Category: Poetry

Well of wisdom

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4th Week Lent
Today’s Scriptures: Jer 11:18-20 Jn 7:40-52

In the philosophy of the poet – love  ushers forth from a well of wisdom.  From the contemplative heart we receive lived wisdom as from the sage.

We listen to our journey as it has been lived through their lives. Their truths are our truths – in shadows and in light.  They speak of what might have been; the seen and the unseen. They birth in us new ways of saying, of being, of naming and of seeing.

David Whyte  explores the Poetry of Compassion in the recording below.  In it he talks of the inner journey, and the search to find your own way. He explores our capacity to embrace all of self, including our darker side and grief. He brings gentle  connections to,   as he says, “restore our personal innocence” and be compassionate with ourselves.

By recitation of poetic works from Mary Oliver and Pablo Neruda, and his own poem – “The Well of Grief” – he evokes and opens for us a deep relationship to the words and imagery of the inner journey.

This recording is 37 min.duration, but may be stopped at short intervals between various poems.  I highly recommend the full recording on the site below.

However, you may choose to listen in intervals of five minutes or so.

David Whyte   visiting Australia  April 24 – May 3  http://www.davidwhyte.com/

 

 

 

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You and I

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4th Week Lent
Today’s Readings: Is 49:8-15   Jn 5:17-30

‘I require a You to become.
In becoming I,
I say You.
All actual life is encounter.’

‘The Thou encounters me by grace — it cannot be found by seeking. But that I speak the basic word to it is a deed of my whole being, is my essential deed.’

P O E T        W R I T E R      T H E O L O G I A N       S C H O L A R
P H I L O S O P H E R

MARTIN   BUBER

I wish to introduce new footholds  for the spiritual journey.  Whilst we may feel  the spiritual  defies our attempts  to express our inner sensing, or grasp the ineffable; Martin Buber’s life works exhort us to embrace our relationship with the spirit, as the essence of the journey.

“When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.”

His many works give us a new dialogue of  inclusive relationship between  human and other …  Most particularly he speaks of the sacred relationship of “I and Thou”.

“Spirit is not in the I but between I and You. It is not like the blood that circulates in you but like the air in which you breathe. Man lives in the spirit when he is able to respond to his You. He is able to do that when he enters into this relation with his whole being. It is solely by virtue of his power to relate that man is able to live in the spirit.”

Being consciously engaged with our spiritual life centres us in our full humanity.

Extract from:

 “Power and Love” by Martin Buber

‘Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes, and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honour reality.

We cannot avoid
Using power,
Cannot escape the compulsion
To afflict the world,
So let us, cautious in diction
And might in contradiction,
Love powerfully.’

 

‘As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.’

These quotes by Martin Buber were retrieved on 8.3.2016 from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/539106-ich-und-du  
http://www.azquotes.com/author/2101https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/I_and_Thou

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS REFERENCED ARE:
" I & Thou" by Martin Buber Walter Kaufmann translator) NY: Charles Scribner 1970
"Martin Buber : An Intimate Portrait" by Aubrey Hodes, Viking Press 1971

Awesome One

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Week 3 Lent Today’s Scriptures Hosea 14:2-10 Mark 12:28-34

I am praying again, Awesome One.

You hear me again, as words

from the depths of me

rush toward you in the wind.

…

…

I yearn to be held

in the great hands of your heart”.

 

 

Extract from  “The Book of Hours: Love poems to God” by  Rainer Maria Rilke*

One of my other favourite poems from Rilke is:

“Go to the limits of your longing”.  For recitation click red arrow.

 

To view all the words and other poems please go to:  

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RilkeRainerM/Iamprayingag/index.html

 

Recommended Reading:

  “In the Company of Rilke:

Why a 20th-century visionary poet speaks so eloquently to 21st century readers yearning for inwardness, beauty & spiritual connection.”

by Stephanie Dowrick,  Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest. NSW.  2009

“Awesome God” can be found in Rilke’s “Book of Hours” translated by Joanna Macy, Author Anita Barrows.  Riverhead Books, Penguin. NY. 1996.*

Inner sense

Week 3 Lent Today’s Readings: Deut 4:1,5-9 Matt 5:17-19

The-WoesW

Innocence

in a sense

is like incense      ….   innocence…  

it rises up and offers something of its very being

to inner sense

innocence   –   seemingly elusive   yet

my inner sense

in a sense  –  it touches me  …  I behold it,

in a sense – I perceive its vapour,

I am in sense  arising  inner sense

an incense

to my being in innocence.

I wrote this verse as the word ‘innocence’ invited me this morning to ‘feel out’ its dimensions within me. In rising awareness of the work of Michael Leunig – artist, poet, philospher and officially declared Australian Living Treasure in 1999,   I sought out an image and had NO knowledge of what follows.  All within me blossomed as I discovered a gem -an extract follows from:

 “Ideas of Spirituality, Art and Innocence”  by Michael Leunig*:

“Why do I choose to put together this wonderful holy trinity of spirituality, art and innocence?  … The simple truth is that I believe these things are treasures that matter hugely to the health of the individual and society…

I have come to understand my spirituality as an ongoing internal lyrical state of consciousness, semi-consciousness and unconsciousness in which I find meaning, comfort, refuge, inspiration, mystery and strength. …

With spirit, one is able to have and hold many feelings, and live a felt life. The spirit supports and negotiates between our feelings, instincts and intuitions …

I cannot help but think that a rich and confident spiritual life is a form of genius.  …

The spirit lies at the heart of our character and personality; our individual, divine self, which is one of the greatest treasures we will ever have access to. …

Any thoughts of spirituality lead me quite naturally to the idea of art because in my view, and in my experience, art is an aspect or an expression of our individual spiritual reality.

