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Orange Rewind City

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:44:34 -0800

........lovely...

Metta

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:10:42 -0800

Metta means loving-kindness.

THE METTA SUTTA
The Buddha's Teaching on Loving-kindness

This is what should be done

By one who is skilled in goodness,

And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright,

Straightforward and gentle in speech.

Humble and not conceited,

Contented and easily satisfied.

Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,

Not proud and demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing

That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,

May all beings be at ease.

Whatever living beings there may be;

Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small, The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,

Those born and to-be-born,

May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will

Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life

Her child, her only child,

So with a boundless heart

Should one cherish all living beings:

Radiating kindness over the entire world

Spreading upwards to the skies,

And downwards to the depths;

Outwards and unbounded,

Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down

Free from drowsiness,

One should sustain this recollection.

This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,

The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,

Being freed from all sense desires,

Is not born again into this world.

Shambhala Sun - Turn Your Thinking Upside Down

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:03:37 -0800

Turn Your Thinking Upside Down, Pema Chödrön

If there are whole parts of yourself that you are always running from, that you even feel justified in running from, then you’re going to run from anything that brings you into contact with your feelings of insecurity.

And have you noticed how often these parts of ourselves get touched? The closer you get to a situation or a person, the more these feelings arise. Often when you’re in a relationship it starts off great, but when it gets intimate and begins to bring out your neurosis, you just want to get out of there.

So I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away. if you want to enter into life, enter into genuine relationships with other people, with animals, with the world situation, you’re definitely going to have the experience of feeling provoked, of getting hooked, of shenpa. You’re not just going to feel bliss. The message is that when those feelings emerge, this is not a failure. You can cruise through life not letting anything touch you, but if you really want to live fully,This is the chance to cultivate maitri, unconditional friendliness toward your perfect and imperfect self.

*

Wonderful article, please read the rest of it at the link.

Onexposure - 1x.com - Photo: woman by Ursula I Abresch

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:37:00 -0700

Beauty

by Partaw Naderi

Your voice is like a girl
from the farthest green village

whose tall and graceful frame
is known to the pine trees on the mountains

Your voice is like a girl
who, at dusk,

will bathe in the clear springs of heaven
beneath the parasol of the moon

who, at dawn,
bears home a jar of pure light

who will drink sip by sip
from the river of the sun

Your voice is like a girl
from the farthest green village

who wears an anklet
forged from the songs of a brook

who wears an earring
spun from the whispering rain

who wears a necklace
woven from the silk of a waterfall

all of which grace the garden of the sun
with their many-coloured blossoms of love -

and you
are as beautiful as your voice

September, 1994

The final translated version of the poem is by Sarah Maguire

Poet Gagan Gill - Poetry Translation Centre

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:15:57 -0700

I am in love with this woman's strength and the courage that fills her heart. Her poetry comes from that deep place, and it takes me there in an instant as I read her words.

Gagan Gill

Is a poet from India who writes in Hindi.
Gagan Gill was born in 1959 in Delhi. She had an extremely successful career as a journalist but chose to sacrifice the journalist for the poet in her in order to secure the 'long periods of silence in her everyday life' which she considered necessary to remain 'truly connected to words'.
One can write a lengthy list of Gagan's achievements: the languages into which her books have been translated the prestigious literary prizes she has been awarded but I won't bore you with that. It's not Gagan's fame which has attracted me to her poetry but the intensity the poignancy of her verses. She writes about pain without any sentimentality or gushiness. Her poems are understated deceptively simple occasionally prosaic full of repetitions and yet extremely carefully crafted. She combines stark images with rare expressiveness: expressiveness composed of silences gaps absences disruptions of pulsional pressure which goes beyond language.

Lucy Rosenstein

*
Every Love

When it arrives on your doorstep, the first thing every love
asks is: can you jump from the window for me? Can you stab
your heart for me? Every love asks this: can you fly with me,
with only the stumps of your arms?

When love arrives on your doorstep, it will not leave soon.
It has to go to some mountain or valley. To an ocean or river.
It comes to your house out of the blue, and wants to know if
you will come along to drown with it or not.

Every love gives you enough time to die for it.

Working with Pain | Tricycle Magazine

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:46:17 -0700

A GUIDED MEDITATION: Bringing Lovingkindness and Compassion into Areas of Pain

Allow your eyes to close gently.

Center attention on the breathing.

Move awareness now to a part of the body where there

is pain and discomfort.

Rest there.

Be aware of any sensations that might be there.

Allow whatever you find to be okay.

No fight.

No struggle.

Be with the truth, with acceptance.

Continue attending to the breath for a while. If possible, breathe into and through the pain, as if this were actually the place where the breath enters and leaves the body.

Direct the following phrases quietly to the area of pain (or use your own meaningful phrases). Allow the words to echo within you.

"I welcome you into my heart." "I accept you."
"I care about this pain."
"I hold you deep in my heart."
"I accept what is happening right now." "May I be free from fear."
"May I be happy, just where I am."
"May I be peaceful with what is happening."

You may lay your hands gently on the area of discomfort.

Allow feelings of lovingkindness and compassion to flow through the body. If there are no feelings of compassion, that is okay, also.

Continue repeating the phrases.

End by returning to the breathing for a while.

Onexposure - 1x.com - jimmy hoffman. Photo overview.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:56:33 -0700

So Fairy-like...love Dragonflies

glbtq && social sciences && China

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:47:12 -0700

A well-written and truly fascinating article about Homosexuality in China throughout the history.

"Some aspects of Chinese thought before the tenth century C. E. account for traditional, tolerant attitudes toward male-male love and sapphism. These ways of loving were well integrated into Chinese values before Buddhism influenced Chinese thought after the fourth century C. E. and before the intrusion of Western bourgeois thinking beginning with the May the Fourth movement (1919)."

"Chinese morality was not based on religious taboos, but was founded on ideals of temperance, personal cultivation, and virtues such as benevolence, justice, urbanity, wisdom, and trust. The ancient Chinese did not regard sensuality as shameful, and they would have thought the regulation of erotic practices by the state as bizarre. Even a concept of sexual orientation would have seemed foreign to them. After having fulfilled the obligation of siring male heirs for the clan, males were free to pursue their own erotic paths. Same-sex eroticism was not considered a moral problem in itself. "

Continue reading on the page, it's well worth it.

Onexposure - 1x.com - Photo: golden light by Norbert Maier

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:49:17 -0700

simply amazing

Onexposure - 1x.com - Photo: Show me ... by Olivier LAMBOLEZ

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:10:49 -0700

Sweet...