well come, well come, well come to this moment of celebrating and re-joy-sing in the astonishing light of our being…

we are nomads in the vast skysea

dan-sing waves of rainbow mystery

singing songs of peaceful harmony

~

There is no independent existence. There is no you and no me apart from other people and the earth and the wind and the sun. We exist because of numberless causal factors—our genetics, the love of our mothers and fathers, our place in time, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and so on. And we are defined by our relationships to others and to our world. This is the matrix in which we act. When designing a garden we will again and again remind ourselves of this and cultivate the mind that thinks in unfolding, evolving energetic systems. Because a garden is a complete mandala, its parts relate to one another. Together they form one whole energetic system. The parts are inseparable from the whole, and the whole is inseparable from its parts, and both are in process of changing.

Excerpted from:The Sound of Cherry BlossomsZen Lessons from the Garden of Contemplative Designby Alxe Noden and Martin Hakubai Mosko,page 19–20

~

time now for all souls to play our music and rejoice in the astonishing light of our being looking into the cosmic mirror and bringing to heartmind all buddhas, bodhisattvas, teachers, ancestors, beings devoted to creating a just world and roll all the virtues and merits into a huge gaia ball re-joy-sing in the astonishing light… now, bring to heart mind all your virtues and merit and dedicate this offering to all who suffer, fear and grieve seeing the suffering, fear and grief eased… thank you for sharing your astonishing light so generously…

All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.

~Black Elk ~

today as i listen to the cosmic hum, i see the peace pilgrimage as our unfolding collective journey moving from egocentrism to ecocentrism… let’s listen to the sacred voice always calling us home…

Then a Voice said: “Behold this day, for it is yours to make. Now you shall stand upon the center of the earth to see, for there they are taking you.” I was still on my bay horse, and once more I felt the riders of the west, the north, the east, the south, behind me, as before, and we were going east. I looked ahead and saw the mountains there with rocks and forests on them, and from the mountains flashed all colors upward to the heavens.

Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I saw in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.

Then as I stood there, two men were coming from the east, head first like arrows flying, and between them rose the daybreak star. They came and gave a herb to me and said: “With this on earth you shall undertake anything and do it.” It was the Daybreak-Star herb, the herb of understanding, and they told me to drop it on the earth. I saw it falling far, and when it struck Mother Earth it rooted and grew and flowered, four blossoms on one stem, a black, a white, a scarlet, and a yellow. The rays from these streamed upward to the heavens so that all creatures saw it and in no place was there darkness.

Hehaka Sapa, Black Elk