According to Buddha
Understand the nature of impurity. If your key is bent, the lock will not open.
***
Love Locks Statues, Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver BC ~ March 2021
According to Buddha
The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
***
book + feathers + sun ~ yesterday ~ Amiskwaciwâskahikan ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ ~ February 2021
According to Buddha
Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
***
in the woods of Golden BC. a couple of months ago ~ December 2020
According to Buddha
To stay with that shakiness—to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feelings of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path. Getting the knack of catching ourselves, of gently and compassionately catching ourselves is the path of the warrior. We catch ourselves one zillion times as once again, whether we like it or not, we harden into resentment, into a sense of relief, a sense of inspiration.
***
street a day ago ~ Etown – Amiskwaciwâskahikan ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ ~ December 2020
According to Buddha
The work of quieting our minds and opening our hearts prepares us to be able to act in the world in a way that doesn’t create more suffering. When we develop that stance, a perspective arises towards life that allows us to be effective actors on the stage of life. So that you and I become instruments of healing, instruments of peace, of love and wisdom.
***
a day ago or so ago ~ Whyte Avenue ~ Etown – Amiskwaciwâskahikan ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ ~ December 2020
According to Buddha
Along with the peach and the citrus, pomegranates are one of the “Three Blessed Fruits” of Buddhist tradition. The story goes that there was a powerful female demon (known as Hariti in India and Kishimo-jin or Karitei-mo in Japan) who kidnapped young children and feasted on them. The Buddha, however, managed to placate her ferocious desire by offering her pomegranates. Soothed by the Buddha’s compassion, she acquired a gentler nature and became the patron goddess of children. She is sometimes depicted holding a pomegranate in one hand a suckling a baby with the other.
***
Pomegranate (Punica granatum) ~ in my kitchen a day or so ago ~ Etown ~ November 2020
According to Buddha
So many times each day we support each other informally without ever becoming ‘helper’ or ‘helped.’ Perhaps we’re finding an article of clothing for a partner, cutting bread for one of the children, collecting the mail for the person at the next desk, holding the coat for someone at a restaurant.
***
boy and bird ~ George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary ~ October 2020
According to Buddha
Later never exists.
***
Rearguard Falls Provincial Park ~ Fraser River ~ October 2020
According to Buddha
When we see the beloved in each
person, it’s like walking through
a garden, watching flowers
bloom all around us.
***
sunflowers in my garden ~ September 2020
According to Buddha
Aging has its own beauty. It is a beautiful stage for doing inner work. You have a chance to not be so dependent on social approval. You can be a little more eccentric. You can be more alone. And you can examine loneliness and boredom instead of being afraid of them. There is such an art and a possibility of aging.
i’m going way past tomorrow
way past yesterday
i’m gonna go so far
’til my sense is lose
all trace of space and time
going so far ahead
’til there’s nothing left behind
***
back-allys ~ Etown ~ May 2020
