gone is nothing there

Because we spoke of this last evening and this morning:

GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA. 

The key word is BODHI, a feminine noun in the vocative case, which means awakening. All the other words are also in the vocative feminine and therefore modify BODHI.
GATE means gone. 

PARAGATE means gone to the further shore and is a stock Sanskrit expression used by Jains and Buddhists to refer to arahants. (The word PARA means the bank of a river opposite to the one on which one is presently standing.) 

PARASAMGATE means completely gone to the further shore. (The prefix SAM is intensive in meaning: completely, thoroughly, altogether.) 

SVAHA is an indeclinable particle from Vedic Sanskrit. It is said to be the name of the wife of Agni, the god of fire. It is used at the end of a recitation that accompanies a burnt offering made at a Vedic sacrifice (rather as "amen" is used at the end of a prayer in Christian liturgy). It cannot really be translated, since it is a performative word rather than a word that conveys meaning. 

The whole mantra, literally translated, comes out a bit like this: "Oh awakening that has gone, gone, gone to the further shore, gone completely to the further shore. Amen." 

More loosely translated, it means this: "You Brahmin priests with your fancy fire sacrifices aren't the only ones who get people to heaven. We can do it without killing animals and wasting trees. So there." 

Richard Hayes
Religious Studies
McGill University 

idiopathy

Our current

deleterious 

ethos...

deficient and

unaware 

psyche,

seared and 

scarred 

soul —

How long,

O Lord?

How long?

feast of anthony the hermit

He found his way

In the desert —

With his help

May I find

Nothing other

Beside this

parasamgate

To feel another’s suffering

To act with kindness toward

One we do not know we are —

This is the change

From something to nothing

Where what is truly itself

Lacks separation, is fused

With the whole of what is

The reality if this

Existence —

Pray for it!

effundetur

What’s that line — about
not being able to solve
a problem using the same
terms that created it?

I want different terms.
It seems we’ve given up
on kindness, charity, civility,
and hope. What to do?

I will not buy a gun
Will not sharpen cynicism
Will not despair the
Ugliness of dismissal.

I will do the useless thing —
notice when angry
Hate no one who hates me
Think of God, of love, of

The inner way of incarnation
Of what is wholly here
Completely within
The nondual us we are

moon waning

When everything

Fell away

Nothing held

Together

a dimension beyond

Despite
Whatever
We believe
There is an empty

Space
Between all
we
See and know

We’re not
really
Here
We’re there

Which is
Nowhere—
Now that
You’ve found me

Please
Let me know
How I can be
Reached

Thanks —
(you can
Call me
God)

nostra apologia pro vita patria

It is hard to believe and more difficult to experience the unwillingness of so many to acknowledge the deficiencies and unsuitability of Donald J.Trump to carry out the responsibilities and functioning leadership of the office of president of the United States.

Observation and evidence confirm his intellectual and temperamental unreliability to guide this nation at this time with the issues needing mature and evenhanded attention and resolution.

I am disappointed both for him and in him. But the time for action is now.

Nor do I think Vice President Mike Pence has distinguished himself in supporting and carrying out the agenda of the president in matters of ethical and legal failings worldwide. This includes the failure of the attorney general William Barr to act in a judicious and responsible manner throughout.

It is a dangerous and difficult time for the nation.

One can only trust the other branches of our tripartite governance set up by our founders will rise to balance and offset the collapsing executive to rectify and reset aright the government going forward.

If prayer were an assistance, it will be offered. If love of country were to exceed partisan pandering, now is the time. If truth still matters, it is time to reveal its hidden strength.

Many people have died to protect and secure the liberty and justice necessary to exist as a vital and meaningful place to live and thrive as a country in this world — it is time to honor that determined sacrifice, to do what is right, and to ensure we become again a nation of laws and not a cult of personality ignoring what is right, good, and true.

Shalom, peace, is what we seek.

Domine non sum dignus, still, we seek your presence among us.

Inshallah, we will be upright and determined.

Gassho, we greet all in their effort to live for one another and for the love of what is true.

sine finis

humans

walked from house
chamber to senate

with articles of
impeachment

a liturgical procession
carrying sins

through rotunda
where dead heroes

are remembered.
There is no solemnity

like that of formal
pronouncement and

something that lasts
forever, something not

God

martin

He was born among us

Someone had him murdered —

All are punishéd!

Sorrow burdens our souls

no kidding

Stop me

If you’ve

Heard

This

of a tuesday night

anyone doubt

the shallow depth

his words wade



the ugly

attempt to

denigrate



it is a curse

to live

these awful days



when honor

hides

itself

cemetery to ocean

Winding path

Through empty resort —

Tuesday walk

fun era (without the) l

All

Living being
Revivifying

In dream —
Waiting for me

To say
Good

Bye

reticence

You don’t say

Should be

Motto for hermits

anicca

mind changes

quick as ...

(never mind)

discussing sandpaper

Slip of paper falls from manumitting book to cluttered desk.

 Here is what is there:

they cannot tell

what I know --

pencils in incense can

(22jan89 )

...

friends at dinner

discussing sandpaper

wearing words of students

(22jan890

...

these final seconds

then no more, light --

night death poem

(22jan89)

...

“Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence.” 

(Friedrich Nietzsche)

mystery of imagination

How else might it be said?

“Behold the Lamb of God: behold Him Who taketh away the sins of the world.” 

And my First Communion began to come towards me, down the steps. I was the only one at the altar rail. Heaven was entirely mine—that Heaven in which sharing makes no division or diminution. But this solitariness was a kind of reminder of the singleness with which this Christ, hidden in the small Host, was giving Himself for me, and to me, and, with Himself, the entire Godhead and Trinity—a great new increase of the power and grasp of their indwelling that had begun only a few minutes before at the font. 

I left the altar rail and went back to the pew where the others were kneeling like four shadows, four unrealities, and I hid my face in my hands.

(-Excerpt from: "The Seven Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton. Scribd.)

To face reality is an uncertain act of courage and imagination.

Nothing  exists until it’s face looks out into shadow darkness wherein faint arising light from emerging seeing insinuates itself through the expanse spreading out before our primary glance.

Singleness of diversity with no division or diminution.

Communion — a reception of reality with trust pervading the immense unknown — saying ‘yes’ to what is beyond fathoming.

Liston!

« There is only one issue – one in the whole world: to provide men again with spiritual significance; to rain on them something like a Gregorian chant. ».   (Saint-Exupéry)

Rain is falling everywhere.

saurday evening hospice

Four hours in low lit room

she slept with twilight breath—

in my hand, beads

through mind, exhortatory

soundless mantra prayer