Quotations relevant to the Path

[Nayana]

"change is the nursery
of musicke, joy, life and eternity"

John Donne

[Mimesis]

"The woods and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from other masters."

- Bernard of Clairvaux

[obnoxion]

"The woods and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from other masters."

This is one of my core beliefs.

[obnoxion]

To express hope by some star, and eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. Certainly there is no delusive realism in that, but isn't it something that actually exists?

Vincent van Gogh in letter (no. 531) to his brother Theo.

[Yinlong]

Having made mostly darker photography etc. and since the days are actually getting darker, some light to the day. Also, for some reason German language has resonated well in my mind. Also, recently bought Hafez (in Finnish though) and that resonated well too, next quote will be from there. However, now this:

Sankt Margaretha mit dem Wurm,
Sankt Barbara mit dem Turm,
Sankt Catharina mit dem Radl,
das sind die heiligen drei Madl.

This was sang in Germany during the times of Black Death

[obnoxion]

".... Another woman who often came possessed spoke of the goddess as a "quiet darkness" that descended upon her, removing all pain. Her ordinary personality fell asleep, or watched what went on from a distance."

This extract is from "Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls" by June McDaniel, which is book on West Bengali shaktism, based largely on academic field research on the first halfs of the 80's and the 90's. One could (or, sometimes one feels, one should) muse on the cultural context and the latest research on dissosiative disorders. But I did not choose to quote this as an example of unusual phenomenon. Instead I wanted to share the experience of the Goddess as a quiet darkness, removing all pain.

[obnoxion]

I took refuge specifically in Rudra,
the protector, mountain-dweller,
the unshakable lord of beings,
the god of gods who bears the trident.

Isvara Gita 11.133
Andrew J. Nicholson "Lord Siva's Song", 2014 , SUNY.

[Mimesis]

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”

- Vincent van Gogh

[Nefastos]

"The yoga of unparalleled compassion is as follows: Compassion is the root of Mahayana teachings. If this is absent, regardless of whatever aspects of the path you might have – such as the six perfections and the generation and completion stages of your solemn pledges – you will fall into the ranks of the Lesser Vehicle. You need, therefore, to possess loving-kindness, compassion, and the awakening mind. Loving-kindness brings benefits, while compassion is cultivated by starting with the perpetrators of harm. [...] When you have developed [compassion] toward one in this way, then extend it to others, such as medium and lesser perpetrators of harm. Then extend it to your relatives, fellow coutrymen, [the people of] Tibet, of the earth, the four continents, and the [entire] trichiliocosm, pervading the expand of space."

– Glorious Virvapa's Mind Training

From "Mind Training: The Great Collection", translated by Thupten Jinpa (Wisdom Publication in association with the Institute of Tibetan Classics, 2006)

[obnoxion]

Compassion is the root of Mahayana teachings.

"...The basic understandin of reality present in the Vajrayana [= Tantric Buddhism] is essentially Mahayanist, and to have a correct understanding of the Vajrayana, one needs some grounding in Mahayana philosophy."

- Reginald A. Ray: "Secret of the Vajra World" (Shambhala, 2002)