Stopping inside and My Religion

Stopping inside
These days
I don’t like to go anywhere,
content to pore through my books
and smile at the cats.

They are old now,
the summer flowers are over-tall,
too much rain,
and the weeds
choking every corner of the garden.

I love that landscape,
where the world falls away
and the deer lie down
in the night’s shadow.

Stopping inside the silence of being,
awareness finely tuned,
an island of peace
and plenitude,
I listen to the holy sound.

My Religion
‘To live and die without regret’ −
that is my religion –
to taste the cup of the sacrament
   of this moment
   now,
   my only moment.
How otherwise to spend it,
for tonight I may die?

To abide in the fragrance of
   goodness in this world
   enduring
   awake;
To bring no harm to myself
   or any one;
To be a cause for kindness
   and compassion −
   a joy that defeats
   despair.

To smile with courage
   through life’s storms and trials;
   trusting
   the inherent principle
   of Love.

To pray –
   to live and die
   a simple way.

These reflections by Ayya Medhanandi are from the book, Tomorrow’s Moon, pp. 22, 87 respectively.