Like the strings of a guitar that have been severed, leave your voice in its natural state—uninvolved in mundane conversation, engaged in mantra recitation, and the deliberate focusing upon the flow of energy between us.
When we settle back into the heart-cave, there’s nothing left except to sit around the campfire, alternating between silence and telling stories. In the silence, realization. In the open field of awareness, everything will tell you its story.
(Friday morning Chalisa, recorded 12.19.25)
Who we are,
together in the sunlight,
a golden voice
~
By clinging
we lose everything;
by giving,
we discover it all.
Why drown for what will never float?
How easily we forget that we are the water AND the wave ~~~
(Sometimes) Love is a hell-cat,
Clawing at your face to stay dry;
Who knows, maybe we’re the
One clinging to Life,
(Sometimes) Her head just barely above water, or maybe Death, heroically cold, lends His hand
To ferry us to the other shore.
A bubble, a lightning flash:
My love, there is no time
For redemption or delay.
They call it ‘dying into love,’
where the roses have opened,
where the revolution began,
where the music gave us buoyancy, thirst, and water
All at once.
~
Like a bundle of straw when a string has been cut, leave your body in whatever way you feel comfortable and at ease.
~
Beneath an old earthen statue of the Buddha, a glistening golden foot shone bright after a storm. The local villagers began to scrub the earth away and discovered a whole golden Buddha, radiant and free, under hundreds of years of weathered clay. The people thought that it must have been caught in a landslide some long time ago and was forgotten, only just now being re-discovered in its original form.
The temple monks, however, believed that perhaps it was intentionally covered in a protective manner during a period of conflict to preserve it, and when the time was right, to return it to its original state. Whatever the truth, it is a real statue, in fact maybe the largest solid gold statue in the world (look it up!).
~~~
I once heard this story of the Buddha and a farmer who didn’t believe in anything spiritual, particularly things like reincarnation, heaven and hell realms, karma, universal love, etc. — anyway, the Buddha asked the farmer, “How would you live your life if you somehow knew it was all true and real, that there is certainly more to this life?”
The farmer said, “I would live a decent life with love and compassion for everyone.”
“Why?” Asked the Buddha.
“Because,” the farmer replied, “If there are countless lives, my actions now will sow seeds of wisdom and joy for all future generations.”
Then the Buddha asked, “How would you live if you somehow knew it was all nonsense, that there is no life beyond death, this is all there is?”
The farmer said, “I would live a decent life with love and compassion for everyone.”
“Why?” Asked the Buddha.
“Because,” the farmer replied, “If this is my only life, my actions here and now will bring wisdom and joy to all.”
“Just so.” Smiled the Buddha.
Smarty pants. 😉
~~~
Like a river where the water has been diverted, leave your mind as it is—without straying from the natural state in which the empty and cognitive awareness is unimpaired. There is no need for analysis nor cultivation. Do not try to do anything at all, even though thoughts of the past, present, and future may arise. In this way, attain the luminous state in which all forms exhaust themselves within the nature of the vast open sky.
If It Means A Lot 
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