The Stray Black Cat that follows me, and conversations with life.

Hello Friends,

Every day 5 days a week, unless I am incapable of moving I pick up my wife who gets off of work at around 11 PM. We eat something and then get home anywhere between 12-1 AM. As tough a schedule as it is, especially since when we get home we have to walk the dogs, it’s very rewarding.

There is a stray cat, completely black, that likes to follow us. He or she, [I feel it’s a ‘him’]. He will stare at us which looks surreal, only two yellowish green eyes hanging in the dark, suspended by some invisible force in the ether of the night.

We call to him and he doesn’t come so close yet, but he is very friendly nevertheless. He doesn’t trust us completely yet. Dave has always been a friend and a fan to stray dogs and cats, for some reason more cats than dogs. Maybe they come to me because as my sister and wife say sometimes, I am an animal myself. Whatever the reason he spent a long time looking at us and came much closer than before.

When he came close to us I remembered the following quote from the little prince:

 “’Men have forgotten this truth,’ said the fox.’But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

In everyone we meet whether 2 legged or 4 legged, there is something that happens that makes us extend to them our heart and also allows ourselves to concern ourselves even less with our own affairs. A heart is not just a door it is a seat of the soul, the gatekeeper of our own destiny. We are our own veil as Hafez says.

I would like to quote some word from Coleman barks “Sufis assert that there are three ways of being with the mystery: prayer, then a step up from that, meditation, and a step up from that conversation, the mystical exchange they call sohbet. For Rumi beauty comes as a natural response to being spoken to. The rose opens because it has heard something, the cypress grows strong and straight because a love-secret is being whispered to it.

The world projects completely new each second and every second we supply the mortar and steel psychologically so that constantly extend the bridge of past experiences, memories hidden resentment, into the present. All the people who come into our lives are exactly there for a reason, and when they come and a feeling of love develops platonic, mystical, spiritual, or whatever, there is a mystery unfolding there.

The Black cat was and is a constant reminder, that we are all Masks of the Friend whether we know it or not. Don’t turn down a wave or smile, or an intent stare from a 4 legged friend.

                         This is enough

Sugar merchants, I have news: Joseph
has arrived from Egypt with the essence

of sweetness: fruit cobbler that
can save your soul! Spirit wine.  And if

there is something else you want, that
came too.  Khidr through an open window.

Aphrodite singing ghazals.  A sky with
Gold streaks across.  A stick that finds

water in a stone.  Jesus sitting quietly
near the animals. Night so peaceful.

This is enough was always true. We
just haven’t seen it: the hoopoe already

wears a tufted crown.  Each ant is given
its elegant belt at birth.  This love

we feel pours through us like giveaway
song.  The source of now is here!

How to be Spiritual Amidst this Chaos? by

How to be Spiritual Amidst this Chaos?

                          By Dr. Stewart Bitkoff

 Circumstances have overtaken man. His old languages are not sufficient to describe what is happening, and what is about to happen. To think in terms of a millennium or such tame concepts as ‘the eleventh hour’ is ridiculous. Better that he should realize that he is in an era which might be more accurately described as the ‘eighth day of the week.”  Idries Shah

 

                                               *     *     *

 

For the spiritual traveler, we are living in a complex and unique age; one of tremendous upheaval and great opportunity to solve problems. Turn on the television set and listen to the reports coming in from all across the world: religious wars, effects of global warming, famine, new strains of disease, drug wars, over weight children, advances in technology and people beginning to work together to solve problems of housing, job loss, and keeping their family together.  This combination of factors has been called the ‘eighth day of the week’ and the beginning of a new era; clearly, until many of these problems are resolved, if that is possible, the amount of unsettledness, fear, anxiety and personal worry for many will continue to grow. 

 For increasing numbers of people, the personal balancing factor to this stress and chaos, is spiritual development. It must be added to the mix and used with our other capacities to find solutions. Higher knowledge will not replace common sense, experience, hard work, or economic imperative.  That is not its function.  It is an added capacity which integrates and works alongside others.

