Zen Poem — Ikkyu
Every day priests minutely examine the Dharma (universal law)
and endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though,
they should learn how to read the love letters
sent by the wind and rain,
the snow and moon.
“The Hero Path" by Joseph Campbell
We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known ...
we have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an abomination
we shall find a God.
"The Guru’s Cat” by Anthony de Mello
When the guru sat down to worship each evening, the ashram cat would get in the way and distract the worshippers. So he ordered that the cat be tied during evening worship.
“Blindness” by Keith Basar
As a war-weary soul
pursues some form of finality,
the Light,
that lit the hearts of humans
fell prey to sadistic shadows.
There, carnality found insanity it's logical end.
And the heart
turning diabolical, devoid of heat
became a psychological wasteland
absent of color or being.
“Water and Earth” by Keith Basar
He was conceived on the highest mountain slopes — where clouds and stone embrace in holy communion. From a single droplet to a milieu of many, he moved gravitationally downward —encountering parched desserts — renewing along the way, always bound by the pull of destiny.
Currents within him swirled to and fro — sometimes facing fierce storms, relentless winds…
“Concentration” — Author Unknown
After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot.
'There,' he said to the old man, 'see if you can match that!'
“A Celebration of Death” by Chuang Tzu
Upon hearing of the death of Chuang Tzu's wife, his good friend Hui Tzu went over to comfort him and found the sage sitting on the ground banging on an overturned pot and singing a song at the top of his lungs.
Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic
A group of people once asked Jesus how to pray, and he answered with poetry.
Poetry, which presumably got translated many times over since then, and may or may not be accurately represented by the current versions we have available to us today. You can find many rendering’s of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ through a simple google search, ranging in tone from the feudalistic language of King James’ Version:
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name…”
SOURCE: https://healingmyreligion.com/2016/04/30/how-to-pray/
"No Man Is an Island" by John Donne
No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
"The Compass of Compassion" by John Phillip Newell
"Notice the similarity between the word compass and the word compassion. They share an etymological root. The earliest use of the word compass does not, of course, refer to the modern hiking compass as we know it. The word is first used to refer to the mathematical compass, that simple two-pronged device that many of us remember using in grade school to measure the distance between two points and to draw arcs and circles.