Refuge respect at my father's table love on my mother's knee here before and after and here before and after me The shrouded smile Sylvia Plath is reborn to be free she shut her eyes and all the world dropped dead; so she had to make it up inside her head all the lies galloped in she saw the mind go as black as sin and she knew, she said that she was already dead when she shut her eyes all the world dropped dead 'must have just been my eyes filling my head' she thought she opened her eyes and stepped out of bed... would you have me sleep to dream of you? she said this is not true love for unless persuaded by my madness I am alone in my dreams and lost to the living and the dead before I marry a dream I would run from the church and escape a life of sugar-lump sleep and I would keep running for I would rather with lemon sharp eyes wake again even from the wakened state into the formless and what would this mean for us? that you must die to join me in this heaven? we need not die I do not doubt or fear heaven is here one day we will die this I must whisper to my deeper self I forever forget dying because forgetting is itself like dying but to be at One I must love the sky from the freedom of my dust until the shrouded smile of myself fades into the sunrise she thought she thought until she found herself worried about the words then the spell of the sounds broken the half-understood half awake, awoken the cosy cover lifted silence ruled at last before and after and she could be the truth and not the thought a truth we could share forever more such is true love she said 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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We shall listen for Thee
we shall not pray
in humble silence
wrapped in earth
we shall listen for Thee
the spirit of the river
and the spirit of the sea
shall be their deepest meaning
the clouds shall pass
and we shall see
the words will come
to be
the flight of the dove
calling us back
in truth and in love
and we shall have listened
to Thee
The Creation
In the beginning the heart full of mirth
Let go of the heaven and the earth
And the heart was without form and void and brightness was upon the face of the deep
The heart had awoken from its invisible sleep
And the heart fell still upon the face of the waters
And there was a new love like a dynasty of devoted daughters
Silence knew the inner light
And the heart saw the light and it was good
And the heart divided not the light from the darkness and brought light
Into the depths of the night
And the evening and the morning were the first day
And to draw pleasure from form cramped the heart
And formed it forever apart
And the heart saw it was not good
The silence opened and embraced the world in its Grace
And everything could find its time and its place
Which was here and now in the heart
And the earth was free to create,
To love and to hate
And the heart was free just to be
And to truly see
And the evening and the morning were the second day
And the formless appeared in the heart
And there was joy
For the heart had a new toy
Stable and bright
With which to develop its inner sight
And the heart saw that it was good
And the evening and the morning were the third day
And the heart made a body in that inner sight
To suffuse that body with true light
So that the heart may cool its age-long fire
So that the heart may find love beyond desire
Craving could cease
And the future could finally rest in peace
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day
And the heart could see all the way inside
And the past had nowhere to hide
From the love of new eyes
Or from the hearts of the wise
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day
And the breath so refined
So undefined
Filtered the dust of the world
Until its innermost heart
Never apart
Formed a vessel of formless glass
In which the suffering of creatures may arise and pass
Safe and without a sound
Distilled into meaning more and more profound
Until the seeing was crystal clear
And the crystal held so dear
That to see the suffering was to be free of that suffering and free of fear
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day
And the heart did rest in peace
And the peace was eternal release
And the evening and the morning were the seventh day.
The Beautiful Princess
The Princess was as good as she was beautiful,
As kind as she was dutiful
And yet there was a huge surprise
Waiting behind her bottomless eyes
“I am disgusted by this body,” said the Princess
“It’s a revolting, putrid, horrible mess.”
“And yet you shine so brightly,” said the Prince
Failing not to visibly wince
“That is why,” said the Princess, “the heart is free.
Free to be seen and to see.”
“What do you see, Oh Princess?” said the King-to-Be?
“I see a great palace
Wrapped in an even greater chalice
As high as the sky
I see clouds as white and sweet as finest wine
I see climbing to the heavens the strongest vine
A stair
Made of air
So fine
I see that it at its end
The galaxy will be Thine
There at the end of time"
“And shall I have your hand?”
He said.
“The hand is made of sand
It is already dead,”
She said.
“Then must I die too
To be with you?”
He said.
“You that was never born
Shall wear the heavens and be so worn
Like a vow forever sworn.”
She said.
“What must I do?”
He said.
“To see this skin,
So frail, so thin.
That is your task.”
She said.
“I can see only your lovely face
Full of grace
What again do you ask.”
He said.
“See too the light that shines
Through and beyond what form confines.”
She said.
“The skin
Is really very thin,”
She said.
The Prince was enchanted
One day her wish would be granted
As surely as his blood was red
(And just as soon as he could get out of the Royal bed.)
And the Princess left the land of the real
With its little itchy feel
To tenderly care
In the open air
And the Prince would follow
When he could borrow the fare
And the time of the world passed yet all was well
For the life of the heart remained strictly parallel
Evaṃ
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Reading with background music
Words and reading by Ajahn Kalyano.
Music: Fratres for strings and percussion by Arvo Pärt.
Edited by Gordon Oaks.
Music is used with the permission of TONO, Oslo, https://www.tono.no/en/
Music: Fratres for strings and percussion by Arvo Pärt.
Edited by Gordon Oaks.
Music is used with the permission of TONO, Oslo, https://www.tono.no/en/
marked in charcoal by the itinerant soul daubed in a dash in chalky white ash...
Pdf version:
Reading with video and background music:
Words and reading by Ajahn Kalyano.
Background music and editing by Gordon Oaks.
Background music and editing by Gordon Oaks.
Reading - mp3 with background music
"The Plough of the Mortal God" was inspired by a section in the Kasi Bharadvaja Sutta. (Sutta Nipata 1.4):
[The Buddha said:]
"Faith is the seed, practice the rain,
And wisdom is my yoke and plow.
Modesty's the pole, mind the strap,
Mindfulness my plowshare and goad.
Body and speech are guarded well,
And food and drink have been restrained.
Truthfulness I use for weeding,
And gentleness urges me on.
Effort is my beast of burden,
Pulling me onward to safety.
On it goes without returning,
Where, having gone, one does not grieve.
This is how I plow my plowing --
The crop it yields is deathlessness!
And when one has plowed this plowing,
One is released from all suffering."
(Translated by Andrew Olendzki)
[The Buddha said:]
"Faith is the seed, practice the rain,
And wisdom is my yoke and plow.
Modesty's the pole, mind the strap,
Mindfulness my plowshare and goad.
Body and speech are guarded well,
And food and drink have been restrained.
Truthfulness I use for weeding,
And gentleness urges me on.
Effort is my beast of burden,
Pulling me onward to safety.
On it goes without returning,
Where, having gone, one does not grieve.
This is how I plow my plowing --
The crop it yields is deathlessness!
And when one has plowed this plowing,
One is released from all suffering."
(Translated by Andrew Olendzki)
The Oath
One day I shall lay down these bones,
look up at the sky
and be neither here nor there.
One day I shall be in between
and between-between,
a whispering nowhere.
In between the lines of life I will gently, humbly care.
I will serve the truth until the end of time,
so I swear.
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