The present discussion will examine some basic thoughts about being spiritual; and how spiritual capacity can help the traveler deal with this period of chaos and change.

 

                        What Does It Mean To Be Spiritual?

What does the term spiritual mean?  Spiritual is not an easy word to define, because there is an experiential aspect to it, with many levels and dimensions.  Sort of like love, which is a sublime experience and occurs in many forms; poets and song writers proclaim its virtues and sorrows, yet, no matter how fine the words, they are only an approximation.

Typical definitions include phrases such as: spiritual means of the spirit. This type of definition: defines itself using the same word, yet, surprisingly is reasonably accurate. Spiritual does mean of the spirit.

 

For the spiritual traveler, the soul is comprised of a spiritual energy fabric; this spiritual energy fabric is the source of life and powers our body, 5 senses, emotions and consciousness.  To the soul, there is a higher and lower aspect which corresponds to different parts of our functioning (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual); to further complicate, in some discussions soul/spirit are used interchangeably.

 

• The goal of spiritual paths, or being spiritual, is to add a measure of conscious spiritual awareness to the traveler’s individual life and day; this knowledge or awareness serves as an enriching, enabling element, so the traveler can complete daily & higher functions.
• For the most part, every day activity, work, and worry block the inner (spiritual) awareness from coming forward.
• All life operates through consciousness, which is awareness and energy on multiple physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels.  Through our soul, which is comprised of this spiritual energy fabric, we create our multiple levels of reality, every moment of the day.
• Each one of us is a creator of reality.  We are souls that have taken on a physical form to create our lives and participate in the higher design.  In order to do this, we must follow a spiritual path and lead a balanced life.
• A full life is a life where we express all the parts of self and participate in something higher.
• Increased spiritual capacity helps the traveler know what is going on around them; this knowledge helps them on a daily basis.

 

Characteristics of a Spiritual Person

Another way to help define spiritual is to examine personality traits of spiritual people.  These characteristics help us get a better understanding of what it means to be spiritual in daily life, however, there are problems here as well; while these traits are accurate, also, they can be said to exist in non-spiritual people:

 

• Spiritual people have a sense of humor and are not ‘stuffy old farts’- and enjoy laughing;
• Spiritual people are involved in their community and may work/raise a family;
• Spiritual people seek to help others as much as themselves;
• They are free with their time and energy- volunteer their efforts;
• A spiritual person demonstrates continual striving to get better;
• A spiritual person lives by their conscience;
• They try to live a life that is free of expectation and comparison to others;
• They try to look at different issues from a broad framework and entertain/respect the ideas of others;
• They are not on a power trip or trying to control the ideas/lives of others;
• Spiritual values are long held and they are genuinely humble.

 While the spiritual traveler acknowledges problems in definition and realizes they are seeking an illusive essence, there is another part of the consciousness that offers: ‘do not worry- you will know it, when you find it.’  Like love- spiritual defines itself and by adding this capacity to your life, you life will be fuller, more complete and you will be better able to face life’s ups and downs.

 

Routine Change or the End?

 

Opening of the 5th Seal by El Greco

Through increased information that is available via television and the internet, the average person viewing the unrest in our world cannot help but wonder: what is going on? Conversely, scientists and philosophers tell us, chaos and order are simply opposite ends of a continuum. Both are natural to life and necessary to the physical order. And so the spiritual traveler wonders: is this era simply a routine period of unrest- soon to be followed by a period of relative calm? 

Consider the following themes and ideas, and how each contributes to our fear and growing anxiety level.  Each of which can be found either in your religious/spiritual belief system or on your local television programs, nightly and weekly.

