“The breezes blow in perfect harmony. They are neither hot nor cold. They are at the same time calm and fresh, sweet and soft. They are neither fast nor slow. When they blow on the nets made of many kinds of jewels, the trees emit the innumerable sounds of the subtle and sublime Dharma and spread myriad sweet and fine perfumes. Those who hear these sounds spontaneously cease to raise the dust of tribulation and impurity. When the breezes touch their bodies they all attain a bliss comparable to that accompanying a monk’s attainment of the samadhi of extinction.
“Moreover, when they blow, these breezes scatter flowers all over, filling this buddha-field. These flowers fall in patterns according to their colors, without ever being mixed up. They have delicate hues and a wonderful fragrance. When one steps on these petals the feet sink four inches. When one lifts the foot, the petals return to their original shape and position. When these flowers stop falling, the ground suddenly opens up, and they disappear as if by magic. They remain pure and do not decay, because, at a given time, the breezes blow again and scatter the flowers. And the same process occurs six times a day.
“Moreover, many jewel lotuses fill this world system. Each jewel blossom has a hundred thousand million peals. The radiant light emanating from their petals is of countless different colors. Blue colored flowers give out a blue light. White colored flowers give out a white light. Others have deeper colors and light, and some are of yellow, red, and purple color and light. But the splendor if each of these lights surpasses the radiance of the sun and the moon. From every flower issue thirty-six hundred thousand million rays of light. From each one of these rays issue thirty-six hundred thousand million buddhas…”
from the Sukhāvatīvyūhaḥ Sūtra
“The earth has been there for a long time. She is mother to all of us. She knows everything. The Buddha asked the earth to be his witness by touching her with his hand when he had some doubt and fear before his awakening. The earth appeared to him as a beautiful mother. In her arms she carried flowers and fruit, birds and butterflies, and many different animals, and offered them to the Buddha. The Buddha’s doubts and fears instantly disappeared. Whenever you feel unhappy, come to the earth and ask for her help. Touch her deeply, the way the Buddha did. Suddenly, you too will see the earth with all her flowers and fruit, trees and birds, animals and all the living beings that she has produced. All these things she offers to you. You have more opportunities to be happy than you ever thought. The earth shows her love to you and her patience. The earth is very patient. She sees you suffer, she helps you, and she protects you. When we die, she takes us back into her arms.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
"Our planet is our house, and we must keep it in order and take care of it if we are genuinely concerned about happiness for ourselves, our children, our friends and other sentient beings who share this great house with us."
- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
“...turn to Conceptual Photography through Zen camera of the mind. Or take up gardening––which is surely the most perfect practice of Zen outside of non-gardening.”
-photographer Edward Putzar
།ས་གཞི་སྤོས་ཀྱིས་བྱུགས་ཤིང་མེ་ཏོག་བཀྲམ།
།རི་རབ་གླིང་བཞི་ཉི་ཟླས་བརྒྱན་པ་འདི།
།སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་དུ་དམིགས་ཏེ་དབུལ་བར་བགྱི།
།འགྲོ་ཀུན་རྣམ་དག་ཞིང་ལ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཤོག།།
།ཨི་དཾ་གུ་རུ་རཏྣ་མཎྜལ་ཀཾ་ནི་རྱཱ་ཏ་ཡཱ་མི།
Every physical atom, in its incessant movements produces a sound which is a song, so that if we had the power of spiritual hearing (genuine clairaudience), we would be able to hear this unimaginably grand symphony of sounds. In such a state we would hear the grass growing and the opening of a flower would itself be a marvelous natural orchestral performance. When you are lost or caught up in an emotional storm or contracted in self-centeredness or plagued by obsessive thoughts, notice what happens when you step outside or go for a walk and pay attention to the sky, the air, the light, the movement of wind, the feel of grass under your feet. Tread softly for we tread on something subtle, ancient, and slow.
Reawakening our connection with nature spirits helps us to live more harmoniously and consciously. We become kinder to the planet because we remember that we’re part of the whole.
“In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room….
This time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.
`O Tiger-lily,’ said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, `I wish you could talk!’
`We can talk,’ said the Tiger-lily: `when there’s anybody worth talking to.”
Alice was so astonished that she could not speak for a minute: it quite seemed to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, she spoke again, in a timid voice — almost in a whisper. `And can all the flowers talk?’
`As well as all can,’ said the Tiger-lily. `And a great deal louder.’
`It isn’t manners for us to begin, you know,’ said the Rose, `and I really was wondering when you’d speak! Said I to myself, “Her face has got some sense in it, thought it’s not a clever one!” Still, you’re the right colour, and that goes a long way.’
`I don’t care about the colour,’ the Tiger-lily remarked. `If only her petals curled up a little more, she’d be all right.’”
William Blake wrote of seeing a world in a grain of sand, holding “Infinity in the palm of your hand.” It speaks to me of infinite life both on Earth, and in earth, the ceaseless abundance within a speck of soil, the infinity of life, from seed to bud to flower to seed, wheeling on through aeons. It suggests the unbreakable cycle, the unending and unending nature of life, creating infinity from within itself.
“I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own time.”- Ovid, Metamorphoses Book I
“The mysteries of the Great and the Little World are distinguished only by the form in which they manifest themselves; for they are only one thing, one being. “
- Paracelsus
“If someone has an empty brain—and because of this is vexed by insanity, and is delirious—take the whole grains of wheat and cook them in water. Place these cooked grains around his whole head, tying a cloth over them. His brain may be reinvigorated by their vital fluid, and he may recover his health. Do this until he returns to his right mind.”
- Hildegard of Bingen, Physica
“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep.” - John Milton, Paradise Lost
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” - Confucius
見るところ花にあらずと云ふことなし、
思ふところ月にあらずと云ふことなし。
Miru tokoro hana ni arazu to iu koto nashi,
omou tokoro tsuki ni arazu to iu koto nashi
There is nothing you can see that is not a flower;
There is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
- Matsui Basho -