Kurashiki

Gion Temple Japan - entryway

Tamil kolam and blessing hand

Antelope Canyon

Sri Yantra

Veve Gede

Suzanne Wenger's Oshun Yoruba Temple

Bali prayer

Sangre de Cristo mountains

YANTRA

keep the goddess

"Keep your dream mind strong. Keep the goddess of the dream mind strong in your heart. Then the adepts can keep their link with you intact. Remember her always. Live your lives as your goddess dictates. Dark times cannot be stopped. This is just the flow of time. As the cosmos ages, all realms, space-times, and the things in them will be affected. It is all in the scheme of things of Mother Kali. The lower one's self-identity is, the more that person will be pulled toward darker forces. But if you merge your mind in the goddess, the astral being within you will be taken care of." 

Dhyanalinga

The Fat Lady

How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose?

gayitri

Om bhur bhuvah suvaha; 

Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhimahi; 

dhiyo yonaha pracodayaat

Sadhguru

"We don't need more Hindus, more Christians, more Muslims;

we need more Buddhas, more Jesuses, more Krishnas--the

real ones. Live ones. That is when true change will happen.

And that potential is innate in every human being."

"If one is totally rooted in the physical nature, one

identifies with limited things and feels insufficient. As a

result, you begin to accumulate material things. It is the

nature of the mind to accumulate. When the mind is

gross, it wants to accumulate material things. When it

becomes a little more evolved, it wants to accumulate

knowledge. When our emotions become dominant, the

mind wants to accumulate people. The mind is a gatherer,

always wanting to gather something. When a person

starts thinking or believing he is on a spiritual path, then

the mind starts accumulating so-called spiritual wisdom.

Maybe it starts gathering the guru's words. But whatever

it gathers, until one goes beyond the need to accumulate,

whether it is food or things or people or knowledge or

wisdom, it does not matter what you accumulate; the

need to accumulate means there is an insufficiency. This

insufficiency, this feeling of being insufficient, has

entered into this unbounded being only because some-

where you got identified with limited things that you are

not.

If one brings sufficient awareness, and above all, a

constant sadhana (spiritual practice) into his or her life,

the vessel slowly becomes totally empty. Awareness emp-

ties the vessel. Sadhana cleanses the vessel. When these

two aspects are sustained for a sufficiently long period,

then your vessel becomes empty. Only when this empti-

ness arises does grace descend upon you. Without grace

nobody really gets anywhere. For you to experience grace

you have to become empty; your vessel has to become

totally empty.

"If you do not experience the grace, if you do not

make yourself receptive to the grace, if you do not empty

yourself in order to bear the grace, then the spiritual path

is something that needs to be pursued for many, many

lifetimes. But if you become empty enough for grace to

descend, the ultimate nature is not far away. It is here to

be experienced. It is here to be realized. It is going 

beyond all dimensions of existence into the exalted state.

It is not tomorrow; not another lifetime. It becomes a

living reality," he said.  

Mountains

Shinto Shrine Entrance Walk (Sandō)

Shinto New Years

A heart nurtured in stillness

A mind fed on words such as heaven, earth, dew, essence, cinnabar, moonlight, stillness, jade, pearl, cedar, and winter-plum is likely to have a serenity not to be found in minds ringing with the vocabulary of the present age - computer, tractor, jumbo jet, speedball, pop, dollar, liquidation, napalm, overkill! Who would thrill at the prospect of rocketing to the moon in a billion-dollar spacecraft if he knew how to summon a shimmering gold and scarlet dragon at any time of the day or night and soar among the stars ? And how full of wisdom is a philosophy that draws man away from the rat-race, from the tooth-and-claw struggle for status, wealth, power or fame, to live frugally and contentedly in harmony with nature, reaching effortlessly for the tranquillity that flowers in a heart nurtured in stillness!

