Shen Yueh

Three poems by Shen Yueh on Buddhism circa 480 [ translated by Richard Mather in The Age of Eternal Brilliance ]

165 Harmonizing with a Poem by General of the [Left Palace] Guard, Wang [Seng-ch’ien] on an Expository Lecture [on the Dharma]

The Wondrous Wheel has ceased its former turning,
And the Jeweled Trees have not yet started sounding.
But the Sweet Dew, for whomever preached,
Achieves the One, and points the way to bodhi-mind.
Dimly obscure, the Mystic Path appears remote;
Its lofty meanings, taken as a whole, become a forest.
But the Seven [Bodhi-] flowers screen sensations and their attributes;
The Eight Releases wash away [the scent of] perfumed collars.

166 The Four City Gates

The sixfold dragon team has bolted with the chariot [of the sun],
And the two rats [of night and day] have in their turn hastened its light.
In one’s declining years, how hard to care or help;
The sunset body – oh how easily it withers and decays!

167 The Fast of the Eight Prohibitions

Because of the Commandments I’ve grown weary of Samsara.
Yet, accustomed to the Hinderances, I follow dust and filth.
The Way of the Four Truths is hard to open;
Doorways to the Eightfold Path still tightly shut.
Attaining Truth was never easy to aspire to,
But only after losing the True Way does one then know the risks.
Misguided forays now have been repeated time and time again;
Sudden enlightenment itself is not without gradations.

 

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche parinirvana

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On the auspicious day of Medicine Buddha, June 19, 2010 at 8:07pm, our most beloved teacher and one of the great scholars and masters in Nyingmapa Buddhism, Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche passed into parinirvana peacefully and beautifully. All stages of meditation were perfectly demonstrated according to the teachings of the Buddha and Guru Padmasambhava, and as Khenchen Rinpoche himself taught for so many years. He entered fearlessly without any emotion or attachment, joyfully and with confidence at his home, Arya Palo Ling, in the presence of his beloved brother, Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, and Jomo Lorraine, and during the sangha’s practice of Vajrasattva in the glorious Copper-colored Temple at Palden Padma Samye Ling monastery. Surrounded by every lush spring quality of gentle breezes, birds singing, flowers blooming, and deer playing in the meadows, he remains in thugdam meditation.

Byodouin in Uji City

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These images are a computer reconstruction of what the original interior was like in a Buddhist temple located in Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Colors are based on analysis of what remains of the existing material. No date is given for what time period this represents. Articles cited are unfortunately only in Japanese.

http://goo.gl/Yrdv and http://goo.gl/RGTL

Samuel Johnson on Homer and Virgil

Samuel Johnson [ 1709-1784 ] : Life of Dryden : “In the comparison of Homer and Virgil, the discriminative excellence of Homer is elevation and comprehension of thought, and that of Virgil is grace and splendour of diction. The beauties of Homer are therefore difficult to be lost, and those of Virgil difficult to be retained.”

Samuel Beckett

… I do nothing, with as little shame as satisfaction. It is the state that suits me best. I write the odd poem when it is there, that is the only thing worth doing. There is an ecstasy of accidia – wiIlless in a grey tumult of idées obscures. There is an end to the temptation of light, its polite scorchings & consolations. It is good for children & insects. There is an end of making up one’s mind, like a pound of tea, an end of patting the butter of consciousness into opinions. The real consciousness is the chaos, a grey commotion of mind, with no premises or conclusions or problems or solutions or cases or judgments. I lie for days on the floor, or in the woods, accompanied & unaccompanied, in a coenaesthesia of mind, a fullness of mental self-aesthesia that is entirely useless. The monad without the conflict, lightless & darkless. I used to pretend to work, I do so no longer. I used to dig about in the mental sand for the lugworms of likes & dislikes. I do so no longer. The lugworms of understanding….

Samuel Beckett letter to Mary Manning Howe 30 August 1937

Mondrian

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Room executed by Pace Gallery, 1970, from Mondrian’s original open box plan drawing for the salon of Madame Ida Biernet in Dresden, 1926, formica on wood, 10 x 12 x 14 feet

Titan Beyond the Rings

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In 2006 April, Cassini captured Saturn’s A and F rings stretching in front of cloud-shrouded Titan. Near the rings and appearing just above Titan was Epimetheus, a moon which orbits just outside the F ring. The dark space in the A ring is called the Encke Gap, although several thin knotted ringlets and even the small moon Pan orbit there.

Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Blinky Palermo : Für J. Beuys/unvollendet

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Blinky Palermo

Für J. Beuys/unvollendet (For J. Beuys/unfinished) (Wvz 194) 1964-76.
Aluminum (untreated), aluminum (polished) and acrylic on aluminum,
part 1:13.2 x 26.3 x 0.3 cm; part 2: 26.7 x 20.8 x 0.3 cm; part 3: 21 x 16 x 0.2 cm.
Private collection.

I would subtitle this [stealing from the Bach Cantata (BWV35)] :
Geist und Seele wird verwirret (Spirit and soul become confused)