From Parabola:
ARCS
Photograph: His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's broad smile, Seattle, Washington, USA 1976. Author: Wonderlane.
"I am now seventy-eight years old, and have seen so many, many things during my lifetime.
So many young people have died, so many people of my own age have died, so many old people have died. So many people that were high up have become low. So many people that were low have risen to be high up. So many countries have changed. There has been so much turmoil and tragedy, so many wars, and plagues, so much terrible destruction all over the world.
And yet all these changes are no more real than a dream. When you look deeply, you realize there is nothing that is permanent and constant, nothing, not even the tiniest hair on your body. And this is not a theory, but something you can actually come to know and realize and see, even, with your very own eyes."
—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Courtesy of Rigpa: Glimpse of the Day, March 2nd, 2011
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Krishna displays his Vishvarupa (Universal Form) to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.Thomas Merton "Reclining Buddha," Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, 1968.
"You grieve for those who should not be grieved for. The wise grieve neither for the living nor the dead. Never at any time was I not, nor thou, nor these princes of men. Nor shall we cease to be hereafter. The unreal has no being. The real never ceases to be."
—Krishna to Arjuna
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photograph: Auguste Mestral, "Virgin and Child," Notre Dame, Paris ca. 1851.
Seth: You have such vivid Christian imagery in many of your songs, and much of it is contrasted with the selfishness of the “modern” individual. I was wondering what’s your take on the state of Christianity today?
Leonard Cohen: Dear Seth, I don’t really have a ‘take on the state of Christianity.’ But when I read your question, this answer came to mind:
“As I understand it, into the heart of every Christian, Christ comes, and Christ goes. When, by his Grace, the landscape of the heart becomes vast and deep and limitless, then Christ makes His abode in that graceful heart, and His Will prevails. The experience is recognized as Peace. In the absence of this experience much activity arises, divisions of every sort. Outside of the organizational enterprise, which some applaud and some mistrust, stands the figure of Jesus, nailed to a human predicament, summoning the heart to comprehend its own suffering by dissolving itself in a radical confession of hospitality.”
The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability
to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of
others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside"
their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves
their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough
to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of
our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering,
a feeling of compassion is born in us.
Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."
—from a transcription of a fan chat with Leonard Cohen, 2001.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photograph: Paul Burty Haviland , "Young woman sitting (Florence Peterson)," Cyanotype, between 1898 and 1916.
"Expectation is the root of all heartache” — Shakespeare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Painting: Johann Heinrich Füssli, “The Silence," Oil on canvas, 1799-1801.
Good People
From the kindness of my parents
I suppose it was that I held
that belief about suffering
imagining that if only
it could come to the attention
of any person with normal
feelings certainly anyone
literate who might have gone
to college they would comprehend
pain when it went on before them
and would do something about it
whenever they saw it happen
in the time of pain the present
they would try to stop the bleeding
for example with their own hands
but it escapes their attention
or there may be reasons for it
the victims under the blankets
the meat counters the maimed children
the animals the animals
staring from the end of the world
—W.S. Merwin
ARCS
Photograph: His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's broad smile, Seattle, Washington, USA 1976. Author: Wonderlane.
"I am now seventy-eight years old, and have seen so many, many things during my lifetime.
So many young people have died, so many people of my own age have died, so many old people have died. So many people that were high up have become low. So many people that were low have risen to be high up. So many countries have changed. There has been so much turmoil and tragedy, so many wars, and plagues, so much terrible destruction all over the world.
And yet all these changes are no more real than a dream. When you look deeply, you realize there is nothing that is permanent and constant, nothing, not even the tiniest hair on your body. And this is not a theory, but something you can actually come to know and realize and see, even, with your very own eyes."
—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Courtesy of Rigpa: Glimpse of the Day, March 2nd, 2011
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Krishna displays his Vishvarupa (Universal Form) to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.Thomas Merton "Reclining Buddha," Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, 1968.
"You grieve for those who should not be grieved for. The wise grieve neither for the living nor the dead. Never at any time was I not, nor thou, nor these princes of men. Nor shall we cease to be hereafter. The unreal has no being. The real never ceases to be."
—Krishna to Arjuna
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photograph: Auguste Mestral, "Virgin and Child," Notre Dame, Paris ca. 1851.
Seth: You have such vivid Christian imagery in many of your songs, and much of it is contrasted with the selfishness of the “modern” individual. I was wondering what’s your take on the state of Christianity today?
Leonard Cohen: Dear Seth, I don’t really have a ‘take on the state of Christianity.’ But when I read your question, this answer came to mind:
“As I understand it, into the heart of every Christian, Christ comes, and Christ goes. When, by his Grace, the landscape of the heart becomes vast and deep and limitless, then Christ makes His abode in that graceful heart, and His Will prevails. The experience is recognized as Peace. In the absence of this experience much activity arises, divisions of every sort. Outside of the organizational enterprise, which some applaud and some mistrust, stands the figure of Jesus, nailed to a human predicament, summoning the heart to comprehend its own suffering by dissolving itself in a radical confession of hospitality.”
The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability
to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of
others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside"
their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves
their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough
to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of
our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering,
a feeling of compassion is born in us.
Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."
—from a transcription of a fan chat with Leonard Cohen, 2001.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photograph: Paul Burty Haviland , "Young woman sitting (Florence Peterson)," Cyanotype, between 1898 and 1916.
"Expectation is the root of all heartache” — Shakespeare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Painting: Johann Heinrich Füssli, “The Silence," Oil on canvas, 1799-1801.
Good People
From the kindness of my parents
I suppose it was that I held
that belief about suffering
imagining that if only
it could come to the attention
of any person with normal
feelings certainly anyone
literate who might have gone
to college they would comprehend
pain when it went on before them
and would do something about it
whenever they saw it happen
in the time of pain the present
they would try to stop the bleeding
for example with their own hands
but it escapes their attention
or there may be reasons for it
the victims under the blankets
the meat counters the maimed children
the animals the animals
staring from the end of the world
—W.S. Merwin
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