The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry
Stephen Mitchell
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 006092053X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An anthology of poetry chosen from the world's great religious and literary traditions--the perfect companion to the bestselling Tao Te Ching.
• The Upanishads • The Book of Psalms • Lao-tzu • The Bhagavad Gita • Chuang-tzu • The Odes of Solomon • Seng-ts'an • Han-shan • Li Po • Tu Fu • Layman P'ang • Kukai • Tung-shan • Symeon the New Theologian • Izumi Shikibu • Su Tung-p'o • Hildegard of Bingen • Francis of Assisi • Wu-men • Dõgen • Rumi • Mechthild of Magdeburg • Dante • Kabir Mirabai • William Shakespeare • George Herbert • Bunan • Gensei • Angelus Silesius • Thomas Traherne • Basho • William Blake • Ryõkan • Issa • Ghalib • Bibi Hayati • Wait Whitman • Emily Dickinson • Gerard Manley Hopkins • Uvavnuk • Anonymous Navaho • W. B. Yeats • Antonio Machado • Rainer Maria Rilke • Wallace Stevens • D.H. Lawrence • Robinson Jeffers •
Self, playing like a child with Self, he does whatever is called for, whatever the result. Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings, vaster than the vast, subtler than the most subtle, unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heartbeat. Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue utter it; only in deep absorption can the mind, grown pure and silent, merge with the formless truth. He who finds it is free; he has found himself; he has solved the great riddle; his heart
time. If we lose something, it-is hiding somewhere near us. Look: this ball in my pocket: can you see how priceless it is? Too lazy to be ambitious, I let the world take care of itself. Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag; a bundle of twigs by the fireplace. Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment? Listening to the night rain on my roof, I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out. ISSA(1763-1827) The man pulling radishes pointed the way with a radish.
experience of love,—just what is wholly unsayable. But later, among the stars, what good is it—they are better as they are: unsayable. For when the traveler returns from the mountain-slopes into the valley, he brings, not a handful of earth, unsayable to others, but instead some word he has gained, some pure word, the yellow and blue gentian. Perhaps we are here in order to say: house, bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit-tree, window—at most: column, tower…. But to say them, you must
said, ‘Since you are going away, Sir, could you write a book to teach me the art of living?’ Thereupon Lao-tzu wrote his book about the Tao, and departed.” See Tao Te Ching, A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell, Harper & Row, 1988. Lawrence, D(avid) H(erbert) (1885–1930), English novelist, essayist, and Lt Po (701–761), Chinese poet. Legend has it that he drowned after drunkenly leaning out of a boat to embrace the moon’s reflection. Machado, Antonio (1875–1939), Spanish poet and
universe is an expression of the Tao. It springs into existence, unconscious, perfect, free, takes on a physical body, lets circumstances complete it. That is why every being spontaneously honors the Tao. The Tao gives birth to all beings, nourishes them, maintains them, cares for them, comforts them, protects them, takes them back to itself, creating without possessing, acting without expecting, guiding without interfering. That is why love of the Tao is in the very nature of