Trick or Treat ?

Jupiter swirls light throughout the night !

...

.

2012

may-june

... if our ideas

of "good" and "bad"

were left to the costume

making rituals of halloween

and the rest of our days and nights

of the year were spent celebrating one another

without ego driven needs to condemn

life through contrite authorships

spinning about like animation

comically forgeting who

we are in the world

... sea water

shining

star-lit

eyes

?

--j.a. knolls

Bhaishajya guru – the Medicine Buddha

In East Asian temples, the Medicine Buddha is usually represented seated as part of a massive trinity with Sakyamuni (in the center) and Amitabha (on Sakyamuni’s right). His right hand is raised, forming the Varada mudra, the hand-and-fingers gesture symbolizing offering, giving, compassion. The left hand usually rests on his lap, holding a jar of medicine (or sometimes a healing fruit or stupa). The medicine jar, painted dark blue (the color of the gemstone lapis lazuli), is the distinguishing feature of this Buddha, although it may be missing from some statues.

bizzare dreams led me to here...

not an industrialized factory

this flame is so pure inside

like a fresh water spring

writing is a fine way to

say, our focus within

is there our strength

no need for looking to

the external me for help

politicians are disguised

stools who want your trust

yet, do not trust themselves

often observing folks needing

to search about for answers

makes me wonder why so.

knowing your heart is the

method to shift the outter

mystery without a fight...

compassion is not always

holding the hand of deceit's

directive where aims toward

having to control over another

will only spiral dow-nard realms

--j.a. knolls

Demeter and Persephone

Faint as a climate-changing bird that flies All night across the darkness, and at dawn Falls on the threshold of her native land, And can no more, thou camest, O my child, Led upward by the God of ghosts and dreams, Who laid thee at Eleusis, dazed and dumb, With passing thro' at once from state to state, Until I brought thee hither, that the day, When here thy hands let fall the gather'd flower, Might break thro' clouded memories once again On thy lost self. A sudden nightingale Saw thee, and flash'd into a frolic of song And welcome; and a gleam as of the moon, When first she peers along the tremulous deep, Fled wavering o'er thy face, and chased away That shadow of a likeness to the king Of shadows, thy dark mate. Persephone! Queen of the dead no more -- my child! Thine eyes Again were human-godlike, and the Sun Burst from a swimming fleece of winter gray, And robed thee in his day from head to feet -- "Mother!" and I was folded in thine arms. Child, those imperial, disimpassion'd eyes Awed even me at first, thy mother -- eyes That oft had seen the serpent-wanded power Draw downward into Hades with his drift Of fickering spectres, lighted from below By the red race of fiery Phlegethon; But when before have Gods or men beheld The Life that had descended re-arise, And lighted from above him by the Sun? So mighty was the mother's childless cry, A cry that ran thro' Hades, Earth, and Heaven! So in this pleasant vale we stand again, The field of Enna, now once more ablaze With flowers that brighten as thy footstep falls, All flowers -- but for one black blur of earth Left by that closing chasm, thro' which the car Of dark Aidoneus rising rapt thee hence. And here, my child, tho' folded in thine arms, I feel the deathless heart of motherhood Within me shudder, lest the naked glebe Should yawn once more into the gulf, and thence The shrilly whinnyings of the team of Hell, Ascending, pierce the glad and songful air, And all at once their arch'd necks, midnight-maned, Jet upward thro' the mid-day blossom. No! For, see, thy foot has touch'd it; all the space Of blank earth-baldness clothes itself afresh, And breaks into the crocus-purple hour That saw thee vanish. Child, when thou wert gone, I envied human wives, and nested birds, Yea, the cubb'd lioness; went in search of thee Thro' many a palace, many a cot, and gave Thy breast to ailing infants in the night, And set the mother waking in amaze To find her sick one whole; and forth again Among the wail of midnight winds, and cried, "Where is my loved one? Wherefore do ye wail?" And out from all the night an answer shrill'd, "We know not, and we know not why we wail." I climb'd on all the cliffs of all the seas, And ask'd the waves that moan about the world "Where? do ye make your moaning for my child?" And round from all the world the voices came "We know not, and we know not why we moan." "Where?" and I stared from every eagle-peak, I thridded the black heart of all the woods, I peer'd thro' tomb and cave, and in the storms Of Autumn swept across the city, and heard The murmur of their temples chanting me, Me, me, the desolate Mother! "Where"? -- and turn'd, And fled by many a waste, forlorn of man, And grieved for man thro' all my grief for thee, -- The jungle rooted in his shatter'd hearth, The serpent coil'd about his broken shaft, The scorpion crawling over naked skulls; -- I saw the tiger in the ruin'd fane Spring from his fallen God, but trace of thee I saw not; and far on, and, following out A league of labyrinthine darkness, came On three gray heads beneath a gleaming rift. "Where"? and I heard one voice from all the three "We know not, for we spin the lives of men, And not of Gods, and know not why we spin! There is a Fate beyond us." Nothing knew. Last as the likeness of a dying man, Without his knowledge, from him flits to warn A far-off friendship that he comes no more, So he, the God of dreams, who heard my cry, Drew from thyself the likeness of thyself Without thy knowledge, and thy shadow past Before me, crying "The Bright one in the highest Is brother of the Dark one in the lowest, And Bright and Dark have sworn that I, the child Of thee, the great Earth-Mother, thee, the Power That lifts her buried life from loom to bloom, Should be for ever and for evermore The Bride of Darkness." So the Shadow wail'd. Then I, Earth-Goddess, cursed the Gods of Heaven. I would not mingle with their feasts; to me Their nectar smack'd of hemlock on the lips, Their rich ambrosia tasted aconite. The man, that only lives and loves an hour, Seem'd nobler than their hard Eternities. My quick tears kill'd the flower, my ravings hush'd The bird, and lost in utter grief I fail'd To send my life thro' olive-yard and vine And golden grain, my gift to helpless man. Rain-rotten died the wheat, the barley-spears Vere hollow-husk'd, the leaf fell, and the sun, Pale at my grief, drew down before his time Sickening, and tna kept her winter snow. Then He, the brother of this Darkness, He Who still is highest, glancing from his height On earth a fruitless fallow, when he miss'd The wonted steam of sacrifice, the praise And prayer of men, decreed that thou should'st dwell For nine white moons of each whole year with me, Three dark ones in the shadow with thy King. Once more the reaper in the gleam of dawn Will see me by the landmark far away, Blessing his field, or seated in the dusk Of even, by the lonely threshing-floor, Rejoicing in the harvest and the grange. Yet I, Earth-Goddess, am but ill-content With them, who still are highest. Those gray heads, What meant they by their "Fate beyond the Fates" But younger kindlier Gods to bear us down, As we bore down the Gods before us? Gods, To quench, not hurl the thunderbolt, to stay, Not spread the plague, the famine; Gods indeed, To send the noon into the night and break The sunless halls of Hades into Heaven? Till thy dark lord accept and love the Sun, And all the Shadow die into the Light, When thou shalt dwell the whole bright year with me, And souls of men, who grew beyond their race, And made themselves as Gods against the fear Of Death and Hell; and thou that hast from men, As Queen of Death, that worship which is Fear, Henceforth, as having risen from out the dead, Shalt ever send thy life along with mine From buried grain thro' springing blade, and bless Their garner'd Autumn also, reap with me, Earth-mother, in the harvest hymns of Earth The worship which is Love, and see no more The Stone, the Wheel, the dimly-glimmering lawns Of that Elysium, all the hateful fires Of torment, and the shadowy warrior glide Along the silent field of Asphodel. By Alfred Lord Tennyson

