green by Barry A. Cotton

come nowcome l isten howwhen sin was naughtcreation pausedbeside still watersdr ank deeplyof itself. . . and s ta r ed lov ing l yinto solitude serenesweetly nurturing passions so deep. . . . . soprofoundthat allthe treesin Edenquiveredwith delightat the calmingof a heartso wi lds o f r e eand ‘uhthis thenis howa colorwas createdand greenfirst came to be

~ green beckons ~Green is a refreshingly tranquil profoundly serene sanctuary. Green evokes life: its beginning - it transcendence - its evolution.

Carbon manifests itself in green and humanity is a manifestation of carbon’s innate desire to organize itself in higher and higher levels of complexity. The story of green is interwoven in our DNA. We should listen to it. Especially now that so much green has been slashed and burnt by the poor struggling to grow enough food to stay alive. Ultimately, our addiction to cheap fossil fuels could turn green to grey.

What follows, however, is not about the environment.

Rather, simple reflections are presented about things that seize me: like - forests and trees - lakes and rivers - mountains and canyons in Colorado where I grew up and in Japan where I fell in love.

The collection spans puberty to maturity and mostly consists of simple longings, the need for intimacy and an ongoing practice of becoming intimate with something.

Finally, influences and inspirations collected over the years anchor my reflections in hope of keeping them ever green.

TOPICS TOUCHED ON IN THESE PAGES

1. LONGING - yearning, desiring, searching

2. INTIMACY - closeness, togetherness, union

3. REFLECTION - mirroring, recalling, musing

4. CONTEMPLATION - introspective reverie

5. EQUANIMITY - composed mindfulness

6. COMPASSION - empathetic solicitude

7. ABSORPTION - harmonized oneness3

green

rivers remind methat of all thingswater is most humblesoft and yieldinggently conformingit overcomes allabandoning highfor what is lowbecoming calmerceasing to floweven hereeven nowcreation ripples stillin blessed silencebeside still waters

•treesdrip dewon fallen leavesin early morning mist•assuddenlyfour paws pausein moving meditation•softlywith each stepdawn comes breathing in•gentlywith each stepdawn goes breathing out•slowlywith each stepcomes the Zendo cat

life fills timeintervals spannedwith attention paidmindfullyor notdoing what it is we dointimate intervalsmissed or noteach breathfollowed byanother or notif in anger endingin intimate intervalsfollow your breathenter life’s wombbe pregnant of yourselfand be blessedby one whosekingdom lies within

comes the Zendo cat

how vast

and deep

lies a beauty

serene and still

calmly breathing

knowing comes

from sitting

endlessly

yet how

vast can

this our

infinity be

when from

nowhere

tears well up

manifesting

gratitude

manifesting

love

how can wenot lovethosewho lovethe landin timeof emerging greenand mudafter rainat sunsetplace and timeforever meetas livesplay outlayer on layerso toothe deadadd depthto lifeheadinghome

black and blue

notes flow

like do jazz

born again

gospel ’n soul

hip hop ’n rap

Motown’s

bless’ud blast

from da past

soun’un good

ain’t it true

sho is fine

being black

being blue

black and blue

at game’s end

blocks thrown

tackles made

full of cortisone

black gladiators

on scholarships

work their w

ay

through Old M

iss

where desiring

a w

hite

Miss

got d

addy

beaten black

beaten blue

black and blue

socks dry ’nuff

to match n’fold

dryer’s buzzing

in the A.M.

