The Arahant - Ajahn Amaro


The lone remaining wall 
Of a long-since fallen house, 
No more inside, no more outside, 
No more trespass for the mouse; 
Where a doorway and five windows 
Allow the winds to pass 
Unobstructed as they billow 
Through the woods, across the grass; 
Where sun and moon and starshine 
Illuminate the scene 
For all the folk that pass it by 
When wandering in the green. 
"I wonder who the person was 
Who built this mighty house, 
That's now a bramble garden 
And a home for grub and louse?" 
A broken ridge and rafters smashed 
Lie strewn across the floor 
And all that stands, quite ownerless, 
Five windows and a door. 


 –      Chithurst, 1983
  
Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW TO BE FREE FROM DESIRE AND FEAR - PART 23

With the knowledge of the True Self or Self-Realization, all desires and fears drop away. Who would desire? Who would fear? For the seeker, still lost in the dream of self-identity, desires and fears are like constant waves in the ocean, providing a stream of experiences - good and bad.  The series will share pointers on how to observe these desires and fears as they arise, how to rest in your own nature, and thereby break the hypnotic spell of self-identification . Pleasure depends on things, happiness does not. As long as we believe that we need things to make us happy, we shall also believe that in their absence we must be miserable. Mind always shapes itself according to its beliefs. Hence the importance of convincing oneself that one need not be prodded into happiness; that, on the contrary, pleasure is a distraction and a nuisance, for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have and do things to be happy, when in reality it is just the opposite. Bu
Read more

THE EMPTINESS OF THE RED GERANIUM

Here – sitting outside with the laptop – there is the view of a natural wilderness – the huge oak tree, fields of nasturtium leaves, geraniums with deep pink flowers, a white butterfly, the smell of jasmine on the creeper nearby, two white arum lilies, overhead the blue sky and drifting white clouds, the sounds of unseen birds, wasps building nests in the eaves, a dog soaking up the sun, the call of the Egyptian geese.  How is it possible to describe the inexplicable emptiness of this amazing array? Everything is simply this unfathomable emptiness – ONE – but expressed with this veneer of solidity that appears different – the red geranium, the brown dog. Ha!  The gaze can look for hours on this scene marveling at this dance of nothing showing itself in a thousand different ways. What Am I? The question is answered in everything – the NOTHING or the emptiness that is recognized points directly to this unfathomable mystery. I am THAT; I AM.   Everything happens naturally here. The
Read more

RESTING IN THE SENSE "I AM" - PART 16

This series is a collection of pointers or teaching aphorisms by Nisargadatta Maharaj on resting in the sense “I Am” without attributes. Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words. In the body there is already that self-accomplished principle ‘I am’ which is witnessing mind and body, it is neither mind, body nor the vital breath. It has to be gradually realized that this principle has no form; it is subtler than the mind. By mistake the ‘I am’ accepts the body as itself, it is an exclusive principle apart from the body, mind and vital breath.  –       Nisargadatta Maharaj Notes on this preliminary stage can be found  here .
Read more