Maybe I have mentioned it elsewhere, maybe not, but I have for a long time loved butterflies.
Way back when I was a lad we saw so many kinds, all colours, and took them for granted. Now we are lucky to see some tiny white kind fluttering by, almost carried by the wind, so fragile.
Anyway, once again I am back in McDonalds, bolstered by my white coffee and also by just having busted level 4725 of Soda Candy Crush Saga. Yes folks! and not a penny spent on boosters! Something to be proud of!
What popped into my head just as I was entering McDonalds were the words of some wag, about - I would suppose - "equality":-
There are only two kinds of people in the world - those that divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't.
A good quip, and really quite profound. Paradoxical in a certain way, in that it implies a division by saying that there is none.
But profound, at least for me, in that it suggests as to how we must "touch base" first, before we begin to differentiate. Grasp first that we are all fundamentally "one", that such unity is the "hidden ground of love" (a Thomas Merton phrase used in one of his letters), and from this "ground" we can then begin to differentiate.
We do this all the time - judging, picking and choosing, but if we have truly surrendered to the Grace (pure gift) that is, has been, will be, given to ALL, and truly know that we are all in it together, then our "differentiation" as we live onwards will be of another order.
"Another order"? To what exactly? Differentiation again, more paradox. But when was life, reality, ever logical? As John Keats once said (in a letter to Benjamin Bailey):-
I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be known for truth by consecutive reasoning.
In such a way we can approach the thought of the 13th century zen master Dogen, who wrote that we must "realise duality within non-duality". Or, thinking about it, should that be "realising non-duality within duality"? Or would that be the same thing anyway? Send your answers on a postcard and I'll give a prize to the winner (that is, if I work out who it is)
Well, I'm basically waffling and rambling. Feeling just a little bit better these days, but I think of the words of Winston Churchill, spoken during the Second World War, about "this is not the end, not the beginning of the end, more perhaps the end of the beginning". Something like that, Winnie had a way with words.
So just perhaps "The end of the beginning", which again reminds me of the words of T. S. Eliot near the end of Little Gidding, the fourth quartet of his Four Quartets:-
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Those few words have been a constant with me for many years. To be honest, most of the entire poem is beyond me, but I love the rhythm and cadence of all the words. Maybe sometimes it is simply best not to understand; "understanding" can be a conclusion, whereas Reality itself - healing, restoring, reconciling - is a constant advance into novelty. Why stop at any point and think "Ah! I understand. At last!"
Our time for grace and mercy and healing would be put on hold.
Well, I waffle. I ramble. The thoughts pour out. My coffee is finished, I have shopping to get, a bit of "retail therapy" even if it is just a couple of bananas!
Sincerely, all the very best to you all, whatever your struggles. Stay strong. There is no miracle cure, no miracle pill - it is Reality-as-is that is the cure and the miracle.
May true Dharma continue.
Be kind. No blame. Love everything.
Thank you
In such a way we can approach the thought of the 13th century zen master Dogen, who wrote that we must "realise duality within non-duality". Or, thinking about it, should that be "realising non-duality within duality"? Or would that be the same thing anyway? Send your answers on a postcard and I'll give a prize to the winner (that is, if I work out who it is)
Well, I'm basically waffling and rambling. Feeling just a little bit better these days, but I think of the words of Winston Churchill, spoken during the Second World War, about "this is not the end, not the beginning of the end, more perhaps the end of the beginning". Something like that, Winnie had a way with words.
So just perhaps "The end of the beginning", which again reminds me of the words of T. S. Eliot near the end of Little Gidding, the fourth quartet of his Four Quartets:-
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Those few words have been a constant with me for many years. To be honest, most of the entire poem is beyond me, but I love the rhythm and cadence of all the words. Maybe sometimes it is simply best not to understand; "understanding" can be a conclusion, whereas Reality itself - healing, restoring, reconciling - is a constant advance into novelty. Why stop at any point and think "Ah! I understand. At last!"
Our time for grace and mercy and healing would be put on hold.
Well, I waffle. I ramble. The thoughts pour out. My coffee is finished, I have shopping to get, a bit of "retail therapy" even if it is just a couple of bananas!
Sincerely, all the very best to you all, whatever your struggles. Stay strong. There is no miracle cure, no miracle pill - it is Reality-as-is that is the cure and the miracle.
May true Dharma continue.
Be kind. No blame. Love everything.
Thank you
Just to finish, a poem by R. S. Thomas, which I love:-
The Kingdom
It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back; and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life.
It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.
It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back; and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life.
It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.
No comments:
Post a Comment