L'Shanah Tovah

Wake Up Time!

お早う。 

© Nicole Raisin Stern

1996. Black & white line drawing.

Fountain pen on hemp & cereal straw paper.

Teapot no. 69 (569) ~ pouring tea in the red rocks

"I'll flow to you as a river * I'll curl around your shore * I'll pour myself out to you * We'll become an Ocean Door"

***

The Hebrew Psalm and the psalm translation(119:34) is one I found while counting the Omer this Omer-counting season. It is from Rabbi Yael Levy's "Way In" Omer emails that I received.

**********

and here's an extract of the poem by Antonio Machado:

Extracto de Proverbios y cantares (XXIX)

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.

The Very Short Sutra on the Meeting of the Buddha and the Goddess


Thus I have made up:
Once the Buddha was walking along the 
forest path in the Oak Grove at Ojai, walking without 
arriving anywhere
or having any thought of arriving or not arriving
and lotuses shining with morning dew
miraculously appeared under every step
soft as silk beneath the toes of the Buddha
When suddenly, out of the turquoise sky,
dancing in front of his half-shut inward-looking 
eyes, shimmering like a rainbow
or a spider's web
transparent as the dew on a lotus flower,
--the Goddess appeared quivering
like a hummingbird in the air before him
She, for she was surely a she
as the Buddha could clearly see
with his eye of discriminating awareness wisdom,
was mostly red in color
though when the light shifted
she flashed like a rainbow.
She was naked except 
for the usual flower ornaments
Goddesses wear
Her long hair
was deep blue, her two eyes fathomless pits of space
and her third eye a bloodshot
ring of fire
The Buddha folded his hands together
and greeted the Goddess thus:
"O Goddess, why are you blocking my path.
Before I saw you I was happily going nowhere.
Now I'm not sure where to go."
"You can go around me,"
said the Goddess, twirling on her heels like a bird
darting away,
but just a little way away,
"or you can come after me.
This is my forest too,
you can't pretend I'm not here."
With that the Buddha sat
supple as a snake
solid as a rock
beneath a Bo tree
that sprang full-leaved
to shade him.
"Perhaps we should have a chat,"
he said.
"After years of arduous practice
at the time of the morning star
I penetrated reality, and now..."
"Not so fast, Buddha.
I am reality.
The Earth stood still,
the oceans paused,
the wind itself listened
--a thousand arhats, bodhisattvas, and dakinis
magically appeared to hear
what would happen in the conversation.
"I know I take my life in my hands."
said the Buddha.
"But I am known as the Fearless One
--so here goes."
And he and the Goddess
without further words
exchanged glances.
Light rays like sunbeams
shot forth
so bright that even
Sariputra, the All-Seeing One,
had to turn away.
And then they exchanged thoughts
and the illumination was as bright as a diamond candle.
And then they exchanged mind
And there was a great silence as vast as the universe
that contains everything
And then they exchanged bodies
And clothes
And the Buddha arose
as the Goddess
and the Goddess
arose as the Buddha
and so on back and forth
for a thousand hundred thousand kalpas.
If you meet the Buddha
you meet the Goddess.
If you meet the Goddess
you meet the Buddha.
Not only that. This:
The Buddha is the Goddess,
the Goddess is the Buddha.
And not only that. This:
The Buddha is emptiness
the Goddess is bliss,
the Goddess is emptiness
the Buddha is bliss.
And that is what
and what-not you are
It's true.
So here comes the mantra of the Goddess and the Buddha, the unsurpassed dual-mantra. Just to say this mantra, just to hear this mantra once, just to hear one word of this mantra once makes everything the way it truly is: OK.
So here it is:
Earth-walker/sky-walker
Hey, silent one, Hey, great talker
Not two/Not one
Not separate/Not apart
This is the heart
Bliss is emptiness
Emptiness is bliss
Be your breath, Ah
Smile, Hey
And relax, Ho
And remember this: You can't miss.

~Rick Fields, printed in Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism & Ecology, pp. 3-7.

Sefirot סְפִירוֹת

Elohai Neshama
© Nicole Raisin Stern
Colored pencil and fountain pen on paper.