Latin America

Leslie's gulge of Eastern Oregon's High Desert

INTO THE GREEN Thirsty and footsore, as you walk in the heat of the day Sudden disasters come out of the sky, out of nowhere — Like a bird whose nest has plummeted out of a tree To find yourself in peace, go deep into the wilderness.

SPEEDING The man’s in a hurry and the horses are in danger on the road, To lose a company of soldiers means you’re both in trouble It’s like a broken vessel, blown through the rushing gorge... Sunlight fades the blossoms, and Heaven sends down frost.

PRESENCE Don t you understand that everything here is what matters? To find the jade, go beyond the boundaries of your skin — You can’t do better than wait for the chun to manifest, I tell you, this is the best thing — no question about it.

--written by monk's honoring Kuan Yin's wisdom & mercy

These three children are my own and Alice's...ironically, to call them such is done so with the gnosis embodyment that they are the truest teachers of the great lesson, one pertaining to deconstructing ego's death-grip upon unconditional love's radiance.

-j.a .knolls

LIVING THE TAO In the forest, the pines and cypresses grow straight up And neither rain or wind, snow or frost can harm them – One day to come you’ll see what it was for … And these will be the pillars of the temple of the community.

IN THE CLEAR Like the beautiful undying crane that breaks free You can slip the bars of your cage and journey through – North, South, East and West nothing obstructs you – The chun, the wise one, can rise to the highest Ninth Heaven.

--written by monks honoring Kuan Yin's wisdom and mercy.

Flocks of wild geese

Squawk above

Where geothermal

Waters merge...

Below a cold

Stream known.

And it is there

Inner joy becomes

Simply beyond...

The many stances

Of a human being's

Story of worry.

-j.a. knolls

Well-rested, and often experiencing laughter are no secrets to finding less resonating pains. It takes no PhD to become a practitioner; however, it must be honest joy, fore a false sense of laughter will only exhibit the deficient connection to the spirit of one's heart. Uninhibited laughter sends my life a whirling like a kid twirling on the floor, because who cares about tomorrow when it is just another day; unless, of course, one is swept away.

There are few American made films that have been more profound in affecting my perception than Network (1976) about the network News' programing of modern society's families. There is no laughter of genuine joy when watching how complacent many people have become as a result of being fed "fear" and "believing" it is necessary to learn more of why to be afraid your body and ego's mind will die...yet, beyond this notion exist the cultivaltion of a relationship to reality, one suggesting life energy is actually eternal and exist beyond time.

