May 9th is the anniversary of the Buddha's Enlightenment. The Great Awakening.
A couple of days ago, browsing through Blossoms, a delightful “house of used books” on Church Street, I discovered a wonderful book, called “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” by Paul Reps. It’s a collection of charming and insightful Zen tales. Easy to read and charmingly simple, yet profound in its depth and wisdom.
Felt inspired to quickly sketch out one of the stories, called :
Open your own Treasure House
Daiju visited the master Baso in China.
Baso asked : ”What do you seek?”
“Enlightenment “, replied Daiju.
‘You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside? ‘ Baso asked.
Baso answered : ‘What you are asking IS your treasure house.’
Daiju was enlightened!
Ever after, he urged his friends : Open your own treasure house and use those treasures!’
:o)
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May 10th is Mother’s Day. A Very Happy Mother’s Day to all moms! May 10th also happens to be the birthday of my own mother (who passed on several years ago). She was such a strong, wise, loving and deeply spiritual soul. I’m sure she’s now looking down from “up there”, and wondering how, of all her kids, this one's turning out to be such a “flaneur”...
(Of late, been reading Nicholas Taleb, author of 'The Black Swan', who describes his purpose in life thus : "To slowly distill my single idea, I wanted to become a flaneur, a professional meditator, sit in cafes, lounge, unglued to desks and organization structures, sleep as long as i needed, read voraciously, and not owe any explanation to anybody" :))
For a more 'spiritual' take on Taleb, check out good friend Venky's thoughts at tamingtheox.blogspot.com
Surfing the net, I came across this beautiful extract from a book called, “The Divine Feminine” by Anne Baring and Andrew Harvey. More can be found at http://adishakti.org/_/divine_feminine_in_china.htm
“From the source which is both everything and nothing, and whose image is the circle, came heaven and earth, yin and yang, the two principles whose dynamic relationship brings into being the world we see. The Tao is both the source and the creative process of life that flows from it, imagined as a Mother who is the root of heaven and earth, beyond all yet within all, giving birth to all, containing all, nurturing all. The Way of Tao is to reconnect with the mother source or ground, to be in it, like a bird in the air or a fish in the sea, in touch with it, while living in the midst of what the Taoists called the "sons" or "children" - the myriad forms that the source takes in manifestation. It is to become aware of the presence of the Tao in everything, to discover its rhythm and its dance, to learn to trust it, no longer interfering with the flow of life by manipulating, directing, resisting, controlling. It is to develop the intuitive awareness of a mystery which only gradually unveils itself. Following the Way of Tao requires a turning towards the hidden withinness of things, a receptivity to instinctive feeling, enough time to reflect on what is inconceivable and indescribable, beyond the reach of mind or intellect, that can only be felt, intuited, experienced at ever deeper depth. Action taken from this position of balance and freedom will gradually become aligned to the harmony of the Tao and will therefore embody its mysterious power and wisdom.
“The Taoist artist or poet intuitively reached into the secret essence of what he was observing, making himself one with it, then inviting it to speak through him, so releasing the dynamic harmony within it. He imposed nothing of himself on it but reflected the creative soul of what he was observing through the highly developed skills that he had cultivated over a lifetime of practice. Through the perfection of his art, he did not define or explain the Tao which, as Chuang-Tzu said, cannot be conveyed either by words or by silence, but called it into focus so that it could be experienced by the beholder. The Tao flows through the whole work as cosmic Presence, at once transcendent in its mystery and immanent in its form. The distillation of what the Taoist sages discovered is bequeathed to us in the beauty and wisdom of their painting and poetry, and in their profound understanding of the relationship between body, soul and nature, and the eternal ground that underlies and enfolds them all.”
(more toons on this soon...)
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O
