conceit

.

.

It is conceit that kills us 

and makes us cowards instead of gods. 

.

Under the great Command: Know thy self, and that thou art mortal! 

we have become fatally self-conscious, fatally self-important, fatally entangled in the cocoon coils of our conceit. 

.

Now we have to admit we can't know ourselves, we can only know about ourselves. 

And I am not interested to know about myself any more, 

I only entangle myself in the knowing. 

.

Now let me be myself, 

now let me be myself, and flicker forth, 

now let me be myself, in the being, one of the gods. 

.

~ D.H. Lawrence

.

for a leader

 

 

 

 

May the gift of leadership awaken in you as a vocation,

Keep you mindful of the providence that calls you to serve.

 

As high over the mountains the eagle spreads its wings,

May your perspective be larger than the view from the foothills.

 

When the way is flat and dull in times of gray endurance,

May your imagination continue to evoke horizons.

 

When thirst burns in times of drought,

May you be blessed to find the wells.

 

May you have the wisdom to read time clearly

And know when the seed of change will flourish.

 

In your heart may there be a sanctuary

For the stillness where clarity is born.

 

May your work be infused with passion and creativity

And have the wisdom to balance compassion and challenge.

 

May your soul find the graciousness

To rise above the fester of small mediocrities.

May your power never become a shell

Wherein your heart would silently atrophy.

May you welcome your own vulnerability

As the ground where healing and truth join.

 

May integrity of soul be your first ideal.

The source that will guide and bless your work.

 

 

 

~ John O'Donohue
from To Bless the Space Between Us
photo by Reuters

.

present

.

.

The incarnate Word is with us,

is still speaking, is present

always, yet leaves no sign

but everything that is.

.

~ Wendell Berry

from Given

IX, Sabbaths 1999

.

a pile of ashes

Your pride in yourself and your wanting,

these steal your energy along the road.

If you can kill these robbers

and become the servant of everyone,

you'll meet the Lord in meditation

and see what you used to protect

as just a pile of ashes.

~ Lalla

from Naked Song

translations by Coleman Barks

beyond the grey continent

It must be those brief moments

when nothing has happened - nor is going to.

Tiny moments, like islands in the ocean

beyond the grey continent of our ordinary days.

.

There, sometimes, you meet your own heart

like someone you've never known.

~ Hans Børli

.

if you love

.

You might quiet the whole world for a second

if you pray.

.

And if you love, if you

really love,

.

our guns will

wilt.

.

~ St. John of the Cross

.

to just be close

.

I was sad one day and went for a walk;

I sat in a field.

.

A rabbit noticed my condition and 

came near.

.

It often does not take more than that to help at times -

.

to just be close to creatures who

are so full of knowing,

so full of love

that they don't

- chat,

.

they just gaze with

their

marvelous understanding.

.

.

~ St. John of the Cross

from Love Poems from God

translations by Daniel Ladinsky

.

oneness into many

.

.

As the same fire assumes different shapes

When it consumes objects differing in shape,

So does the one Self take the shape

Of every creature in whom he is present.

As the same air assumes different shapes

When it enters objects differing in shape,

So does the one Self take the shape

Of every creature in whom he is present.

...

The ruler supreme, inner Self of all,

Multiplies his oneness into many.

Eternal joy is theirs who see the Self

In their own hearts.  To none else does it come!

.

~ Katha Upanishad

translation by Eknath Easwaran

.

november

.

Some aggravations include the whole world.

What can you do?  An old pulp-cutter

Longs to die, imagines

The Easter nails.

.

On his Icelandic farm, Guttorm hears

The news: his two sons

Dead.  He pulls the covers

Up over his head.

.

Some oak leaves hang, others fall.

The body says, "It's all right

To die.  It's not an insult

To the world."

.

~ Robert Bly
from Morning Poems

.

winter afternoon by the lake

.

.

Black trunks, black branches, and white snow.

No one nearby, five o'clock, below zero,

Late January. No birds. No wind.

You look, and your life seems stopped.  Perhaps

.

