'OM' s for the pour-PRASNA UPANISHAD

'The three sounds not in union lead again to life that dies; but the wise who merge them into a harmony of union outer, inner, and middle actions becomes steady: he trembles no more'

What are the actions of AUM?
the first action - or outer -Ah
the second - or inner -Uh
the last - or middle -M


Now we may consider that there is pervading the whole universe a single homogeneous resonance, sound, or tone, which acts, so to speak, as the awakener, or vivifying power, stirring all the molecules into action. This is what is represented in all languages by the vowel a, which takes precedence of all others. This is the word, the verbum, the Logos of St. John of the Christians, who says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." This is creation, for without this resonance or motion among the quiescent particles, there would be no visible universe. That is to say, upon sound, or as the Aryans called it, Nada Brahma (divine resonance), depends the evolution of the visible from the invisible.
[source-http://lucifer7.katinkahesselink.net/i/2006/7.html]

Self

Be seated, thou, unfettered, free,
The heart's attention poised as third of three.
Now still the mind, nor claim the unceasing flow;
He holds the boundless heaven in fee
Who learns the uttermost command - Let go.
Now seal with cold resolve the doors of sense.
Be still, my son, and seek thine Immanence.

I am not body. I am never ill,
Nor restless, weary, fretful, nor in pain.
I am not hot emotion, nor the will
Which forfeits progress in the name of gain.
I am not thought, the process of the mind
On caging partial truth intent,
Unknowing, for its eyes are blind,
The wings of life beat ever unconfined.
I am not any instrument. I am.

I am the light that slays the night at dawning.
I am the love that woos its own reward.
I am the slow resolve that wakes at morning,
And sleeps at twilight on a sheathed sword.
I am the fullness in the wealth of giving.
I am the void within the orb of fame.
I am the death that dies within the living.
I am the namelessness that bears the Name.
I am the golden joy of beauty.
I am the stillness underlying sound.
I am the voice of undistinguished duty.
I am the Self in which the self is drowned.
• Christmas Humphreys (Studies in the Middle Way)

for Carlene

I'd dreamt of you the night before 'abandon hope' was posted.
[we're in our (aha!) offices located in my old elementary school of all places! Sycamore School!
though I've followed tibetan buddhism for nearly twenty years...and you've seen my walls..
Pema is/was my first teacher of dharma when I read 'start where you are' fifteen years ago- in a profound period of complete hope-lessness.
"I live in hopelessness."- saying this frees me from the idea that things will or should be different from this very moment. I am a hopeless romantic. I've never been to Hope Arkansas. I held the office known as the 'Sister of Hope' in the Masonic organization, Rainbow for Girls.
I hope I can make my self clear. etc...etc...
Pema asks me to experience hopelessness, and the engendering of the great heart opening bodhi-chitta that arrives when all is lost. Think: moment of 'assassination'? And really death is beyond hope. We hope we won't die and all that we love will remain alive. We hope the tulip bulbs aren't buried too deep in September and that they'll arrive in March or April to remind us to keep hope alive.
My sense is that it's not so much that I may or may not abandon hope, but that it is the very moment when Hope abandons me that Ani Pema seeks to point me to.
the tulips fail, the assassin succeeds --I feel the moment as deeply as I can, and one more thing- I realize that no matter how high my hopes are somewhere someone feels the complete abandonment of all hope. Yet, beside that is the other great lesson from Pema- known in Tibet as that of 'tonglen', or 'sending and receiving'- which could be stated: We are alive to bring hope. We can do this very practically only at the very moment when we take in someone else's complete hopelessness, despair, yes, their suffering. and we only can do this if we are fearlessly committed to feeling our own.
In the church I went to every Sunday with my own grandmother and Auntie Ann, Christ was reported to have said, "suffer the little children to come unto me" I used to think it meant he wanted all the children to die. ( one my first confusions regarding the will-o-God)
Now I know it means: Bring me their suffering and I will open my heart, I will give them hope.

The Sycamore trees outside the elementary school shed their broad leaves every year and I felt alone. Sad. Winter arrived.
You are a remarkably special woman -&- hope springs eternal.

-e
Sat Jan 26, 12:56:00 PM

in the background is this person I was

'zero is what I bend toward when everything I know burns to light'
- Meredith Stricker
from the text for my dance performance
'Triune', Margaret Jenkins Dance Studio San Francisco, 1981

http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/archive/print_archive/index.htm#layers