These unusual pictures are taken from my new blog

"taking the one less travelled by"

http://takingtheonelesstravelledby.blogspot.com

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Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear.

 (Anon)

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Rainbow at Maraetai Beach, Auckland, New Zealand. 

[This picture is in public domain from An American’s Perspective on New Zealand.]

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Walk on a rainbow trail, walk on a trail of song
And all about you will be beauty.
There is a way out of every dark mist
Over a rainbow trail. 

(Navajo Poem)

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There was a time when civil wars were common in Japan. The story is told of a Zen master who refused to flee from his village despite the approach of a ruthless invading army.

Seeing that all the villagers had fled and curious about the one person who had stayed, the general sought out the Zen master. When the latter didn’t show any deference to him, the general was angry.

“You fool,” he shouted, reaching for his sword, “don’t you realise you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye?"

"And do you realize," the master replied softly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

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The music here is Angel's Serenade by Gaetano Braga. Yuli Lavrenov is the pianist and the video was uploaded by Liebenslilie . 

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This brings to an end the present series of BY THE LOTUS POND.
Perhaps you would find my new blog interesting. TAKING THE ONE LESS TRAVELLED BY  began a fortnight ago and each post consists of
a picture to admire, a poem to ponder, music to meditate by
and a saying by Lao-Tzu
http://takingtheonelesstravelledby.blogspot.com  

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The summer-flower has run to seed,
And yellow is the woodland bough;
And every leaf of bush and weed
Is tipped with autumn’s pencil now.

And I do love the varied hue,
And I do love the browning plain;
And I do love each scene to view,
That’s marked with beauties of her reign.
(John Clare)

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Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter's deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself. The leaves as they spark into wild colour just before they die are the world's oldest performance art, and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter.
( Shauna Niequist from Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way)

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"Autumn Wood"
by Albert Bierstadt

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A haiku

roses in autumn -
their beauty far surpasses
roses in June

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Thanks to FreeFoto.com

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taking the one less travelled by
a picture to admire, a poem to ponder, music to meditate by
and a saying by Lao-Tzu
http://takingtheonelesstravelledby.blogspot.com

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Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the light of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
(Buddha)

When you enter a dark room you turn on the light to dispel the darkness and see what is in the room - to see the “true nature” of the room. Ignorance is a “darkness” of the mind and a candle symbolizes the Buddha’s teaching; it’s the “light” of truth that dispels the darkness of ignorance. Just as a flame can pass from one candle to another, so too can the truth be given from one person to another.

Thanks to http://thistimethisspace.com/ for the above paragraph.

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There was once a Zen master who was famous as a skilled archer.

On one occasion a young man who had gained an enviable reputation at the sport challenged the old man to a contest. A large crowd gathered to see the event and their sympathy was all for the Zen master for his opponent turned out to be rather a conceited fellow.

The latter hit a bull’s eye on his first try and followed that up by splitting the first arrow with his second shot.

When the old man’s turn came, he said he knew a far better place to have the contest. The crowd followed the pair up the mountain side till they came to a deep chasm spanned by a rather thin and shaky log.

Calmly stepping out on to the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master chose a distant tree as a target, drew his bow and fired a clean, direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said, returning to safe ground.

Staring with terror into the abyss, the young man couldn’t force himself to step out on to the log, never mind shoot at the target.

"You have much skill with your bow," the master said softly, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."

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NOW ONLINE - taking the one less travelled by - NOW ONLINE
This new blog can be found at -
http://takingtheonelesstravelledby.blogspot.com

in the Japanese
garden, just the soft whisper
of running water

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The Flowers
by Robert Louis Stevenson

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, lady's smock,
And the lady hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames -
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

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The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind,
but the goodness of a person spreads in all directions.
(Chanakya)

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This is a short slide show of Monet’s Garden at Giverny
uploaded by lynnvm



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NEXT POST HERE TUESDAY 4TH SEPT

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We have to try to reveal that Light which is hidden in us as a bud. It must blossom like a flower. In all things everywhere, in all beings, the Light is hidden, and must be revealed.
(Mother Meera)

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From “The Cloud” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

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Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add colour to my sunset sky.
(Rabindranath Tagore)

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Just clouds and more clouds in this short film, uploaded by ckpenny.



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Thanks to freeimagegallery4.blogspot.com

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The Lotus flower shudders
When the Sun brings forth his light.
She droops her head in slumber
To dream in wait for the night

The moon is the Lotus' lover.
He wakes her with bright grace
Before him she will gladly uncover
Her flower's devoted face.

She shines and glows and blossoms
And mutely gazes above.
She sighs and weeps and trembles
With love and the woe of love.
(Heinrich Heine)

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My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
(William Wordsworth)

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The Haywain
by John Constable

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The Irish poet John O’Donohue in his book “Anam Cara” tells a fascinating story of a journalist friend who arranged to interview an old Native American chief.