You died suddenly earlier today.  But the thin

Moon says no.  The trees say, "It's been this way

Before, often.  It's cold, but it's quiet."  We've experienced

This before, among the messy Saxons putting back

.

The hide flap.  A voice says: "It's old.  You'll never

See this again, the way it is now, because

Just today you sensed that someone gave you

Life and said, 'Stay as long as you like.'"

.

The snow and the black trees, pause, to see if we're

Ready to re-enter that stillness.  "Not yet."

.

~ Robert Bly

For Owen

from Morning Poems

.

non-action

.

.

That which offers no resistance,

overcomes the hardest substances.

That which offers no resistance

can enter where there is no space.

.

Few in the world can comprehend

the teaching without words,

or understand the value of non-action.

.

~ Lao Tzu

from The Tao Te Ching
translation j.h. mcdonald

.

for lost friends

.

.

As twilight makes a rainbow robe

From the concealed colors of day

In order for time to stay alive

Within the dark weight of night,

May we lose no one we love

From the shelter of our hearts.

.

When we love another heart

And allow it to love us, 

We journey deep below time

Into that eternal weave

Where nothing unravels.

.

May we have the grace to see

Despite the hurt of rupture,

The searing of anger,

And the empty disappointment,

That whoever we have loved,

Such love can never quench.

.

Though a door may have closed,

Closed between us,

May we be able to view

Our lost friends with eyes

Wise with calming grace;

Forgive them the damage

We were left to inherit;

.

Free ourselves from the chains

Of forlorn resentment;

Bring warmth again to 

Where the heart has frozen

In order that beyond the walls

Of our cherished hurt

And chosen distance

We may be able to 

Celebrate the gifts they brought,

Learn and grow from the pain,

And prosper into difference,

Wishing them the peace

Where spirit can summon

Beauty from wounded space.

.

~ John O'Donohue

from To Bless the Space Between Us

.

a way between voice and presence

.

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu

Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

.

or cultural system. I am not from the East

or the West, not out of the ocean or up

.

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not

composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

.

am not an entity in this world or in the next,

did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

.

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace

of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two

worlds as one and that one call to and know,

.

first, last, outer, inner, only that

breath breathing human being.

.

There is a way between voice and presence

where information flows.

.

In disciplined silence it opens.

With wandering talk it closes.

.

~ Rumi

translation by Coleman Barks

.

this press of time

We set the pace,

But this press of time –

take it as a little thing

next to what endures.

All this hurrying

soon will be over

Only when we tarry

do we touch the holy.

Young ones,

don’t waste your courage

racing so fast

flying so high.

See how all things are at rest –

darkness and morning light

blossom and book.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

you know quite well

.

.

You know quite well, deep within you, 

that there is only a single magic,

a single power, a single salvation...

and that is called loving. 

.

~ Herman Hesse 

.

I am the truth

.

tomb of Hallaj

.

Kill me, my faithful friends,

For in my being killed is my life.

.

Love is that you remain standing

In front of your Beloved

When you are stripped of all your attributes;

Then His attributes become your qualities.

.

Between me and You, there is only me.

Take away the me, so only You remain

...

I am the One whom I love, and the One whom I love is myself.

We are two souls incarnated in one body;

if you see me, you see Him,

if you see Him, you see us.

.

~  Al-Hallaj

Mansur al-Hallaj was executed in Baghdad in 922.

Hallaj taught an interior expression,

 he was known to say “ana al-haq,” or “I am the Truth,”

for this he was executed.

.

each moment to fully engage

 .

.

Pursuing knowledge in childhood we rise

Until we become masterful and wise

But if we look through the disguise

We see the ties of worldly lies.

.

Early one morning I heard an angelic chime

Bringing news of a loving and joyous clime

Pursuit of the unimportant is the worst crime

Live in joy & love before the end of your time.

.

I watched the birds on nature’s stage

Playful, in flight, page after page

Thus opened the doors of my cage

& learnt each moment to fully engage.

.

~ Omar Khayyam

verses from The Rubaiyat

.