too early to be

up buzzing on

French Roast

alone without

reading glasses

awake since three

unable to see

which is black

which is blue

mistyday’s passto see Japanwhile puddles fillat an Army Bus Stopin the pouring rainSPLASHpuddles emptysoaking our feetthe chaplain’s carjust passed by

still the silky smoothlake surface softly shimmersshining mirror likereflecting whimsical cloudsever forming ~ ever dissolvingever becoming a summer skywhen from the depthsthe very bowelsof the lakesurfacesthatrottenstump of a tree

hands softheld just so

see howthoughtfullyher arms flow

into a spinthen freeze

perfectly poisedholding position

gracefullywhile up on toes

flutteringever so gentlysuspended by

an invisible stringof rehearsalspressing fleshblackening toes

stretching struggling

to fully extendpracticingpushing

to finally performwaiting

in the wingsgently

flexing her shoeserenely anticipatingher upcoming cuewith nipples erectto innocently betraypassion coming

to life in a life

lived onlyfor ballet

15

ohhownaturalcoming softidle and lostin water melodyflowing so reverentlyslowly into your eyesfarther and fartherpenetrating deeplyyou smiled at meand I... uh lostmy uh... myuh... I

CANYONS

when cicada scream summer’s longest dayand rivers in the valley barely runseek out the cooling shade of canyonsdeep in hiding from the mountain sun

somewhere out west just east of the Rockiesthe moon is setting fastas morning comes to the front rangelovers sigh take wing a n d s o a rinto a vast Colorado sky

overriver rocksby cottonwoodsand meadow larksthe humble Saint Vrain flowsthrough Lyons, Hygiene and old Crane Hollowon its way to lovers lane and Longmont Colorado

ditching our bikes on its grassy bankswe entered the river’s shallow warmthand headed upstream -- against the flowslipping on moss slick rocks as we went

some of us got killed in Vietnamothers got high in San Franciscoyou got married and never left townI got drafted and never returned

to where the humble Saint Vrain flows

overriver rocksby cottonwoodsand meadow larksthe humble Saint Vrain flowsthrough Lyons, Hygiene and old Crane Hollow

tears wash dirt down sunbaked crevicesin Obaa’chan’s facenumbing & humblingcomes her mumblingNAMU AMIDA BUTSUNAMU AMIDA BUTSUNAMU AMIDA BUTSUnow that she knowsShoji was shot deadsomewhere in Italyhalfway up a mountainover ‘n over ‘n overObaa’chan mumblesNAMU AMIDA BUTSUnow that she knowsan American presidentdeeply regrets andsends condolencesnot for our relocationbut a sacrificial sonwho joined the 442ndto die a hero’s deathhigh on the mountaincalled Monte Cassinoburning incense every dayat the Butsudan twice a dayclutching his Silver StarObaa’chan kneels humblymurmuring tears awayin simple faith thatAMIDA BUTSU saves

Leaving Judson StreetBowen Street was there for youmoving right next door to Annieeating butter’n sugared grahamswe were all together confirmedby the church at 4th and Coffmangoing water ballooningthe last day of schoolcelebrating by getting wetplaying kick-the-can at nightthen sleeping out under the starsthrough Thompson Parkup on the second floorof a house on Prattcurious kids exploreclothing concealingdamp mystery was thereas winter snows grow deepthe weekend ski bus goesfrom valley to mountainand then returnstogether under anold army blanketwhile snugglingto keep warmhot breath comesof simple lovein gentle hushedheartfelt prayerof simple wordsfondly longing fora cheerleaderwho left us highin Boulder Coloradoas sure as God can only lovethis homecoming is for you

HOMECOMING

el corazón de Coloradocolorear de rojo el corazonel corazon de Coloradopor los ninos delos conquistadorespor los ninos deSangre de Cristopor los ninos deR i o A r r i b acolorear de rojo el corazonel corazon de Colorado

crisp white shirtslicked back hairjust out of Massat fifth and Mainhermano walksproud and alonethese güeros in a For dcruise Main drunk and boredlooking for something to doso now grandmashe weepsand poor Doloresshe sleeps wanting for the warmth of her man

aqui en nuestronuestro Coloradoel fue asesinadoy tan a bue l i taabuelita llora ahoray pobre DoloresDolores ella duermeextranando el calorel calor de su hombre

so color red the heartthe heart of Coloradofor the children ofthe conquistadorsfor the children ofthe Sangre de Cristofor the children ofthe upper Rio Grandecolor red the heartthe heart of Colorado

