Have You Forgotten?

Have you forgotten
The edges of leaves, the soft fur of cats
Myths in the shapes of clouds
The stillness of the moon, tones in the wind
Your own soft breath
Dissolving the boundary between you and the world?
Have you forgotten
Your troubled mind still loves stars,
And can see the pain behind others’ eyes
Can you forgive and love yourself
Just the way you are
And do the same
With every stranger on the road?
Come close, get comfortable, and let me remind you…

Noisy Orphans

How can a story
Float up from nothing?
Or are stories always born
From other stories?
What are thoughts?
Orphaned noisy imps?
Angels bearing gifts?
Demons wielding swords?
Radiant ions
Arising from nothing
Returning to nothing
And in between
Signifying the world.
So raid the unknown
Love the womb
Not just the baby
And let the power of nothing
Reveal everything.

The Goddess Within

Shechina, the Goddess
Means ‘Presence’ in Hebrew
‘She Who Dwells Within.’
Many mourn her absence
But she is only absent
When we are absent
Which is most of the time.
She is homeless
When we are not at home.
She is left outside
When we shut ourselves inside
Our defences.
But when we welcome the world
In an unconditional embrace
Suddenly she is there
And here, and everywhere.
And when we surrender
To this perfect moment
She unfolds herself
In front of our eyes
And we truly know
She never left
But was too close
For us to notice.

Green Touch

While sitting still under a tree
A gentle touch on the shoulder.
A Zen master wielding a feather
Brushing me into awareness?
It was a soft green spring leaf
The carob tree stroking its guest

Dr. Stephen Fulder was born in London in 1946, has a doctorate in molecular biology and has published 14 books on outer and inner health. He is the founder and senior teacher of Tovana (the Israel Insight Society), the largest organisation in Israel that brings dharma teachings to thousands of participants yearly. Stephen has been teaching for 25 years, mostly in Israel but also abroad, and teaches a large number of retreats, courses, and classes annually. He has been deeply engaged in peace work in the Middle East.

His new book is: What’s Beyond Mindfulness: Waking Up to This Precious Life (Watkins Publishing, 2019). “A deeply illuminating and nurturing book” —Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn.

He also has an online school offering deeper dharma courses for more experienced practitioners. Core Buddhist teachings such as self and non-self (anatta), the paramis and dependent arising (paticca samuppada) go to the heart of Buddhist practice yet are rarely taught online in depth.

More on Stephen Fulder’s work can be found on our Links page.