Adon Olam ~ Teapot no. 61 (561)

Adon Olam ~ Teapot no. 61 (561) ~ Tea with the Buddha babies

...Wondrous messengers that they are... 

Thank you, Yuki, thank you, Jesse, thank you, Bodhi,

 for coming through today; it's been a while.

© Nicole Raisin Stern

Colored pencil and black fountain pen ink on paper 

****

Adon Olam: Hymn or Responsive Chant (by Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi)

You were cosmic LORD, YAH Malakh, before there even was a world
Then Your will all things did make, YAH Melekh we call You now.
Once when all things will cease to be YAH Yimlokh still true will be
You were, You are, eternally resplendent to infinity.
You alone, there are not two to join as friends, as lovers do.
Beginningless and without end You keep all one by plan and strength.
You are my GOD, REDEEMER, Life Protecting me in war, in strife.
My holy haven and my flag, my cup of health for what I lack.
Into Your hand I trust my breath, You breathe in me by night by day.
My body is Your tool, Your gift. With You as mine I'm not afraid.

mystical tea

Teapot no. 60 (560) ~ mystical tea 

© Nicole Raisin Stern

Black fountain pen ink and colored pencil on paper

Teapot no. 59 (559) ~ Tea on bamboo mat

Teapot no. 558 ~ tea with plum blossoms

© Nicole Raisin Stern

Teapot no. 58 (558) of my 6th Set of 100 Teapots

Watercolor and fountain pen ink on paper.

Living Waters Hamsa

Mayim Chayyim

"Living Waters"

מים חיים

Watercolor and fountain pen ink on paper.

by Neshama נשמה

Nicole Raisin Stern

V'achalta - Grateful Satedness

 Teapot no. 557 ~ Grateful satedness

 V’achalta, v’sa-va ta oo’vay-rach-ta

A Blessing After the Meal 

by Hannah Tiferet

"We ate when we were hungry and now we're satisfied.

We thank the Source of Blessing for all that S/He provides.

V'achalta v'sa-va-ta oo-vay-rach ta....

Hunger is a yearning in body and soul.

Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit make us whole.

V'achalta v'sa-va-ta oo-vay-rach ta....

Giving and receiving we open up our hands.

From Seedtime through Harvest we're partners with the land.

V'achalta v'sa-va-ta oo-vay-rach ta....

We share in a vision of wholeness and release

Where every child is nourished and we all live in peace.

V'achalta v'sa-va-ta oo-vay-rach ta.... "

* * *
 
A joyous way of acknowledging the food that we eat by saying Birkat HaMazon, the Blessing After Meals.

The Bodhisattva Path

May I be the doctor and the medicine,
And may I be the nurse
For all sick beings in the world
Until everyone is healed.

May a rain of food and drink descend
To clear away the pain of thirst and hunger,
And during the eon of famine
May I myself change into food and drink.

May I become an inexhaustible treasure
For those who are poor and destitute.
May I turn into all things they could need,
And may these be placed close beside them.

Without any sense of loss or attachment,
I shall give up my body and enjoyments
As well as all my virtues of the three times
For the sake of benefiting all.

By giving up all, sorrow is transcended,
And my mind will realize the sorrowless state.
It is best that I now give everything to all beings
In the same way as I shall at death.

May I be a protector for those without one,
A guide for all travelers on the way.
May I be a bridge, a boat, a ship
For all who wish to cross the water.

May I be an island for those who seek refuge
And a lamp for those desiring light.
May I be a bed for all who wish to rest
And a slave for all who want a slave.

May I be a wishing jewel, a magic vase,
Powerful mantras and great medicine.
May I become a wish-fulfilling tree
And a cow of plenty for the world.

Just like space
And the great elements such as earth,
May I always support life
Of all the boundless creatures.

And until they pass away from pain,
May I always be the source of life
For all the realms of varied beings
That reach unto the ends of space.

~ Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life 

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me

what you do for a living.

I want to know

what you ache for

and if you dare to dream

of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me

how old you are.

I want to know

if you will risk

looking like a fool

for love

for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me

what planets are

squaring your moon...

I want to know

if you have touched

the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened

by life’s betrayals

or have become shrivelled and closed

from fear of further pain.

I want to know

if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.

