The notion of self

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Michaela

Adyashanti on the process and  illusion of “self”


From a talk Jan 18,2012 (about 1,5 hrs)
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A god can do it

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Michaela

A god can do it. But will you tell me how
a man can enter through the lyre’s strings?
Our mind is split. And at the shadowed crossing
of heart-roads, there is no temple for Apollo.

Song, as you have taught it, is not of desire,
not wooing any grace that can be achieved;
song is reality. Simple for a god.
But when can we be real? When does he pour

the earth, the stars, into us? Young man,
it is not your loving, even if your mouth
was forced wide open by your own voice-learn

to forget that passionate music. It will end.
True singing is a different breath, about
nothing. A gust inside the god. A wind

R.M. Rilke: Sonnets to Orpheus I/3

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The linden tree

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (10)

Today I took a photograph of the 600 years old linden tree standing  in the old courtyard of the Eroica House.  Ludwig van  Beethoven lodged there  over the summer until late autumn of 1803 and  wrote three of my favorite compositions – Symphony No 3 (Eroica), the Waldstein Sonata and the Tripple concerto. It was the time of premonition that his life was going to be a descent into silence and darkness.

This linden tree was a witness of his inner turmoil.

For a few days now trees have entered my mind and there is something about these marvelous beings from the green plant kingdom that wishes to reveal itself.

Trees -like all plants – have the ability to convert energy from sunlight into nutrients and so virtually all other breathing creatures depend on plants to survive. Plants also provide the oxygen humans and animals breathe, because plants use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and release oxygen into the atmosphere

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Open your eyes…

Posted on January 18, 2012 by CatrinPhoto

The quote is  from a poem by justme (The Parting)

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When you see a lofty mountain

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Michaela

When you see a lofty mountain
Be reminded of the inner view:
The view is the teacher’s mind,
Inseperable from the nature of your own.
When you see a lovely forest,
Be reminded of experiences and realization:
Have no hopes or doubts about them,
They are all the teacher’s play.
When you see a garden of flowers
Be reminded of action, naturally free:
All actions in harmony with Dharma
Are the teacher’s perfect life.
However deluded your thoughts may be,
They are but products of your intellect.
If you set your thoughts free
Where nothing arises, remains, or ends,
They will vanish into emptiness.
That naked emptiness is the guru:
Primordial wisdom beyond the intellect.

– Khyentse Rinpoche –

 

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What is the nature of mind ?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (9)

This is a beautifully made documentary  about the life and teaching of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche – a true Vajrayana master, teacher, writer and poet. In my quest listening to Orpheus, I came across his life as another exemplary journey to the underworld – and coming back to teach others.

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The overcoming of problems

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (8)

The full spectrum…everything between abrupt and gentle, plebeian and noble – and the overcoming of controversy in a profound way. Daniel Barenboim and Jonathan Biss are conversing about Sonata No 30 on the occasion of a masterclasses on Beethoven piano sonatas given by the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.

 

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I will never leave you

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Michaela

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The naked god

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (7)

This is a fantastic find: the full version of Pina Bausch’s Orphee et Eurydice by Christoph W Gluck, in a performance of the Opéra national de Paris

Enjoy this incredible blend of music, dance and song…

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And it was almost a girl…

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Michaela

Listening to Orpheus (6)

And it was almost a girl and came to be
out of this single joy of song and lyre
and through her green veils shone forth radiantly
and made herself a bed in my ear.

And slept there. And her sleep was everything:
the awesome trees, the distance I had felt
so deeply that I could touch them, meadows in spring:
all wonders that had ever seized my heart.

She slept the world. Singing god, how was that first
sleep so perfect that she had no desire
ever to wake? See: she arose and slept.

Where is her death now? Ah will you discover
this theme before your song consumes itself?-
Where is she vanishing?…a girl almost…

R.M.Rilke “Sonnets to Orpheus” I/2

This is the effect of Orpheus singing. This is what the vibration of song and lyre is bringing forth. A sensation, a resonance, a resemblance – a girl almost….whose sleep was everything.

There is an astounding similarity between the anatomic structure of vocal cords and a lyre – words of poetry and the sound of music coming from the same grounds. A stir, a rustle of breath, a stroke with a finger, while the wooden instrument is held closely to the heart. King David played the lyre, as did the early minstrels, walking among the people telling them the stories of the Gods and waking in them the memory that the self, which is no other than the universe, is unreal like a dream.

And it reminds of the traditional Advaita saying: The world is an illusion. Brahman alone is real. Brahman is the world.

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