A Beautiful Place

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I came across a trove of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's books at the used book store.

I have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy Beat Poetry.  (Ferlinghetti denies he is a Beat, but at the very least there's a kinship.)  Anyway, I guess that's where I am at the moment.

Whatever It Was

Let’s go
Come on
Let’s go
Empty our pockets
And disappear.
Missing all our appointments
And turning up unshaven
Years later
Old cigarette papers
stuck to our pants
leaves in our hair.
Let us not
worry about the payments
anymore.
Let them come
and take it away
whatever it was
we were paying for.
And us with it.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti intended for Junkman's Obbligato to be an eternal work-in-progress; improvised words against an improvised jazz background.

But I do think the words stand on their own.  There are several transcripts on the internet, one of which is HERE.

Keep On Truckin'

"You keep going. That is the bodhisattva’s way. As long as it benefits even one being you have to, without any sense of discouragement, go on."  ~Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa (via)

Sometimes my posts are just little notes to myself, so I don't forget.

No matter how many bible verses you quote me, if you are asking me to do something unkind, the answer is "No."

"I was immensely proud that I had been able to give her a comfortable life."

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Recommended by Aw Diddums.

Learn Practice Teach

"If we ourselves remain angry and then sing world peace, it has little meaning. First, our individual self must learn peace. This we can practice. Then we can teach the rest of the world." ~14th Dalai Lama  (via)

Stop

“Meditation is not meant to help us avoid problems or run away from difficulties. It is meant to allow positive healing to take place. To meditate is to learn how to stop-- to stop being carried away by our regrets about the past, our anger or despair in the present, or our worries about the future.”  ~Thich Nhat Hanh (via)

Still

I visited Mesa Verde with my Dad one October, and my most vivid memory is a simple, quiet moment.

As we sat among the ruins, for just a few minutes, there were no sounds at all. No electric motors hummed, no tires droned against pavement, no distant thump from a stereo; no human voices or airplanes overhead. It was perfectly still.

A hundred years ago, this would not have been unusual.

Now there are people living their entire lives without ever having this experience.

"We stoked each other's anger. And it felt good."

Via Humans of New York:

“I felt humiliated and suicidal in college. It seemed like my personal failings were on display for everyone to see. I’m not all that attractive. I have a speech impediment. I’m not good socially. I saw other guys having romantic success and I felt a lot of envy. I concluded that women owed me something. They owed me a chance. And I was angry they weren’t giving it to me. I’m ashamed of it now, but during that time I formed a lot of bad and hateful opinions. I joined ‘incel’ communities on 4chan and Reddit. I found a lot of men there who felt just like me. The community provided this pseudoscientific justification for hating women. It let us feel like it wasn’t our fault. We stoked each other’s anger. And it felt good. Honestly, anger is just very addictive. You want to feel angry when you’re suffering. It gives you adrenaline. It gets your endorphins going. It’s a release. It’s a substitute for what you’re missing.”

He's not really so unusual.

Outrage is America's drug of choice- and there's a dealer on every news channel.

Time

It's pretty simple to upset the applecart.

That Time Obama Consoled Dave McKenna

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Quiet

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(It seems kind of odd to have included background music on this one, but they did.  Towards the end he's a little hard to hear.)

It Is I

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to speak ill
Of others who have embarked upon the greater vehicle,
For if, under the influence of destructive emotions,
I speak of other bodhisattvas’ failings, it is I who am at fault.

~Gyelse Tokme Zangpo (1295-1369) (via)

What You Need

“What you need will come to you if you do not ask for what you do not need.”  ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (via)

•

"The bare necessities of life will come to you."  ~Baloo

And it's a lonely world, I know…

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I stayed awake most of last night worrying.

There should be a word for the worries that plague a person at night but dissipate, like a murder of crows, when the sun comes up.

I worry about being the last one left.  This is just such a strange world, new souls coming in and old souls popping out; it's like being stranded in Grand Central Station.

I suppose the best strategy would be to enjoy the presence of whoever shares your bench without becoming too attached to either them or the bench.

That's especially difficult at two in the morning.  It's hard to think of your life as a bench that empties, one by one, until you're the only one left, staring at your ticket.

It's a little easier when the sun is up and the flowers are blooming, when the sparrows are hopping around under the feeder,  fragrant incense is burning on the mantle, a warm cup of coffee is in your hand.

But just a little.

Full lyrics HERE.