Then, as now, an infinitely loving presence. . .the calming of all fear. . . come closer to the light. . .at the end of the tunnel. . . in a death nearly experienced. . .ever forgiving. . .always comforting. . .ever nurturing. . .always caring. . .desiring only to love. . . totally. . . heart and soul and mind. . .unspoken caveat precludingdifferentiation of what is heart. . .what is soul. . . what is mind. . .what is mine. . . what is yours. . .just by knocking the door is opened. . .just by seeking it is found. . .Could infinite love have been so misunderstood that it had to become flesh?And God so loved the world; became flesh; walked among us; grew a beard. . .and. . . uhinfinite love is really good. . . right?and flesh. . . uhwell. . . flesh is really great. . . right?but. . . masculine?Why couldn’t God have had an only begotten daughter?female flesh. . .now that would do. . .women make great friends. . .now head large corporations. . .generally oppose war. . .will lead the world’s nations. . .or God willing. . .a female messiah comes. . .“The Daughter of Man”. . .not an avatar but an avatrix. . .not a prophet but a prophetess. . .all in the name of the Mother. . .but worry not. . .for God ~she ~ has a very big heartand is truly amused by musings such as these. . .it is good to admit that we really do not know. . .far better is unabashedly loving what we can never fully understand. . .while best is simply seeking to find . . . knocking for those doors to open. . .for just by knocking the doors are opened . . . and just by seeking are we found. . .

was theircoming foreseenby any of youwho made ithomefrom whatwas left ofcommencementdeep in hidinghands in their pocketsdown the back streetswalking numbsome dysenteryeating awayat guts foulbellies fullof blacksand jockstwo trench coatpariahs came walkingin reeking havoc theredestined to die therecaught unaware therecaught at the wrong endof a smoking gunthere at Columbine Highsome bullets tookmy baby’s life todayher flesh actually flew through the airas she fell by her desk in biology class

her small breasts shattered and tornopen

hemorrhagingcold and exposed

lying there on the floor she knewwith each beat of her aching heart

she was dyinggradually turning lifeless and blue

on the floorin the bloodand the piss

and the tearsthe terror subsided

and a question cameHey, man... you ok?

in disbelief came the replyDid it really happen?

from which this lesson comesLike I swear it really did... man

in front of the whole damn schooland... like right there... behind us

like... all bloody an’ stuff... seethe Garden sits waiting

for us to come backor something.

Like we canjust forget

right?And forgive?

BOOKS

Woven in words their pages contain

the multitude of patterns and fabrics

from which each our lives is sewn.

Are books purveyors of humanity?

Is it out of ignorance we seek

that which desires to be known?

緑

i n f l u e n c e s

i n s p i r a t i o n s

平家物語 Heike Monogatari

The Tale of the Heike

おごれる人も久しからずogoreru mono mo hisashikarazu

the proud do not endure

唯春の夜の夢の如し。tada haru no yoru no yume no gotoshi

like a passing dream on a night in spring

猛き者も遂には滅びぬtakeki mono mo tsuwi ni wa horobin(u)

the mighty fall at last

偏に風の前の塵に同じhitoeni kaze no mae no chiri ni onaji

to be no more than dust in the wind

Meister Eckhart

The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it is to come out.For if you want the grain, you break the shell. If you want to discovernature’s nakedness, you must destroy its symbols. The farther you go; the nearer you come to its essence; and, when you come to the One that gathers all things up into itself, there you must stay.

Dogen Zenji

To move close to all things in order to discover their dharma by anact of your own will is called delusion. To move into the presence ofthings such that all dharma are pursing themselves in their own wayis called enlightenment.

Hermann Hesse

Grace, or the Tao, surrounds us always. It is the light and it is God Himself. Whenever we are open for a moment, it enters into us, into every child, into every wise man.

St. Augustine

Love and do what you will.

Sufi Saying

“Fly, now”, said the bird“mankind can not bear too much reality.”

