Image Locale

And this is love—

The vertigo of Heaven

Beyond the cage of words,

Suddenly to be naked

In the searchlight of truth . . .

~Rumi~
Music of the Sky: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry

This side of heaven, where do you suppose this side of heaven is?

“It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain.”

So said the rubyslipper-ed one just before she sung that unforgettable song: Over the Rainbow.

Behind the moon, beyond the rain…is it really that far away?  Or is it found within each of us?  Is it found in between the spaces of
judgment about ourselves – that field that Rumi spoke of?
Is it found in opening to our innate creativity?  Is it where our
dreams lie?  Where imagination comes alive?  Is it in the little
forgivenesses we give ourselves and others?

Is it in that moment we took to consciously take a breath?  Is it now, when I end this entry, step outside, look up, look around, point my face to the sun, breathe in the beauty of today and stay there for a good long time?

Unencumbered
Free
Free to just simply
be

Believing in someone is always a force for the good.  It is to merge
Heaven on Earth, as Wendell Berry brilliantly reflects in this tribute
to his Mother.  Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!

Image Locale

To My Mother

I was your rebellious son,
do you remember? Sometimes
I wonder if you do remember,
so complete has your forgiveness been.

So complete has your forgiveness been
I wonder sometimes if it did not
precede my wrong, and I erred,
safe found, within your love,

prepared ahead of me, the way home,
or my bed at night, so that almost
I should forgive you, who perhaps
foresaw the worst that I might do,

and forgave before I could act,
causing me to smile now, looking back,
to see how paltry was my worst,
compared to your forgiveness of it

already given. And this, then,
is the vision of that Heaven of which
we have heard, where those who love
each other have forgiven each other,

where, for that, the leaves are green,
the light a music in the air,
and all is unentangled,
and all is undismayed.

“I got sleepy while driving and pulled in under a tree at the side of the road.  Rolled up in the back seat and went to sleep.  How long?  Hours.  Darkness had come.

All of a sudden I was awake, and didn’t know who I was.  I’m fully conscious, but that doesn’t help.  Where am I?  WHO am I?  I am something that has just woken up in a back seat, throwing itself around in panic like a cat in a gunnysack.  Who am I?

After a long while my life comes back to me.  My name comes to me like an angel.  Outside the castle walls there is a trumpet blast (as in the Leonora Overture) and the footsteps that will save me come quickly quickly down the long staircase.  It’s me coming!  It’s me!

But it is impossible to forget the fifteen-second battle in the hell of nothingness, a few feet from a major highway where the cars slip past with their lights dimmed.”

The Name by Tomas Tranströmer from The Soul Is Here For Its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures

I found the above in a new book of poetry that arrived just yesterday.  While it’s not a poem, per se, I thought it was an interesting short read.  And for such a short read it really packs a powerful message.

I have seen my husband have this type of startled “who am I, where am I” response after being abruptly awakened.  I like how the author wrote out that he experienced 15 seconds in the hell of nothingness because it illustrates that all our hells are hells of nothingness, meaning they are of our own making.  The making of something out of nothing, which is not to trivialize it but only to illustrate our responsibility in requiring these hells of nothingness.  This is why Florence Scovel Shinn writes of letting things return to their “native nothingness”, from whence they all came.

I wonder now what would have happened, what different world might he have entered, if he awoke with not knowing who he was or where he was and met the moment with curiosity instead of fear.  What if I met more situations with curiosity?  In the Bible it is said: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  What if the Bible is really saying the kingdom of heaven is ours right now and its found within the open hearted curiousness of a child?  Become like little children — one who does not give themselves to a conclusion that is set against their very well being but one who can, at the very least, meet the moment with a sense of wonder and curiosity.

And maybe, just maybe, fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland, have more to teach us about life and living then we ever dreamed possible.

The other day I was perusing my online bank statement.  There were a series of three debits made on my account.  All on the same day to the same corporation in two different locations in Pennsylvania.  While I have family in Pennsylvania, on the day in question, March 27th, I was here in Washington.   I called the claims department for my bank and began the process of filing a claim for fraudulent activity on my account.  Meanwhile I shredded my debit card.

That same night I had a dream, I lost my blackberry and on it, among other things, was my email.  Someone called me on my land line.  It was the person now claiming they had possession of my blackberry.  They said to me, “I have your credit card number and I will now begin using it.”  There was another plot within that dream, someone went back on their word.  They promised one thing that was very important to me and then abruptly changed their mind.

