Year: 2013

Keeping our identities loose

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November 2nd  is the traditional day in Ireland and in most of Europe for visiting places of burial, a day set aside for remembering those who have died in the past year, or members of our own families who have died.  The origins of this are probably found in the Celtic awareness of the spirit world around Samhain as well as a basic awareness of the shortening of days, which  speak to us of the impermanence of all things, and the passing of time

In Japanese mythology a crane becomes immortal at the age of two thousand, when it is done being a crane.

And the tortoise becomes immortal at the age of ten thousand, when it starts being a wave.

So perhaps the purpose of experience is to wear us free of our names.

Mark Nepo. Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

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Growing old

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Here is one of the practices I referred to in the post this morning. It comes from the community established by Thich Nhat Hanh.  I like it because it balances an awareness of the human condition and the inevitability of change with a focus on present actions.

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is no way to escape ill-health.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love are the nature to change.

There is no way to escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.

My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

Thich Nhat Hanh,  Plum Village Chanting Book

Making the most of today

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In most wisdom traditions there are practices where we remind ourselves of the fact that we will all grow ill and die, as a basic truth of human nature. In the Western Churches remembering those who have gone before us occurs at the start of November, as they took over the pre-existing importance of this time in the Celtic calendar. These practices are mainly designed to allow wisdom to grow and to encourage us to fully live each day, to see each day as a gift.

We must make good use of this life for the time we have left.

This brief flash of light, like the sun appearing through the clouds.

Kalu Rinpoche

Halloween bonfires

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How many nights must it take
one such as me to learn
that we aren’t, after all, made
from that bird that flies out of its ashes, 
that for us
as we go up in flames, our one work
is to open ourselves, to be
the flames?

Galway Kinnell, Another Night in the Ruins

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Opening to the invisible

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 keyboard_hands

This evening we celebrate Halloween which is based on the most important Ancient Irish and Celtic feast, that of Samhain. The Celtic year was divided into two parts, the bright half from the 1st of May until today,  and the dark half, starting tomorrow. Today stood in-between, when Summer not quite fully over, but the old year was dying and  winter was about to  begin. On this in-between day  it was felt that the normal barriers between the visible and invisible worlds were less strong. The normal Celtic sensitivity to the hidden world – their awareness that the other world was always there right beside them – was heightened, So for us too, it can be a day to be more aware of deeper dimensions, by not rushing past the “ordinary” or the routine, by not expecting real happiness to be elsewhere, but by tuning in to the “bits and pieces of everyday” as poet Paddy Kavanagh reminded us.

One comes to know the interior of the exterior. One comes to know the inside of every outside. It’s not only human beings that have an interior or an inside, but that the world around us as well can be known inwardly. Life is dense with those levels of experience, but we need to calm ourselves, get clear, get quiet, direct attention, sustain the attention, open up to what is normally invisible, and certain things begin to show themselves. Maybe gently to begin with, but nonetheless it deepens and enriches our lives. If we are committed to knowledge, then we ought to be committed also to exploring the world with these lenses, with this method in mind and heart.

Arthur Zajonc,  Professor of Physics,  Amherst College

…leading to long, slow conversations

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Our culture is so focused on … youth, that we don’t have a good model for what aging and dying could be like. All we feel is the lack of things: we’re not as youthful as we were, we’re not as limber as we were, we’re not as this, we’re not as that. Almost everything that we hear and see in the media is about how to maintain your youth as long as possible. All this focus on stopping aging implies that someone made a big mistake in the universe. It’s as if we should be getting younger instead of older.

But we’re missing a very important point. There’s something beautiful about quiet and peace. There’s something beautiful about not trying to do anything, but simply, in some way, your heart joining  the whole world. There’s a time in life for building something up in this world: a family, an institution, a business, a creative life: there’s a time for that. There’s also a time for becoming quiet, a time for slow conversations with people that we love, and a time for reflecting on all the things that we’ve seen in many years of living. When the time for those things comes, it’s beautiful.

Norman Fischer, Suffering and Possibility

photo ian mckenzie