 

• Many religious/spiritual paths discuss a destruction/ending of sorts- of which many scenarios seem to coincide with this time period. Is this the end of the world?  Also, current scientifically based television shows describe ‘end of world’ natural disasters, questioning: will the world shift on its access?  Will a large meteor hit the earth?  Through global warming, will we send the earth into another ice-age?  When will the next super volcano erupt? Often these shows include prophetic references: are these events the earth changes that Cayce and other prophets have described?
• Some belief systems hold that previously there have been 4 destructions of the earth. The Mayan Calendar ends in year 2012; according to Sufi Tradition, the Stream of Life has died-up and will be replaced with the new Stream of Life.  Destruction and rebirth- natural cycles that have occurred many times?
• Recently, across the world, there has been a failure of government and large corporations to solve economic problems and timely react to natural disasters; also, for the average person, these institutions appear to have been at the center of many of the ills that affect us.  As a result, gradually, many are turning away from reliance upon authoritarian based models to individual based structures.  Slowly, we are collectively realizing that governments/corporations/religion alone cannot save us; we must all work to make the world better and begin this effort with ourselves. 
• More people are solving problems locally and gradually realizing that the world is made better one person at a time; this is the person centered approach.  Additionally, there is growing interest in spiritual paths that emphasize personal development.  Better individuals make a better world.
• Personal, Corporate, and Governmental Greed, along with Religious Fanaticism increasingly are threats to our way of life.
• Honoring the Earth Mother or destruction of the environment; how will it end?  Will we pull together or destroy the planet?
• Information explosion: boon or curse?  How ‘others’ manipulate us.

 

Understanding Emotion: Love and Fear

By nature, we are emotional and our reactions to life, through multiple feelings contribute to a richer, full experience. When something happens in daily life that is painful we all have a reaction to it.  We are multi-level beings and our emotions bring us both great joy and sadness. That is the way we are hardwired and for good health, must honor our feelings.

One model, suggests that all emotions arise from the 2 basic feelings of love and fear.  According to Frank Sant’Agata, all emotions can be traced back to these primary feelings.

 

“Love and fear are the only emotions we as human entities are able to express.  All the others are just sub-categorical emotions.  For example, on love’s side there is joy, peacefulness, happiness, forgiveness, and a host of others.  On the other hand, fear reflects: hate, depression, guilt, inadequacy, discontentment, prejudice, anger, attack, and so on.

 Love and fear can not coexist. Where one is, the other can’t be also.  The one will leave immediately, should the other enter its presence.  If you find yourself in a situation where you are experiencing great joy, and are suddenly overtaken by fear, the joy is gone! But it works the other way too: If you are terrorized, frightened, or otherwise threatened in any way, all you need to do is turn to the love within and the fears disappears.”

 Next time you are watching TV Talk Shows and the Host is trying to convince you of something, evaluate their presentation using the following criteria: is this a manipulation of the fear and reward stick.  Do as I say- good things will happen; if not, bad things will happen.  Most often, the media, politicians, some forms of religion, and corporations continually use this manipulation.  Unless you see the manipulation- it is very difficult to understand and disarm, particularly, when you are up against a formidable societal power structure.

 From a spiritual standpoint, we want to become masters of our emotions, so we can temporarily get beyond them.  When we are emotionally charged, most often, the quiet, spiritual part of ourselves will not come forward.  It will not operate under these conditions.

 

Daily Practices to Counter Fear

 

OK, so now that you have me totally paranoid, and frightened about the end of the world, what am I supposed to do about all of this?  Here are a few suggestions, from my personal tool box on life, to help you conquer your fear reaction, and more easily access that quiet part of yourself which is more peaceful and serene.                              

 

