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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Fri Aug 22, 2003 7:48 am
Subject: Useless as Molasses om_namah_shi...

http://sulekha.com/chpost.asp?for...ilosophy&show=0&cid=70157

So you've cut up your hide and stretched it,

pegged it down to dry with definite,
sharp-pointed desires,

but have you planted any fruit trees
for the next generation?

Wisdom offered you is like a ball
thrown at a boundary post,

useless as molasses fed to a tawny bull
to help it give more milk!

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop, 1992

========

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/papers/blueguitar.html

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/blueguitar.html
http://wings.buffalo.edu/cas/english/faculty/conte/syllabi/377/Wallace
_Stevens.html

Ah, but to play man number one,
To drive the dagger in his heart,
To lay his brain upon the board
And pick the acrid colors out,
To nail his thought across the door,
Its wings spread wide to rain and snow,
To strike his living hi and ho,
To tick it, tock it, turn it true,
To bang it from a savage blue,
Jangling the metal of the strings...

- Wallace Stevens, "Man with a Blue Guitar"

========

http://www.uahc.org/educate/parent/0103.shtml

A JEWISH RIP VAN WINKLE

One day, Honi the Circle Drawer, as he was known, was out walking. He
saw an old man planting a carob tree. Honi asked the man, "How long
will it take for this tree to bear fruit?" The old man
replied, "Seventy years." Honi then asked, "Do you think you will
live long enough to eat the fruit of that tree?" The man
answered, "No, but my ancestors planted carob trees for me and now I
plant for my descendants."

Honi sat down to eat his lunch. He became drowsy and fell asleep. A
big rock hid him and unbeknownst to Honi he slept for seventy years.
When he woke up, he saw a man picking fruit from the carob tree. Honi
asked the man, "Who planted that tree?" "My grandfather" he replied.
Honi then realized he must have slept for seventy years. Honi said to
the man, "Your grandfather was very wise. He told me seventy years
ago that he was planting carob trees for his descendants to enjoy."
========
http://www.uscj.org/scripts/uscj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=289
THE EMPEROR AND THE PLANTER

(From the Talmud)

A very old Jewish man in Palestine was planting a fig tree. The Roman
Emperor Hadrian happened to pass by and said to him:

"Why do you do that, old man, surely you will not live long enough to
see it bear fruit?"

"In that case", replied the aged man, "I will leave it for my son, as
my father left the fruit of his labor for me."

The Emperor admired his spirit. "If you do live to see the figs on
your tree ripen," he said, "let me know about it."

The old man lived to eat of the fruit, and remembering the Emperor's
words, brought him a basket of figs. The Emperor was so pleased that
he filled the old man's basket with gold.

The greedy woman who heard of the gift, made her husband go to the
Emperor too. "He loves figs," she said, "and he will surely fill your
basket with gold." The man listened to his wife, brought the figs to
the palace and said: "These figs are for the Emperor, empty my basket
and fill it up with gold."

When Hadrian heard this, he ordered the guards to have all the people
who passed by throw figs at the man. When the man finally escaped, he
ran home and told his wife what had happened. "Well," she said, "you
are lucky. Think what would have happened if the figs had been
coconuts."

Rabbi: May it be Your will, O God, and God of our forefathers, that
through our eating of the fruits which we have blessed, that the
trees will be filled with the glory of their abundance to renew
themselves for new blossoming and growth, from the beginning of the
year to its end, so that life be filled with goodness, blessings and
peace.

============
To the Bhakta (the practitioner of devotional worship) the dry
details of theological doctrine are necessary only to strengthen his
will; beyond that they are of no use to him. For he is treading on a
path which is fitted very soon to lead him beyond the hazy and
turbulent regions of reason, to lead him to the realm of realisation.
He, soon, through the mercy of the Lord, reaches a plane where
pedantic and powerless reason is left far behind, and the mere
intellectual groping through the dark gives place to the daylight of
direct perception. He no more reasons and believes, he almost
perceives. He no more argues, he senses. And is not this seeing God,
and feeling God, and enjoying God higher than everything else?

============

I will mentally join in the worship in all mosques, churches, and
temples; and perceive the birth of the universal Christ Consciousness
as peace on the altar of all devotional hearts.

- Paramahansa Yogananda, `Metaphysical Meditations'

=======

When we attempt to isolate another we only isolate ourselves. We are
all God's children and there are no favorites. God is revealed to all
who seek; God speaks to all who will listen. Be still and know God.

- Peace Pilgrim, `Peace Pilgrim'

============

Be without sensations, without ears,
without thought, in order to hear God's
call: "Come back".

- Rumi

Muriel Maufroy
"Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi"

Sanyar Press - London, 1997

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