cobotis

[cobotis]

“Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat. My shoulder is against yours. you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals: not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables. When you really look for me, you will see me instantly — you will find me in the tiniest house of time. Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath.”

— Kabir (via cobotis)

[cobotis]

It was then that the fox appeared. “Good morning,” said the fox. “Good morning,” the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing. “I am right here,” the voice said, “under the apple tree.” Fox “Who are you?” asked the little prince, and added, “You are very pretty to look at.” “I am a fox,” the fox said. “Come and play with me,” proposed the little prince. “I am so unhappy.” “I cannot play with you,” the fox said. “I am not tamed.” “Ah! Please excuse me,” said the little prince. But, after some thought, he added: “What does that mean–‘tame’?” “You do not live here,” said the fox. “What is it that you are looking for?” “I am looking for men,” said the little prince. “What does that mean–'tame’?” “Men,” said the fox. “They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?” “No,” said the little prince. “I am looking for friends. What does that mean–'tame’?” “It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. It means to establish ties.“ ”'To establish ties’?“ "Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…” “I am beginning to understand,” said the little prince. “There is a flower… I think that she has tamed me…” “It is possible,” said the fox. “On the Earth one sees all sorts of things.” “Oh, but this is not on the Earth!” said the little prince. The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious. “On another planet?” “Yes.” “Are there hunters on that planet?” “No.” “Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?” “No.” “Nothing is perfect,” sighed the fox. But he came back to his idea. “My life is very monotonous,” the fox said. “I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad… But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…” The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time… “Please–tame me!” he said. “I want to, very much,” the little prince replied. “But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.” “One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things already made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me…” “What must I do, to tame you?” asked the little prince. “You must be very patient,” replied the fox. “First you will sit down at a little distance from me–like that–in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day…” The next day the little prince came back. “It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox. “If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you… One must observe the proper rites…” “What is a rite?” asked the little prince. “Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all.” So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near– “Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.” “It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you…” “Yes, that is so,” said the fox. “But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince. “Yes, that is so,” said the fox. “Then it has done you no good at all!” “It has done me good,” said the fox, “because of the color of the wheat fields.” And then he added: “Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.” The little prince went away, to look again at the roses. “You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world.” And the roses were very much embarassed. “You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passer-by would think that my rose looked just like you–the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose… And he went back to meet the fox. "Goodbye,” he said. “Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” “It is the time I have wasted for my rose–” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember. “Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…” “I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

[cobotis]

And why is perfect wisdom beyond thinking? It is because all of its points of reference cannot be thought about but can be apprehended. One is the disappearance of the self-conscious person into pure presence. Another is the simple awakening into to reality. Another is the knowing of the essenceless essence of all things of the world. And another is the luminous knowledge that knows without a knower. None of these points can sustain ordinary thought because they are not objects or subjects. They can’t be imagined or touched or approached in any way by any ordinary mode of consciousness. Therefore they are beyond thought.

~ Hindu Prince Siddhārtha Gautama (Buddha)

#siddhartha gautama #buddha #sri nisargadatta maharaj #pure awareness #consciousness #self knowledge

[cobotis]

We have two main instruments: the mind and the heart. The mind finds it difficult to be happy, precisely because the mind consciously enjoys the sense of separativity. It is always judging and doubting the reality in others. This is the human mind, the ordinary physical mind, the earth-bound mind. But we also have the aspiring heart, the loving heart. This loving heart is free from insecurity, for it has already established its oneness with the rest of the world.

~ Sri Chinmoy

#rumi #sri chinmoy #heart #ego #mind

[cobotis]

Two people who devote themselves in a responsible fashion to each other will accomplish things that neither would be able to do alone… One who knowingly enters into a relationship just to avoid being alone, risks losing his self-esteem. One may need to wait a long time for the right person to present himself. Inappropriate liaisons must be avoided. The wait will be worth the while… Do not be coerced into a union that is shallow or superficial. Such irreverence will not benefit anyone…

~ From The I Ching

#shams tabrizi #i ching #relationship #love is love

[cobotis]

So, if you’re too tired to speak, sit next to me, because I, too, am fluent in silence…

~ R. Arnold

—————-

Nevermind where you are sitting, our silence is the same…

#persian proverb #r. arnold #heart to heart

[cobotis]

As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world

~ Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta (Buddha)

#buddha #presence #awareness #self knowledge #meditational

[cobotis]

Whisper to me lovingly, for tenderness is rare in this world. It is difficult to convey the magic of love to those who are made of dust...

~ Rumi

#rumi #in love with love

[cobotis]

Self-effort is of two categories. ..that of past (lives); and that of present (life). Of these two, whichever is stronger; that will win... Therefore one should apply diligently (to his duties) and employ his skill in such a way, as his “to-day” may overcome the past (and future!)...