• Honor your Fear.  Express it in healthy ways- pray, kiss your children, and be grateful for what you have. Ask the Universe/God to help you go beyond your fear and live a full life.  Offer up a prayer of gratitude/thankfulness for what you do have and not what will be taken; turn to love and gratefulness. Ordinarily, the mind is so constructed it can only keep one thought in it at a time.
• Scenarios of the world ending are just that. Scenarios or potentials. Unless we collectively change and live according to the Golden Rule this is one potential.  Remember, you can only control yourself and work to make your world/life better.
• Lead a full Life. Participate in the world; try to make it a better place. Travel to the different parts of yourself and follow one of the great spiritual paths to completion.
• Live in the moment. All you have is this moment; try to make it work and be joyous for you.
• Happiness Calendar. Every day do something small that makes you happy. Laugh, tell a joke; make a telephone call to your friends. Research tells us that happy people have many small things they look forward to each day.
• NEWS Vacation. Take a vacation from your computer, the television set and reportage of the bad things on the NEWS.  Sit quietly or go for a walk; try to listen to that quiet part of yourself that knows where it is going.
• Pray.  Make each moment a celebration to life and offer up a song of gratitude for the opportunity to be here.
• Think Happy Thoughts. And when you find yourself becoming sad, angry, confused, remember, that from confusion comes order.  One moment we are happy and the next sad.  We have the capacity to create our own reality, and a happy traveler thinks happy thoughts. Tell jokes, laugh, or watch a funny movie.
• Avoid making comparisons between yourself and others; particularly what they have and you do not have.
• Monitor your expectations about life and people. Often, expectations are a trap that robs us of our happiness and peace of mind (i.e., I expected by this point in my life . . .  Or if I followed this spiritual path, I would be free of pain).
• Life can be glorious, but remember it’s a full-contact sport.  Chaos and order co-exist and are part of the Cosmic Plan.
• Be With Positive People.  Be selective with the people you hang around and what they speak/talk about. Positive/loving people are good medicine
• Avoid Alcohol/Recreational Drugs. Most are depressants and can affect your mood.
• Balanced Living. All things in moderation and strive to lead a complete, multi-level balanced life.
• Replaying Old Tapes.  Avoid going over and over, troubling things that have happened.  Some of this is necessary, but most often, we replay it too much.

  

Conclusions

 And the more we practice controlling our consciousness and awareness, and seeing the fear/reward manipulation about us, the easier it will become to think more tranquil thoughts.  Then, one day we will experience what lies beyond emotions; and the higher consciousness will emerge.

 Often for many events in life, we cannot control harmful outcomes; when something painful or chaotic occurs, we must feel and honor the pain.  Yet, experience teaches with a little hard work, we can limit fear and worry about potentials; all of us must learn to separate out what is a possibility, and learn to use the tools in our personal tool box to move past potentials and reach happier, more tranquil states. 

In 1969, it was during a BBC interview that Mrs. Beryl Worth, when questioned about her positive personal adjustment, to a recent potentially fatal diagnosis of cancer, answered in the following way.

‘I think it was St. Ignatius who was sweeping the corridor and his novices came and said to him, ‘If the world, if you knew the world were going to come to an end in 10 minutes, what would you do?  And he said, ‘Go on sweeping the corridor.” And that is just what I’m going to do.”

 In every moment, life is ending and beginning; life is joy and pain, chaos and peace.  With every moment, after we have experienced what we need to experience; we must learn and remember to go on doing our work, and ‘continue sweeping the corridor.’

 

                                                *          *          *

 

    References

 

Idries Shah, Knowing How To Know, The Octagon Press, London, 1998, p. 152.

 This quote appears online at Frank Sant’Agata, On Love and Fear, http://timelessmiracles.com/LightGuide/love.htm, and accessed 3/22/09.

 Interview with Mrs. Beryl Worth shortly before her death. BBC transcript “I’ll go on sweeping the corridor’ June 1969. Appearing in and compiled by: Cecil, Rieu, and Wade,

The King’s Son, The Octagon Press: The Institute for Cultural Research, 1981, p. 162.

 

                                                *          *          *

 

Also by Dr. Bitkoff, A Commuter’s Guide to Enlightenment, (Llewellyn, 2008) and Journey of Light: Trilogy, (Authorhouse, 2004); these books are available on Amazon.com or from publisher.  To contact author go to www.stewartbitkoff.com.

A Conversation over Pizza about Sufism, Grace, Jesus, Rumi

Hey Friends,

The best conversations are the ones over good pizza. I had a nice conversation with a friend when the following quote came up by Idries Shah:

“Enlightenment must come Little by little otherwise it would overwhelm”

I immediately thought of a cool anecdote I remember reading from Dr. Nurbakhsh’s Jesus in the Eyes of the Sufis.

