Humility - Brian Doyle

 

You cannot control anything.
You cannot order or command everything.
You cannot fix and repair everything.
You cannot protect [people] from pain
and loss and tragedy and illness.
You cannot be sure you will always be
employed, or healthy, or relatively sane.

All you can do is face the world with quiet grace.

When we are young we build a self, a persona, a story
in which to reside, or several selves in succession, or
several at once, sometimes;  when we are older we take on
other roles and personas, other masks and duties; and you
and I both know men and women who become trapped in
the selves they worked so hard to build, so desperately
imprisoned that sometimes they smash their lives simply to
escape who they no longer wish to be;  but finally, I think, if
we are lucky, if we read the book of pain and loss with
humility, we realize that we are all broken and small and brief....
and then, perhaps, we begin to understand something deep and
true about humility.

Humility does not mean self abnegation, lassitude, detachment;
it's more a calm recognition that you must trust in that which
does not make sense, that which is unreasonable, illogical, silly
ridiculous, crazy by the measure of most of our culture.  You
must trust that you being you matters somehow...

[and that]

.....pain is part and parcel of the gift of joy...

[and]
You do your best to reach out tenderly and touch and elevate as
many people as you can reach...

You either walk toward love or away from it with every breath
you draw.  Humility is the road to love.  Humility, maybe, is
love.  That could be.  I wouldn't know; I'm a muddle and a 
conundrum shuffling slowly along the road, gaping in wonder,
trying to just see and say what is, trying to leave shreds and shards
of ego along the road like wisps of litter and chaff.

Brian Doyle

Excerpts from the chapter - "The Final Frontier"
From: One Long River Song

~

Photo from the Internet

Quietude - Dada Gavand

So we have to work with ourselves and go directly to that core,
to that center, to that root wherein lies the whole secret and mystery
of life.  You need not depend upon anyone, or on any book, in fact not
on anything that is outside.  Just be quiet into yourself.  There will not
be any thought to imagine or demand a thing.  Simply be quiet
with the total fund of energy within, and in such quietude you are
going to discover something new.  You will then experience what
humility is, and what innocence is.  The mind which is quiet into itself
is innocent, humble, transparent and open to discover that which is real.

Then you will know what meditation is.  Meditation is not the chanting
or singing of devotional songs, nor the repetition of any word or
phrase. You will then be in a state of total surrender,
alone within yourself.

You have to be really alone and anonymous to be with the inner spirit.
When you are somebody, you are related to the world, you belong to
the world.  And as long as you are of the world, you cannot move
toward the inner spirit; you will have no relationship with it.  So to
have a contact with the spirit, you will have to be alone, on your own.
Then you will get a helping hand from within.  The whole secret is to
come back into yourself by gathering all your energy, and to be there
in quietude and silence.  To be in silence is to be near one's own inner
spirit.

To be in such silence within is the highest form of prayer.  Prayer is not
chanting or singing praises to someone, nor asking and begging for
rewards of the other world.  Desires and supplication of thought on any
level are not prayers.  The silence of one's own total energy in the inner
domain is the true state of prayer.  Such prayer finds its own reward in
a very mysterious way.  The innate energy, when it regains its balance
and stillness, finds its own fulfillment...

Dada Gavand
East Indian Mystic

From: Beyond the Mind

via: No Mind's Land

~

Photo - two shadows on a wall
digitally colored

IN-spirations...

After two weeks I am finally breathing easier ~ ~ ~
Wanted to share these "in-spirations"
and the beautiful Amaryllis blossom
that bloomed while I was ill... ;)

The Miracle of Pure Existence – Fred LaMotte

“The greatest service I can perform is to inspire…
Gently shift your attention from what is happening
 to that space it happens in -
the SPACE of Existence…

Existence itself is a miracle!
Whatever happens in this Existence is insubstantial,
 ever changing,
never better or worse,
worth neither to be grasped or rejected…

The space in which this world is happening,
the air of pure Existence,
is complete,
overflowing with joy,
and utterly divine.
The space is without taint or boundary.
It is motionless, silent and self-luminous.

Usually our attention is absorbed by what is happening,
and so we lose the simple innocent awareness of
the Existence in which it happens.
Existence becomes the background to the play of forms
that rise and change and disappear.
But in the awakened view,
which is the clearest simplest view,
Existence becomes the foreground,
and the forms of the world sink into the background.