When they met, the old man said he would like the two of them to have some time together before the interview proper. The journalist had assumed that they would have an informal chat, and so he was rather taken aback when the chief looked directly at him, and sat for a very long time in complete silence with his eyes holding the other’s eyes. The journalist said that at first he was terrified, but gradually he responded by gazing deeply into the old man’s eyes. And so they sat, without a word being spoken, for more than two hours!

He told O’Donhue that he soon felt that there was no need for an interview. It seemed to him that they had known each other all their lives.

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The music in this video is “Poem” by Fibich and the pianist is Yuli Lavrenov.
Uploaded by Lebenslilie.



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What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.
(William Henry Davies)

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O happy Garden! loved for hours of sleep,
O quiet Garden! loved for waking hours.
For soft half-slumbers that did gently steep
Our spirits, carrying with them dreams of flowers.
(William Wordsworth)

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I meant to do my work today -
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand -
So what could I do but laugh and go?
(Richard Le Gallienne)

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Thanks to FreeFoto.com

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I can enjoy society in a room, but out-of-doors company is enough for me.
(William Hazlitt)

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now on 80plus
one of the most unusual paintings ever created
The Dutch Proverbs by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
http://80plus.blogspot.com

Have you seen but a bright lily grow
Before rude hands have touched it?
Have you marked but the fall of snow
Before the soil hath smutched it?
Have you felt the wool of beaver,
Or swan's down ever?
Or have smelt o' the bud o' the brier,
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!
(Ben Jonson)

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Once upon a time a traveller was journeying across the desert when he met two strange men. As they were all going roughly in the same direction, they chatted as they walked.

The men told the traveller that their names were Fear and Plague and they were going to a big city where they intended to kill 20,000 of the inhabitants.

Shocked, the man asked Plague if he would do all the work.
Plague shook his head, “No, I’ll kill only a few hundred. My friend Fear will do the rest.”

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This is a photo of the famous Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India, which has become known as the Lotus Temple. Built in 1986, it’s constructed in the shape of a nine-sided lotus flower with 27 marble "petals." It has nine doors leading in to a central hall capable of housing up to 2,500 people. The Temple has nine surrounding ponds and with the gardens covers 26 acres.

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Thanks to ernestocortazarfan for this video



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BLOG NEWS
After an interval of four months, 80 plus is returning.
A new series begins on Friday 17th August.
http://80plus.blogspot.com

Nympheas by Claude Monet

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Bird of the wilderness,
Blithesome and cumberless,
Sweet be thy matin o’er moorland and lea!
Emblem of happiness,
Blest is thy dwelling-place -
O, to abide in the desert with thee!

Wild is thy lay and loud,
Far in the downy cloud,
Love gives it energy, love gave it birth.
Where, on thy dewy wing,
Where art thou journeying?
Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.
(James Hogg)

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The lake lay blue below the hill,
O'er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.

The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue,
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.
(Mary Coleridge)

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The sun has long been set,
The stars are out by twos and threes,
The little birds are piping yet
Among the bushes and the trees;
There’s a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes,
And a far-off wind that rushes,
And a sound of water that gushes,
And the cuckoo’s sovereign cry
Fills all the hollow of the sky.

Who would go “parading”
In London, and “masquerading,”
On such a night of June
With that beautiful soft half-moon,
And all these innocent blisses?
0n such a night as this is!
(William Wordsworth)

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Every night the farmer had lain in bed listening to the nightingale’s beautiful song and thinking how he would love to possess the bird for himself.

He laid a trap and the nightingale was caught and caged. “Now you shall always sing for me,” he told the bird.

“But nightingales never sing in cages,” the bird replied, “However, if you let me go free, I promise that I’ll tell you three things that are very much better than my singing.”

The farmer opened the door of the cage and the nightingale flew out and alighted on a nearby tree.

The bird told him, “Never believe a captive's promise, keep what you have and don’t sorrow what is lost forever," and flew away, never to return.

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Thanks to IsisVisuals for uploading this video.



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A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
(John Keats)

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The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. (William Blake)

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The Orchard
by Thomas Cooper Gotch

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The tall tree looked down at the little reed growing below and said, “Why don’t you plant your feet deeply in the ground, and lift up your head in the air as I do?"

"No. no,“said the reed, "I’m quite happy as I am, and I think I’m safer down here."

"Safe!" sneered the Tree, "I’m sure I’m much safer - I’m big and strong.“

The next day however there was a tremendous storm, the tree was torn up by its roots, and flung down - a useless log. The little reed was able to bend in the wind and, when the storm had passed, was standing up straight, completely unharmed.

And the moral is - Obscurity often brings safety.