I want to know

if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you

to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us

to be careful

to be realistic

to remember the limitations

of being human.

It doesn’t interest me

if the story you are telling me

is true.

I want to know if you can

disappoint another

to be true to yourself.

If you can bear

the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless

and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty

even when it is not pretty

every day.

And if you can source your own life

from its presence.

I want to know

if you can live with failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon,

“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me

to know where you live

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised to the bone

and do what needs to be done

to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me

who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire

with me

and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me

where or what or with whom

you have studied.

I want to know

what sustains you

from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know

if you can be alone

with yourself

and if you truly like

the company you keep

in the empty moments.

By Oriah © Mountain Dreaming,

from the book The Invitation

published by HarperONE, San Francisco,

1999

My favorite day

“What day is it,?" asked Pooh.
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.”

Thank you, Shirley...

 Seal heads are dark corks
dozens bobbing above the golden mirror
of the sea, reflecting me too
in their calm unworried eyes

As sky deepens to indigo, then purple,
bodies and drift wood merge into black silhouettes.
Star-silvered waves leave their footprints
and talk to me in quiet hisses
i listen. i listen.
"We are sisters of the sea" they say

~ Shirley Tudor

*  *  *
[written sometime in 2003]

They sing and dance

Listening to the letters

We need space, they say.
That's why we do not touch.

....Alef-Bet-Gimmel-Hay....

We need to be close enough --
To whisper in your heart

All day.

As you breathe, we breathe
in the white spaces
Where all color forms.

~ Nicole Raisin Stern

The Seven of Pentacles

Under a sky the color of pea soup
she is looking at her work growing away there
actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans
as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.
If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,

if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,

if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,
if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees,
then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.

Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,
a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us
interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:

reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.

This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after
the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.

~ Marge Piercy ~

from the Universe this morning

"The top 10 things dead people want to tell 
living people, Nicole, are:

1. They're not dead.
2. They're sorry for any pain they caused.
3. There's no such thing as a devil or hell.
4. They were ready to go when they went.
5. You're not ready.
6. They finally understand what they were missing.
7. Nothing can prepare you for the beauty of the moment you arrive.
8. Don't try to understand this now, but life is exceedingly fair.
9. Your pets are as crazy, brilliant and loving, here, as they were there.
10. Life really is all about love, but not just loving those who love you...

In their own words,
    The Universe

 They also wanted you to know that they really do show up as orbs in some of your photos, Nicole, but so does water. Quite a talkative bunch."

A Lotus for You, Sea Turtle

Thank you, Shirley, for teaching me this song and for singing it with me. What a precious gift to have sung it with you.

*
Whenever I wake up
I feel happy,
aware of my eyes
I feel happy,
aware of my health
I feel happy,
because I have learned to look deeply.
whenever I walk 
I feel happy
whenever I sit
I feel happy,
whenever I rest 
I feel happy,
because I have learned to look deeply.


~words by Thich Nhat Hanh





from ~ A basket full of plums: Songs for the practice of mindfulness
*

 Shirley finishing up one of her sketches at Morgan's where we stopped to have tea and hot cocoa during our "Sketch Crawl" day in Monterey, December, 2005.

From my flickr journal, January, 2006: "My friend, Shirley, and I went to Pho King in Seaside last night for dinner. While we were waiting for our pho to arrive, I took out my ball point pen and began doing a contour drawing on the white paper placemat. I see white paper, I draw. At home, I colored it in with my colored pencils. The arc marks on her face are from my pho bowl."

 Shirley on the steps of the Osio Theatre on Alvarado St. in Monterey showing off our 2nd sketches of the day of a "Sketch Crawl", December 2005.

 Shirley, the ever-curious nature lover, botanist, with a fallen giant saguaro at Saguaro National Monument in Tucson on her trip to visit us (me, dog Yuki and cat Jesse) in Tucson, December, 2002.

L-R: Anna, Nicole, and Shirley in front of the President's Office at Monterey Institute of International Studies. Spring, 2005

*

Shirley and I met at a six-day Thich Nhat Hanh Meditation retreat in August of 2002. We were roommates at the retreat, and dharma sisters.

*

Shirley Tudor

September 1, 1962 ~ December 10, 2011