Now Talking God

Now Talking God
With your feet I walk
I walk with your limbs
I carry forth your body
For me your mind thinks
Your voice speaks for me
Beauty is before me
And beauty is behind me
Above and below me
hovers the beautiful
I am surrounded by it
I am immersed in it
In my youth I am aware of it
And in old age I shall walk quietly
That beautiful trail.

~Native American Prayer

Woman of Stone

The man of wood sings,
The woman of stone
Gets up and dances,
This cannot be done
By passion or learning,
It cannot be done
By reasoning.

~Tung-shan

I become part of it

The mountains, I become part of it.
The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it.
The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering waters,
I become part of it.
The wilderness, the dew drops, the pollen...
I become part of it.

~Navaho Chant

Changes

Green leaves
That dawn after dawn
Grow yellow;
Red cheeks
That fade
With the passing days -
If our world
Is made up
Of such changes
As these,
Is it strange
that my heart
Is so sad?

~Hsiao Kang

It is lovely indeed

It is lovely indeed, it is lovely indeed.

I, I am the spirit within the earth.
The feet of the earth are my feet;
The legs of the earth are my legs.
The strength of the earth is my strength;
The thoughts of the earth are my thoughts;
The voice of the earth is my voice.
The feather of the earth is my feather;
All that belongs to the earth belongs to me;
All that surrounds the earth surrounds me.
I, I am the sacred works of the earth.
It is lovely indeed, it is lovely indeed.

~Susanne Anderson

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day -
and to her soil: rich, rare, and sweet
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing light-changing leaf
and fine root-hairs; standing still through wind
and rain; their dance is in the flowing spiral grain
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and the silent
Owl at dawn. Breath of our song
clear spirit breeze
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
freedoms, and ways; who share with us their milk;
self-complete, brave, and aware
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;
holding or releasing; streaming through all
our bodies salty seas
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to the sun: blinding pulsing light through
trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where
bears and snakes sleep - he who wakes us -
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to the Great Sky
who holds billions of stars - and goes yet beyond that -
beyond all powers, and thoughts
and yet is within us -
Grandfather Space
The Mind is his Wife

so be it

~Gary Snyder

O Sacred Season

O sacred season of Autumn, be my teacher
For I wish to learn the virtue of contentment.
As I gaze upon hour full-colored beauty,
I sense all about you
An at-homeness with your amber riches.

You are the season of retirement,
Of full barns and harvested fields.
The cycle of growth has ceased,
And the busy work of giving life
Is now completed.
I sense in you no regrets:
You’ve lived a full life.

I live in a society that is ever-restless,
Always eager for more mountains to climb,
Seeking happiness through more and more possessions.
As a child of my culture,
I am seldom truly at peace with what I have.
Teach me to take stock of what I have given and received;
May I know that it’s enough,
That my striving can cease
In the abundance of God’s grace.
May I know the contentment
That allows the totality of my energies
To come full flower.
May I know that like you I am rich beyond measure.

As you, O autumn, take pleasure in your great bounty,
Let me also take delight
In the abundance of the simple things in life
Which are the true source of joy.
With the golden glow of peaceful contentment
May I truly appreciate this autumn day.

~Edward Hays

O Holy One

O Holy One, I ran through the fields and gathered flowers of a thousand colors -
And now I pour them out at Your feet.
Their beauty and their brightness shout for joy in Your Presence.
You created the flowers of the fields and made each one far more lovely
than all the skill of man could design.
Accept my joy along with theirs,
this field of blossoms at Your feet
Holy One
as the wind blows through these flowers
till they dance in the ecstasy of creation,
send Your Spirit to blow through my being
till I too bloom and dance with the fulness of Your life.

~Ishpriya

The heart refuses

The heart refuses to be imprisoned; in its first and narrowest pulses it already tends outward with a vast force and to immense and innumerable expansions.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Standing up

Standing up on lifted, folded rock
looking out and down -

The creek falls to a far valley,
hills beyond that
facing, half-forested , dry
- clear sky
strong wind in the
stiff glittering needle clusters
of the pine - their brown
round trunk bodies
straight, still,
rustling trembling limbs and twigs

listen.