As Jesus was traveling across a plain he saw a man who had made a retreat for himself there. it was secluded haunt with running natural spring and an oratory for prayer and it was surrounded by green shrubbery.

My dear god fearing ascetic Jesus addressed the man, why do you seclude yourself so?’Devotion has been my lifelong labor the man replied but my one overwhelming desires has still not been granted by god. “And what is that?” Jesus inquired. “To drink one draught of Divine Love confessed the ascetic. Jesus prayed that his desire be gratified then rose and continued on his way, it was granted by God’s grace.

Once again in the course of his wondering Jesus happened to pass by the same sport and saw that the retreat was in shambles and the sand had blown over it. The oasis has dried up and the man’s prayer niche has crumbled to pieces

O Lord Jesus petitioned where has this man gone How as this become ruined like this? Explain this tragedy to me. You will find his him on a certain mountaintop, God revealed to Jesus, himself a mountain of grief from head to foot.

Finding the mountain, Jesus saw the man with his lips all shriveled and his face pale and parched. Jesus was dismayed and astounded; the man appeared like a living course. His hair was crackling with anguish and the desert dust played freely over his face he was caked with dirt and blood; his eyes seemed like bottomless pits. When Jesus hailed in with greetings of peace he received no salutation in reply.

Jesus was then confided this revelation by God: “Such was his own entreaty. He desired an atom of love When I gave it to him he gave up everything. He ceased to care about himself. He was obliterated became utterly helpless. Had I poured one atom more of My Glory upon him he would have been shattered into a 1000 pieces.

An atom even, in Love, is too much;

Conceit in Love is unbefitting

Besides Love itself

Whatever else subsists, is

Like an idol temple

In the Ka’ba

When alien names from the heart

Are extirpated, the veils

From the Loved Ones visage are raised

 

I noticed an interesting mentality, maybe you can say it’s the Puritanical mentality that has been with America since its inception. The mentality is that the harder one works the better and quicker are ones results. There is a direct correlation between hard work and success. When there is a new disease or problem facing our country, our first impulse is to through money at it. The more money we through at it the more people will work on it the quicker an answer will be found.

Many times in my own search and I am sure to some extent even now as I feel like only a child on the path, the same mentality persists. I used to think that more meditation, more service more doing good stuff will give me more results, bring me closer to my goal.  From what I have learned once this mentality takes root it’s time to revamp one’s goals. Why?

There are no goals on the path, nothing to aspire to just total and complete submission or subservience to the greater reality both manifest and unmanifest. We have in mind what our results will look like. Our mind’s approximation of results and what the results really are rather different things even if they look similar initially. Also in a way to me it becomes a sort of bribe.  I will be nice to my neighbor not because I have mercy and compassion for him, and the trials life has put him too but because if I do it enough times I will go to heaven and eat seedless grapes and tiramisu.  (I don’t know what’s on the menu there; I don’t have that flyer at my desk only for Happy Gardens Chinese takeout.)

I have come to see things a bit different since those days. If the aspirant does meditation for a gain even if it is a spiritual gain they are deluding themselves. We are all especially me good at deluding ourselves. Until calamity comes and makes us take a step back and examine our motives. We work and work with no expectation, not caring to know are we there yet what there looks like, what are the significance of each action. We focus on the present and by grace we arrive. The way I see it in my head we can’t get anywhere really without that Grace. Check out these words from Llewellyn Vaughan Lee on Grace the master of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidiyya  order:

But the core of the path lies in the relationship with the teacher, suhbat; it is through this relationship that the transmission of the lineage and the grace are given, and without it there can be no inner transformation and no journey……But grace is the cornerstone of every Sufi lineage, of any company of the lovers of God. Stepping onto the path, we step into the grace of a spiritual tradition, the power of love that is given for the work that needs to be done. Without it nothing real can happen on the path. As Rumi tells us, through our own effort we cannot even reach the first way station. It is through grace that the miracle of transformation happens; it is grace that opens human beings to the infinite preciousness of God’s limitless love, which is so easily hidden even though it is always present. And grace by its very nature is a gift. It flows from heart to heart in a transmission of love, and no effort is required. It can be very difficult for Americans to stop striving and acknowledge dependence upon something beyond the reach of their effort or will or even their understanding.

