In the pouring forth of wisdom all things have their being; wisdom in my shining, wisdom beyond me shining. All things are branches of the Tree of wisdom wisdom in me growing, wisdom beyond me growing. In the circle of being all things share a blessing; wisdom in me turning, wisdom beyond me turning.
BLESSINGS, beloved friends! May you find time these summer days to dive within your own heart, and there, to discover the Mystery and to listen for the Voice of the Silence. For, you are the sanctuaries of the Living Spirit!
If there is a light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
I was looking at the peach tree in blossom, and then I suddenly felt that it was not just the tree that was beautiful, but LIVING BEAUTY seemed to be coming through it, and it was in touch with me. It was an intensely personal contact, and it was like some BEING was communicating with me in a wordless way. It was like meeting some very special person who had an extraordinary effect on me. This eternity, I felt, was seeking itself through the activity of innumerable forms of life -- through nature, as with a flower or spider weaving a web, or through a human being creating a work of art, so that the same life would express itself through me... I was flooded by an overwhelming sense of harmony. In a flash countless aspects of beauty were revealed to me which I had never realized before.
Free the mind from the domination of time and everything takes on a curious beauty. Experience then seems to exist for its own sake with a flavor and a color and a fragrance it had not before. The scene is no longer blurred and streaming away from us, broken by an anxious heart.
BEAUTY can be found in birth and also in dying. If we know how to live, we will also know how to die. Living in beauty means dying in beauty. The deepest way to be alive and the deepest way to die are the same -- doing so in harmony with everyone and everything, in the true spirit of interbeing. The moment we do this, ideas of self and nonself, life and death, vanish, and we experience joy, equanimity and non-fear.
I found myself wondering how far she could ultimately journey in her art if she remained self-centered and not God-centered. To be centered entirely on the self is inevitably to be limited in one's range; to be centered on God, aligning one's own self with the power of the Creator is to be open to the spiritual range of all humanity, to be in touch with the eternal, not merely the ephemeral. She was a fine artist, but with her narrowed vision she risked failing to reach her full potential -- or was she, in her preoccupation with beauty and truth, not so far from being God-centered as I in my arrogance supposed?
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, what'ere you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception -- which is truth ...
and to KNOW,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.
~ from "Paracelsus" by Robert Browning with thanks to John Bryan
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, what'ere you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception -- which is truth ...
and to KNOW,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.
~ from "Paracelsus" by Robert Browning with thanks to John Bryan
The principles of tea Rikyu (the most revered Japanese master, 16th century) set forth are harmony, respect, purity and tranquility. Harmony is the oneness of host and guest with the flowing rhythms of nature ... Respect is the sincerity of heart that allows one to have an open relationship with the other participants, humbly recognizing their dignity ... Purity is removing the dust of the world from one's heart and mind ... Tranquility comes with the constant practice of harmony, respect, and purity in everyday life. In this state of mind, having found peace and beauty within oneself, a bowl of tea can truly be shared with another.
Now Talking God,
With your feet I walk,
I walk with your limbs,
I carry forth your body,
For me your mind thinks,
Your voice speaks for me.
Beauty is before me
And beauty behind me,
Above and below me hovers the beautiful,
I am surrounded by it,
I am immersed in it.
In my youth I am aware of it,
And in old age
I shall walk quietly
the beautiful trail.
BLESSED BE, friends! May Beauty ever radiate through your lives!
I carry the remembrance of the vibrant Life that breaks through the veil of this global village unexpectedly from time to time. And in those moments that joyful wound, that "terrible Beauty", is a balm for my soul. I remember and am assured of my sanity. I know again that all life is sacred and vibrates in shimmering Beauty. Only my density -- those concrete walls that were slowly and carefully constructed -- keeps me prisoner and in ferment. Ah, sweet Spirit, touch my wound of illusory separation that I might pour forth its joy to our broken, alienated world! Let me not be traitor to your hidden Presence within me by hiding the Light and Love in buildings constructed by hands or in a heart of stone.
God is the friend of silence. See how Nature -- trees, flowers, and grass -- grow in stillness; how stars, moon, and sun run their course in silence. The more we receive through quiet prayer, the more we can give in the activity of our daily lives. In essence, it is not what WE say, but what GOD says in us and through us. All our words are useless if they do not come from within.
What a strange power there is in silence. How many resolutions are formed, how many sublime conquests effected, during that pause when lips are closed and the soul secretly feels the eye of her Maker upon her.
At the heart of ministry is the Silence... Contemplating words or images or imaginings is at least one step removed from the direct experience of God. For as Alan Watts liked to say, "If you find a thousand names for God you will not have God, you will only have a list of names." To contemplate God rather than images about God one can only go humbly, empty of thought and self, into the presence of God -- into the Silence. It is out of the Silence that we love, act, speak if we do so with true spiritual integrity.
Silence is the sea which best bears up our prayers. Silence creates possibility -- the possibility of hearing. What we learn to do in silence is to create within ourselves silence, to create within ourselves emptiness, to brush aside all words, all concepts, all feelings, all fantasies, all anxieties, all ambition -- gently to brush away all these things that seem so important -- to let them go and to empty ourselves so that if the word is spoken we may hear it, and if the song is sung, we may attend.
In silence we do not try to be anything or anyone ... we give up trying to be, and simply are -- we become being -- or, to put it another way, we must become nothing in order that we may once again become that which we truly are.
Corbett sat there, looking up at me. His tears had dried and his quiet smile said everything words could not. Words? We had come for his gift of words. There was so much we wanted to hear, so much he could tell us. But words were something irrelevant now. A deeper communication was taking place. He had given us the blessing of his presence, and no greater gift can be imagined.
There is a powerful stage of spiritual growth where longing for the Friend, the Beloved, is a consuming passion, a burning. And there is another place where personal longing for God gets pushed over into a vast Silence.