I woke up and asked myself if the bank thing and the dream thing had a message for me, what would it be saying and began a dialogue with myself:

People can’t be trusted.
Do you want people to be trustworthy?
Yes.
What’s the opposite of “can’t be trusted”?
Innocent.
Do you want people to be innocent?
Yes.
Are you willing to believe that people are innocent?
Yes, I am willing to believe that this whole world is innocent.
Are you willing then not just to believe it but to have this be true for you, that the world is innocent?
Yes.
Ok then, now, go live it.

I decided then that I would make that hand on the heart pledge that I’ve been doing daily, this:

because I am not afraid, I will step into my greatness, I will step into all that I really am and I will experience Innocence.  If a challenging situation, interaction or an unwanted thought should come up, I will ask: what would Innocence bring to this?

I’ve written recently about innocence.  That this world is innocent, free of motive or agenda.  It is me, who is not yet free of motive or agenda.  I have decided that innocence will be my hand on the heart pledge until I can be the one for whom this is really true.

Saying the world is free of motive or agenda is one thing, believing it and being the one for whom that is true, requires much more of me.  In fact, it requires not just a little of me, not just I believe it everywhere but here, no, it requires ALL of me.  A whole hearted commitment or nothing at all is really what it amounts to because as long as I think a few people cannot be trusted, the world has nothing to do but reveal how this is true for me.

I can make my world heaven on earth and I can also make it hell on earth.  I choose heaven whenever I wake up and see that I’ve chosen hell because that’s what being in partnership with myself means — I have my best interest, my back at all times.  Most times is more accurate, I’m on a learning curve here!

Now I can say thank you and mean it, to whatever brought about those three debits.  It gave me the opportunity to awaken and choose again to return to my native state, what we are all born into: innocence.

I wrote the above a few days ago.  Asking for innocence to be revealed in everything has been powerful.  The moment I bring non innocence to something, I instantly withdraw that judgment or that conclusion.  Sometimes I don’t know what to put in its place, so I do nothing but withdraw my attention.  When I look at something and call it a, b or c, the world has nothing to do but respond, correspond to me and show me how it is a, b or c.  Call it, at the very least, an “I don’t know” or a “no-thing” not only do I feel better but a much wider field of possibilities opens up.  Do you know what that feels like to be unencumbered by any conclusion, judgment or idea about what anything means?  It feels EXACTLY like Rumi’s field!

“Out beyond ideas of
wrong doing and right doing

There is a field
I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down
in that grass
the world is too full
to talk about.”

]]> http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2010/04/02/2590/feed/ 6 Beth/Bethie the_birthing_500x423 http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/04/18/when-they-sleep/ http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/04/18/when-they-sleep/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:13:07 +0000 heartsdeesire http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/?p=1749 ]]>

I’m usually not in the business of pilfering poems.  I like to find my own that resonate with me to post here; yet I’ve shamelessly swiped this one from Panhala because it so spoke to me – such a softness and a gentle yielding in this poem.  You can join Panhala at panhala@yahoogroups.com, if you wish.  Joseph Riley sends out one poem about five days a week and it’s poetry only, no discussion.

When They Sleep

All people are children when they sleep.
There’s no war in them then.
They open their hands and breathe
in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.

They pucker their lips like small children
and open their hands halfway,
soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters.
The stars stand guard
and a haze veils the sky,
a few hours when no one will do anybody harm.

If only we could speak to one another then
when our hearts are half-open flowers.
Words like golden bees
would drift in.
– God, teach me the language of sleep.

~ Rolf Jacobsen ~

(The Roads Have Come to an End Now, translation by Robert Hedin)

Existence is beyond the power of words
To define:
Terms may be used
But are none of them absolute.
In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no
words,
Words came out of the womb of matter;
And whether a man dispassionately
Sees to the core of life
Or passionately
Sees the surface,
The core and the surface
Are essentially the same,
Words making them seem different
Only to express appearance.
If name be needed, wonder names them both:
From wonder into wonder
Existence opens.

~Lao Tzu~
Translated by Witter Bynner

]]> http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/03/30/the-way-of-life-no-1/feed/ 0 Beth/Bethie 3beautifulchina1 http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/03/20/heaven-in-a-wildflower/ http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/2009/03/20/heaven-in-a-wildflower/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:27:37 +0000 heartsdeesire http://simplyblessed.heartsdeesire.com/?p=1490 ]]>

To see a world in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

~William Blake~

No more is pain your friend and guilt your god,
and you should welcome the effects of love.

A Course in Miracles