Hay-Ku of the Day (Memorial Day 2017 Tribute to TSGT Clyde D, Alloway)

To those called to fight

In Vietnam, "There were no good

Wars, only good men!"

[Rich Note: A Memorial Day Tribute to Technical Sgt. Clyde B. Alloway, a long-ago friend, fellow aircrew member and comrade in arms, who didn't make it back from Vietnam:

After 46 years, my general recollection of Vietnam is 3 months of "learning the job," 6 months of "cowboys and indians," and 3 months of a “guy could get killed doing this." What I do remember quite vividly, however, is the night of June 6th, 1970, the night we lost TSgt Clyde B. Alloway during an AC-119K Gunship emergency bailout, after takeoff from DaNang Air Base.

The following poem was written as a tribute to Clyde in 1982 for a 4th of July POW/MIA speech [which can pretty much be summed up: "There are no good wars, only good men!" (a line mentioned during the talk a reporter asked to use)] I was honored make:

To One Left Behind

To one left behind,

Who lives on in my mind;

To one I left there,

Beyond worry and care;

Who lives on in my heart,

And from whom I can’t part. 

Though not with me here,

He has nothing to fear,

His duty is done,

And mine only begun;

For though gone from my sight,

I’ll still carry his light;

Nor forget what he’s done,

As a true, faithful son.

1982 Rich Hay

 Have to admit feeling a lot like the aged Private Ryan did at the end of "Saving Private Ryan," with regard to the 45 plus years of life I have been blessed to live since that “long ago night when our plane and crew went down and one of us didn’t make it home."]

http://www.virtualwall.org/da/AllowayCD01a.htm 

http://rfhay333.blogspot.com/?m=1

Hay-Ku of the Day (Life in the Balance)

Ambulance passing,

Lights flashing in the night, 

Life in the balance.

***

Abiding in the

Balance of Awareness where

Ego Disappears.

Abiding in the

Balance of Awareness that

Is with us Always.

Abiding in the

Balance of Awareness where

The Many are One.

***

Resting in Peace at

The Heart of Awareness where

Extremes disappears.

Resting in Peace at

The Heart of Awareness where

There is Only One.

Re: Bill Samuel on Balance (from "The Child Within Us Lives")

"To find BALANCE is to find Identity—and Identity leads the way to God. 

"Surely ten thousand books have been written over the centuries about identity—what it really is and how to find it. 

Essentially, the world's holy books are about identity, the “real man” made in the image and likeness of God..."

"When one has found the balance, he has found himself. One is the point of balance between all “the five trees in the midst of the garden.” Where is the balance between inside outside if it isn't this very Awareness I am? The inside passes through this Awareness to the outside and returns from the outside and passes through Me again. 

"Where is the balance between above and below? Right here as Awareness, midway between microcosm and macrocosm. And where is the balance between male and female? Here as Awareness. Certainly not here as this body. This body appears more male than female. That body seems more female than male. But, upon careful examination, the balance IS found within the body physical, the body being both male and female but tipped bodily one way or the other. Between the extremes of gender lies Awareness, this consciousness of being, perfectly balanced Identity which is being all there is to both male and female.

"And so it is with all imbalances. The balance is found right here as Awareness, Identity. When the ancients said one's aim in life was to “Know Thyself,” they were exactly right. One finds himself, Identity, and finds he is the balance between Spirit and matter, first and last, inside and outside, above and below, objective and subjective, the macrocosm and microcosm. He will also find (slowly) that his Self, as Awareness, precedes all tangibility in time. Awareness is prior to the body we seem to be looking out of.

"One finds the divinity in himself before he sees it in another—and when he has actually found it in himself, he sees in in all others. But of course, we think we see it in others long before we see it in ourselves. A letter is here from a lady who is certain she has found God living in a commune on the West Coast, and she would have me agree that he is God. People are all the image of God, but not one image is God. God is God and people are life's confirmation, life's “image” as that image appears on the tangible scene. The godly man confirms God more obviously than do the warrior and thief, but to the godly, the sinner is as much the image of the Image of God as the saint is."

Haiku of the Day ("Stop, Look and Listen!")

RED: Stop, when you are confused;

YELLOW: ASK, "Why am I confused?"

GREEN: GO, only when at Peace.

RED: STOP, when you are upset;

YELLOW: ASK, "Why am I  upset?"

GREEN: GO, only when at Peace.

RED: STOP, when you are disturbed;

YELLOW: ASK, "Why am I disturbed?"

GREEN: GO, only when at Peace.

Re: Syd Bank's Three Principle Inspiration:

"RED light signal …STOP when angry! 

"YELLOW light signal…What might this mean?

"GREEN light signal…GO ahead when at peace!"

Hay-Ku of the Day (Thought Spawned Living)

Realize that "what you

Think" causes "how you feel" and

"Everything changes."

"Realize" that "what you

Feel" depends on "how you think"

And "You are Home Free."

***

"Thinking" that "feeling"

"Depends on circumstance" when

"It depends on thought."

Believing circumstance

Causes what I feel and think

Is living backwards.

***

What's seen depends on

How I look at things and that's

A function of thought.

The way I see things

Depends on what I think and 

Feel about Living.

Related Three Principle Quotes:

"What someone says simply reveals the way they see life."

"Instead of taking one’s cues from external circumstances, from an outside-in vantage point in life, one cultivates an inward outlook."

"Personal thought is the point at which the formless becomes form."

(From the "Inward Outlook" by Laura Basha)

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Wisdom of Silence)

Alignment with the

"Wisdom of Silence" lets "Life

Flow Lightheartedly."

Alignment with the

"Wisdom of Silence" lets "Peace 

Flow like a River."

***

Alignment with the

"Wisdom of Silence" restores 

"The Kingdom of God."

Alignment with the

"Wisdom of Silence" restores 

"The Glory of God."

Alignment with the

"Wisdom of Silence" turns the 

"Desert to Garden."

***

"No Big Deal, One Way

Or the Other," as "Only

The Balance Matters."

No Big Whoop!, One Way

Or Or the Other," if "Only

The Balance Matters."

RE1: "This deeper understanding reveals how to keep one’s bearings and results in a serene demeanor and attitude, thus affecting the environment through which one walks. To return to the tuning fork analogy, the vibrational rate of a tuning fork initiates the same vibrational rate of sound in another tuning fork, alignment with the Wisdom of the Silence allows us to flow within Its lighthearted resonance. This catalyzes the same lighthearted feeling in another, with the subtlety of being “no big deal.” When something desirable is no big deal, there isn’t much to resist—in fact, it’s quite the opposite."

(From the "Inward Outlook" Laura Basha)

(2) "No amount of technological progress will cure the hatred that eats away the vitals of materialistic society like a spiritual cancer. The only cure is, and must always be, spiritual.  There is not much use talking to men about God and Love if they are not able to listen.  The ears with which one hears the message of the Gospel are hidden in man's heart, and these ears do not hear anything unless they are favored with a certain interior solitude and silence."

(From "Thoughts in Solitude" by Thomas Merton)

(3) "God hears the silent meditations of our heart, no question about that, but God gives us a way to clap our hands to the Divine Rhythm so that the tangible scene responds quickly—and would one even be thinking about “healing” unless something were amiss in the tangible scene to turn our thoughts to God and the Truth?"

"...The balance is found right here as Awareness, Identity...When one has found the balance, he has found himself...and finds he is the balance between Spirit and matter, first and last, inside and outside, above and below, objective and subjective, the macrocosm and microcosm...Where is the balance between inside and outside if it isn't this very Awareness I am?..."

(From "The Child Within Us Lives" by Bill Samuel)

Hay-Ku of the Day [The Light of Awareness I Am (OOMM2)]

Mental ignorance

Of the Light of Awareness 

Causes all darkness.

A Mental Mirror 

Which absorbs Light will project 

Darkness in its place. 

The Light of Conscious 

Awareness I Am is All --

The rest is darkness. 

The Light of Being 

Consciously Aware Is How 

I Know That I Am.

(1) Scripture-Wise:

" In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." (John 1:419 KJV)

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." (Matthew 5:14 KJV)

"As long as I Am in the world, I Am the light of the world." (John 9:5 KJV"

(2) Sri Nisargadatta- Wise

"In the immensity of consciousness a light appears, a tiny point that moves rapidly and traces shapes, thoughts and feelings, concepts and ideas, like a pen writing on paper. And the ink that leaves a trace is memory. You are that tiny point and by your movement the world is ever re-created. Stop moving and there will be no world. Look within and you will find that the point of light is the reflection of the immensity of light in the body as the sense ‘I am’. There is only light all else appears."

"To be the point of light (reflected as the sense ‘I am’) tracing the world is ‘turiya’. To be the light itself is ‘turiyatita’. But of what use are names when reality is so near?

-- Sri Nisargadatta

[Rich Note: The Sri Nisargadatta quotes are from Pradeep Apte's exhaustive collection of "I Am" references from the following 10 book transcriptions:

1. "I Am That" edited by Maurice Frydman 

2. "Seeds of Consciousness" edited by Jean Dunn 

3. "Prior to Consciousness" edited by Jean Dunn 

4. "Consciousness and the Absolute" edited by Jean Dunn 

5. "The Experience of Nothingness" edited by Robert Powell 

6. "The Nectar of Immortality" edited by Robert Powell 

7. "The Ultimate Medicine" edited by Robert Powell 

8. "Beyond Freedom" edited by Maria Jory 

9. "I am Unborn" edited by Pradeep Apte 

10. "Gleanings from Nisargadatta" edited by Mark West

Here's a related down link to "I AM":

http://stillnessspeaks.com/images/uploaded/file/iamquotesofnisargadatta.pdf. ]

Hay-Ku of the Day [Self-Reflections in a Golden Eye (OOMM Oldies 1)]

All I now see are 

Self-reflected images 

Of divine being.