The best analogy to me is that of planting a seed. All of us have done it at one time or another. We have to buy the right type of soil and provide it with all the right nutrient (water and fertilizer for the seed to grow in). The water and fertilizers are our spiritual practices with prepare the heart to be the throne of The Soul in which is our own soul. Once we plant the seed they all grow and sprout on terms which are beyond us, beyond our control. Each seed has a particular time place and circumstance under which it will sprout, the more nutrients and water we put in the soul, the more we might be harming the seed.

That’s grace to me the finally awakening, the final stirring, the creative spark that we have no control over. What do you think? It would be nice to her your thoughts. I leave you with two quotes. One from Sufi al Karaz with comentaryby Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee  and a poem from Rumi:

 

“Whoever believes he can reach God by his own efforts toils in vain; whoever believes he can reach God without effort is merely a traveler on the road of intent.” To step onto the path in which we must acknowledge our utter helplessness and dependence upon grace while still making every effort on our own is to enter a world of paradox and mystery which throws the wayfarer beyond the familiarity and security of his rational understanding, and this is not easy for people who have been so deeply conditioned by our powerful Western rational tradition.

 

SEEDS AND RAIN

 

The mystery of action: We are seeds.

You are rain. A dear stain,

our seed coverings decay.

 

                                          You mix with what is inside,

                                           and a toast to the new begins:

 

A divine blade, the keen edge

of now. Now rest, for the soul

 

slides over these eyes, as Shams

Tabriz covers Shams Tabriz.

-Dave

Daily Inspiration: Feb 13th, 2008 Thinking of My Morning trainride….

Hello Friends,

It is finally Friday, and it has been a tough week indeed in so many ways. But I am getting ready to take the train to work and I remembered this beautiful poem by Albania’s most famous man of  letters Ismail Kadare. It for a moment put back the joy and excitement into the mornign commute on the loudest, most cantankerous way of getting to work in NYC. Here you have it.

 

I love train timetables at little railway stations,

Standing on the wet platform and contemplating the infinity og the tracks

 

The distant howl of a locomotive.  What, what?

(No one under stands the nebulous languages of steam engines)

 

Passenger trains. Tank cars. freights full of ore

Endlessly pass by

Thus pass the days of your life through the stations of your being,

 

Filled with voices, noise, signals

And the heavy ore of memory

Enjoy!

-Dave

Daily Inspiration September 23, 2008 – The other you – dedicated to my friend From the land of Eagles

It was a bright sunny day today, despite some bad news it seemed for at least during that time that these things, sad news good news, good time and bad times, had nothing to do with me or the real me that was enjoying watching the sun.

That’s my daily inspiration, not the sunny days or the promise of hope in the air but the other me that is always watching but is forever immiscible with  the daily today life. Jorge Luis Borges has a short story or some prose if you will about this. I have read a better translation I think by Anthony Kerrigan but like cheap rum this does the trick.

Jorge Luis Borges
“Borges and I”

The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate; I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship; I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides, I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things.

Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him.

I do not know which of us has written this page.

Have you felt this other you or this the passive observer? Do you know which one fo you is reading these words?

 

Dave

Daily Inspiration September 17th, 2008 – More Charles Baudelaire for You

Hey Guys,

                I have noticed my post on Charles Baudelaire gets a seady number of views everyday. I decided to post some more of his stuff

L’invitation au voyage

Mon enfant, ma soeur,
Songe à la douceur
D’aller là-bas vivre ensemble!
Aimer à loisir,
Aimer et mourir
Au pays qui te ressemble!
Les soleils mouillés
De ces ciels brouillés
Pour mon esprit ont les charmes
Si mystérieux
De tes traîtres yeux,
Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

Des meubles luisants,
Polis par les ans,
Décoreraient notre chambre;
Les plus rares fleurs
Mêlant leurs odeurs
Aux vagues senteurs de l’ambre,
Les riches plafonds,
Les miroirs profonds,
La splendeur orientale,
Tout y parlerait
À l’âme en secret
Sa douce langue natale.

Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

Vois sur ces canaux
Dormir ces vaisseaux
Dont l’humeur est vagabonde;
C’est pour assouvir
Ton moindre désir
Qu’ils viennent du bout du monde.
— Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D’hyacinthe et d’or;
Le monde s’endort
Dans une chaude lumière.

Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

— Charles Baudelaire

 

Invitation to the Voyage

My child, my sister,
Think of the rapture
Of living together there!
Of loving at will,
Of loving till death,
In the land that is like you!
The misty sunlight
Of those cloudy skies
Has for my spirit the charms,
So mysterious,
Of your treacherous eyes,
Shining brightly through their tears.

There all is order and beauty,
Luxury, peace, and pleasure.

Gleaming furniture,
Polished by the years,
Will ornament our bedroom;
The rarest flowers
Mingling their fragrance
With the faint scent of amber,
The ornate ceilings,
The limpid mirrors,
The oriental splendor,
All would whisper there
Secretly to the soul
In its soft, native language.

There all is order and beauty,
Luxury, peace, and pleasure.

See on the canals
Those vessels sleeping.
Their mood is adventurous;
It’s to satisfy
Your slightest desire
That they come from the ends of the earth.
— The setting suns
Adorn the fields,
The canals, the whole city,
With hyacinth and gold;
The world falls asleep
In a warm glow of light.

There all is order and beauty,
Luxury, peace, and pleasure.

— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

Also this poem has been made into a utiful book with awesome Pictures, I gave it to a friend on day as a gift

Daily Inspiration Wednesday September 3rd, 2008 -The Silences of meditation

Hello Everyone,

                          My Daily Iinspiration today has taken on a more  subtle tones. My daily iinspiration today is the silence of meditation,  To me that silence is an all pervading silence that touches everything and impregnates it with mean and with potential and possibility. To me this is the same silence that one encounter when one is chanting OM, there is a brief silence between two chantings of AUM, that link one to higher things. Even in meditation if that silence lasts for a second it was all worth the  sleeping foots and limbs and being assailed by the endless thoughts etc.

It seems that others have felt this too either feeling it as silence or solitude but what i have felt has been mirrored in these sayings/poems, here are some examples

From each, Love demands a mystic silence.
What do all seek so earnestly? Tis Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts,
In Love no longer “Thou” and “I” exist,
For self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul
Behold the Friend, Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds
Will find that the secret of them both is Love.

 

- Attar

 

” For your sake, I hurry over land and water:

For your sake, I cross the desert and split the mountain in two,

And turn my face from all things,

Until the time I reach the place

Where I am alone with You.”

-Hallaj

The Sonnets to Orpheus: I A tree ascended there. Oh pure transendence! Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear! And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared. Creatures of stillness crowded from the bright unbound forest, out of their lairs and nests; and it was not from any dullness, not from fear, that they were so quiet in themselves, but from just listening. Bellow, roar, shriek seemed small inside their hearts. And where there had been at most a makeshift hut to receive the music, a shelter nailed up out of their darkest longing, with an entryway that shuddered in the wind- you built a temple deep inside their hearing. ——RilkeLove consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. -rilke

Daily Inspiration – Tuesday September 2, 2008 – Seeing people leave work

Hey Everyone,

                My favorite thing to see is the a meeting room when its about time for everyone to go home. Have you noticed that even the boss or the biggest jerks who like to questions everyone to death for no good reason, will suddenly smile. Morning are the worse everyone drags themselves to it and drags themselves away from it.

                I gave a presentation at work today. I brought donuts, tons of donuts and I saw people smile who I havent seen smile since I have been here. It was the combination of sugary sweetness that only Dunkin Donuts could dare provide, and the fact that everyone wanted to go home. It was a beautiful day today and  everyone wanted to go out and play or frolic or see their loves ones.