I make the point that mystery is not confusion, rather it is an enchantment of the imagination and spirit. Indeed art is a spiritual project.  …

In essence, spirituality and art are interwoven in their raw searching, in their expression, in their courageous unknowing, in their joy and darkness and in their radiant innocent strength which finds its way into the human heart. …

A direct link to the wondrous, innocent experiences of childhood might, in mature age, be called mature innocence.  … I have found some of my most meaningful, useful and joyous work there. It is my studio within my studio. We might also understand mature innocence as mindfulness.”

I encourage you to visit the site for his full essay given as keynote presentation at 10th Dialogue Australasia Network Conference, 11 April 2015.  http://www.leunig.com.au/ideas/spirituality-art-innocence?showall=1&limitstart=   Words and image provided with gracious courtesy of Michael Leunig.

Morning Flight

Morning Flight by TFavretto

morning_flight_by_tfavretto-d16q0ee
3rd Week Lent    Today’s Scriptures: Dan 3:25, 34-43 Matt 18:21-35

I hope you are reading this at morning; at the start at least of a new dawning.

Today’s experience is to sit and be in the spaciousness of now  –   in this present moment.

To allow the moment to have space and peace and an unfurling of its own.

My hope is that you may receive through image and the word and that they may speak to your heart and bring balm to your innermost being.

(Please note: just click the red arrow play button for the recital.)

WILD GEESE      recited by  Mary Oliver  poet   

She invites you into this poem with the words –

“You do not have to be good,

You do not have to walk on your knees for one hundred miles in the desert repenting”…

and she  draws towards her conclusion with –

“whoever you are, no matter  how lonely,  the world offers itself to your imagination …..

Mary Oliver is a highly acclaimed and prolific American Poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for  her work “American Primitive” and in 1992 won the National Book Award for Poetry.  Wild Geese is one of her most popular poems, as is The Journey, both included in her book “Dream Work” published in 1986. Atlantic Monthly Press. N.Y

The poem by “Wild Geese” is recited by Mary Oliver is the end of an  interview in the “On Being” broadcast.

A list of her books, poems and  biographical information are readily available. An overview may be found at – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver

 

Header Photo with permission from:http://tfavretto.deviantart.com/art/Morning-Flight-71757446

 

 

Energy of Faith

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Week 2 Lent
Today’s Readings: Gen 37:3-4,12-13,17-28 Matt 21:33-43,45-46

It is an interesting reality – our personal energy.   In some ways  I have often had high energy… it is a clear gift.  I see others do not have it in the same way it comes to me.   But it is there in each of us.  It is the power with which we each embrace life and live it.

Our energy for life is in some way tied particularly to our faith and values.  It is a zeal for life itself and a strength of conviction allied to a sense of meaning and purpose.  In times when I had become disillusioned or lost my way, my energy also waned until I found a new connection to meaning within myself.

There seems a correlation between the amount I give of myself in circumstances and the personal sense I have of it being  in accord with my values.  It is a faith that I am in the right place, or the right work or right standing with others….it is an outworking of my core beliefs about myself, my path and place at the time.

Faith in the rightness of things  generates the energy that things are worth doing and enables me to go the extra mile when needed.  Our commitment to our core beliefs, whether specifically religious or not, is lived out in small steps daily.  We step out incrementally growing in our faith and test its limits.

Two Insights from Thich Nhat Hanh, Author and Buddist monk.
Taken from: “Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions.”

“Faith is the outcome of your life.   As faith continues to grow, you continue to get the energy, because faith is also an energy like love.  If we look deeply into the nature of our love, we will also see our faith.  When we have faith in us, we are no longer afraid of anything.”

and

“When you have faith, you have a lot of energy.  When you believe in something really good, true, and beautiful, you are very alive.”

Thich Nhat Hanh -“Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions.”p239, 241. Riverhead Books, Penguin Publ. NY. 2004.

An invitation

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Week 2 Lent  Today’s Scriptures: Jer 18:18-20   Matt: 20:17-28

Recently I was as asked if I won $1m how would I spend it?

Maybe  Lent is like that…  We are reminded that we are being invited to share in a great gift of graces and a new life. How will we spend Lent?

Lent is a time where we can  ponder on the true treasures we desire, our deepest yearnings and longings  and cry out for grace to truly seek after these.   The graces of healing, forgiveness and peace are at heart of our deepest desires.     All things can be changed and made new.

I make 3 offerings:   

A meditation:

An extract from short essay by Fr. Daniel O’Leary entitled “Forging in the Smithy of the Soul –Sometimes we must sweat blood to stay faithful”. *

In part he says :  “We endeavour to short-circuit the relentless call of Christ. We want to equate the increase in our religious behaviour during Lent with growth in holiness.  There is, however, no cheap grace.   …

In our mistaking of the outward ego for the inner essence we are unknowingly denying ourselves the possibility of any radical conversion.    …

In Lent we grow by dying. There is no other way. In this dying we recognise the false face we’ve grown used to, the daily lies we tell, the thoughts of deception that crowd our minds, the infidelities we do not commit only because we might get caught, the lovelessness of our lives parading as shallow compassion, our collusion with conformity, our fear of beauty and big dreams….  p.28-29

I recommend the full very short essay, contained in “Already Within” by Fr. Daniel O’Leary and his weekly reflections at: http://djoleary.com/pages/general.htm

A song   “And So”  by Kirtana    from her album “Unseen Grace.”

According to Wikipedeia  kirtana is Sanskrit for “praise; eulogy” and is call and response chanting in India’s  devotional traditions.  It involves hymns, chanting or mantras to musical accompaniment.

An image/prayer

Some days ago, I strolled among some gums and grasses quietly pondering and there before me was this short prayer – in the photo at the top of the page.  Just as it came to me…I give it to you- the Invitation to Repentance….