Song to the Dying by Thich Nhat Hanh
This body is not me
I am not caught in this body
I am life without boundaries
I was never born and I have never died
Over there, the wide ocean
And sky with many galaxies
All manifests from the basis of consciousness
Since beginning less time I have always been free
Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out
Birth and death are only a game of hide and seek
So smile to me, take my hand and wave goodbye
Tomorrow we shall meet again or even before
We shall always be meeting again at the true source
Always meeting again on the myriad paths of life.
Retreat ‘Gatha’ by Rupali Prabhu
The magic of everyday life
Is lost in the quest of the morrow
Today I am thankful to have received
The magic of every moment in the now.
The steam rising from the cup of tea
Is something I have seen today
It has filled me with such amazement
To drink this brew warm and new
Having a few moments to myself
It’s hard to feel the time
I am grateful for this day
Where time is just for me.
The Ego by Bernie Herlihy
The Ego builds a prison
With frame of rigid views
And walls of thick opinions
Culled from forgotten news.
And there the suffering Ego
Plays out its tragic part
While Love, the key to freedom
Lies waiting in the heart.
Dorothy Rowe from “Beyond Fear”
“The only matter over which we have total control is the interpretations we make.
We are responsible for very little of what happens,
but we are always totally responsible for how we interpret what happens.”
Eckhart Tolle
“Sometimes letting go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.”
The Tao Te Ching
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.”
Joseph Campbell
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned
so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.”
Autobiography in Five Chapters
1) I walk down the street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in
I am lost
I am hopeless
It isn’t my fault
It takes forever to find a way out
2) I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I pretend I don’t see it
I fall in again
I can’t believe I’m in the same place
But it isn’t my fault
It still takes a long time to get out
3) I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I see it is there
I still fall in . . . it’s a habit
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault
I get out immediately
4) I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I walk around it
5) I walk down another street.
Two Dogs
A variation by Bernie Herlihy on the American Indian story of the two wolves.
It is as if I have two dogs in my heart; one a guard dog, the other a guide dog.
The guard dog is a Rottweiler with distemper and the guide dog is a golden retriever.
The Rottweiler is guarding my ego which is futile, as ego is a fabrication created from delusion and ignorance and the poor dog spends its life defending the indefendable.
If I close my heart, the Rottweiler comes on duty.
If I open up my heart, the golden retriever can do her job.
My choice.