Free and Easy

My creativity is, with these solstice energies, finding new expression, a deeper channel--
In the meantime I am glad to share this Dzogchen poem, which feels especially apropos in the intensity of holidays, as the year ends-- all of our experiences, like waters flowing on...

Free and Easy
a spontaneous Vajra song
by Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche

Happiness cannot be found
through great effort and willpower
but is already present, in open relaxation
And letting go.

Don't strain yourself.
There is nothing to do nor undo.
Whatever momentarily arises in the body mind
has no real importance at all,
has little reality whatsoever.
Why identify with, and become attached to it
passing judgment upon it and ourselves.

Far better to simply
let the entire game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back like waves--
without changing or manipulating anything--
and notice how everything vanishes and
reappears, magically, again and again
time without end.

Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It's like a vivid rainbow which you pursue
without ever catching
or a dog chasing its own tail.
Although peace and happiness do not exist
as an actual thing or place,
it is always available
and accompanies you every instant.

Don't believe in the reality
of good and bad experiences
they are like today's ephemeral weather
like rainbows in the sky.

Wanting to grasp the ungraspable
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax this tight fist of grasping
infinite space is there--open, inviting and comfortable

Make use of this spaciousness, this freedom and natural ease.
Don't search any further.
Don't go into the tangled jungle
looking for the great enlightened elephant
who is already resting quietly at home
in front of your own hearth.

Nothing to do or undo
Nothing to force
nothing to want
and nothing missing--

Emaho! Marvelous!
Everything happens by itself.

Celebrating the blessings of this season of light

A few years ago I posted this Hopi prophecy. At these turning- moments of the year, there is a phrase from it which resounds in my mind: Everything must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

This is akin to joyous exertion: joyful uplifted energy within practice which is not, as Pema Chodron writes, a matter of luck. It takes ongoing training in mindfulness and maitri, training in opening the heart and willingness to connect with feelings we may have been avoiding. The more we connect with a bigger perspective, the more we connect with energetic joy. This allows us to act, to give, to work appreciatively with whatever comes our way.

Throughout the holidays, I find there is often just a slight difference in energy between the energy of excitement and energy of tension...
physically, giving ourselves down time and bringing awareness throughout the body: breathing through and releasing any tension we are carrying--

And making a spiritual practice out of celebration:
lifting up the gifts we have already been given. Gifts like friendship, good health, the beauty of moment- to- moment life--
and the gifts which we have never been parted from, those which are intrinsically ours--
our natural resources, like a carnelian buried under the earth
ours for doing the pick-and-shovel work.
Whatever joy, wisdom, beauty we seek we already have.

So I was reflecting on this, this afternoon: what is it which transforms our life into a sacred garden, and it really is courage: courage to stay open, to accept the gifts at hand--

That is the greatest gift we can give our loved ones this season: that natural warmth and natural openness which is uncovered through the pick-and-shovel work of opening the heart.

Returning home with bliss-bestowing hands.

Meteor Shower

Tonight is the Geminid meteor shower--

Wherever we live on this earth, however civilized, however caught up in social gathering, work, final exams--
however modern, however thoroughly synched through ipod, iphone, blackberry--

We will be able to see the trail of a comet enter our atmosphere,
glimmering in the night air.
Reminding us, we live on a small rock,
in the middle of a place we call the universe.

Living now as I do in the Northeast it takes some preparation and dedication to see meteors. National Geographic is here to help, with details: time, place. Bring your own fleece...

First Snow

After weeks of late-autumn twilight, we emerged from a birthday party, to discover the first snowflakes falling, transforming our world into a snow globe, which some invisible hand had shaken.

As we sat inside, surrounded by warm Indian tapestries, with fragrant curries and steaming naan, the edges of the city became softened by snow, its air cleansed with snow crystals, the staccato rhythms of traffic written into flowing lines, like poetry...




At night, I composed Solstice cards, using images of Hiroshige's prints. In the morning, I walked through these prints-- the campus gardens having exactly these firm lines, indigo sky, and glittering light...

May all things know and be known in me
May all things move and be moved in me
May all creation dance for joy within me
--Chinook Psalter

Chapel Angels

Every once in a while, as I enter the multifaith center for our sitting, I walk through the chapel. Today, after two weeks, the sun emerged from behind clouds and flooded all with its brightness-- and again I realized, this is a beautiful place.

On Angels

All was taken away from you: white dresses,
wings, even existence.
Yet I believe in you,
messengers.

There, where the world is turned inside out,
a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts,
you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seems.

Short is your stay here:
now and then at a matinal hour, if the sky is clear,
in a melody repeated by a bird,
or in the smell of apples at close of day
when the light makes the orchards magic.

They say somebody has invented you
but to me this does not sound convincing
for the humans invented themselves as well.

The voice — no doubt it is a valid proof,
as it can belong only to radiant creatures,
weightless and winged (after all, why not?),
girdled with the lightening.

I have heard that voice many a time when asleep
and, what is strange, I understood more or less
an order or an appeal in an unearthly tongue:

Day draws near
another one
do what you can.

Czeslaw Milosz

Anne, with the young Mary: knowing which comes about through relationship.

Deer, Cranford

This week I sat at the banks of a river
twenty deer crossed, just thirty feet from me--

Does with fawns,
older fawns, in pairs, glancing back, curious
young bucks, elder deer with many antlers, all crossing

I was silent,
they were silent and did not startle.
For an hour, this time out of time--
infinite communion.

The next day, I went back and reflected on this spot--
considering their myriad hoofprints in the mud, a proof and scripture.

Thanksgiving Muppets

Every Thanksgiving I think of my Muppet friends. And it has been a little while since I posted, Graduate school and soul necessities requiring luminous awareness and highest energy--
So it is now time to play. Please enjoy this video--
with joy and gratitude