               I reminded me of those long summer days in catholic school in the begining of June. The teacher is prattling on because she doesnt want to be there jsut as much as the students, especially since we at that time we didnt discover alcohol  or fully understand the relationship between the attraction between the sexes, and acting like a fool in the streets. Everyone is watching the clock the teacher the students. You watch it and every minute takes 5 minutes to pass. Of course you get claled on to answer because no one is raising their hands, and you give the most mind-numbign dumb answer.

         Teacher:”David, what were the causes of world War 2,…… Dave…

           Dave: “Oh uhm pi, isnt it like 3.14 ?!?!?!?

Everyone laughs , then the threats of detention.  Its so weird watching everyone  just pinning all this emotion  to the lucky stroke of the clock. Once the clock hit 2:30  we were somewhat free again untilw e got home to our parents , or nowadays to the stack of bills, teh floor your wifes dawg decided to use as a personal urinal……..

The best is the friday of a long weekend. ive seen peopel crun each other over or cram themselves into an elevator, jsut to go outside and hang on the corner with friends and then journey to a bar a block away, well within the site of work.

Thats my inspiration today seeing adult run around like kids after eating donuts and  running home. Enjoy the video, toast to the weekend

Daily Inspiration Monday September 1, 2008 – Laughter of Loved Ones

Hey there Guys,

                          After my fast today I rushed out and to get some food. I ended going to McDonalds inthe hopes of getting a strawberry milkshake. Random cravings are the weirdest as I never really drink milkshakes thought I am not lactose intolerant, milkshakes sort of intestinally irritate ……… can’t have a nice evening with ur wife if after killing some dairy products they are killing you…

                          Anyways feeling happy that I lasted a day in my fast, so I was in a silly mood as I normally am in. I decided to sing along to the luther Vandross song on the radio and though a lot of people looked at me weird io got my wife to  almost fall out her seat laughing.  Although I have always had a penchant for making my wife laugh to the point where she run to the bathroom. However today hearing her laugh in light of all our financial problems, and crazy neighbors etc <did I ever tell you about Crabbo – my neighbor>

That is my inspiration and yours too, there is nothing like the genuine laughter of your loved ones whether family children, spouse etc. When my niece laughs it melts my heart.  When my wife  laugh it makes me  immensely happy, like redemption for all the bullshit she has to put up with.

Have  you ever really studied peoples laugh. Everyone has a 2 laughs at least one laugh for people you dont really trust  so much and that one is very reserved. Then there are the highpitched cackles or a deep thundering Zeus like laugh that only our family hear after the 3-4 round of egg nog <there is rum in it lots and lots of rum>. There is somethign heart warming about good laugh, nothign is more inspiring. Aside from the obvious, many soldiers have told me  that one sound or image or thought that helps then make light of the situation is the laughter of the wife or daughter that they will come home to.

Luaghter gets me through the day, I hope when you read my posts you laugh to because

“Laughter isthe closest distance between two people”  – Victor borge:-)

Daily Inspiration Wednesday Aug 27th, 2008

Hey Guys

                       There were two things i came across today that inspired me and they are of course on the surface seemingly unrelated but maybe there is a connection. I will leave it up to you, maybe like Hume said …..There are only independent events and its us who supply the meaning or connections between them I wonder if he meant by our very presences or by our trying to uncover and wrestle some of the secrets from nature’s books. here you go one of my favorite painters Alex Grey

 The TAO TE  CHING

The Tao is like an empty bowl

Which in being used can never be filled up

Fathomless, it seems to be the origin of all things.

It blunts all sharp edges,

It unties all tangles,

It harmonizes all lights,

It united the world into one whole.

Hidden in the deeps.

Yet it seems to exist for ever.

I do not know whose child it is;

It seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father

          Of things

 

 

Please be sure to check out my other Post on Alex Grey: http://caravanofdreams.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/some-thoughts-on-alex-grey-1/ 

It the first in a series of Posts.