This living flowing land
is all there is,
forever

We are it
it sings through us -

We could live on this Earth
without clothes or tools!

~Gary Snyder

What a thing it is

What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone,
in the forest, at night, cherished by this
wonderful, unintelligible,
perfectly innocent speech,
the most comforting speech in the world,
the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges,
and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!
Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it.
It will talk as long as it wants, this rain.
As long as it talks I am going to listen.

~Thomas Merton

The life of a man

The life of a man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

You fancy this world

You fancy this world is
permanent of itself
And endures because of its own nature,
But really it is a ray of light
from the Truth
And within it the Truth is concealed.

~Sa'd Al-Din Mahmud Shabistari

I see now

I see now that all creatures have perfect enlightenment
- but they do not know it.

~Buddha

Who we are

Who we are and what is Nature, have one answer in the life that rushes into us.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Unnameable God

Unnameable God, you are fathomless;
I praise you with endless awe.

You are wrapped in light like a cloak;
you stretch out the sky like a curtain.

You make the clouds your chariot;
you walk on the wings of the wind.

You use the winds as your messengers,
thunder and lightening as your servants.

You look at the earth - it trembles;
you touch the hills and they smoke.

You laid the earth's foundations
so that they would never be destroyed.

You covered the land with
ocean; the waters rose over the mountains.

They fled at the sound of your voice;
you thundered and they ran away.

They rushed down into the valleys,
to the place you appointed for them.

You bounded them, so that they would never
return to inundate the earth.

You send streams into the valleys,
and they flow out among the hills.

All the animals drink from them;
the wild asses quench their thirst.

Beside them the birds of the sky dwell,
singing among the branches.

You water the hills from the sky;
by your care the whole earth is nourished.

You make grass grow for the cattle
and grains for the service of mankind,
to bring forth food from the earth
and bread that strengthens the body,
oil that makes the face shine,
and wine that gladdens the heart.

You plant the trees that grow tall
pines, and cedars of Lebanon,
where many birds build their nests,
and the stork on the topmost branches.

The mountains shelter the wild goats;
the cliffs are a shelter for the rock squirrels.

You created the moon to count months;
the sun knows when it must set.

You make darkness, it is night,
the forest animals emerge.

The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.

The sun rises, they withdraw,
and lie down together in their dens.

Humans go out to their labor
and work until it is evening.

How manifold are your creatures, Lord!
With wisdom you made them all;
the whole earth is filled with your riches.

Here is the sea in its vastness,
where innumerable creatures
live, fish both tiny and huge.

Here sharks swim, and the whale
that you created to play with.

All these depend on you
to give them food in due time.

You open your hands - they gather it:
you give it - they are filled with gladness.

You hide your face - they are stricken;
you take back their breath - they die
and return their bodies to the dust.

You send forth your breath - they are born,
and with them you replenish the earth.

Your grandeur will last forever;
eternally you rejoice in your works.

I will sing to you every moment;
I will praise you with every breath.

May all selfishness disappear from me,
and may you always shine from my heart.

~Psalm 104

We Give-Away

We give-away our thanks to the earth
which gives us our home.

We give-away our thanks to the rivers and lakes
with give-away their water.

We give-away our thanks to the trees
which give-away fruit and nuts.

We give-away our thanks to the wind
which brings rain to water the plants.

We give-away our thanks to the sun
who gives-away warmth and light.

All beings on earth:
the trees, the animals, the wind and the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance.

We give-away our promise
to begin to learn how to stay in balance with all the earth.

~Dolores La Chapelle

This body

Here in this body are the sacred rivers, here are the sun and moon, as well as all the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.

~Saraha Doha

Sacred and Secret

I can tell you there is no imperfection. God, the Infinite, overwhelms the finite universe. What a rare and beautiful world! The world is sacred and secret. Sacred is secret. Secret is sacred.

~Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Out of his heart

Out of his heart God shall not pass

His image stamped is on every grass.

~W. H. Hudson

Gentle Goddess

Gentle Goddess,
who never asks for anything at all,
and gives us everything we have,
thank you for this sweet water,
and your fragrance.

~Lew Welch