There is some kiss we want with
our whole lives, the touch of
spirit on the body. Seawater
begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling! At
night, I open the window and ask
the moon to come and press its
face against mine. Breathe into
me. Close the language-door and
open the love-window. The moon
won’t use the door only the window.
Rumi
transl. by Coleman Barks
You are not the same as or different from
Conditions on which you depend;
You are neither severed from
Nor forever fused with them –
This is the deathless teaching
Of buddhas who care for the world.
Nagarjuna
from Verses from the Center
by Stephen Batchelor
If you are what you grasp,
You would not be here.
For what you grasp come and goes;
It cannot be you.
How can the grasped be the grasper?
Nagarjuna
from Verses from the Center
by Stephen Batchelor
Life is no different from nirvana,
Nirvana no different from life.
Life’s horizons are nirvana’s:
The two are exactly the same.
Nagarjuna
from Verses from the Center
by Stephen Batchelor
Just as these arms and legs
Are seen as limbs of a body,
Why are embodied creatures
Not seen as limbs of life?
Nagarjuna
from Verses from the Center
by Stephen Batchelor
