March 2010
40 posts
a history of singing bowls
- LLM: Yes. From far away they come to Buddha's place. Even sometime it's giving sound naturally, you know, maybe winds or . . .
- RG: Some vibration.
- LLM: Yes, vibration. Big winds coming, it's giving sound. Actually it can be by Buddha, you know Buddha's action. He's . . . when he's meditating . . . his action, you know, giving to the sound.
- RG: Through his energy . . .
- LLM: . . . energy, goes to this sound. Goes to singing bowl, or drum, and it's giving sound. And all gods, and higher beings, all the disciples can hear this giving teaching on this sound, meditation on this sound. So there, each different beings have different teachings by this sound. Yes, sometimes Buddhas don't give teachings by speech from mouth, you know, from heart, all energy goes to that singing things are giving sound. So those sounds are also Buddha's action or Buddha's energy giving teaching. Sometimes Buddhas don't act by physical body but he's giving by energy.
- RG: Transmission through other means.
- LLM: Transmission to other beings.
- .
- .
- - from Rain Gray's interview with Lama Lobsang Molam, 1986
February 2010
10 posts
some thoughts on the writing prompt
I cannot help it—
I follow hot lead twin tracks, in whose tremulous light trains and trees coruscate— my sword leaks rust like dried gore and yet— I kill for this country, their heads sow the earth like red currants
no place to start—
I’d outwear the rumble, strewn on banks gold with poppies— crushed into humus, soft, where we begin— carried along by smells on wind sharp as spicules— death, poppies, you
who can help me?
I follow tracks to find our brothers, now wood— their houses built from the cauls of our living homes— their blood tastes of gunmetal, their city towers baleful as the moon, as I— resolute and alone
tao
- q: within the country who holds the sword?
- m: myself. ts'ao shan.
- q: whom do you want to kill?
- m: all.
- q: what if you run into your parents?
- m: why pick?
- a: one cannot help it.
- m: who can help me?
- q: why don't you kill yourself?
- m: no place to start.
- ...
- we'll be sharing pieces inspired by this prompt in next week's poetry group meeting. if it inspires you to write something too, I'd love to hear & share it!
“You just have to play. Life is yoga. In life we play. We play to the best of our ability. We choose to participate and question, and deepen and refine simply so that we can offer all that loveliness back out AND so that we can truly enjoy each moment.”
—Elsie Escobar of Elsie’s Yoga Kula
Rain
Grand Salvo
Grand Salvo - Rain
the church of the red cave
through our bearing and even our breath we bear witness to the divinity in the space within and around. inner and outer, dark and light. shiva and shakti. in today’s practice we channeled her light and her darkness. brought her energy into the space inside ourselves and it grew large as the space outside.
bhava instructs in sanskrit. each mudra and asana learned anew through strange invocations in a gorgeous guttural tongue. and yes, by the second sequence we moved as one with the words. no longer foreign to it. om namah shivaya.
om shantih,
shalom,
salaam.
“Here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that Love is the most important thing in the world. It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”
—Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
half moon two
prana yoga tonight. more challenging than expected, in so many beautiful ways. legs shaking like love after, planes coming in impossibly low over the palms and the clouds lifting to show off the stars. from the top of the canyon above the city the lights flickered. after a moment of stillness, ecstatic tears.
you are the awareness that is aware.
the joy of that— the joy of the witness—
