Wednesday, November 18, 2009

SNOW IN THE FOOTHILLS / MEDITATION

















From:

the "Who laughs this way: Ho Ho Ho" koan on:

Must Be Santa

to the "O Little Town of Bethlehem" koan:

How silently, oh how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

(Bob sings "Amen" after this, the last song on the CD)

It's all there on "Christmas in the Heart."

"The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it."
(Sri Nisargadatta)

5 comments:

Loren said...

Love that line by Sri Nisargadatta.

Guess I'll have to put another book on my wish list.

Anonymous said...

I also love the quote. As for Santa Dylan, it's beyond my powers of description, am. As in: how did he manage to go on singing with his tongue so deeply embedded in his cheek?

cheers from Graulhet.

robin andrea said...

That quote by Sri Nisargadatta is so perfectly beautiful. Lovely photo of the foothills too.

Taradharma said...

oh, I cry for Bob....

am said...

Loren: Oddly enough, on the day my father died I received a call from Village Books, letting me know that a copy of I Am That, by Sri Nisargadatta, was waiting for me. I first read it in the days and weeks and months after my father died. Something tells me it's time to read it again.

R.L.: I think that Santa Dylan comes from the lineage of Nasruddin, Tales of the Hasidim, George Burns, Zen Master and Reinhold Niebuhr and who knows who else. Masked and Anonymous.

robin andrea: I first read that quote in a book by Stephen Levine. I believe the book was called Who Dies? in the early 1980's. It stays with me.

TaraDharma: My guess is that Bob has been doing some crying, too. Could it be that the young man being chased down the stairs, throwing glasses, keeping people at a distance with a fireplace tool, swinging from the chandelier and jumping out the window to escape is an aspect of Bob?

The man jumping through the window and running made me think of the final scene in the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."