I sent my soul

.

I sent my soul into the invisible,

Some letter of that after life to spell.

And by and by my soul returned to me

And answered, I myself am heaven and hell.

.

~ Omar Khayyam 

from The Rubaiyat

.

a symphony

.

.

...Ever since I was a child, I have had the tendency to create a fictitious world around me, to surround myself with friends and acquaintances who never existed. ( I don’t know, of course, if they didn't really exist or if it is me who doesn't exist. On such matters, as in all others, one shouldn't be dogmatic.) Ever since I became aware of the thing that I call self, I can remember with mental precision, the figures, the movements, the character and the history of several fictitious people who were, to me, as visible and mine as those things which we, perhaps abusively, call real life. This tendency, which exists since I realized that I was a self, has always been with me, modifying slightly the kind of music it uses to bewitch me but never altering its manner of bewitching.

.

~ Fernando Pessoa

in a letter to his friend Casais Monteiro

.

My soul is like a hidden orchestra; I do not know which instruments 

grind and play away inside of me, strings and harps, timbales and drums. 

I can only recognize myself as a symphony.

.

from The Book of Disquiet

.

present truth

.

one must be 

in the moment 

for life to 

ever come true 

.

touch the ground 

and be grounded 

find comfort here 

.

living, being, 

breathing, now 

this is where 

it will all happen

.

~ Benjamin Dean

from straighten the heart, the mind disappears

.

ash ode

.

.

When I saw you ahead I ran two blocks 

shouting your name then realizing it wasn't 

you but some alarmed pretender, I went on 

running, shouting now into the sky, 

continuing your fame and luster. Since I've

 been incinerated, I've oft returned to this thought, 

that all things loved are pursued and never caught, 

even as you slept beside me you were flying off. 

At least what's never had can’t be lost, the sieve 

of self stuck with just some larger chunks, jawbone, 

wedding ring, a single repeated dream, 

a lullaby in every elegy, descriptions 

of the sea written in the desert, your broken 

umbrella, me claiming I could fix it.

.

~ Dean Young

I died for beauty

.

I died for beauty, but was scarce

Adjusted in the tomb,

When one who died for truth was lain

In an adjoining room.

.

He questioned softly why I failed?

“For beauty,” I replied.

“And I for truth, -the two are one;

We brethren are,” he said.

.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,

We talked between the rooms,

Until the moss had reached our lips,

And covered up our names.

.

~ Emily Dickinson

.

da capo

Take the used-up heart like a pebble

and throw it far out.

Soon there is nothing left.

Soon the last ripple exhausts itself

in the weeds.

Returning home, slice onions, carrots, celery.

Glaze them in oil before adding

the lentils, water, and herbs.

Then the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt.

Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat.

You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.

Begin again the story of your life.

~ Jane Hirshfield

from The Lives of the Heart

unpetalled

.

I unpetalled you, like a rose,

to see your soul,

and I didn't see it.

.

But everything around

--horizons of lands and of seas--

everything, out to the infinite,

was filled with a fragrance,

enormous and alive.

.

~ Juan Ramon Jimenez

translated by Stephen Mitchell

.

in a stolen boat

push off what seemed safe: The fishing dock,

pitch pines, children glazed to sheen

by ruthless summers. Past

 

the jetty, past the past, to open sea--

all violet and green, that choppy path between doom and luck--

Put your back into it, and row.

 

 

 

~ April Bernard

.

this love has no name

Holiness is falling in love with your own self.

This is devotion, and it is not different from love!

What you love you are devoted to and

what you are devoted to you love.

When this love has no object, and goes nowhere

but to itself, it will reveal itself to you in whatever

form you desire; manifest or unmanifest.

If you desire this love don't try to love a particular

person because this love has no personality, no

form, and no name. God is this love.

~ Papaji

from The Truth Is

in a train

.

There has been a light snow.

Dark car tracks move in out of the darkness.

I stare at the train window marked with soft dust.

I have awakened at Missoula Montana utterly happy.

.

~ Robert Bly

.