There is a common way of depicting the story of the Buddha's moment of enlightenment where the Earth Deva wrings out her hair, full of tears, and washes away the hosts of Māra. This is the Deva letting go of its grieving for the earth. To my mind this is also like the mysterious phrase in the suttas of 'the body realising the deathless' because at this moment the samādhi of the Buddha was brought down to earth through mindfulness of the body. This is how the Buddha let go of the world and grief for the world together (having previously let go of covetousness when leaving the palace). Letting go of attachment through seeing suffering is all that is needed for the mind to go beyond the elements. This is letting go of the world.
And, if we like a good fairy tale, we can understand this literally or as a way of depicting the dynamics by which the power of samādhi takes the mind to liberation. The Buddha could thus be the connection between the power of the Devas and the earth. The Deva channelled by the mind of a man may reach back from their abiding beyond to ‘save the world’ with pure emptiness. I offer this for your reflection Ajahn Kalyāno http://www.openthesky.co.uk Time Answered lost and lost in each other shadows mourn they dance their darkness in their own little world of cast down chiaroscuro raised above wrapped in ribbons dance the free light and colour of heaven between lies calm, priestly presence and the sermon is ready already in the heart of man seen and unseen felt between and between lies this ambiguous body rhythm of blood and breath seasons of life and death within this life the body has its own rule we must respect we shall sharpen it as our tool and expect as we might and towards what end my friend shall we fight? does the matter really matter? the blood shall one day splatter don't tell the wife yet the senses may learn and win a truth that may turn us back to life... time questions the world turns in perpetual doubt not taking its time but taken by time the world quakes time takes this is the truth yet time takes not this truth the inner light speaks and casts no shadow and the words have the sound of words that are heard taken within, between between there in the empty alley time is answered light of heart and heart of light before the word is spoken and after celebrating the life that lies forever in the silence and the lost shall be found found where they are most lost cast adrift pilgrims in hope of freedom in the sea or on the islands in the hope of freedom shall speak the clear horizon where the prayer falls the truth calls there where the grey light ripples and shimmers there where the silence glimmers the humble heart shall hear the call never to part never to fall for life is encoded in the fertile seed there is the ultimate cause and there in between and between the between on the horizon of the space and the pause is eternity written between and between between the lines of a life a life of truth a true life freed there too in the fertile seed and at the source of the river unseen, between the between in the trickle in the mud there where the air is green there at the first blood there begins the search for us all to stem the mighty flood there where nature will reach us there where nature will teach us straight from heart to heart
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When I was eighteen I took a gap year before going to University. I knew I would be studying psychology so I decided to get some work experience and got a job as a nursing assistant in a large hospital for people with mental handicaps. On my first day I was given a list of patients to help with their bath. I went to find the first one and helped him to wash himself as best I could. When I stepped out of the bathroom to take a towel I found that all the other patients on the list were standing naked outside the bathroom, all with their towels neatly folded over their arms and I realised how institutionalised life here really was.
My duties were simple and routine. Bathing, dressing, shaving, serving food and calling for a nurse if anything happened I couldn't handle. The job was like looking after big babies, having to try to see what they were asking for when they were upset. I had to put myself in their simple shoes and keep my eyes on just the basic necessities of life. I came to love them. I was amazed how content they could be with so little in life. The experience was an immensely earthing one and I began to realise just how simple life could be if you did not think about it too much. I could see the suffering of all my intellectual craving. Perhaps you can too if you have the same craving, reading this article in its deliberately simple style!
As for me, going on to college I was left with a nagging doubt about all the thinking. I wanted to try to help in what seemed like bigger ways and thought to use my brain, but in my vacations I would go straight back to simple nursing with a sense of relief.
As a monk, thankfully, I have rediscovered the simple life. Now, however, this simplicity covers even my thinking. Even though the deeper realities that emerge out of the contemplative life can be hard to describe, as an experience they are completely simple and clarifying of all our life experience.
I offer this for your reflection
Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk
The practice of celibacy, undertaken temporarily or for life as a monk or nun, is central to Buddhism. This practice is undertaken to help us to change our perception of the body, a change which is a necessary part of the process of true and complete liberation from suffering.
The Buddha understood the deepest root of our suffering as human beings as arising out of our attachment to a physical body which is inevitably prone to old age, sickness and death – a sensual perception of the body, our own or that of another person, causes us to hold on to the body as desirable and blinds us to its vulnerable state. This teaching is proven to the deep practitioner who is able, at least momentarily, to see differently. They will be able to let go of attachment to the body and enter into the bliss of samādhi, their first taste of liberation.
I offer this for your reflection
Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk
Creativity can be a very insightful process. When the mind is peaceful our creations can seem to come from nowhere, we can even find it hard to understand later what we have written ourselves. This can seem very mysterious, like we have found the word of the Lord. But actually it is just the calm mind speaking. To realise this might seem as though it would be disappointing – all the magic lost. It can be like this for a while. We can have to let go of our mystical idea of what we have done until we go deeper and realise that the very calm mind, the still, empty mind of samādhi is already the Lord. Then we realise that we had been on the path, not yet at the goal, but that the goal was also far more amazing than we ever could have imagined.
We are inspired beyond belief, and also very cautious because we are left realising how profound the calm mind can really be – the depth to which we can understand when the mind is calm – but also how quickly we can lose this understanding when the mind is no longer calm.
And where does perfection lie in terms of spiritual creativity? The Buddha himself never speaks about the ultimate, he speaks from the ultimate.
I offer this for your reflection
Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk
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