The Process of Sustaining - Emergence

[Honey]

Kai?  this is luminous!

You glow girl!!!

this reminds me of a Mohawk prayer - I'll try to find.

WoW!  Many Thanks & Much Respect!

[Honey]

Gratitude for Mother Earth, sailing through night & day - & to her soil:
rich, rare, & sweet
In our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing light changing leaf & fine root hairs; standing still through wind & rain;
their dance is in the flowing spiral grain
In our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift & the silent Owl at dawn.
Breath of our song
Clear spirit breeze
In our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets, freedoms, & ways;
who share with us their milk;
self-complete, brave, & aware
In our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;
holding or releasing, streaming through all our bodies salty seas
In our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where bears & snakes sleep – he who wakes us –
In our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Great Sky
Who holds billions of stars - & goes yet beyond that – beyond all powers,
& thoughts
& yet is within us –
Grandfather Space
The Mind is his Wife.

so be it.

Prayer for the Great Family (Gary Snyder, North America)
After a Mohawk prayer.

[Honey]

The Process of Sustaining

In the universe, all things sustain by both taking and giving.

All things must take for sustenance,
and must give, for the sustenance of others.

Thus, in giving and taking, the universe is sustained in balance.

Sol

Sol gives and gives, but no longer takes.
It gives, because it has taken enough.

Thus, by continuously giving, Sol sustains Earth.

Life

Life is a gift of the universe.
It is known as the process of that which Sustains.

All living things take for sustenance.
They take sustenance from other life,
and thus, others give their lives for sustenance.

All living things take and give, and there is balance.

Death

Death, that is, loss of ones life,
is the highest gift of the process of that which Sustains.

Ones own death, the body, the corpse,
is consumed by life.

The decomposers take the gift, and partake to sustain themselves.
They, in turn, give the gift of their own lives to others.

Water and Soil

Water and soil are living entities.
They are suffuse with life, in many forms.
Thus, they are part of the process of that which Sustains.

What is decomposed in the soil, is then moved by water.
Moved, and all things are then sustained by it.

The nutrients of the earth,
and those gifts decomposed by other living things,
are taken again by green things,
to sustain themselves and all living things.

Sustaining oneself

A loon is calling out on the lake.
He understands what I mean by "taking to sustain".
Because that is all he takes for.

An Agent of that which Sustains
does not take more than she needs to sustain.
When she takes, she gives back,
and when she gives, she also takes.

Life is then at balance,
and she is at peace.

Respect

Of all the emotions one can have,
respect is of the most importance.

Respect for life does not mean
that one avoids taking.

To do so would be ones own demise.

Rather, by taking only what one needs to sustain,
the Agent respects those lifes whish he takes.

The Agent also does not discriminate
on basis of form.
Plants, Animals, fungi, protists, and bacteria;
They are all living.

None is more alive than the other.
None has less value than the other.
None is less a part of the Process of Sustaining.

Thus, the Agent of that which sustains
takes what one needs to sustain,
whether it be plant, animal, fungus, protist, or bacteria;
he does not discriminate on basis of form.

As long as he respects life, in all forms
the Agent of that which sustains cannot do wrong.

Mind's sustenance

The sustenance of the body
is the life of others.

The sustenance of the mind
are the ideas of others.

One takes ideas from others for sustenance. Then, she gives ideas back.
Her ideas are partially formed from that which she has taken.

Thus, the spreading of ideas
is a process of sustenance
in its own right.

The Illusion of Taking without Giving

Many people in this world
follow the illusion of taking and not giving.

Is it ironic
that the end of giving
began as a gift?

The idea that one is not part
of the process of sustaining,
that one is above it,
that one can control it;

that is the path to destruction.

These people take the gifts given freely,
and then enter the house
and take everything.

They have no respect for life.
To them, taking is a game,
a livelyhood.

But, they are not at peace.

In buying into the illusion,
they have formed their own hell.

A hell of consuming, and of fear
especially fear of their own death.

They will still die, in their own hell of fear
and possibly they will relent,
but not likely.

They may not give their life freely,
in the end,
but it will still be taken.

The Agent

The Agent of that which Sustains
is known by her three qualities:

her respect for Life,
her fearlessness of death,
and her inner peace.

The Agent of that which Sustains
is not above the process.

Her respect of Life,
and fearlessness of death,
immerse and humble her
to the process of sustaining.

She knows of Taking and Giving.
She knows of the Illusion of Taking without Giving.
She has purged the Illusion from her.

Thus, she is not driven to consume,
not driven by fear.

Thus, she is at peace.

Humility

All things live and die.
Therefore, one is no different in nature from another.

The smallest organisms
can be those that all other lives rest upon.
Size is not a measure of importance.

One human
is just one out of zillions of living things,
each one intrinsicly able to give and take.

Therefore, a person is just a life like any other,
and ones size and mind
does not put one above another life.

To know and live this is to be humble.
Through this humility, one can find inner peace

Continuity

Since Life began
there has been no end to Life.

Life begets Life
there is no period of no-Life
between the two.

Since the begining, Life has continued,
the Transient, that which Sustains.

The Lineage is continuous,
Back to the Begining,
and on beyond our view.

The Agent realized this;
She knows that death is no end,
and birth is no begining.

She knows that all is Transient,
Arising to complexity,
Returning to simplicity.

The Process which Sustains,

Life Itself,


Infinite.

- Buddhist_Monk_Wannabe
Kai of PrincipiaDiscordia.com.

[Kai]

Can I steal this for the upcoming Intermittens #2 ?

Sure thing, if you think it fits. Its more aligned with Buddhism or Taoism than Discordia though, so I'm not sure how well it would work in such a publication.

[Kai]

Kai?  this is luminous!

You glow girl!!!

this reminds me of a Mohawk prayer - I'll try to find.

WoW!  Many Thanks & Much Respect!

Thanks.

[Telarus]

Can I steal this for the upcoming Intermittens #2 ?

Sure thing, if you think it fits. Its more aligned with Buddhism or Taoism than Discordia though, so I'm not sure how well it would work in such a publication.

Kerry and Greg injected a pretty good amount of Taoism and crazy-wisdom-Buddhism into the roots of Discordia. I say this fits in quite well.