June 2008

6/22/08

The Buddha compared faith to a blind giant who meets up with a very sharp-eyed cripple, called wisdom. The blind giant, called faith, says to the sharp-eyed cripple, "I am very strong, but I can't see; you are very weak, but you have sharp eyes. Come and ride on my shoulders. Together we will go far." The Buddha never supported blind faith, but a balance between heart and mind, between wisdom and faith. The two together will go far. The saying that blind faith can move mountains unfortunately omits the fact that, being blind, faith doesn't know which mountain needs moving. That's where wisdom is essential...--Ayya Khema


The fact that spiritual growth and personal transformation in general
May be promoted by personal turmoil suggests a parallel between spiritual seeking and wisdom whose development too has been linked to stressful life events. In any case, it was certainly true in our study that spiritual growth was linked to emtional pain and the ability to positiviely learn from and integrate that pain.
Michelle Dillon and Paul Wink

Shopenhauer 1788-1860: For a man to acquire the noble sentiments, … for the better consciousness to be active within him, pain suffering and failure are as necessary to him, as a weighty ballast is to a ship, which attains no draught without it.


Sacred psychology is the practice of soulmaking Ä not necessarily a happy thing. As seedmaking begins with the wounding of the ovum by the sperm, so does soulmaking begin with the wounding of the psyche by the larger story. Soulmaking requires that you die to one story to be reborn to a larger one. The psyche opens and new questions are asked about who we are in our depths.
. . .

The wounding becomes sacred when we are willing to release our old stories and become the vehicles through which a new story may emerge. When we fail to do this, we repeat the same old story. Sacred wounding marks the core of all great Western stories, from Adam's rib to Jesus' crucifixion.


In our woundings we are forced to move in new directions, to face what had been hidden to consciousness, to be pruned of primal growth so that we may bear fruit. . . . sacred psychology shows the power of myth to illumine and redeem the sacrality of the wounding that occurs in our lives. Jean Housten




The Journey Starts Here
Don’t go off sight seeing.
The real journey is right here.
The great excursion starts
from exactly where you are.
You are the world.
You have everything you need.
You are the secret.
You are the wide opened.

Don’t look for the remedy for your troubles
outside yourself.
You are the medicine.
You are the cure for your own sorrow.
Rumi


Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause.
Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward, bend to
the winds of heaven, and learn tranquility.
Dedication to Richard St. Barre Baker, father of the trees


When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from the stones, and all growing things, and all animals the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you.
Hassidic saying

6-29-08


Mother Father God, Universal Power
Remind us daily of the sanctity of all life.

Touch our hearts with the glorious oneness of all creation
As we strive to respect all the living beings on this planet.

Penetrate our souls with the beauty of this earth.
As we attune ourselves to the rhythm and flow of the seasons.

Awaken our minds with the knowledge
to achieve a world in perfect harmony
And grant us the wisdom to realize that we
can have heaven on earth.
Amen.
Jo Poore




Hildegard von Bingen saw the notion of ‘Viriditas’, or Greenness, penetrating every aspect of life. This ‘Greenness’ was the very expression of Divine power on Earth. “The Word of God regulates the movements of the Sun, the Moon and the stars. The Word of God gives the light, which shines from the heavenly bodies. He makes the wind blow, the rivers run and the rainfall. He makes trees burst into blossom, and the crops bring forth the harvest.”
Since this extraordinary phenomenon called life could only be created by God, Hildegard believed, all that lives equally carried his Divine energy, or ‘viritis’. In her own words:
Oh fire of the Holy Spirit,
life of the life of every creature,
holy are you in giving life to forms…
Oh boldest path,
penetrating into all places,
in the heights, on earth,
and in every abyss,
you bring and bind all together
From you clouds flow, air flies,
Rocks have their humours,
Rivers spring forth from the waters
And earth wears her green vigour
O ignis Spiritus Paracliti


To be of the Earth is to know
the restlessness of being a seed
the darkness of being planted
the struggle toward the light
the pain of growth into the light
the joy of bursting and bearing fruit
the love of being food for someone
the scattering of your seeds
the decay of the seasons the miracle of birth.
John Soos


Be a gardener
Dig a ditch, toil and sweat,
and turn the earth upside down
and seek the deepness
and water the plants in time.
Continue this labor
and make sweet floods to run
and noble and abundant fruits
to spring.
Take this food and drink
and carry it to God
as your true worship.
Julian of Norwich


I am filled with joy
when the day dawns quietly
over the roof of the sky.

Life was wonderful in winter
But did winter make me happy?
No, I always worried
about hides and boot-soles
and for boots,
and if there’d be enough
for all of us.
Yes, I worried constantly

Life was wonderful
in summer
But did summer ever make me happy?
No I always worried
about reindeer skins and rugs for the platform
Yes, I worried constantly.

Life was wonderful
when you stood at your fishing-hole
on the ice
But was I happy waiting at my fishing-hole?

No, I was always worried
for my little hook,
in case I never got a bite.
Yes, I worried constantly.

Life was wonderful
when you danced in the feasting-house.
But did this make me happier?
No I always worried
I’d forget my song
Yes, I always worried.

Life was wonderful
And I still feel the joy
each time the day-break
whitens the dark sky
each time the sun
climbs over the roof of the sky.
Eskimo song


In our time
We do not speak because the voices are within us,
It is our quiet time.
We do not walk because the earth is all within us.
It is our quiet time.
We do not dance because the music has lifted us to a place where
the spirit is.
It is our quiet time.
We rest with all of nature. We wake when the seven sisters wake.
We great them in the sky over the opening of the kiva
Nancy Wood


I thank you God for this amazing
day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky, and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died and am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday, this is the birth day of life and of love and wings and of the gay great happening illumitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no
of all nothing – human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
ee cummings