The solution to foolish patterns of thinking

DS Poem:

The solution to foolish

patterns of thinking

is to stop thinking.

Some call it meditation

but Zen is a shorter word

than meditation

Enlightenment has been described

as just like ordinary life

but without Mind.

My experience is that mind

is like the weeds

You can get rid of it

but it quickly grows back.

Enlightenment is like

growing Flowers

You cultivate them

Then hoe the weeds.

Perhaps it’s like

being a gardener.

DS Poem

April 5, 2018

Book Two

The Dust of annihilation

Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj: contributes:

“Ah, the flower she thought useless and tossed away -

Someone should ask of me that flower’s worth.

Now it lies blighted by autumn, but O heart, for how long?

Tomorrow this ruined garden will rival paradise.

Poem 59, page 101

Poems of the Spiritual Path

Love’ Last Madness

Rumi’s comment:

The spirit sets the intellect’s hands free

And it resolves its problems easily.

Senses and thoughts are like weeds that flow past

On the pure water’s surface where they’re cast:

Intellect’s hand sweeps those weeds to the side,

So wisdom can see water which they hide.

The weeds are on the stream as a thick layer-

Once they’re swept off, water can be seen there.

If God did not free intellect’s strong hand,

Due to desire the weeds would then expand,

Covering the water up - then all the while

Intellect would keep weeping and lust smile;

Once piety has chained desire’s two hands

God then sets free the intellect’s strong hands.

The Masnavi, Book Three, lines 1826-1835 page 113

Jawid Mojaddedi

“Thus, an ancient teacher said, ‘Enlightenment is but the same as non enlightenment, without mind and without dharmas’ page 127

Zen’s Chinese Heritage by Andy Ferguson