Albertus Secundusfrom the Latin in Herman Hesse’s “Das Glasperlenspiel”

Nothing is harder yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certainthings whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The veryfact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things bringsthem a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born.

from the “Song of Zazen” by Hakuin Zenji

Not knowing how close the Truth is to them,people look for it far away. What a pity!Like a man standing in a rivercrying out for water to quench his thirst.Like the son of a very rich manwho lost his way among the poor.

Boris Pasternak

It’s not the earthquake that controls the advent of a different lifebut storms of generosity and visions of incandescent souls.

Prayer of Simplicityby San Francesco de Assisi

Oh! Signore, fa di me un istrumento della tua Pace:Oh! Sir, make me an instrument of your peace:Dove `e odio, fa ch’lo porti l’Amore.Where there is hatred, let me bring love.Dove `e offesa, ch’lo porti il Perdono.Where there is injury, let me bring pardon.Dove `e discordia, ch’lo porti l’Unione.Where there is discord, let me bring unity.Dove `e dubbio, ch’lo porti la Fede.Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.Dove `e errore, ch’lo porti la Verita.Where there is error, let me bring truth.Dove `e disperazione, ch’lo porti la Speranza.Where there is despair, let me bring hope.Dove `e tristezza, ch’lo porti la Gioia.Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.Dove sono le tenebre, ch’lo porti la Luce,Where there is that darkness, let me bring light.

Oh! Maestro, fa ch’lo non cerchi tanto:O! Master, grant that I may not so much seek:Ad essere consolato, quanto a consolare.To be consoled... as to console.Ad essere compreso, quanto a comprendere.To be understood... as to understand.Ad essere amato, quanto a amare.To be loved... as to love.

Doiche’ si `e:For it is by:Dando . . . che si riceve;Giving... that we receive;Perdonando . . . che si perdonati;Pardoning... that we are pardoned;Morendo . . . che si risuscita a Vita Eterna.Dying... that we are born to eternal life.

attributed to Socrates

I know that I do not know and in this I am wise.

from the “Tao-Te Ching” of LaoTzu

To know that you do not know is best.Not to know that you do not know is a serious flaw.

from the film, “Zorba the Greek” based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis

Damn it, boss, I like you too much not to say it. You’ve got everything exceptone thing, madness! A man needs a little madness or else he never reallydares cut the rope and be free.

from “The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi

• nurture the ability to see truth in all things

• see what can not be seen with the eye

• do not be negligent; even in trifling matters

• do not engage in useless activities

Hermann Hesse

Loneliness is the way by which destiny endeavors to lead man to himself.

From Mosheh ben Maimon משה בן מימוןcalled Moses Maimonides

Maimonides was appointed court physician to the Grand VizierAl Qadi al Fadil and then to Sultan Saladin.

Anticipate charity by preventing povertyassist the reduced fellow man,either by a considerable giftor a sum of moneyor by teaching him a tradeor by putting him in the way of businessso that he may earn an honest livelihoodand not be forced to the dreadful alternativeof holding out his hand for charity.

This is the highest step and summit of charity's golden ladder.

From Rabindranath Tagore

I slept and dreamed that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted, and behold, service was joy.

From The Maggid of Mezeritch

Think of yourself as nothing and totally forget yourself when you pray.

Only have in mind that you are praying for the Divine Presence.

You can then enter the Universe of thought- a state that is beyond time.

Everything in this realm is the same, life and death, land and sea...

But in order to enter the Universe of thought where all is the same,

you must relinquish your ego and forget all your troubles

Buddha

It is not life and wealth and power that enslave men,but the cleaving to life and wealth and power.

Albert Einstein

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger,more complex, and more violent.It takes a touch of geniusand a lot of courageto move in the opposite direction.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Albert Einstein

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Thomas Traherne from “Centuries of Meditations

Love is the true means by which the world is enjoyed: our love to another and another’s love to us. We ought, therefore, above all thingsto get acquainted with the nature of love. For love is the root andfoundation of nature: love is the soul of life and its crown of rewards.

