surface still
the ocean reflects
light only
the perfect mirror
reflects but itself
Jan Barendrecht is a long time contributor to both the HarshaSatsangh and the Nonduality Salon. He originally hails from Holland, but is now living in the bliss-inducing Canary Isles of Southern Europe. He is also an active proponent of fruitarianism, the ahimsa way to nutrition. For more writings by him, see the nonduality salon website and earlier editions of HarshaSatsangh Magazine.
frail flowers abound
the gardener is sound asleep
my mind, the graveyard
joy, tears and laughter
the gardener woke up again
the mind, a great yard
no joy, no sadness
spacious as the vast blue sky
no yard, no graveyard
no mind, no gardener
the garden of the unborn
frail flowers abound
This picture is suggesting a perspective
What is flat from one perspective isn’t from another
What is smooth from one perspective isn’t from another
What is huge from one perspective is tiny from another
An ordeal from one perspective
A blessing in disguise from another
No perspective can be seen from another perspective
Non-perspectiveness underlies all perspectives
The sun neither rises nor sets
Easily to be observed from outer space
Yet the picture is suggestive of a sunset
Phenomena arising and subsiding
Like the sun seems to rise from the ocean and to subside in it
Although that doesn’t really happen
Awareness neither rises nor sets
Everything seems to arise and to subside in it
Although that doesn’t really happen
Silence is most natural. But it doesn’t mean “no thinking”. The majority of thinking revolves around one item or more of the “unholy trinity,”, other(s), my feeling(s).. Unholy, because all wars and conflicts are regarding “I and mine…” or its plural “We and our…” so it is obvious that without “I”, the sense of otherness has gone too and Silence just IS, irrespective of thinking. It will be clear that religions, systems of meditation and yogas are aiming to diminish the sense of “I” to such an extent that one becomes aware of the Silence. If this results in a preference/like for Silence above anything else, that could be called Grace because it will transform seeming austerities into a joy and “attainment” will be swift.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest known written stories, the earliest versions date to about 2000 B.C. The epic hails from ancient Babylonia, a kingdom that was located in the area between the rivers Euphrat and Tigris in what is now Iraq. The epic was originally written on clay tablets in cuneiform, the wedge shaped characters of the Sumerian language. The fullest surviving version of the epic, however, was written in Akkadian, another Babylonian language.
Luthar.com 