"Pay no thought of tomorrow," Jesus.is said to have said that, cause tomorrow may never come as Putin in his pissed off mood might press the wrong button or Biden in his senile mode might do the same or Netanyahu in his las bid to stay in office might just say fuck it, hang them all! So live today, be here now, dig you nose and not your grave and stay put not kaput! Eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are sleepy. Sit and watch the grass grow, that was what the Roshi used to say, and he should know cause all he did was sit on his butt all day long staring into nothingness. The question is how do i keep this monkey mind from rambling on and on in my mind, one of the questions that is still what I am grappling with sine the day I asked seriously , who am I? Yes If you are still reading and it still makes sense to you, well good luck cause I am still here only this time instead of listening to Pink Floyd I am now listening to the verses from the Holy Quran from my note pad at one thirty in the morning and tomorrow is the Hajj or Aidil Adzha celebration all over the world among the devoted Muslims, it is an auspicious morning and I am happy that I remembered. How it must be for those in the Gaza, the Sudan, Syria, Yemen and the rest of the Muslim world be sacrificing their cattle to the Lord of the Worlds if they have any to make the sacrifice. Regardless the blessings of the Allah{awj} be upon all the Muslims here and there may they find solace and comfort in no matter their condition or situation may be for Allah is All Compassionate and Merciful.
Now I am listening to the Ayah Al Rahman and i can follow a few verses here and there but on the whole I love just listening over and over to the beautiful sound of the verses as they are read in sweet and beautiful voices, the best in the world from the YouTube video. What is the purpose? Why listen to what i do not understand over and over every early in the morning, like i am doing now while making this post? I fell it to grounding for my attention, like a background music, only it is the words of the All Mighty recited in a most melodious way so as to mesmerize the mind and keep it less busy. I wish I had learned to read the Quran in its original form. This reminds e of the time I recited the Al Fatihah, the first surah in the Quran before a crowd of over two hundred people cramped up into the Zendo or meditation hall at Green Gulch Zen Center when I was a practicing student there. Green Gulch Zen Community played host to great American Poets which included the famous Hippie era icon Alen Ginsberg. It was held on the last day of the seven days Sesshin or retreat for the San Francisco Zen Community and sp the locals were still in the enlightened if no awakened state of consciousness still dressed in the robes that had been worn for seven days all dark and somber in appearance. It was like waking up from a long nightmarish struggle of sitting meditation facing our darkest shadows while facing the wall all day long and exposed into a gathering of Poets over two hundred of them from all over the Western Coast of the United States, like a gathering of the Grateful Dead.
Throughout the event I sat still on my Zafu still in the state of waking up from one long trip through a tunnel where I had sat and faced whatever it was that had arose in my consciousness along with some ten or fifteen of my fellow Zen Brothers and sisters. I sat still observing and listening to quite a few of the people who were gathered in the meditation hall stood and made a recitation from what they had written or memorized, beautiful lines of salutations and I was absorbed by the whole event. I felt the need to become involved with the happening that was going on around me with a sea of people sitting there dead quiet listening to the poems being sang out randomly by those present it felt exhilarating to say the least. I felt deep in my lower belly rumbling or more like a bubbling and it rose to my throat area and before i could stop myself i was reading the verse from the Al Quran, the Surah Al Fatihah. As soon as the words Bismillah Hir Rahman nir Rahim came out of my mouth there was total silence within and out side of my being, it was like i was in a vacuum and as well known among my fellow Zen students, about to make a fool of myself again. I was known as the 'Disrupter' at the Zen place. There was a part of me that was conscious of it happening and there was a part that wanted it to happen and as i started rciting the verse i felt like the little boy growing up in the Muslim community as the only Buddhist in the family and the neighborhood. I loved to read this verse when i was a child learning from listening to the radio and when at the funeral or sometimes at the mosque when I had the chance to join the rest of the ummah in prayer. It was the 'Little Kid' in me that recited the verse on that day!
When it was over and I opened my eyes and there from the end of the hall a pair of eyes locked into mine as I saw Alen Ginsberg staring with a big smile on his face and yelling, "You just had to do that didn't you? Shalom!" It was all over and everyone started to walk out of the Zendo and I followed worried sick in my my tummy that i was going to be reprimanded for my bad boy act again. Then out of the blue a hand grabbed my arm and the owner's face came up close to my ear and whispered, "Qulhu Allah u Ahad! Allahu Samad, Lam Ya lid, Walam ulad, Walam Ya kulahu, Kufuan Ahad. Hello, my name is Gabriel and I am from Hungary. it is nice to meet you." What do you know! I met Gabriel from Hungary in the Zendo of the Green Gulch Green Dragon Zen Temple! He stayed around for three days but we never talked, just look and smiled and waved from distance, he liked to do Yoga every morning and evening and his looks reminded me Senor Rayo, the Brazilian mystic man I met in the small town of Esperanza in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador where i once had un unforgettable magic mushroom trip I called it 'Meeting with the Nagual." Gabriel from Hugary had long blond hair too and reminded me very much of the Jesus Christ look of the Western Christ in most pictures and in churches, the Blonde Messiah, i used to tell myself whenever i looked upon this image. The very image itself dimmed the lights for me with Christianity and the Crucifixion imagery, I always felt it's a human flaw that God had decided to test the Christians in their faith and understanding. Right uNDERSTANDING! as the Buddha had set as the First of the Precepts in the Eightfold Path, the path towards Salvation. Ydda! Yadda!
Ayat Al Ikhlas
Can you look beyond images?
Can you transcend concepts and beliefs?
Can you see what is beyond you?
Can you tell the Real from the Unreal?
The Truth is in the Silence of the Here and Now,
So pay no thought of Tomorrow.
"For wherever God keeps me, I shall carry on. For the will of the Father is my will."
- Paramahmsa Yogananda.
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