Moments of Stillness Later in Life

There comes at least one moment in life when one has the opportunity to break the bridge that binds one to the past and future, when one can live as present and be alive to all the senses. The moment may come in the guise of pain or happiness, at the moment of death, in the arms of a sweet lover or even as the result of a long season of personal development.

Maybe I am ready for my new life.
Maybe this is not a convenient time.
Maybe this is the best time.
Maybe I am still learning to be happy.
Maybe I am ready to be true to that one voice
      that sounds like my own,
      but is really the Song of the Universe in disguise.

OK, No More Maybes

I am giving up the sacks of stuff wedged in my garage, in my chest, in the shadows of my mind.

I set out now to write even One Simple Word so sumptuous
     that reading it would first slay your illusions
          that all the festering pain is lasting.
Then the sweetness of that word
would slay the you seen in the mirror of circumstance.
Then a single syllable would turn into a phrase of celestial music.
You would die with a smile upon your face.
Or better yet you would live within that state
     in a string of moments
         like notes of a song stretching out forever.

So, I work, I wait, I wonder, I feel...
all in service of reaching for that ideal-real word.

I reach for the ideal
   because the world needs the other side of reality
      missed in the pain body of
         what ifs, should haves and discarded passions.

What I am learning so far in my particular life:

· That service comes with the ascension of singing and the pain of crying.

· That trying to live without regret has consequences that instill a need to go deep deep deep into practicing the presence of the Creator.

· That relying on the material delusion to fulfill oneself is Purgatory.

· That love comes from many corners of one’s life, and is made visible when one is both present and willing to take the risk of being seen.

· That it is perfectly acceptable to know inexplicable joy in the middle of feeling sadness or even happiness.

· That unhealed anger clouds the stormy mind and rains sorrow upon the world.

· That pain is strident and restless, yet something greater, sweeter and lovelier lives within stillness.

· That all learning is subject to revision, growth and humility.

Sit with me and be still for moments… then for a few moments more. See what comes from behind the veil of sorrows. See what wants to be born Through you as acts of service to a world in need.

Love,
Rick

(c) Copyright Richard Sievers, February 10, 2016, All Rights Reserved

In the Midst of Life's Storms I Stand Serene

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, its indifference.

Elie Wiesel

 

When meditation is mastered, 

the mind is unwavering 

like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.

~~
That one is dear to me who runs 

not after the pleasant or 

away from the painful, 

grieves not, lusts not, 

but lets things 

come and go as they happen.

Two quotes by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 

This is a blog entry containing more questions than answers. 

This is a blog entry about dharma, a word from Sanskrit that means something like: to uphold or sustain positive order in one's life. 

This is a blog entry about reacting to our society's seeming addiction to violence and aggression.

Last night I tossed around in worry about the aggressiveness and violence that pervades our world right now. I found myself increasingly angry about how ideas of retribution and vengeance and "righteous" war infiltrate everywhere in our country. I found myself spinning around solutions of stopping the disease of violence from entering our own home. 

I woke at 7 AM to the sound of rapid gun fire in the forest hollow next to us. Jolted for moments. I began to breathe in in and out and centering myself. I started thinking about Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. He was a leader who was forced into a war with his friends and relations. Arjuna was beset with sadness about the way things were going and how he would play a decisive role in slaying many people. It's an amazing story: In the midst of a great bloody battle all time was stopped and the warriors were frozen in mid action. The god Krishna came and spoke with Arjuna in a place beyond time's arrow, right in the middle of the battle field. Like Arjuna, I have been beset with wanting things to be different in our country and world. 

I know many others like me have had similar worries and cravings for the world to be different than it is. I am curious about the paths that the spiritually inclined take regarding the bane of aggressiveness and violence in our media and our politics.  Many simply turn off the news. Many simply associate with like-minded, peace seeking, kind people while shying away from all associations with the others. And many are like me, responding in reactive manner and thinking obsessively. What are the solutions to the hate that even infiltrates my family and neighborhood?

So, I step out of time for moments and meditate. I am akin to Arjuna for moments. The god relays questions to me that the combatants are too distracted to hear. Questions and affirmations of my need to be true and real to my own dharma fall into my mind. How can all this turmoil be different? How can peace possibly prevail on Earth, before it is too late? 

I am craving for it all to be different... like Arjuna!

Then I hear the gun shots ring out again, jolting me. And I say out loud "It is what it is."

A realization comes to me, then. I can lay down one of my weapons in my war with reality: the craving for it to be different. Then I can strengthen my will to accomplish my dharma. The ideas of either hiding from world's realities or railing against the injustices have distracted me from being fully alive here in this world, the way the Great mystery has made it. I need to change something inside of me. But what is that?

