Retreat

Originally shared by Sogyal Rinpoche The purpose of meditation is to awaken in us the skylike nature of mind, and to introduce us to that which we really are, our unchanging pure awareness that underlies the whole of life and death. In the stillness and silence of meditation, we glimpse and return to that deep inner nature that we so long ago lost sight of amid the busyness and distraction of our minds.

White upon white, lapping up the white, the canvas swallowed by infinity, and I stood stunned by the tide of the white emerging, surging, and merging with all. Where am I? Where do I stand? my brush and palette looking so small, ineffectual instruments without a light. Where are my fingers, where the brush, where the landscape in my mind? Is this sleep or drunkenness? Do I feel nothing; am I numb? And I don't regret that i can't paint, nor do I regret that I can't write. Today, for awhile, I just want to wallow in this solitary numbness, solitary bliss. Sushama Karnik Oct. 16, 2015

A night atop a craggy hill is awful unless the full moon shines on the waves lapping at the foot of the hill. The moon is the equalizer of the heights and the hills and the depth of the sea. 8 Oct. 2015. Originally shared by Darlene Walsh - 7 comments Moon and sea

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent, because the mass man will mock it right away. I praise what is truly alive, what longs to be burned to death. In the calm water of the love-nights, where you were begotten, where you have begotten, a strange feeling comes over you, when you see the silent candle burning. Now you are no longer caught in the obsession with darkness, and a desire for higher love-making sweeps you upward. Distance does not make you falter. Now, arriving in magic, flying, and finally, insane for the light, you are the butterfly and you are gone. And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The majesty of ruins; the pillars are standing still; the walls are knocked down; lying heavy, aghast for countless number of years. I, a clueless traveler, stand and watch; don't know what my feelings are. My archaeologist tells me we are here to search for the evidence time has left concealed; analyse, study and conclude... "Conclude what?" I say. "Draw inferences about how and when this was built; how and when it was knocked down; by whom and why!" He said. More than the evidence which I can't lay my hands on yet, I am bothered by the reasons why the wars are fought; why civilizations arise and die. Deep down we are all beasts; and also, deep down we are all Gods, and deep down forever, we could never reconcile the beast and the God. Thanks  @Milan Lakić Milan Lakić Timeline 11 days ago These are ruins of columns from the city of Priene and its Temple of Athena from 4th century BC.