Zero Circle

The news from Paris took the whole weekend to penetrate the dense peace of Samye Ling.  

On the Sunday morning I surprised myself by attending the Green Tara prayers at 6.00am.  My sleep had been fitful both nights and it seemed the thing to do when I found myself awake long before the alarm.  Timeless palpable peace.  Unperturbed by events near or far.  

When I mentioned Paris over lunch, no-one had heard the news.  It was as if the usual range of human reactions, amplified by the media and by conversation, were absorbed by the place, as reverberations are stopped in an anechoic chamber.  A very sobering experience that has left me wondering. Thanks to Esper for linking to the Dalai Lama's response.  More food for thought/reflection.

Zero Circle
Be helpless, dumbfounded,
Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
     to gather us up.

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we're lying.
If we say No, we don't see it,
That No will behead us
And shut tight our window onto spirit.

So let us rather not be sure of anything,
Beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness.
                                                       Rumi 

Always helps reflection too.