The life in the city stretches...

This life in the city is a dud. Its a long dark tunnel which twists and turns, with the occasional crack in the foundation which lets in the light. Mind you, I have it good otherwise. Its just that the soul is depressed. Its seems a leaden weight has been placed on my soul. Is this grief, for love lost or is it about losing 'the game' of tag that is love?

so here I am, back again...

i got to develop this blog. got to develop this blog. i am off social networking sites. was getting very voyeuristic. still, got to play the narcissus in me. so here I am, back again. got to develop this blog. i have the usual complaints. the day job and the night's play keeps me from the blog! actually, its lethargy...

its been summer here in Delhi... hot summer (hot winds for a week), then, rains ... now its quite pleasant... and today i have been sweating. so, i have switched on the chill, turned on the the wireless router and here I am. i said to myself, i got to develop this blog... i have to have a few curious (if inane) words for the few friends i have.

will be back...

A toy aeroplane....

Its all about toy aeroplanes. What do you do without a few toy aeroplanes in your life? Boys and their toys. It all started out with that Mig-21 that was left at the Transit Camp in a Punjabi city years back. Left it in the top drawer of the dressing table in the room alloted to us in the transit camp. And, then, I never went back. Loss.

Photo: Vayu Aerospace

Stillness in movement

Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.

[Sheng-yen. From Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Tensho David Schneider]

To unlock my soul: a dedication

HOW TO GO TO THE TAO TEMPLE

from ‘Northern Cantos’

                            To D.R. Nagaraj


Don’t lock the door.
Go lightly like the leaf in the breeze
along the dawn’s valley.
If you are too fair
cover yourself with ash.
If too clever, go half-asleep.
That which is fast
will tire fast:
be slow, slow as stillness.
Be formless like water.
Lie low, don’t even try to go up.
Don’t go round the deity:
Nothingness has no directions,
no front, nor back.
Don’t call It by name,
Its name has no name.
No offerings: empty pots
are easier to carry than full ones.
No prayers too: desires
have no place here.

Speak silently, if speak you must:
like the rock speaking to trees
and leaves to flowers.
Silence is the sweetest of voices
and Nothingness has
the fairest of colours.
Let none see you coming
and none, going.
Cross the threshold shrunken
like one crossing a river in winter.
You have only a second here
like melting snow.
No pride: you are not even formed.

No anger: not even dust is
at your command
No sorrow: it doesn’t alter anything.
Renounce greatness:
there’s no other way to be great.
Don’t ever use your hands:
they are contemplating
not love, but violence.
Let the fish lie in its water
and the fruit on its bough.
The soft one shall survive the hard,
like the tongue that survives the teeth.
Only the one who does nothing
can do everything.

Go, the unmade idol
awaits you.


(Tao Temple, Chu-fu) 

© Translation: K. Satchidanandan
From: How to Go to the Tao Temple
Publisher: Har-Anand Publications, Delhi, 1998
ISBN: 81-241-0546-4