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This "New Age Music Forest Piano" video was uploaded by quiescencemusic



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"Nature" is what we see -
The Hill - the Afternoon -
Squirrel - Eclipse - the Bumblebee -
Nay - Nature is Heaven -
Nature is what we hear -
The Bobolink - the Sea -
Thunder - the Cricket -
Nay - Nature is Harmony -
Nature is what we know -
Yet have no art to say -
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.
(Emily Dickenson)

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Countryside at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. Photo by Michael Maggs
Thanks to Wikimedia Commons

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Nature Walk

Out back, behind the yard
in the brush and scrub at the edge
a world unfolds for those willing
to stop and look, crunch and tread
where squirrel and ant, snake and fox
hunt and work, amongst the deadfall
Wonder of nature in the back, beyond
the cut lawn and past the leaf litter
a bend of a branch held by ivy
a curl of birch bark
a spider’s leg showing below the
lip of a fungus on an old trunk
patterns in the ground, beneath the
newness of spring in the woods
before the full greening of the
new shoots and leaves
in between time in early April
in New Hampshire
(Raymond A. Foss)

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Stratford Mill
by John Constable

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The Amen of nature is always a flower.
(Oliver Wendell Holmes)

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This video was uploaded by LoungeVstudio



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MUSIC HAS CHARMS
http://musichascharms.blogspot.com

Thanks to FreeFoto.com

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Loveliest of lovely things are they
On earth that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
(William Cullen Bryant)

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Still life with Roses
by Robert Duncanson

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A flower was offered to me;
Such a flower as May never bore.
But I said I've a pretty rose tree.
And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my pretty rose tree:
To tend her by day and by night.
But my Rose turned away with jealousy:
And her thorns were my only delight.
(William Blake)

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Thanks to free-images.org.uk

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Once upon a time a rose and an amaranth grew side by side in a beautiful garden.
The amaranth had become quite jealous of the other's beauty, and said "I'm not surprised that everyone loves roses. You're all lovely!"
The rose shook her head and replied, "We bloom for a time, and then our petals fall off and we die. But your flowers never fade, for they're everlasting."

And the moral is - Greatness carries its own penalties.

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This video "Roses in my Garden" was uploaded by dimagaiduk

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Like swift water, an active mind never stagnates. (Anon)

[Thanks to FreeFoto.com]

I came where the river
Ran over stones;
My ears knew
An early joy.
And all the waters
Of all the streams
Sang in my veins
That summer day.
(Theodore Roethke, The Waking)

By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved slowly.

For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."

(Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh)

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This video was uploaded by maple1255 who has added those words.

"After the sun has set behind the mountains, the air becomes a little cooler and then there is the of pleasure of sitting by the river, and watching the birds still darting above the ever flowing river. Sometimes later elk can be seen as they come to lower ground to feed in the fields over night."

The music is by the South Korean pianist Yiruma.

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MUSIC HAS CHARMS
an ongoing collection of popular classics
http://musichascharms.blogspot.com

The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud, the obstacles of life and its suffering. . . . The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. . . . Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles - sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one. (Goldie Hawn)

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The Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde

One day Ryokan a Zen master was walking on the beach. There had been a severe storm and thousands of little starfish had been washed up on to the sand. Realising that they would soon die, he started to pick them up and throw them back into the sea.

A fisherman who was going for his boat saw what Ryokan was doing and told him he was wasting his time. There were thousands of starfish lying on the shore and, since there was no possibility of rescuing them all, his efforts would make no difference.

Indicating the starfish in his hand, Ryokan replied, “It will to this one.”

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A star looks down at me,
And says, “Here I and you
Stand, each in our degree;
What do you mean to do -
Mean to do?”

I say, “For all I know,
Wait, and let Time go by,
Till my change come,” “Just so,”
The star says, “So mean I -
So mean I.”
(Thomas Hardy)

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This video was uploaded by bcsyddonxu

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Namasté

As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and the water,
so the wise one speaks in peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world
(Sutta Nipata)

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Down in the forest something stirred
So faint that I scarcely heard,
But the forest leapt at the sound,
Like a good ship homeward bound.
Down in the forest something stirred,
It was only the song of a bird.
(Harold Simpson )

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"Bird on a Branch"
12th century silk painting by Li Anzhong

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Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove,
The Linnet and Thrush say, “I love and I love!”
In the winter they’re silent - the wind is so strong;
What it says, I don’t know, but it sings a loud song,
But green leaves and blossoms, and sunny warm weather,
And singing and loving - all come back together.
But the Lark is so brimful of gladness and love,
The green fields below him, the blue sky above,
Then he sings and he sings, and for ever sings he -
“I love my Love, and my Love loves me.”
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge )

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An old Cherokee was telling his grandson of the battle that goes on inside everyone - a battle between two wolves.

“One of them is Evil,” he said, “full of anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride and superiority.”

“And the other?” asked the boy.

“He is Good,” the old man replied, “full of joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth and compassion.”

The boy thought for a moment and then spoke. “Who will win?”

“The one you feed,” was the answer.

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Uploaded by aSecretAgent

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Namasté