Light on the Path - Hello Winter!

Winter Night - 14 January 2012

Even when it is inconvenient, the crispness of winter invigorates - if we let it. 

- quote from my page a day calender 13.1.12

We've been hearing on the news and weather reports, over the first few weeks of January 2012, about how mild this winter is, and about how spring bulbs are appearing in some places, three weeks early. Here in the gardens of Staying awake towers we have had some snowdrops flowering since shortly after Christmas. 

So on Friday when I read the quotation above, I reflected on how I am missing the crispness of winter despite knowing that for the elderly, homeless and many others, snow or frost is not very welcome and they will be welcoming this mild winter that could be mistaken for spring. 

Strangely by nightfall, the situation had already changed a little. Local Council housing services issued emails with details of their Cold Weather Provision for people who are homeless. Neighbours were covering their car windshields, to avoid having to scrap off the ice in the morning before they set off to work.

Myself? I didn't have to go to work on Saturday morning thank goodness. By late afternoon I decided to venture out on a walk and even then had to watch my footing on the slippy pavements. Still, I think it looks so beautiful. I was glad to have my gloves however, and couldn't help but think of anyone rough sleeping in these temperatures.

Light on the Path - January 2012

You are lost in a forest denser than that of the story. The night is darker. Sometimes a flash of lightning comes--look at the path. A Chuang Tzu is lightning, a Buddha is lightning, I am lightning. Don't look at me, look at the path. If you look at me, you have already missed, because lightning will not continue. It lasts only for a moment--and the moment is rare when eternity penetrates time; it is just like lightning.

If you look at the lightning, if you look at a buddha--and a buddha is beautiful, the face fascinates, the eyes are magnetic--if you look at the buddha, you have missed the path. Look at the path, forget the buddha.

Look at the path and do something--follow the path, act. Thinking will not lead you, only action, because thinking goes on in the head. It can never become total; only when you act, it is total. Become interested in life!--living is the real thing. Don't go on collecting information about what meditation is--meditate! Don't go on collecting information about what dancing is--there are encyclopedias on dance, but the whole thing is utterly meaningless if you don't dance yourself. Throw all those encyclopedias! Unburden yourself from knowledge and start living.

And when you start living, then ordinary things are transformed into extraordinary beauty. Just small things--life consists of small things--but when you bring the quality of intense, passionate love they are transformed, they become luminous.

Osho transformation tarot card for 14.1.12