Tuesday 30 June 2015

Dalai Lama - 80th birthday speech at Glastonbury 2015



Today (by chance?) I found a copy of Mit dem Dalai Lama durchs Jahr - 365 Worte des Herzens  (With the Dalai Lama through the Year - 365 Words from the Heart) - first published in 2002 by Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag. 


The book was in a cardboard box along with many other books on a table outside a secondhand shop but it was (by chance?) the first book I laid my hand on . . . 

I gave the shopkeeper a two euro coin and that's how I came into possession of the book, a book full of wisdom, a 365-page hardback book in excellent condition, in fact to my eyes it is as good as new. 


Perhaps the book is a present from the Dalai Lama to me, I thought later, for as he says in the video above: Every morning when you wake it is your birthday. 


The book opens with an appropriate quote for humanity from the Dhammapada



Hass wird nicht durch Hass besiegt; den Hass besiegt allein die Liebe - das ist ein ewiges Gesetz.

Translated this reads: 

Hate cannot be conquered through hate; only love can conquer hate - that is an eternal law.



Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of finite creatures - Henri F Amiel


Monday 29 June 2015

The Myth of the Man in the Cave




The cave has more than one entrance and exit. 

The man in the cave cannot be seen. 


The man in the cave is  Kilroy was here.


Kilroy hangs out in many strange places. 


The man in the cave is a shadowy presence.   


The man in the cave will be buried at sea.



Photo:
Hilbre Island* 
Wirral, UK 

*only reachable on foot at low tide. 



Sunday 28 June 2015

Skylark Bird Songs أغاني الطيور القبرة



My favourite songbirds, outdoing even the blackbirds, are the skylarks. Like them I like wide open spaces. And for my money there is nowhere better to hear them than on the broad expanse above the cliffs of Rhossili Bay at the end of the Gower pensinsula in Wales.

Step carefully if you stroll out to the Worm's Head. I once met an angry adder on the beach in front of that tidal island.

This is a wonderful recording, and the best one I could find. Hope you enjoy it. Maybe you can leave an appreciative 'thumbs up' at YouTube if you do. 


Saturday 27 June 2015

Evensong haiku



a blackbird's evensong . . .

 the raucous crow falls silent

 and then the other birds too 


Friday 26 June 2015

Wolfgang Stocker: Creation and Balance


The artist Wolfgang Stocker (l) and myself (r)

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.  - Vincent Van Gogh

Balance 

There is a certain point of unity within the self, and between the self and its world, a certain complicity and magnetic mating, a certain harmony that conscious mind and will cannot direct . . . swifter, subtler, deeper, more accurate, more in touch with reality than command by conscious mind. The discovery takes one's breath away. - Michael Novak

Creation

artworks courtesy of
- Wolfgang Stocker



Yesterday evening was spent in the presence of Wolfgang Stocker who explained to me his working methods and his ideas. The two quotes highlighted above neatly sum up his artistic philosophy better than any words of mine can do. 

Wolfgang Stocker works with a plethora of materials including paint, charcoal, wood, ceramic, granite, marble, bronze, wire, steel, polystyrene . . . the list seems endless.  He showed me stones and rocks collected from quarries, fields and riverbeds awaiting the attention of his drills and chisels. 

Here is a creative man at ease with the implements and tools and the raw materials of his trade; a dedicated artist blessed with finely honed intelligence, deep perception and limitless vision. 

And all in balance. 


Thursday 25 June 2015

The Easy Way




the easy way up 
and the easy way down 
- just follow the signs


It is It





My Universe 
by other Name is 

It
And I am It 

You too are It  
 And He is It

She is It 
 And They are It

Here is It
And There is It 

It is It
And That is It 


- composed after reading James Broughton's 'This is It' 


Saturday 6 June 2015

The skull with ears



A man died and they had the floor of his tomb covered with tiles bearing images of skulls with ears.  It was done to warn people not to speak ill of the dead, for in those days the dead could hear what was being said in their presence.  




If the flesh
has come into existence
because of the spirit
it is a marvel.

If the spirit
has come into existence
because of the body
it is a marvel of marvels.

But I marvel
at how this great wealth
has made its home
in this poverty.

                          The sayings of Jesus 
no. 29 
from the Gospel of Thomas


Hell



Hell is a thing like doubt.
Hell is a thing like jealousy. 
Hell is an animal like a panther.
Hell is an animal like a tiger.
Hell is a man like the poorest beggar.
Hell is a man like the fiercest brute.
Hell is a road paved with good intentions. 
Hell is a road that compels us to think of perfection. 


Sri Chinmoy 


Friday 5 June 2015

The Burning Bush


     Yesterday I took some photos of Dictamnus Albus growing on a hillside not far from Vienna.

Today I discovered that Dictamnus Albus is commonly called The Burning Bush because it exudes a gas which can be ignited without harming the plant. You can witness this phenomenon in the video clip below.

The plants in the photos are quite small specimens, about 18" in height. In some locations a Burning Bush can grow to a height of 3 feet or more.








There is nothing in between


There is nothing in between. Either darkness is filling
the vessel or light is filling the vessel. - Sri Chinmoy

haiku composed on reading Jim Murdoch's one and only haiku




Jim Murdoch's only haiku is titled 


'The Faces of Men' - 


 how quickly

the light of the sun

diminishes



My haiku reply to Jim's haiku was titled 


'Don't Question' -


 without our books

of guidelines

 where would we be




When I now read the two poems straight through, as if they were one, I see the two fitting easily together to form a poem of two verses. All the new poem requires is a fitting title. And to that purpose I've taken Jim's first line.


 'How Quickly' 


 how quickly

 the light of the sun

 diminishes

 without our books

 of guidelines

  where would we be



Monday 1 June 2015

haiku from a window seat



sparse white cloudlets

sunlight gleaming on a distant river

 cabin crew with scratch cards



Thought for the Day



When greed enters, wisdom disappears. 

Sri Chinmoy