spiritual apes?

I loved this clip from Jane Goodall I came across today about the spirituality she senses present in apes...


"Sometimes as a chimpanzee—most often an adult male—approaches a spectacular waterfall deep in the forest, his hair bristles, a sign of heightened arousal. As he gets closer, and the roar of falling water gets louder, his pace quickens, and upon reaching the stream he performs a magnificent display that can last more than ten minutes. Standing upright he sways rhythmically from foot to foot, stamping in the shallow water, picking up and hurling rocks, climbing the vines that hang down from high above and swinging out into the spray of falling water. Chimps also dance at the onset of a very heavy rain....

After a waterfall display the performer may sit on a rock, his eyes following the falling water. What is this water, always coming, always going- yet always there? What causes the great claps of thunder, the torrential downpour, the savage gusts of wind? Is it not possible that these (chimp dance and meditation) performances are stimulated by feelings akin to wonder and awe?" asks Goodall. "And if the chimpanzees could discuss these feelings among themselves, might not this lead to an animistic worship of the elements?

... Day after day in the wilderness, I became ever more attuned to the great Spiritual Power that I felt around me—the Power that is worshiped as God, Allah, Tao, Brahma, the Great Spirit, the Creator and so on."

I came to believe that all living things possess a spark of that Spiritual Power. We humans call that spark, in ourselves, a 'soul.' And if this is so it is surely true for other animals..."

after a two month attempt at having cable after never having a tv before in my adult life, we've decided to kill it. i'm feeling okay to have all the reality shows and oprah out of my system (oh man will i miss oprah). i wanted more time for creating, journaling, writing, oming.... the quote below spoke to the feelings pretty perfectly."Most of us spend many hours each week watching celebrated athletes playing in enormous stadiums. Instead of making music, we listen to platinum records cut by millionaire musicians. Instead of making art, we go to admire paintings that brought in the highest bids at the latest auction. We do not run risks acting on our beliefs, but occupy hours each day watching actors who pretend to have adventures, engaged in mock-meaningful action.

This vicarious participation is able to mask, at least temporarily, the underlying emptiness of wasted time. But it is a very pale substitute for attention invested in real challenges. The flow experience that results from the use of skills leads to growth; passive entertainment leads nowhere. Collectively we are wasting each year the equivalent of millions of years of human consciousness. The energy that could be used to focus on complex goals, to provide enjoyable growth, is squandered on patterns of stimulation that only mimic reality."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

live the questions

...I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke

i ching- hexagram 49

No revolution in outer things is possible without prior revolution in one's inner way of being. Whatever change you aspire to in your affairs must be preceded by a change in heart, an active deepening and strengthening of your resolve to meet every event with equanimity, detachment, and innocent goodwill. When this spiritual poise is achieved within, magnificent things are possible without.

Hexagram 49-KO

the sun...

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."

Look what happens
with a love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.

~Hafiz
The Gift

what a genius

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe," limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.

-Einstein

nothing is what we thought

“The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought. That’s what we’re going to discover again and again. Nothing is what we thought.” -Pema Chodron

rumi's guesthouse.

This being human is a guesthouse.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-Rumi

christmas on friday the 13th.

girl scout cookies are about to get delivered. mmmmm.

inspired.

Feeling like going home to write... and write... and write...

Here's one by Hafiz, the man...


One day the sun admitted,

I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence

That has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in the darkness,

The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!

mary oliver mmm.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver

new life goal?

to go to TED... here's another talk for today. isabel allende is ah-mazzzinngg. maybe i need to write my first book soon?

creative juices.

i love this woman... check this out if you are always creating or dreaming about a million art projects you never get to. she will for sure inspire!

homework

Push hard to get better, become smarter, grow your devotion to the truth, fuel your commitment to beauty, refine your emotional intelligence, hone your dreams, negotiate with your shadow, cure your ignorance, shed your pettiness, heighten your drive to look for the best in people, and soften your heart—even as you always accept yourself for exactly who you are with all of your so-called imperfections.

-Rob Brezsny

little house

i want to live in a compact house in the woods one day.

spring sunset

loving a spring sunset to the tune of birds chirping... 70 degree breeze drifting through the open windows.

blooming

warm weather = spring. can't wait.

mindfulness mindfulness

this nytimes article definitely reminds me of when i was swimming in yoga school practicing.

writer's block

i need to do some headstands to get my poetry flowing again.

my dog is a buddha

see him dreaming of love?

guru writes to kfc

thich naht hanh brings light everywhere, even to kfc.