Directory of Lost Causes (By Quentin S. Crisp)

Miscellaneous Prayers and Meditations


The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom
The power and the glory
For ever and ever
Amen

(From my memory).



From The Upanishads:

Like two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree, intimate friends, the ego and the Self dwell in the same body. The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life while the latter looks on in detachment. As long as we think we are the ego, we feel attached and fall into sorrow. But realize that you are the Self, the Lord of life, and you will be freed from sorrow. When you realize that you are the Self, supreme source of light, supreme source of love, you transcend the duality of life and enter into the unitive state.

(Mundada Up. 3:1-3, p. 115; also compare Shvetashvatara Up. 4:6, p. 225)

When identified with the ego, the Self appears other than what it is. It may appear smaller than a hair's breadth. But know the Self to be infinite.

(Shvetashvatara Up. 5:8-9, p. 229)

©1999 by Deb Platt





Jerusalem

Poem lyrics of Jerusalem by William Blake.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.




Lost

Jet trails in the sky
Leave one word behind
A hand bangs into sand a name
And we all understand

Everybody's Lost
But they're pretending they're not
Lost
Oh, Lost

Jet trails in the sky
Leave one thought behind
A hand bangs into sand a name
And we all understand

Everybody's Lost
But they're pretending they're not
Lost
Oh, Lost

So if I see you
And I tell you
How I've watched you
I'm just Lost

So if I see you
And I tell you
I've watched you
Don't make fun of me later
Cause I'm just Lost

If I see you
And I tell you
How I've watched you
Don't make fun of me later
Cause I'm just Lost

If I see you
And I tell you
How I've watched you
Don't make fun of me later
Cause I'm just Lost
Lost Lost Lost Lost Lost Lost

Lyrics by Morrissey




Tao Te Ching

I:

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

II:

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

From The Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell.