Morning Trip (69)

“The dreaming mind recalls past impressions.
It sees again what has been seen; it hears
Again what has been heard, enjoys again
What has been enjoyed in many places.
Seen and unseen, heard and unheard, enjoyed
And unenjoyed, the real and the unreal,
The mind sees all; the mind sees all.”
– Prashna Upanishad

 

“Between Going and Staying
Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.

The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can’t be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.

The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.

I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.”
– Octavio Paz

Morning Trip (67)

“Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.”
–Epictetus

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Angst, Desire, and Agony…

Morning Trip (65)

“All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.”
– Hafiz
The Subject Tonight is Love
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Morning Trip (63)

“You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it’s just complaining.”
Joni Mitchell

I’m just not there yet, it’s a work in progress, sometimes it feels stickier than others.

Morning Trip (62)

“The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.”
H. L. Mencken

Morning Trip (46)

“The water that flows down the mountain does not think that it flows down the mountain.
The cloud that leaves the valley does not think that it leaves the valley.

A philosopher asked the Buddha to neither speak nor be silent.

It is known how difficult it is to shut the prison door? Words and speech disappear.

If mind is not – mind, who can we ask for advice?

The old monk who thinks he can calm the mind of another is
just mocking everyone around him, and he doesn’t even know it.

The sea is calm when the wind stops blowing.
Still, we search outside of ourselves.
One burst of laughter dissipates a thousand doubts.

I yearn for the soul
of marvelous truth.
Coming back to myself,
I walk beneath the shining moon.

Stars move with silent sounds.
The universe is calm, nothing
brings trouble.
Perfect tranquility: nothing
whatsoever is happening.

Everyday thought is the way.

Without walking for days,
one is suddenly at home.

When confronted by people, you can say yes or no.

Words are never perfect.
Even if people stop speculating,
we still have to use things
to point out the truth.

Wake up! Wake up! Don’t let anyone despise you for another moment.

I have a touching story to tell you. But please wait until this cloud passes.
Otherwise, even if I tell you the story perfectly, the distance between us will still be ten thousand miles.

Those who are enlightened
who see through
the eyes of great wisdom,
can see noon at midnight.

The deepest truths disclose themselves naturally,
don’t even ask the hermit on the hill.

Space is one, without a crack:
By what road does the scent of the cinnamon flowers
come to us at the end of the day?

This is Buddha’s examination.
Those who pass the test of emptiness
will be declared winners.

For your name to be on the list of winners, don’t leave blank pages.
– Tran Thai Tong
Koans from the Khoa Hu – Lessons in Emptiness“

Morning Trip (60)

“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”
— Joan Didion (Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays)

Morning Trip (57)

“I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.”
– Joan Didion