Do I stop pushing back against hate? No.

Do I retreat into the temple of denial? No.

Do I hate the hateful? No

Do I become another person in a particular tribe rejecting all the others? No.

Do I distract myself with analyzing and protecting my world? No.

So what is left to do?

A yoga affirmation connected with the eagle pose comes to me: 

"In the midst of life's storms I stand serene." 

If I stand in the middle of life I can no longer cut myself with my sworded need to change someone else's role in this life. I don't give up or hide or pursue righteousness or even grasp at the ideals of being better. Part of my dharma path is to live peace-fully. Perhaps this resonates with you too? Yet how can we live this way when beset with anger and judgement over the violent paths of others? By obsessing or denying violence I am filled with violence toward my own dharma.

What is the solution to not being ruled or numbed by another's need to destroy?  Being saddened and angry is only human after all. But the craving, the lust for the world to be different must change, or I will be eaten up inside. Yet, hiding my face from the real news heralded by the gun shots of my neighbor would just make me another indifferent bystander. 

This leaves many questions. All I know is that I have the will to stop in the middle of life's storms. I can meditate. I can seek refuges in my dharma of community and art. I can be of service just by being kind. And I consider Arjuna's quandary again. He did not change the actual outcome of the war with his cousins and brothers. But through Krishna's instruction he changed something inside himself. He did not resist or become a victim of his fate. He threaded through a middle path that comes through pausing the war.

Perhaps we can transmute this craving for the world to be different, not by pushing against or turning away but by stopping the battle within ourselves. The Gita suggests that we do this starting with discipline and meditation. And then allowing a solid center, not based on craving, to propel us to real action in the world. Being Real, not Reactive.

That's my musing for the day. The gun shots have ceased, along with my circular need to fix... at least for now. I need to understand more. I think that my craving for the world, my family and our country to be different needs to be translated into loving presence. Craving can be turned into simple longing, so I actually can stand more serene in the midst of battle. Sharing this time with you is a calm center for me. I hope it has been the same for you. Thank you for coming along with me and sharing this space between. 

I end with the full text of AA's serenity prayer and a link to an article in the Huffington Post re. surrender and right action based on this prayer. 

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.

 Link:

serenity-prayer-wisdom 

Love,
Rick 

(c) Copyright Words and Image, Richard Sievers, March 2015

God Does Not Kill!

Julia Sievers ca. 1870s

To the religious ideologues who insist they know what is right and wrong, to those who kill in the name of all that is sacred and true and to those who wonder why hatred appears to bloom in our world, a letter from my Great Great Grandmother written in her journal 1898.

"God does not kill! Neither by flashing lightning, the whirling wind, the roaring water.... God does not kill with poison, pestilence, plague, famine, or flame. God does not kill with disease or disorder, with heartache or headache... God does not kill anyone, anywhere, or at anytime!

The doctrine that God takes away a child to punish or afflict a parent; takes away a husband to humble the wife... that God comes into a family like a lesson of destruction, to kill afflict and sadden; that God bankrupts or burdens any one good or bad; the doctrine of providential affliction and distress and sorrow; This is (an) unloving, godless and pitiless doctrine, (it) has no place in the thought of today only because it has had the sanction of the hoary ages Not because it is true, or reasonable, or good, or acceptable, or helpful, or hopeful.

Julia Sievers ca. 1940

(It is) Not because the Bible, or philosophy, or history, or science would have us believe it. But simply because we have been taught it, and have not had the courage to deny it.

God pities and helps, and guides and leads, and teaches, and hopes for us, but does Not destroy us, or hurt us, or hinder us. The theologian may have to teach us apostate thought to harmonize us with his system of so-called truth, But We Know Better; and in all justice and fairness let us quit accusing providence of inspiring crime and promoting disease, and in encouraging death....1

"Think and speak love, joy, peace, truth, Mercy. The Good is here and it is ours, it is for  you and me and to you and me.

In exalting the faculty of the Soul, we annihilate in a great degree the delusion of the senses." 2

Written by Julia M Sievers, Dennison, Iowa 1898


I love you Great Great Grandmother. May your prayers of love and clear thinking bloom in our world.

Rick

Notes:

1. Julia's hand written journal is full of quotes and prayers and thoughts, all in devotion to God as she understood him. I was only the second person to ever read this passage until today. She notes that she adapted this first section based on an editorial from the Fort Worth, (Tex) Register.

2. This last four lines has the name "Martin" inscribed underneath it.


Copyright Richard Sievers, March 2013, All Rights Reserved