The older we get
the wiser we get

Unfortunately,
we are also paying
for all the dumb mistakes we made when we were younger

Friendship

Hi Gien
Dropped by your page and read some beautifu things
love
HummingBird

Hmmm....Hummingbird, you dropped the "L" in beautiful
...I was going to see a lot more of your funny spelling!

On July 31, 2007
I was celebrating Jopoa's 5th anniversary of her death
Many friends here at Gaia also took time that day
to meditate and honor and remember Jopoa
and their own loved ones
so many blessings for beings that day

On August 1, you came by my page
browsed through my pages for hours
and saw something that intrigued you

You read my volumous writings
saw the celebration
perhaps it reminded you of Gra-anna
and remembering and honoring her with art

You saw the pictures I uploaded on Jopoa's 5th anniversary celebration
and were touched by them
and then you contacted me with the above messsage
on August 2, 1:48am, my time
and thus
Jopoa and Gra-anna laid the karmic seeds for our fateful meeting

Now
today
one day after we celebrated Jopoa's 6th anniversary
we celebrate the 1st anniversary of our meeting

Funny
how the anniversary and rememberance of a loved one's death
spawns the anniversary and rememberance of another love one's birth

Following in the footsteps of nature
out of the ashes of death
life is reborn
out of winter comes spring
out of spring comes fall
the leaves fall from the tree
making way
for another cycle of birth

Today
I must sing
WE ARE PART OF THE CYCLE OF EVERYTHING

I love you Anna
our love
karmically born out of Jopoa and Gra-anna

All throughout
all these meetings and anniversaries all coinciding
.....must be more than just coincidence!

Somewhere in the greater space which transcends birth and death
there are 2 beings joyfully celebrating along with us
on the love they have given birth to
from their own passing

Blessings to all beings on this day
that selfless love may reign supreme in the heart of all beings
that which we search for our whole lives
is with us in each single moment

Today marks the 6th anniversary of Jopoa's death

Today
6 years have gone by
and yet
it seems only like last nights dream
Time
such an illusion

One day
we will all reach that moment
so, as our teachers say
not a moment to lose
plumb this life
to find it's true nature

I spent this day with Anna
and we began the day with meditation
and ended it with meditation

We walked around the home this morning
hitting our gongs
I had a beautiful glass vase
which made an equally beautiful sound
and as Anna and I walked around the house
filling it with sacred tones
the thin wall of the glass vase gave way
SMASH!
One never knows what to expect in life!
...expect the unexpected!

And this evening
we created a shrine
for Jopoa and Gra-anna
the two beings who brought Anna and I together

love
this energy that propagates from one being to another
this wave that sweeps through us
morphing
leaving physical bodies behind
and finding new ones to host it

Jopoa
in your death
you remind us of what life is

In learning to accept death
we begin to truly accept life

Until we come to fully accept our death
we cannot fully accept our life

Why should we love others
if they are going to die
leaving us broken-hearted?

Is our life just a continual running away from death?
If so
isn't this a continual running away from life itself?
If we continually pretend everything is ok
and fail to even look honestly at our own mortality
aren't we also then
just pretending to live?
How genuine is our life
when we are continually avoiding the inevitable?

It is death alone
that makes life sacred

May your love continue to propagate
from me and all those you touched
to all those we interact with
continuing this flow of love
throughout the universe


E ma Ho

PS. See anna's blog for a posting of today's rememberance as well

From the 100,000 Songs of Milarepa:

The Mantrayana view seeks to discover the true nature of mind through the direct perception of mind

Milarepa said that there are 12 nails that need to be hammered home to understand the nature of phenomena:

• 3 aspects of the Mantrayana view of the true nature of mind
• 3 aspects of meditation
• 3 from conduct
• 3 from the result

Three Aspects of the Mantrayana view of true nature of mind

1. Both "outward" appearances of the 5 senses and "inward" appearances of happiness, suffering, defilements and thoughts arise from the mind itself.

2. What is mind? It can think and change, it can engage with lucidity in all kinds of thoughts. The mind is Clarity and wisdom;  not a material thing.

3. The mind itself cannot be identified because its nature is emptiness. Milarepa introduces clarity of the mind first, then emptiness by pointing out that clarity cannot be identified.

Three aspects of meditation

1. Many thoughts appear in meditation and if the nature of mind is not identified, the thoughts become a problem. They will become solid and an obstacle. However, when the true nature of the mind is realized, although thoughts arise, they are liberated as the dharmakaya.

2. When thoughts are naturally realized to be the dharmakaya, the clear knowledge of the mind is a state of bliss which is free from suffering. Meditation is then accompanied by the experience of bliss.

3. This meditation is not the creation of something new. Delusion has been dispelled by the mind resting in its own natural state, without alteration or artifice. The mind must rest, be relaxed in the nature of the mind itself.

