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Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Rest - David Whyte


Rest is the conversation between what we love to do
and how we love to be.
To rest is to give up on the already exhausted will
as the prime motivator of endeavor, with its endless
outward need to reward itself through established goals.
To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense
that there is something wrong with the world
unless we are there to put it right;
to rest is to fall back literally or figuratively from outer targets,
and shift.....to an inner state of natural exchange.

The template of natural exchange is the breath,
the autonomic giving and receiving
that forms the basis and the measure for life itself.
We are rested when we are living [that] exchange...

In rest is the sense of stopping, of giving up on
what we've been doing or how we have been being.
It is the sense of slowly coming home...

Deep in the primal exchange of the breath,
is the give and take, the blessing and the being blessed
and the ability to delight in both.
In rest there is a sense of presence, a delight in and
anticipation of the world and all of its forms [in which]
receiving and responding occur in one spontaneous movement.

A deep experience of rest is a perspective from which we are
able to perceive the outer specific forms of our work [and life]
and our relationships whilst being nourished by the shared
foundational gift of the breath itself.

Rested, we are ready for the world,
but not held hostage by it...

David Whyte

Excerpts from a writing called "Rest"
From the book: CONSOLATIONS
(David's words, my format)

Note: In Non-Duality religions they would call this Resting in Awareness...  One could also say it is resting in the Primal Rest of Pure Being, although am not sure that is David's meaning - but is how I interpret his words...   


2 comments:

  1. To me, this is a lovely view of old age. :-) We have "learned", and we have "done", in the first two phases of our life. And then, comes the resting part.

    The looking inward part. The time of no new large project beginnings. And even if a project is begun, it is understood that it will be of shorter duration. So that we can get back to the "inner" work, of this phase of our life cycle.

    Actually, Joseph Campbell said all this, much more eloquently.

    Luna Crone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Luna...

      I know how you describe it is the way it's "supposed" to be - the "normal" cycle of things, but it has not been my experience. Things are not slowing down here, although would love it if they did! :)
      But I think his point is that we can find that place of inner Rest despite what is going on in the world around us, or what our life circumstances are... That's what I continue to try to do... :)

      Delete

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