Joseph Campbell from “The Power of Myth”

If you follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that hasbeen there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought tobe living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you beginto meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open thedoors to you. I say follow your bliss and don’t be afraid and doors willopen where you didn’t know they were going to be.

Koun Yamada Roshi on the practice of Zen

It’s best described as becoming intimate with Something.

Rainer Maria Rilke from “Letters to a Young Poet”

Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening likethe tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in thestorms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer.It does come. But it comes only to the patient, who are there asthough eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly still and wide...Patience is everything.

M.K. Gandhi

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul...It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

The Dalai Lama

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Anaïs Nin

There are two kinds of freedom in the world;the freedom of the rich and powerful,and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounce possessions.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi

Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.

Khalil Gibran

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

Shunryu Suzuki

In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.

Blaise Pascal

All human evil comes from- “man’s being unable to sit still in a room”.

Umar Khayyam

Of knowledge naught remained I did not know,Of secrets, scarcely any, high or low;All day and night for three score and twelve years,I pondered, just to learn that naught I know.

If with wine you are drunk, be happy,If seated with a moon-face (beauty), be happy,Since the end purpose of the universe is nothing-ness;Hence picture your nothing-ness, then while you are, be happy!

From the Hōjōki 方丈記by Kamo no Chōmei 鴨 長明

行く川のながれは絶えずして、しかも本の水にあら。The flowing river does not cease, yet it is not the same water as before.

よどみに浮ぶうたかたは、かつ消えかつ結びて久しくとゞ まることなし。Foam floating on stagnant pools, now vanishing, now forming, isn’t same for long.

世の中にある人とすみかと、ま たかくの如し。In the world, people and their dwellings are like that, always changing.

RUMI (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī)

Come, come, whoever you are.Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.

It doesn’t matter.Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vowa hundred times.Come, yet again, come, come.

___________________________________

Give me ecstasy, give me naked wonder, O my Creator!Give birth to the Beloved in me, and let this lover die.Let a thousand wrangling desires become one Love.

___________________________________

When your chest is free of your limiting ego,Then you will see the ageless Beloved.You can not see yourself without a mirror;Look at the Beloved, He is the brightest mirror.

___________________________________

Teilhard de Chardin from “Letters”

Humanity is being taken to the point where it will have to choose between suicide and adoration.

T.S. Eliot

Between the conceptionAnd the creationBetween the emotionAnd the responseFalls the ShadowLife is very long

from the “Tao-Te Ching” of Lao Tzu

What is strong and rigid fosters death.What is humble and weak fosters life.If a soldier is rigid, he is undone.If a tree is rigid, it meets its end.Rigidity and strength are ultimately inferior.Humility and weakness are ultimately superior.

Wallace Stevens

There is a poem at the heart of things.

John Keats from “Letters”

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affectionsand the truth of Imagination. What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth.

on Simone Weil’s use of language by E.W.F. Tomlin

Just as we build a house or a cathedral with the same kind of stone, so we may use the same common and homely metaphors and images to convey truths on widely separated planes of discourse.And the highest is often best conveyed in terms of the lowest.

In exploring the highest reaches of experience, we need a language as fresh and living as the truths with which we are in contact. For most mystics, this is the language of nerve tips.

Blaise Pascal

From about half past ten in the evening to about half an hour after midnight.Fire, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob.Not the god of philosophers and scholars.Absolute Certainty: Beyond reason, Joy. Peace.Forgetfulness of the world and everything but God.The world has not known thee,but I have known thee, Joy! Joy! Joy!Tears of Joy!

attributed to T.S. Eliot

Closer than my breath is God to me.

St. Teresa of Avila

It is as if a tiny streamlet enters the sea, from which it will find no wayof separating itself, or as if in a room there are two large windowsthrough which the light streamed in: it enters in different places but itall becomes one.

Meister Eckhart from “Tractate 11”

Oh wonder of wonders! When I think of the union of the soul withGod!... The divine love-spring surges over the soul sweeping her out ofherself into the unnamed being of her original source... In this exaltedstate she has lost her proper self and is flowing full-flood into the unityof the divine nature.. Henceforth I shall not speak about the soul, forshe has lost her name in the oneness of the divine essence. There itis no more called soul: she is called infinite being.

