A thread of truth

Awoke from the depths of a somewhat dangerous dream to watch the sun-rise today. It's like spring time, in between seasons, alive with the fluttering of wings and tweets of sun birds and sparrows. In these twilight minutes, just before the shape of heat takes on its over-powering form, the breezes are kind and gentle, the dark clouds moving rapidly away revealing a tinge of red behind  big bright chirpy clouds.

"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow a Mystery, 

Today is a Gift, That's why it's called the Present"

~Master Oogway

There is a thread that ties everything together. Watching the pedestrians commuting, anonymous and interchangeable in every way, a  boy would become the older man walking ahead of him; an elderly woman waiting to board the bus was the young lady behind her. The thread is so visible for a second, interweaving reality with a supernatural bond, and yet we hold on so tightly to our own ignorance, trying to break the thread in every way imaginable.

Of a story about the Australian Aborigines told by a guide on a recent trip, when  they have reaped the nourishment from a certain plant, they put up a sign to let others know that the plant has been harvested and will need time to re-grow. The thread is as evident as it is natural. They depended on the land, and thus they respected and cared for it. With all the technology of the modern world, we have not only failed to recognize this thread but worse, alienate ourselves from it.

The shape of heat follows the thread of our actions, "The universe is such a balanced instrument that any act immediately sets corrective forces into action," global warming, oil spills, depleting forests, greed, technology for the sake of consumption proclaimed as the state of advancement. Can't help but feel that we're all living in a lie.

In the valley of the Blue Mountains, the air is fresh, moist, lush and fragrant. There's a tingling of the senses; it makes you feel connected to the land. Not sure how things will balance out in the future. We're beginning to see how fragile our environment is.  Our past informs our future; our present is a gift to the truth. How do we even begin to see, feel, live in a new way?

I think we have lived life many times over and died as many times in a single lifetime. I woke up from the night to the excited fluttering of wing-beats and tweets; the sparrows and sun birds are happy today. I realized I have died in my sleep so that I can live again today.

Green Peace
catmaSutra cat art

;)

CCCC compilation 1

Quirky Pics from
Cute Cats Curated by CatmaSutra

from babykailan's photostream

Zen

Throw yourself into life

Wash your mind

&

open your eyes
;)

 
I TRUST YOU

  Verse
The soul is a newly skinned hide, bloody

and gross. Work on it with manual discipline,

and the bitter tanning acid of grief.

You'll become lovely and strong.

If you can't do this work yourself, don't worry.

You don't have to make a decision, one way or another.

The Friend, who knows a lot more than you do,

will bring difficulties and grief and sickness,

as medicine, as happiness, as the moment

when you're beaten, when you hear Checkmate,

and can finally say with Hallaj's voice,
 I trust you to kill me.

~Rumi

Verse

A silver of mirror shines out

from under a felt covering. Think how

it will be when the whole thing is open

to the air and sunlight! There are

mysteries I'm not telling you.

;)

Freedom of Madness

 Verse

Look for someone else to tend the shop.

I'm out f the image-making business.

Finally I know the freedom

of madness.

~Rumi

The Cat Files

Curious Curatorship of the catmaSutra Cat!

catmaSutra likes this!

Adapted from Andrea Galvani's work

Zen

Alas! the world is full of enormous lights and mysteries,
and man shuts them from himself with one small hand!....

~Baal Shem Tov.

Andrea Galvani'

Andrea Galvani'

It's the facts that lie,

never the stories...

...they become true when

we're interested in the pursuit of truth

;)

from the photo collection of SlyviaLadycat @facebook

Zen

Sense the surrounding space that connects you to everything.

Verse
You could be moving in a circuit without wing,

nourished without eating, sovereign without a throne.
No longer subject to fortune, you could be luck itself,

if you would rise from sleep, leave
the market arguing, and learn that
your own essence is your wealth.

~rumi

;)

No better love

 Verse

No better love than love with no object,

no more satisfying work than work with no purpose,

If you could give up tricks and cleverness,

that would be the cleverest trick!

~adapted from Rumi

"The Explorer"
  New catmaSutra Tile Coaster!

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in 

are different from the things we do.
~ Freya Stark quotes (French adventurer and explorer 1893-1993)

;)

Remote Control

from the photo collection of SlyviaLadycat @facebook

Zen

Recognize your inclinations,

but resist the pull to be controlled by them.

"This is not a Pipe"

catmaSutra painting of the day
 

Verse

Walk to the well.

Turn as the earth and the moon turn,

circling what they love.

Whatever circles comes from the center.

;)

love-wings

from the photo collection of SlyviaLadycat @facebook

Verse

Test your love-wings and make them strong

Forget the idea of religious or physical ladders

Love is the roof, the vital core of the soul,

And of all you see, only love is infinite

~adapted from Rumi

"Serendipity"
 
New catmaSutra Tile Coaster!

Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you're perfectly free.

;)

Papaya

It's Gone Now...

Came back on my bike in the night. The lot is empty. Less visitors now that the Karaoke lounge has moved. The papaya trees like a couple of young lovers are gone. Left no trace except the freshly cut grass in the little space in front of the lot. Several days ago, the papaya tree which was beginning to bear fruit has its head of leaves chopped off, the fruit still clinging to the upright and headless trunk. The Male plant was still there, stoic, standing by its side -  not anymore I guess. It's raining again, heavy drops pelting down on the night. The last grass-cutter, with his wrapped head like a gypsy ninja paused when he came to the papaya trees. He did cut one down but stopped as he carefully cut the grass around the other two. Not sure why he let them live. But time has ran out I guess, this other grass-cutter has no such mercy.

Beauty surrounds us,

but usually we need to be walking

in a garden to know it.

~Rumi

;)

Quirky Quiet...

Quiet. There is a silent moment in everything. Shhhh... Stop thinking. Listen. There are birds chirping like surround sound, filtered from urban noise. Neighbor's chopping away incessantly at something (you wonder how many people they're cooking for), cars and trucks moving in and out, engine's idling, people shouting. Relax. Allow the breathing to become calm, foster that lightness of being.Quiet amongst the noise, even in the most mundane stuff... There are so many people who works so hard to leave a legacy behind. This baffles me. What legacy? Every moment is a play of patterns, of noise and clutter. The only legacy worth leaving behind is the way we live our lives - the most intangible things are often the most precious ones.

Angel wakes at 4:30 am, and like an ninja assassin, treads lightly on my sleep, exercising his claws on my chest, then sits, then lies, watching my consciousness stirring back to life. "Heya...", I said telepathically. Angel nods and replies, "It's time". I get up and open the door, and he promptly sneaks out. I'm back on my bed, shifting gears in dreamland when Halo comes in later in the morning. She finds my legs under the covers and promptly uses them as her pillow, shielding her eyes from the morning light with her paws. I remember when they were kittens. Another hour and I'll wake.

 catzophrenia 2006

The heart is a strange thing. It is a hard disk with seemingly unlimited storage space, cluttered and choke full of stuff, both remembered and forgotten. Once something happened, it's there. Cut it up and it creaks open like an ancient door with rusted hinges, and there's a rabbit hole, much like the one depicted in Alice in Wonderland. The natural instinct is to fall. It's a scary flight down the rabbit hole, but you'll soon get used to the gravity of it all; at the end of it, you'll find a pinhole of light that opens into a continuous universe of twinkling stars. The silent nature of each thought, of each experience is right here, within us.

I remind myself to slow my thoughts down so that when I fall, 

I'll catch myself and find that pinhole of light.

 My Sweetest Constellation

Break on through to the other side...

;)

Doing Time

WHERE'S THE MONEY GEORGE ? from oizo mr on Vimeo.

If you’re working in Singapore, time almost always seems to run out pretty quickly. It’s an easy excuse to say that you have no time because of work; in fact I think it’s a common excuse. You and I are both guilty of it but I suspect that deep inside, we know that there is in fact, time – time to call loved ones, send a sms, or just making an effort to do something. As we grow into a job, we should aim not only to become more efficient, but more importantly to see things in the proper perspective and that entails saying “stop”. It’s time to do that something else for yourself or your family. Finding something you love to do is crucial. Otherwise it's more like doing time and waiting for the special getaway once a year (mountains, trees, and a motorcycle).

 Photo by danny st

Life never ceases to be magical and interesting. It becomes more so when you’re able to step back a little from it. For me personally, life is really like a movie that you project in front of you. Much of it is fiction. In every of our waking moment, we can decide what kind of movie we wanna watch, sad or happy, depressing or uplifting, boring or exciting. The fun part is that it really doesn’t matter – it’s just a movie.I don’t think that each human being is that much different from another. All of us want to be happy. In the core of our being, we’re the same. It’s the movies that differ, that tell us that things should be this way or that. It’s like every being has a  box over their heads. In that sense, everybody is fighting for the remote control over these mind boxes. If more and more people get to see more of your movies, then you’re in control and therefore shape that world accordingly. It’s the same for Hollywood movies, the same for advertising, as it is for office or world politics.

 

  adapted from photo by Mio Cade

I read somewhere that if the earth’s resources are shared equally, there is more than enough for every single person. That's of course, one world view that will never materialize.  Eventually, each movie will end and we have to return to ourselves, hopefully to the center of our peace - without the projections, without the distractions. That is the truth - nirvana. Hopefully, we will find that center sooner rather than later. That is pure living without the highs and lows, and in learning to live, we inevitably learn how to let go and move on.

;)