By means of meditation we can teach our minds to be calm and balanced; within this calmness is a richness and a potential, an inner knowledge which can render our lives boundlessly satisfying and meaningful. While the mind may be what traps us in unhealthy patterns of stress and imbalance, it is also the mind which can free us. Through meditation, we can tap the healing qualities of mind. - Tarthang Tulku
Ice to Rain
Words fell as fallen snow
Cast amongst the heartaches I know
Chilling me to ivory pale.
Can’t make me drive in that nail.
I won’t shed your blood, so true.
I won’t hurt you when it’s through.
So, come to me with times of laughter
Remove this cold, it’s not what you’re after.
I will hold you if you cry
I will forgive you when you lie.
But, I won’t accept your blame and pain.
You must give them up to turn ice to rain.
Rain can grow the heart to peace.
Peace can fill the soul with ease.
So, take the chill off and settle down
You have no need for a weapon or crown.
Words can change the meanings in life.
Sometimes you gotta take them in strife.
You’ll always float if your heart is light.
It’s always our choice for flight or fright.
CAWatson2/2007
He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
George Bernard Shaw
Wind
The hard, winds blowin’
I’s touching my very bones.
It’s gushing through the trees.
It’s letting out it’s moans.
It’s circling all around,
While I am safe and whole inside.
I’ve lived through other storms.
I’ll never need to hide.
I feel the wind upon me.
And balance holds my sails.
I’ve learned to wait in patience.
To be calm, it never fails.
There are many paths awaiting.
Some are hard, others easy to do.
I take the ones that come to me.
This time it may be you.
CAWatson2/2007
The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.
-Chuang Tzu
Vincent van Gogh (in a letter to his brother, Theo)
I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it— keep going, keep going come what may.
But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.
Bell and Bamboo
“Late in life, you will find a man making an oriental bell, there will be poles, not posts, but a type of pole, by his door, many of them, and they will lead you to gentle, running, water.”
He was making a bell
By a bamboo grove
I was told of this sight
When I was 20 years old.
What is the meaning?
He said I would know.
He said it would change things,
The path would peacefully grow.
How could he see this?
40 years in the making.
He said my palm told it.
It wasn’t about faking.
He was right on all counts
Things had happened as he said
Children; a boy and then a girl.
Was it time or the path that led?
He knew of my strengths
My weakness and fears
He told me of virtues
That I would hold through the years.
He said in this life
I was here for the needs of others
It was compassion and caring
I’d give more, than there’d be lovers.
He said I’d never remarry
But, I’d have a bond, richly true
I would reach peaceful contentment
And have friendships shared by few
He said I’d stay balanced
I would follow my own path
I would find my bell and bamboo
I would have my years to laugh.
CAWaton2007