From: Taoism: The Road to Immortality - John Blofeld

Taoism - The End

The End

With the coming of the red tide, the recluses were driven from their

hermitages back into the world of dust to earn their living as best

they could. Rather than describe what little I know from hearsay of

this tragic dispersal of the Yellow Emperor's progeny after wellnigh

five thousand years, I shall relate a curious little story which reveals 

that, for two of them, the end was happy. It was told me by a young

lady in Singapore who had returned there from her university in

China at a time when the communists were completing their take-

over of the southern provinces.

The university, as you know, lies at no great distance from some

hills where there are many temples. While on a sightseeing trip

there, I fell under the spell of a very old Taoist and often used to

visit him at weekends. The red cadres who descended on the

province just before I left made no secret of what was in store for

hermits and for Buddhist monks and nuns.

'What will you do, Master?' I asked, weeping a little at the

thought of that poor old man being driven from where he had

lived happily almost half his life.

'You are sorry for me, Yi,' he answered. 'Why ? Wouldn't it be

laughable if a lifelong disciple of Lord Lao were to be afraid of

change ? I am too old to be put to work and these people care too

much for the look of things to let me starve in a neighbourhood

where so many poor folk have come to love me.'

'How will you live, Master ?'

'Stop weeping, little girl, and I will tell you. At my age, I can

see into the future much better than I can recall the past. When

they drive away the others, they will let us old and useless ones

stay on, living as best we can on what we manage to grow in our

vegetable garden. From kindness ? Not exactly. This place is too

poor and too remote for them to be in a hurry to use it for some

other purpose; and, as three or four of us are so very old, they will

look to death to relieve them of the problem of our disposal -

rightly so. The Vasty Gate Recluse and I propose to leave this

world together on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival next

year. No, no! Be calm, little Yi. Do you suppose we shall hang

ourselves or swallow a liang or two of opium ? Preposterous! With

wine, incense and other things we intend to hide away, we shall

perform the festal rites as usual, walk up to the terrace to admire

the autumn moon and there sit down. Passing in meditation to the

very source of yin and yang, we shall plunge together into the

ocean of the void.'

Though he laughed so merrily, I burst out weeping again. Then

suddenly he said: 'Little Yi, are there herons in Singapore ?'

'Herons, Master? I - I - no, no, there are not.'

'Good. Rather than have you sad for us, we shall gladly postpone

eternal bliss for an hour or so. Be sure to remember what I am

going to say. Next year, at the hour of the boar on the night of the

festival, go to a high place and watch the sky just above the ocean

that surrounds your island. I have a great desire to see the sea by

moonlight, never having seen it in all my years. There we shall

meet and bid each other a joyous farewell.'

Thinking he was trying to comfort me, I nodded, but did not

take the words seriously. Then we said goodbye.

The following year when the festival came round, my father

took me to dine with my fiance's family in a flat overlooking the

sea. Although wishing in a sentimental way to do as the old man

had asked, I easily allowed myself to be dissuaded by my father's

'You cannot just walk out of a dinner party and go off into the

night by yourself. Whatever would the Huangs think of a girl who

behaved like that ?'

The meal started late and was a noisy, long-drawn-out affair.

We were still at table when the clock struck ten [mid-point of the

hour of the boar]. Suddenly I felt strangely dizzy and was advised

to go out on to the balcony of the flat, which faced directly on to 

the sea-shore. It was a lovely clear night with a brilliant moon

shining down upon small foam-capped waves. Presently two of

these foam-caps rose strangely into the air and sailed rapidly

towards me. I put this down to my giddiness until, all of a sudden,

I realised that what I had taken for foam-caps were two large

white herons! Flying very low, they came almost up to where I was

sitting and flew round and round uttering what I can only call very

happy-sounding cries, long-sustained and beautiful. While this

was happening, a sensation of extraordinary bliss made me tingle

from head to toe. Instantly I knew that my Taoist friend had not

only kept his promise, but had even touched me with something

of the ecstasy that would be his for ever in his union with the void!