Zen saying

With no bird singing the mountain is yet more still.

Meister Eckhart

In still souls God sees his own image; he rests in them and they in him. As I have often said, I like best those things in which I see most clearly the likeness of God. Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.

Henry David Thoreau

It takes a man to make a room silent.

Taoist Sage

When the moon rises in the Heart of HeavenAnd a light breeze touches the mirror-like surface of the lakeThat is indeed a moment of pure joy.But few are they who are aware of it.

Thomas Merton

There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action and joy.

It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from unseen roots of all created being.

Mother Teresa“via activa” or “works”

We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be inheaven with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him nowmeans: Loving as he Loves, Helping as he Helps, Giving as he Gives,Serving as He serves, Rescuing as He rescues, Being with Him twenty-fourhours, touching Him in His distressing disguise.

Saint Clara of Assisi“via contempliva” or “grace”

Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!And transform your entire being into the imageof the Godhead Itself through contemplation.

Psalm 23

God is my shepherd; I shall not want.He makes me lie down in green pastures.He leads me beside still waters.He restores my soul.He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I fear no evil for God is with me.His rod and his staff comfort me.He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.He anoints my head with oil and my cup runs over.Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my lifeand I will dwell forever in the house of God.

Meister Eckhart

Humility is like a well. The deeper the well the higher he will stand whostands at the top. The deeper I dig down into humility the more exaltedGod becomes and the more gently and sweetly his divinity pours into me.

Matthew 7:1-12Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened.For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.Is there any among you who will give his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a snake when he asks for fish?If you, then, bad as you are, know how to give your children what is good for them,how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him!Always treat others as you would like them to treat you: that is the Law and the prophets.

Matthew 22:36-40Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?

He replied:You must lovethe Lord your Godwith all your heart,with all your soul,with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is not how things are in the world that is mystical,but that it (the world) exists at all...

Faru’din Ibrahim Iraqi

He put color and perfume into flowersto feed the song of the nightingale.He tossed our names and titles of glory to the windsand called us fools and the most miserable of all beings.When He found the humble Iraqi on the road,he breathed into his heart the fire of passion.

Greek Myth

Several beautiful children were born to Aphrodite and Aries.Eros, their little son, was appointed god of love. Although nursedwith tender solicitude, this second-born child did not grow asother children do, but remained a small, rosy, chubby child, withgauzy wings and roguish, dimpled face. Alarmed for his health,Aphrodite consulted Themis who responded through the oracle,

“Love can not grow without Passion.”

Celia Copleston from T.S. Eliot’s “The Cocktail Party”

...whom I loved, or what in me was loving, I do not know

Anaïs Nin

The sexual life is usually enveloped in many layers for all of us poets, writers, artists.It is a veiled woman, half-dreamed.

Nikos Kazantzakis’s Alexis Zorbafrom the novel, “Zorba the Greek”

Don’t laugh, boss! If a woman sleeps alone, it’s the fault of usmen. God will forgive all sins... but that sin he will not forgive.Woe betide the man who could sleep with a woman and who didnot do so! Woe betide the woman who could sleep with a manand did not do so!

Song of Songs 6:3

I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and would not lethim go... I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.

from “The Zohar”

No other love is like unto the ecstasy of the moment whenspirit cleaves to spirit and becomes one ~ one love.

Henri Bergson

from “ The Two Sources of Morality and Religion”

Creation signifies, above all, emotion, and that not in literature or art alone.We all know the concentration and effort implied in scientific discovery.Genius has been defined as “an infinite capacity for taking pains”.

Chandogya Upanishad

Where there is creation there is progress.Where there is no creation there is no progress:Know the nature of creation.

Where there is joy there is creation.Where there is no joy there is no creation:Know the nature of joy.

Where there is the Infinite there is joy.There is no joy in the finite.

An English Mystic

The secret of life is to share the creative madness of God.

竹

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