Polishing the heart: full circle
[ by Charles Cameron — happy daze! from Joan Halifax via Henry Corbin to Hui Neng & David Remnick ]
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From Roshi Joan Halifax:
Valentines Day and polishing the heart pic.twitter.com/t6xyBETiK7
— Joan Halifax (@jhalifax) February 14, 2016
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Steven Nouriani, The Meeting of Two Rivers, in Copenhagen 2013 – 100 Years On:
As Corbin (1969) indicated, the heart is thought to be like a mirror in which every moment the various manifestations of the Divine Forms can be reflected on a microcosmic level. The more we polish the heart, the more we develop the Himma (aptitude) to experience Divine epiphanies out of Mundus Imaginalis.
Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, p 222.
In its unveiled state, the heart of the gnostic is like a mirror in which the microcosm from of the Divine Being is reflected
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Sachiko Murata, Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light, p. 225, n. 8:
The Sufi path is rather to empty oneself of all causes, to “polish the heart” by cleansing it of the rust of things, and to find God’s light in the heart.
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Luang Pu Thuat, quoted in Dharma Legacy of Ajaan Dune Atulo:
To make yourself a good-looking wandering monk isn’t proper at all. It goes against the purpose of going out to wander. Each of you should reflect a great deal on this. The purpose of wandering in meditation is only one thing: to train and polish the heart so that it’s free of defilements. To go wandering in meditation only in body, but without taking along the heart, is nothing excellent at all.
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Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido:
The only cure for materialism is the cleansing of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind). If the senses are clogged, one’s perception is stifled. The more it is stifled, the more contaminated the senses become. This creates disorder in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all. Polish the heart, free the six senses and let them function without obstruction, and your entire body and soul will glow.
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Shen-hsiu, in The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng, Red Pine, tr.:
The venerable Shen-hsiu held up a lantern and wrote his gatha on the middle of the south corridor wall at midnight, and no one saw him. His gatha went:
The body is a bodhi tree
the mind is like a standing mirror
always try to keep it clean
don’t let it gather dust.
to which Hui Neng‘s responds, from the same source:
Unless you know your own mind, studying the Dharma is useless. But once you know your mind and see your nature, you understand what is truly important. My gatha went:
Bodhi doesn’t have any trees
this mirror doesn’t have a stand
our buddha nature is forever pure
where do you get this dust?Then I composed another one:
The mind is the bodhi tree
the body is the mirror’s stand
the mirror itself is so clean
dust has no place to land.
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BBC, Valentine’s Day: Countries that don’t love February romance
Last year, there were clashes at a university in Peshawar over Valentine’s Day.
Liberal students were celebrating with red balloons and cake while another group felt such a show was un-Islamic.
Dozens of students threw rocks in the scuffle, leading to gunshots being fired by both sides and rooms in a student dormitory being set on fire.
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David Remnick, Dangerous Liaisons:
Love is wonderful; Valentine’s Day, less so. Often, it’s cheesy and boring. Here’s your antidote: a collection of stories about dangerous love, doomed love, and other forms of bad romance. … Consider these pieces a Valentine from us.
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Veneration of relics:
Relics of St. Valentine, Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, photo by Fr Lawrence Lew OP