~ Anon (The Seers )

#kalidasa #live now #awareness #presence

[cobotis]

Idiot compassion

Compassion is wishing that beings be free from suffering. Idiot compassion is avoiding conflict, letting people walk all over you, not giving people a hard time when actually they need to be given a hard time… It’s “being nice,” or “being good.” It’s not compassion at all… It ends up causing us pain, and it ends up causing others pain. The more someone self-consciously thinks of themselves as compassionate, the more likely it is that they’re a compassionate idiot… Idiot compassion lacks both courage and intelligence. Idiot compassion lacks courage because “being nice” and “being good” are held to be the most important qualities we can manifest, and so we’re afraid to do anything that might make us unpopular… It’s not uncommon to see a related phenomenon, “idiot kindness,” in parents’ interactions with their children. Some parents want to be their children’s best friends, and don’t want to be unpopular. And so they indulge their children, giving them what they want and never disciplining them, or using very inconsistent discipline… But it’s not a parent’s job to be a BFF for their children. It’s their job to help bring their children up to be responsible adults. Idiot compassion lacks intelligence, because it doesn’t lead to happiness or to freedom from suffering… If someone cheats you, and you immediately decide to trust them again, you’re not helping either them or you. The person who cheats you is unlikely to have a sudden conversion to being conscientious… Any easy promise they make to change their ways is likely to be just another form of cheating. And so by letting them off the hook you don’t help them. In fact you become an enabler of their dysfunctional behaviour, and thus you’re helping them to suffer more in the future, when their unskillful behavior catches up with them. And you end up suffering as well… At some point either resentment against the cheat, or against themselves, is going to kick in. True compassion does not shy away from causing pain when necessary. Causing pain is not the same as causing harm, by the way.

~ Taken from internet article (Anon)

[cobotis]

THUS I HEARD IT SAID… The one infinite consciousness alone shines in all names and forms… The self ignorantly imagines an egotistic existence even as if gold forgetting its goldness might think it is a ring and weep and wail “Alas, I have lost my goldness!” Without real existence is this illusory notion of egotism. This egotism does not exist in the infinite self… In the infinite self there is no creator, no creation, no worlds, no heaven, no humans, no demons, no bodies, no elements, no time, no existence and no destruction, no ‘you’, no ‘I’, no self, no this, no that, no truth, no falsehood, no notion of diversity, no contemplation and no enjoyment… Whatever is, and is known as the universe, is that supreme peace…. (completeness) There is no beginning, no middle and no end: all is all at all times, beyond the comprehension of the mind and the speech… There is no creation. The infinite has never abandoned its infinity. ‘That’ has never become ‘this’… It is like the ocean, but without ocean’s movement. It is self-luminous like the sun, but without activity… In ignorance, the supreme being is viewed as the object, as the world… Even as space exists in space, one with space, even so what appears to be the creation is Brahman (pure-consciousness) existing in Brahman, as Brahman… The notions of far and near, of diversity, of here and there are as valid as the distance between two objects in a mirror in which a whole city is reflected… ~ Yoga Vasistha

[cobotis]

Luluby for the Seeker

Rest weary one Lay your head down… You have traveled far. I have no clever words for you. No system to teach. No image to maintain. You’ll find no philosophy here. No answers to your many questions. I offer only presence. Sanctuary. A bed. A meal. A small kindness to repay yours. I am no better than you. My guru is life. My liniage is love I do not separate the unenlightened From the enlightened. I teach nothing I do not live. I quote not from books but from the Cracks in the heart. I see your fragility yet I see your imense power. You are not broken Don’t let them tell you You are broken. We met long ago when dust Settled to form worlds. I think I saw your courage then. Close your eyes I will keep watch tonight…

~ Jeff Foster

[cobotis]

People create their own questions because they're afraid to look straight... All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don't sit looking at it —walk...

~ Ayn Rand

#zen saying #ayn rand #self inquiry

[cobotis]

No effort is ever wasted, although some pay dividends later than you think. Do not imagine that you "wasted your time" because something didn't turn out right. There is no such thing as "waste" in the Universe. Everything - everything - yields benefit. It's true. And your life will show you this. So don't decry the "effort that failed." All things lead to your highest good. You just may not know it yet.

~ Neale Donald Walsch

#confucius #neale donald walsch #everything is best #its all good

[cobotis]

I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another... In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking...

~ Og Mandino

#beau taplin #og mandino #practice #sincere seeker

[cobotis]

All negative actions are motivated by delusions, which in turn arise from self-cherishing. First we develop the thought, “I am important,” and because of this we feel that the fulfillment of our wishes is of paramount importance. Then we desire for our self that which appears attractive and develop attachment, we feel aversion for that which appears unattractive and develop anger, and we feel indifference toward that which appears neutral and develop ignorance. From these delusions all other delusions arise...

~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

#ts eliot #geshe kelsang gyatso #self importance #ego

[cobotis]

When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace; nothing real, nothing absent. Not holding on to reality, not getting stuck in the void, you are neither holy nor wise, just an ordinary fellow who has completed one's work…

~ P'ang Yün (龐蘊 Hõ Un)

#zen proverb #pang yun #self realization #enlightenment