The Mirror

by 10k films on February 13th, 2010

By Mahmud Shabistari (1250-1340)

Know the world from end to end is a mirror;
in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.
If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water,
from it will flow a hundred clear oceans;
if you look intently at each speck of dust,
in it you will see a thousand beings.
A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;
in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.
In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.
Within a millet-seed a world exists.
In an insects wing is an ocean of life.
A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye.
The core at the center of the heart is small,
yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.

– from “The Secret Rose Garden”

Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies

by 10k films on December 16th, 2009

Man must be what he does not want to lose.
The sage is what he has. If you do not want to lose the fine pearl of heaven you must be it yourself.
-Angelus Silesius

If you want a glory that does not vanish, then do not glory in a glory that vanishes.
-Ahmad  Ibn ‘Ata Allah al-Iskandari

I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
-Saint John of the Cross

So Thou be sweet, let life run bitterly;
So Thou be pleased, let men be wroth with me;
So all things flourish between me and Thee,
Let all between me and the world in ruins be.
-Abu Firas al-Hamdani

Listening to the night rain on my roof

by 10k films on December 8th, 2009

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

Taigu Ryokan

Our revels now are ended

by 10k films on October 25th, 2009

Prospero:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest Act 4, scene 1, 148–158

Japanese Death Poems

by 10k films on October 2nd, 2009

All doctrines split asunder
Zen teaching cast away—
Four score years and one.
The sky now cracks and falls
The earth cleaves open—
In the heart of the fire
Lies a hidden spring.
—Giun, Japanese Death Poems

Seventy-one!
How did
a dewdrop last?
—Kigen, Japanese Death Poems

Water

by 10k films on August 5th, 2009

The best way to live
is to be like water
For water benefits all things
and goes against none of them
It provides for all people
And even cleanses those places
A man is loath to go
In this way it is just like Tao
Live in accordance with the nature of things…
One who lives in accordance with nature
Does not go against the way of things
He moves in harmony with the present moment
Always knowing the truth of just what to do

-Tao Te Ching, Verse 8

the little shadow that runs across the grass…

by 10k films on June 4th, 2009

“What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo the winter time. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

- Chief Isapwo Muksika Crowfoot

Poem by T’ao Ch’ien

by 10k films on June 4th, 2009

Untitled

Great men want the four seas. I’ve only
wanted old age to come unnoticed like

this. My family together in one place,
kids and grandkids looking after each

other still, I linger out mornings over
koto and wine, the winejar never dry.

My clothes a shambles, exhausting every
joy, I sleep late now, and nod off early.

Why live like all those fine men, hearts
stuffed with fire and ice to the end,

their hundred-year return to the grave
nothing but an empty path of ambition?

T’ao Ch’ien