…into the still boundless space of

Existence…

The greatest miracle is
the gift of Existence.

At every moment,
the answer to any problem
is to just observe
the dance of
Existence”

Fred LaMotte

~*~

Trust In Life! – Jeff Foster

“Don’t judge your sorrow too quickly or too harshly, friend.
Honouring the darkness within is not the same as ‘wallowing’,
and cultivating deep trust in all of life’s movements does not
equate to self-indulgence or a ‘pity party.’

Please do not misunderstand this.

Find a space in your heart for the
unwanted,
the unloved,
the rejected
aspects of experience.

If we refuse to plumb the depths
we are left only half alive,
however ‘enlightened’ we claim to be.
Artists, musicians, poets
of all cultures throughout the ages
have understood this.

See your life as an art gallery, friend.
Embrace the full spectrum of experience,
from the light to the dark.
Hold it all in your prayers,
illuminate it all with the light of
loving awareness.

Be that awareness!

Perhaps your sorrow is there to remind you
of the joy that is about to burst forth.

Perhaps the contraction you feel
in your body is about to give way
to glorious expansion.
Perhaps your frustration
just wants to frustrate itself fully
and be felt, fully.

Perhaps this moment contains
no mistake!

Perhaps the relief you will feel
in time will be infinitely sweeter
for having suffered so deeply.
Perhaps your suffering is
teaching you
humility,
gratitude,
quietude,
and
compassion
- and trust -
unbreakable trust
 in life’s strange processes.

Don’t judge your sadness,
your depression,
your feelings,

[your illness]…

And don’t judge
the process of another,
for you really don’t know
what’s best for anyone,
and you really don’t know
more than life itself.

That which you reject
(in another or yourself)
may actually be
much-needed medicine,
a misunderstood teacher,
inviting you to an
awakening
deeper
than
you
ever
thought
possible.

It may be a threshold
guardian,
a gatekeeper
of a forgotten
kingdom.

Oh,
the glory of
a life
fully
felt!

And to your demons,
say –

Namaste!”

Jeff Foster

~*~

These quotes inspired me during
my recent illness.
As usual I put them in the form of a poem,
but they were not written as poetry,
although they seem like poetry to me  :)

The Stew of Life

I am really learning how life is like a pot of stew these days. Some days you get the sweet meat and other days you get the turnips, depending on what bubbles up to the surface. It seems that “contentment” rolled her way back to the bottom of the pot and a variety of other morsels have rolled their way to the surface… It seems the “dark” and “light” are all in this stew together – floating around together – taking their turns, offering their savory tidbits.

Yesterday I was in a stew about many things and instead of just walking away from the hot stove I fell face first into the stew – splat. When I finally managed to pull myself out of the pot I had a lot of sticky gravy all over me and had to wipe it off with a rag of humility – and step away from the stove.

Such is life…

I keep dipping that big ladle in trying to find “contentment” again, hoping she’ll find her way to the top of the pot and grace me with her sweet aroma. So far no sightings in this deep, dark stew. I’m sure she’s still in there somewhere, but it seems in trying to dig for her she eludes me – jumping off the ladle just as I think I’ve caught a glimpse of her again.

So I’m skimming off the top… Not necessarily liking what has been dished up, but willing to sit and look at it a bit. Although yesterday I turned my nose up at it and was rather like a spoiled child who didn’t want to eat her Life Stew and stormed off wanting only the dessert – the sweet “goodies” of life… But that didn’t work. I still didn’t get what I wanted. And the pot of Life Stew continues to bubble up today – still simmering.

Last night as I lay in bed still awake at 1:15am it *finally* dawned on me to ask: What needs to be seen here? Ah – that diverted the mind off the “I don’t want to eat my stew” routine. *Something* is obviously being offered up here in this unsettled stew of life that keeps boiling and roiling with its potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, celery and yes – yukky turnips. And it appears I don’t get to pick what I want. Heh, heh, heh – Like I didn’t know that one already… I mean I didn’t fall off the turnip truck ya’ know… (sorry :) The sweet taste of contentment is not being offered on the menu this week so far, so it looks like I’ll need to chew on that piece of turnip for a while and see what nourishment it has to offer. Maybe I’ll add a spice or two to make it more palatable.

Am off to tend to the pot of life again and see what comes up – wish me luck!

I wonder where I left my cookie stash – just in case…

You notice there aren’t any turnips in the picture :)