Once I began laughing so hard that I was on the floor with joy spilling out of me like a bowl overflowing, while a six-armed buddha's blue arms cradled me. The feeling lifted away leaving me with a thought "what is next?" and another thought "was the experience real?"...

Perhaps, the realization that pain and pleasure fleet and return is the best catalyst for provoking a joy for living life without extremes so that harmony in health is found like a green valley's gentle ocean breeze, offering us to be here completely.

-j.a. knolls

Elephant, Power Animal, Symbol of Commitment, Royalty, Strength

By Ina Woolcott

Elephant's medicine includes strength, royalty, connection to ancient wisdom, removal of obstacles and barriers, confidence, patience, using education opportunities, commitment, gentleness, communicating in relationships, discernment, intelligence, compassion. If this is your animal guide, these virtues are a part of your natural character. By applying them in your life soul evolution is accomplished.

Throughout history elephants have been revered. They are most intelligent creatures, and honoured by many cultures. As well as being the largest land animals, they are also among the longest lived, with life spans of 60+ years. In Buddhist tradition, the Buddha picked the form of a white elephant as one of his many incarnations, thus the rare appearance of a white elephant is still heralded as a manifestation of the gods. The Hindu god Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, has the head of an elephant.

Elephants can teach us that gentleness, commitment, and communication in relationships is very powerful and necessary to keep relationships alive, trusting and loving, whether it be friends, family or partner. Deeply committed to all creatures with whom they have relationships, elephants are tough when protecting others and gentle when nurturing them. The matriarch (the oldest, most experienced female leader of a herd) leads in a way that is both gentle and inclusive. Elephants are able to communicate telepathically. This can teach us how to truly listen to others.

Elephants are so similar, yet so different to our own species. We have so much to learn from them! Elephants have emotions that are comparable to human - love, joy, jealousy, rage.

Just like humans, young elephants are dependent on their mums, until they reach adulthood. The general lifespan of an elephant also closely parallels that of humans. When a baby is born, the entire community gathers around the mother and newborn and rumble with joy. This is equivalent to tears rolling down their faces. Just like human babies, elephants learn about getting along in the physical environment. For instance, elephant calves have to learn the many ways in which their trunks can be used. The newborn elephant is born into a community of love. Calves have more than one mother so to speak, as all are willing, eager teachers, from the matriarch, to her offspring and their young. They want to nurture, protect and help the youngest among them develop. They also teach first time mothers how to develop their own nurturing skills. Loyal and affectionate elephants would risk their lives for the sake of others in a family group. Wild elephants have been known to grieve and even shed tears when a family member has passed away. Elephants have amazing memories and when mistreated they often seek revenge.

Elephants show us that by supporting and loving one another, our own ability to thrive in the physical world is enhanced. We learn from them to pass on the gift of nurturing we received in our early years, be it from our biological family or others who helped us grow into who we are now. We must honour the elders of our community and nurture the young. Like the elephant, we need to help ease the transitions of those who are going into adulthood with gentle love, wisdom, patience and compassion. By having open hearts and minds, we can create strong relationships within the community, therefore building a strong community.

Elephants communicate telepathically with herd members as well as other elephants. As we choose to become closer and more open with those dear to us, our ability to understand them can deepen to a level that transcends speech.

Having an elephant totem gives you ancient wisdom and power to draw upon. They are the embodiment of strength and power. People with this power animal often have a very strong sex drive. Through using fragrances and incense, elephant can take you to new energies and power. Generally speaking elephant people are very affectionate toward family, caring for the young and the elderly. They also usually have an inborn knowledge about plants and roots. Elephants give us insights into the power of the three feminine energies - child, mother and old wise woman.

Although elephants weigh A LOT, they walk almost noiselessly, with exceptionally graceful and rhythmic striding. Their hearing, smell, touch and taste is very keen/sensitive. This makes up for their poor eyesight. In relation to their big heads, their eyes are very small and can only turn slightly from side to side. This results in restricted side vision. Those with this power animal feel things deeply and respond to those feelings from a place of inner knowing. Because their vision is limited they tend to look straight ahead and cant always see what going on around them. Learning to shift our focus to view the whole is helpful.

Elephants have just 4 teeth, all molars, 2 toward the front of the mouth and 2 toward the back. When the front ones wear down, they drop out and the 2 at the back come forward. Then 2 new molars grow in the back of the mouth to replace those that have moved forward. The back molars are able to be replaced 6 times throughout their life. When the last set wear out, they can no longer chew and die of starvation. Teeth are very symbolic, and are considered receivers and transmitters of energy linked by connecting paths throughout the astral body.

As the elephant is extremely intelligent, those with this power animal would make excellent researchers and alternative scientists.

Elephant tusks point backwards. They use them as weapons and for digging edible roots. From a spiritual point of view this hints at an ability to uncover the hidden memories and bring them to the fore for evaluation and healing. Let go.