Three aspects of conduct

1. In the mantrayana view one does not need to deliberately accomplish the ten good actions. The practice of good actions will occur spontaneously from the realization that comes from meditation.

2. One does not need to deliberately accomplish the ten unvirtuous actions. They will be spontaneously avoided without any need to deliberately control one’s actions. With the realization of the nature of mind one does not need to have contrived conduct.

3. One does not need to deliberately contrive remedial actions, to achieve realization through effort. If one rests relaxed in the natural state of the mind, the realization of clarity and emptiness will naturally arise.

Three aspects of result

1. According to the Buddha’s exceptional view of the mantrayana, nirvana and Buddhahood are not located in some other place; we do not have to go somewhere else to get them. They are not newly created or achieved.

2. Samsara is not garbage that has to be thrown away. There isn’t anything that can be thrown away. The very nature of samsara is nirvana, whether we realize it or not.

3. Nirvana is not something to be created and samsara is not something to be eliminated because our mind is Buddhahood. There is no Buddhahood that is other than us; it is the nature of our own mind.

Finally, there is one more nail, a thirteenth nail, the nature of phenomena is ungraspable. It is empty and transcends all extremes and all concepts. If we analyze too much, we will become confused and the other nails cannot be hammered in. The guru is the key who introduces and leads us to recognize the ungraspable nature.

When we have eliminated all the negative qualities and gained all the positive qualities of realization, we will find it to be just the unchanged nature of our own mind, exactly as it is. This is Buddhahood. While we do not realize this, we are under the power of the defilements and wander in samsara. When we realize the true nature of the mind, we will have confidence that this mind of ours is Buddhahood.

There is a beuatiful and lucid Youtube teaching by Monk Ajahn Brahm of Buddhist Society of Australia on Youtube on spirituality and sensuality / sexuality....for those of you looking for clarity on this subject.

<3

A simple Gaia love story  between a Genie and a Hummingbird.... told in Gmail icons

all these forms that appear to eyes that see
all things on the outside and the inside
the environment and its inhabitants
appear, but let them rest where no self's found

Perceiver and perceived when purified
are the body of the deity, clear emptiness
To the guru for whom desire frees itself
To Orgyen Pema Jungnay, I supplicate

All these sounds that appear for ears that hear
taken as agreeable or not
Let them rest in the realm of sound and emptiness
Past all though, beyond imagination
Sounds are empty, unarisen and unceasing,
These are what make up the Victor's teaching
To the teachings of teh Victor, sound and emptiness
To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate

All these movements of mind towards its objects
These thoughts that make five poisons and afflictions,
Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances,
Do not review the past nor guess the future;
If you let such movement rest in its own place,
It liberates into the dharmakaya
To the guru for whom awareness frees itself,
To Orgyen Pema Jungnay i supplicate

Grant your blessing that purifies appearance
Of objects perceived as being outside;
Grant you blessing that liberates perceiving mind,
The mental operation seeming inside;
Grant your blessing that between the two of these
Clear light will come to recognize its own face;
In your compassion, sugatas of all three times,
Please bless me that a mind like mine be freed

Taught by Guru RInpoche to Namkhai Nyingpo

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/sixdegrees/

....this makes Al Gores movie look meek! Bush family, you should be watching this!

go, explore and become concerned if you haven't already seen this.

Now we have a real threshold to aim towards....everyone can watch and see how fast we are  approaching this.

hmmm....didn't mum use to say....an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

I'm back in Canada, for now
getting loads of projects underway....
shaping my future
and the future of all those around me

My actions
a drop in the cosmic pond
influencing my local part of the world
which will spread out to influence others

It is only due to our ignorance
that we think we are isolated and disconnected
In reality every action
is connected to the entire universe

By sharpening our awareness
so that we are cognizant of our infinite connections
we will naturally empower ourselves
and find our infinite potential

Life has so much potential
It is so difficult and isolating when unaware
and yet so easy when we are aware
of our relation to everything and everyone

I flew to see a beautiful Hummingbird
we fell in love here in this virtual place
our love, just one love, one heart
borderless, boundless
openly embracing the pain in our lives
allowing us to embrace each other fully
learning to accept our death fully
even before meeting

and when we met
as if  we've known each other for many lifetimes

now, separated again momentarily
and our love morphing with it
adapting itself to our changing circumstances
openly embracing whatever unfolds
recognizing that our love for this other outward appearance
is nothing but the sacred love permeating all
where tears and laughter both arise equally powerfully
to express this bliss
rolling in waves and churning in our stomach
like the thunder storms of Johannesburg
and where coming and especially going
helps us to prepare for our final moment
when the love that we nourish together
comes to make a lasting impression and persistence in our field of living
what will envelope us with confidence in our "final" moment

love beyond words
this hummingbird and I have found together
yet mind's old habits trying to catch it in its net