Category: Eastern Mysticism

An Evening of Sacred Music and Dances from Japan Kagura Ensemble of Chichibu Shrine

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One of the philosophical influences incorporated in The Halau’s traditional Japanese Reiki practice is Shinto …

Enjoy this unique opportunity to experience Kagura (sacred music and ritual dances) from Chichibu, an important Shinto mountain shrine near Tokyo, in the first and only US performance of the shrine’s Kagura troupe. Chichibu Kagura, dating back to approximately the seventeenth century, with a repertory based on ancient myths, has been designated by the government as an Important Formless Folkloric Cultural Property. Organized by the East Asia Center; East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies; the International Shinto Foundation Chair in Shinto Studies, UCSB; the International Shinto Foundation, New York; and Shinto Kokusai Gakkai. [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24972]

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ May 31, 2014

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Yesaṃ dhammā asammuṭṭhā
paravādesu na nīyare;
te sambuddhā sammadaññā,
caranti visame samaṃ.

Those to whom the Dhamma is clear
are not led into other doctrines;
perfectly enlightened with perfect knowledge,
they walk evenly over the uneven.

 

 

Saṃyutta Nikāya 1.7

Gemstones of the Good Dhamma,
compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika

Lao Tzu ~ “We Join Thirty Spokes”

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Remain aware that Lao Tzu reminds us that there is always Yin (the passive and empty component) that coexists with Yang (the active and shaping component).  The two together provide the means to total action, total responsibility, lifefulness, and lovefulness.  The importance of what is not defines the classical paradigm called enlightenment.
small pink lotus
We join thirty spokes
To the hub of a wheel,
Yet it’s the centre hole
That drives the chariot.
We shape clay
To birth a vessel,
Yet it’s the hallow within
That makes it useful.
We chisel doors and windows
To construct a room,
Yet it’s the inner space
That makes it livable.
 
Thus do we create what is
To use what is not.

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ May 30, 2014

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Kāyappakopaṃ rakkheyya;
kāyena saṃvuto siyā.
Kāyaduccaritaṃ hitvā,
kāyena sucaritaṃ care.

Let one guard oneself against irritability in bodily action;
let one be controlled in deed.
Abandoning bodily misconduct,
let one practice good conduct in deed.


Dhammapada 17.231

The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom,
translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Rumi ~ “The Laziest Son”

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As a man is dying he tells the town judge to give all his inheritance to only one of his three sons – the one who is the laziest!  There is a fascinating dialog between each of the three sons and the judge to find who is laziest — in the form of a somewhat long Rumi poem … 

I share with you a segment – the judge’s encounter with the youngest :

The judge then asked the youngest brother,
“What if a man cannot be made to say anything?
How do you learn his hidden nature?”

”I sit in front of him in silence,
and set up a ladder made of patience,
and if in his presence a language from beyond joy
and beyond grief begins to pour from my chest,
I know that his soul is as deep and bright
as the star Canopus rising over Yemen.

And so when I start speaking a powerful right arm
of words sweeping down, I know him from what I say,
and how I say it, because there’s a window open
between us, mixing the night air of our beings.”

The youngest was, obviously,
the laziest. He won.

From The Essential Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne