Awake

Solstice season thoughts

Buddha in Glory
Center of all centers, core of cores, almond,
that closes tightly in and sweetens,--
this entire world out to all the stars is your fruit-flesh: we greet you.

Look, you feel how nothing any longer clings to you;
your husk is in infinity,
and there the strong juice stands and crowds.
And from outside a radiance assists it, for high above,
your suns in full splendor have wheeled blazingly around.
Yet already there's begun inside you
what lasts beyond the suns.

--Ranier Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow from New Poems
Thanks to Rob Brezsny for featuring the Rilke poem this week.

Rain Song

Mucking about
Patna, Bihar

It's raining here, as well as in most of the Northern region - Delhi, Varanasi and so on. Doesn't sound so strange, unless you realize that in this part of the world, at this time of year, it's virtually unheard of. It means puddles of muck to tiptoe around (there are no sidewalks to speak of), mouldy laundry and lots of grown men with mufflers tied round their heads under their chins, which makes them look sort of like a cross-dressing Babushka, or as if they've got them mumps.

Normally, Indian weather comes in extreme waves. The rainy season here is generally June-September. After November, there's not a drop (and I mean, not one) till the following monsoon. Also, crummy photography - they light just isn't there and the mist is bad for the digital camera.

So why have skies been grey and cloudy for the past week? It's a mystery. Meanwhile, Himachal in the mountains has received no snow, worrying the tourist industry, and in the UK they are freaked out by unprecedented snowfall. It's so (relatively) cold in Cambodia that people who've never owned a sweater are out shopping for them.

Here's a thought from Tricycle.com about the spirit of the rain.

The Supreme Water Spirit

The supreme water spirit Ocean covers the earth with clouds; the rain in each place is different, but the spirit has no thought of distinction.

Likewise, Buddha, sovereign of truth, extends clouds of great compassion in all directions, raining differently for each practitioner, yet without discriminating among them.