In any circumstance good or bad, abandon
All hope from Buddhas and give up
All fears of suffering in Samsara.
Recognize that hope and fear are the
Magical display of your own mind
Of Primordial Purity.
Remain in the state where there is neither
Perceiver nor object of perception.
Let go into the immaculate space
Of Great Perfection beyond
Meditation or distractive disturbance.
– Tibetan Scroll
In Memory of Anna Marly…..
Leonard Cohen – Performing Anna Marlys’ ‘The Partisan”
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I came in from working all day in the cold, ear-ache and throat working overtime, but it was glorious, Beautiful Sun, and a gentle North West breeze… I will take the physical bs for the beauty…
Morgan stopped by our work-site, he was in a fine mood, back from visiting his lady friend back in Vermont and Maine….
This edition was brought about by Lo talking about Leonard Cohen the other day…. So without further ado….
On The Menu:
Zen Quotes
Leonard Cohen – The Gypsy Wife
Poetry: Leonard Cohen…
Assorted Images… Songs… Poems…
Blessings,
Gwyllm
Zen Quotes:
The clouds of sunset
Gather in the western sky,
And over the silent silvery Han
Rises a white jade moon.
Not often does life
Bring such beauty.
Where shall I see the moon
Next year?
– Su Tung-Po (1037-1101)
—
The Way is vast and without favor.
The all-empty Tao is profound.
With an empty heart,
Its nature is easily learned,
Though its power encompasses the cosmos.
With its wisdom one may discern
Lifes great mysteries,
So that the heart may becomes pure
As the throne of the immortals.
– Loy Ching-Yuen (1873-1960)
—
The wind is the breath of heaven and earth.
Into every corner it unfolds and reaches;
Without choosing between high or low,
Exalted or humble, it touches everywhere.
– Song Yu (290-223 BCE)
—
Listening to Snow
Cold night, no wind, bamboo making noises,
Noises far apart, now bunched together,
Filtering the pine-flanked lattice.
Listening with ears is less fine
Than listening with the mind.
Beside the lamp I lay
Aside the half scroll of sutra
– Daito
—
Where subject and object are realized
As a single sphere
Happiness and sorrow mingle as one
Whatever circumstances I encounter,
I am free in the blissful realm
Of self-awakening Wisdom
– Milarepa
—
There is no help in changing
Your environment.
The obstacle is the mind,
Which must be overcome,
Whether at home or in the forest.
If you can do it in the forest,
Why not in the home?
Therefore, why change the environment?
– Ramana Maharshi
—
Evening mountains veiled in somber mist,
One path entering the wooded hill:
The monk has gone off, locking his pine door.
From a bamboo pipe a lonely trickle of water flows.
– Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672)
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Leonard Cohen – The Gypsy Wife
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Poetry: Leonard Cohen
Waiting for Marianne from “Flowers for Hitler”
I have lost a telephone
with your smell in it
I am living beside the radio
all the stations at once
but I pick out a Polish lullaby
I pick it out of the static
it fades I wait I keep the beat
it comes back almost alseep
Did you take the telephone
knowing I’d sniff it immoderately
maybe heat up the plastic
to get all the crumbs of your breath
and if you won’t come back
how will you phone to say
you won’t come back
so that I could at least argue
—
Leonard Cohen – A Thousand kisses deep
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—
Millennium from “Flowers for Hitler”
This could be my little
book about love
if I wrote it–
but my good demon said:
‘Lay off documents!’
Everybody was watching me
burn my books–
I swung my liberty torch
happy as a gestapo brute;
the only thing I wanted to save
was a scar
a burn or two–
but my good demon said:
‘Lay off documents!
The fire’s not important!’
The pile was safely blazing.
I went home to take a bath.
I phoned my grandmother.
She is suffering from arthritis.
‘Keep well,’ I said, ‘don’t mind the pain.’
‘You neither,’ she said.
Hours later I wondered
did she mean
don’t mind my pain
or don’t mind her pain?
Whereupon my good demon said:
‘Is that all you can do?’
Well was it?
Was it all I could do?
There was the old lady
eating alone, thinking about
Prince Albert, Flanders Field,
Kishenev, her fingers too sore
for TV knobs;
but how could I get there ?
The books were gone
my address lists–
My good demon said again:
‘Lay off documents!
You know how to get there!’
And suddenly I did!
I remembered it from memory!
I found her
pouring over the royal family tree,
‘Grandma,’
I almost said,
‘you’ve got it upside down–’
‘Take a look,’ she said,
‘it only goes to George V.’
‘That’s far enough
you sweet old blood!’
‘You’re right!’ she sang
and burned the
London Illustrated Souvenir
I did not understand
the day it was
till I looked outside
and saw a fire in every
window on the street
and crowds of humans
crazy to talk
and cats and dogs and birds
smiling at each other!
—
Leonard Cohen – If it be your will
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—
Story Of Isaac
The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, “I’ve had a vision
and you know I’m strong and holy,
I must do what I’ve been told.”
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
and his axe was made of gold.
Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady’s mirror,
we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
he looked once behind his shoulder,
he knew I would not hide.
You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
your hatchets blunt and bloody,
you were not there before,
when I lay upon a mountain
and my father’s hand was trembling
with the beauty of the word.
And if you call me brother now,
forgive me if I inquire,
“Just according to whose plan?”
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.
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