A bright, blazing sun,

Mirrored in a mountain lake,

 Self-reflecting glory. 

Shinning clarity, 

Mind void of self-reflection, 

I know who I am. 

Only a still mind 

Reflects a perfect image 

Of divine glory. 

Pure white light hidden 

In a prismatic rainbow 

Of endless color. 

The Wonder of All 

Reflected in the Many 

Glorifies the One. 

Divine reflections

Shatter in turbulent minds as 

Sunlight on the sea.

Hay-Ku of the Day ("Silence Is Golden")

"Silence is Golden"

Because It's the Ground State of

All Conscious Being.

***

Silence is the Formless

Substrate experienced by

Mind as Consciousness.

Pure Silence is the

Formless Substrate conceived by

Mind as Consciousness.

Heartfelt Silence is

The Formless Consciousness that

Mantles Awareness.

***

Still Awareness knows

Palpable Silence and Self-

Awareness is Birthed.

Still Awareness knows

Palpable Silence and gives

Birth to Consciousness.

Still Awareness knows

Palpable Silence and gives

Birth to Self-Knowledge.

***

Existence begins

With Still Awareness knowing 

Palpable Silence.

Silence is the Womb

In which Seed Potential is

Brought into Being.

***

Mind Being Aware

Of Silence replicates the

"Zero and the One."

Mind Being Aware

Of Silence replicates the

First Primal Union.

Mind Being Aware

Of Silence replicates the

Father-Mother God.

Max Picard-Wise:

"Each time we enter into the Silence, we open ourselves to the Beloved in a unique and vulnerable way ... we open the eyes and ears of our heart to the Heart of the universe." ~ from THE WORLD OF SILENCE by Max Picard

"Poetry comes out of silence and yearns for silence. Like us, it travels from one silence to another. It is like flight, like a circling over silence." ~ Max Picard

"We need to recover an oasis of silence within the rhyme and reason of our active life, for it is in silence that we meet God face to face." ~ Max Picard

[Rich Note: After reading Thomas Merton's "Author's Note" (a note in which Thomas acknowledged the inspirational nature of Max Picard's "The World of Silence") in "Thoughts In Solitude" this morning, I found a complementary PDF version at the following link:

https://herbertbaioco.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/the-world-of-silence-max-picard.pdf ]

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Eye of the Heart)

"Knowing" by "Virtue

Of Being What Is Known" through

"Heartfelt Resonance."

Only "Knowing" that

"Does not leave the inside out"

Is "Ever Perfect."

(1) Neuro-Science-Wise:

"...My own suspicion, informed by modern neuroscience as well as by my earlier studies on attention of the heart, is that by “love” he is really talking about heart-centered cognition, as opposed to the binary, linear, and analytical mode of cognition of the brain. And heart-centered cognition, neuroscientists are now telling us, is really a kind of “operating system,” a way of organizing the perceptual field so that we perceive holographically (through electromagnetic resonance) rather than through the subject/object differentiation fundamental to brain-centered cognition. Heart-centered cognition is the foundational physiological prerequisite for the emergence of a stable nondual consciousness..."

(From "The Heart of Centering Prayer: Non-Dual Christianity in Theory and Practice" by Cynthia Bourgeault.)

(2) Scripture-Wise:

"...For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 

"But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:9-12 KJV)

[Rich Note: The following haiku extrapolate further, not only with respect to the companion image, but the limitless potential of the "Divine, Still Point Peace of the All-Seeing Eye," at the Heart of Awareness, to both embrace and experience Being All, both Collective or Quantum State and Individual or Particle State:

A Pure Heart is Still,

Silent, Empty, Open and

Receptive to All.

A Still and Silent

Heart has a Potential to

Embrace All Being.

The Still Point Peace at

The Heart of Awareness is

All-Encompassing.

A Dimensionless

Still Point can expand to an

Infinite Degree.]

Haiku of the Day (Always Present)

The Sun is Always

Present as the Light by which

I See the Darkness.

[Rich Note: The companion image is a C-141 favorite, I like to call "out of the darkness and into the light," signed by fellow aircrew members and presented as a 1987 USAF retirement gift.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Mental Snowflakes)

Dirty water clears

Best when left alone so the 

Dirt can settle out.

Being mentally still

Allows thoughts to settle and

The mind to be clear.

Like a snow globe, life

Is seen more clearly when we

Let our minds settle.

Re: "Shake a snow globe! As you watch and the snow settles, you can see the scene clearly. Same is true for every one of us. When you let your mind settle; you can see life clearly." -- from "The Guide Inside" by Christa Campsall