Dharma Bum

 

 

"Anyone who willingly enters into the pain of a stranger is truly a remarkable person."

 

- Henri Nouwen -

Yes.     There is a point at which any person gets tired

of knowledge.     You could call this     a threshold

or you could call this     the point at which a person

gets tired     of knowledge.     I'll tell you this:

I've     never     felt     further     from another than when

standing beside them     trying to point out a star.

 - Robert Wood Lynn

"When you nurture the ability to witness your life in the third person, in extremis, or through prayer or meditation, there is an unavoidable shift in consciousness as you realize that who you are is not simply how you feel - but a presence beyond desire of any sort. Intense emotions that have held us prisoner all our lives suddenly lose power, are uncloaked as tricks of memory, exposed as tireless, groping sensations whose function is to keep us distracted by the body's appetites until the body is no more."

 - Simon Van Booy

Meditations in an Emergency

I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart. There's a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.
 - Cameron Awkward-Rich

 

I want to be famous to shuffling men   

who smile while crossing streets,   

sticky children in grocery lines,   

famous as the one who smiled back.

 

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,   

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,   

but because it never forgot what it could do.

 

- Naomi Shihab Nye

"If for company you find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, you should, overcoming all impediments, keep his company joyously and mindfully. If for company you cannot find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, then, like a king who leaves behind a conquered kingdom, or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest, you should go your way alone."

Chapter 23, The Elephant
The Dhammapada
The Buddha's Path to Wisdom