

When you’re down, you need a helping hand.
And when you lose your head, I'll help you wash away the sand.
And when you get stuck on yourself, feelin' sorry for yourself
I will help you grab a hold and I won't patronize your soul.
When you start to lose control, when you get irrational, when you start to get too high,
I see you come floating by, I say

Touch me in the morning sun, when I feel impossible.
Touch me in the morning sun, show me what is possible.
Touch me in the morning sun when I feel impossible,
show me what is possible.
Teach me love invisible,
Teach me love invincible

When we're down, we need a helping hand.
And when we lose our heads, it's cause they're always buried in the sand.
But when we get stuck on our selves, feelin' sorry for our selves.
Will you help us grab a hold and please don't patronize our souls.
When we start to lose control, when we get irrational, when we start to get too high,
You see us come floating by, I say,

Touch us with the morning sun, when we feel impossible.
Touch us with the morning sun, show us what is possible.
Touch us in the morning sun when we feel impossible, show us what is possible.
Teach us love invincible, teach us love invisible

Teach us love invincible, hold us love invisible, share us love invincible,
be us love invincible, help us love invisible, touch us love invisible,
breathe us love invincible, sing it love invisible.

(lyrics by Michael Franti & Spearhead)


Photo: with many dear friends from the Saffron Thread Family, Plum Village, June 2006 ©Matthew Holloran