Integrity of the Person

The image shaped by the beat writers is partial, but without it any sense of life in these post-atom bomb years is incomplete. The solution is not, as is often absurdly suggested, to add Bohemia to suburbia and divide by two, thus achieving a golden mean or a shabby compromise. The solution is to be where you are, what you are, with such persistence and courage as can be called to life. The best of the beat writers exemplify precisely that state of secular grace. In this world of shifting conflicts, the integrity of the person might not be enough, but without it, all else is lost.  ~from A Casebook on the Beat, ed. by Thomas Parkinson, 1961

Does anyone read the beat writers anymore? Are we so far from the “post-atom bomb years” that we have forgotten the context in which this paragraph makes sense? Of course I believe it all holds just as true today, and that without “the integrity of the person…all else is lost.”

Do you know any truly courageous people who are able to persist in being who they are and where they are? I want to hang on to those people for dear life! (not to mention be one of them as best I can)

Let It Be

Let life happen to you.  Believe me: life is in the right, always.  ~Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

My friend Gloria (now in her family cemetery) said to me once, “Life can be quite radically trusted.”  At the time, I was intrigued by that but really had no idea what she meant.  Lately, I have been letting go of my (illusion of) control of things, and what a relief that is!  Resting in the net of the world that supports me, trusting life if not radically, at least more than ever before. It will unfold as it does anyway–and the trick seems to be just being present for the unfolding.

Incidentally, I am so grateful for the Rilke book–it is one I have to read every couple of years.  On every reading, I “hear” something new or am reminded of something I am ready to absorb in a new way.  

Stillness

Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.  ~Herman Hesse

In sitting meditation, focusing on the breath, I reach occasional fleeting moments of what seems like stillness of the mind.  I believe this stillness is the place where illusions disappear.  I can’t say how this helps me, but I know it does–not only in the moment, but beyond.

I don’t want to say a lot “publicly” about my work, but I went into it a year ago with a lot of illusions.  Long ago, Terry noted that I find my wisdom in stillness.  And the more I have been able to be still, the more these illusions have dropped away.  In their place I find clarity, the ability to see a situation as it really is, not colored by what it purports to be, what I want it to be, or by my will to shape it.  What is, is.  And that is liberating!

Expanding Time

Life is so short we must move very slowly.  ~Saying in Thailand

My recent week at the beach felt like expanded time.  That is what going slowly and mindfully seems to do for us.  We realize simultaneously that we have only this moment, and we have all the time in the world. 

Steve Hagen, in his book, Meditation Now or Never, expresses this idea, too:  “If you feel you’re being rushed at work, just bring your mind into the moment–into the task at hand–and you won’t feel rushed, even if you’ve got to work fast.”  He notes that people who are in accidents report that the crash seems to unfold in slow motion, and attributes it to the person being really there, and not distracted by thought.  He says, “The more present we are, the bigger picture we see. The bigger picture we see, the more things seem to slow down. And when the Whole is seen, all is utterly still.”

Economic Equality

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.  ~Anatole France

Research shows that for 30 years after World War II, Americans grew more prosperous and less unequal.  However, in the last 30 years, we have had the opposite trend–and the statistics are staggering.  Middle-class incomes barely rose (with much of that rise due to the increasing numbers of women in the workforce), while households in the top quintile gained 84 percent, and those in the top 1 percent gained 450 percent.  From 2000 to 2005, 3.6% of national income (about $270 billion) was transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.  (Source: Ross Eisenbrey, Economic Policy Institute, http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_viewpoints_much_work)

Why is this important?  Because we will never have peace without shared prosperity.  Because working for economic equality is the right thing to do.  Because  greed is out of hand, and capitalism has become our national religion.  I can feed the hungry and clothe the poor, but how can I help change the systems that perpetuate economic injustice and misery?

Take a look at the overview of EPI’s Agenda for Shared Prosperity, http://www.sharedprosperity.org/shared_prosperity_overview.pdf.

I find myself increasingly desirous of working in some way toward a better (fairer, safer, more democratic) world, but I want to concentrate my efforts where it will do the most good.  I don’t think fringe activism is the answer, but perhaps aligning with more powerful coalitions could be.

What can we do, those of us who are not really inclined to engage in political or social activism, but believe strongly that things must change for the good of all? 

Commitment

Until one is committed, there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:  the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sort of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred.  ~Goethe

Using this blog software, I can find the blogs of others who post on the same topics (assign the same tags).  Yesterday, I was browsing the entries on mindfulness, and came across the idea of a 30-day yoga challenge for reestablishing practice.  I had forgotten this idea, but was exposed to it long ago, when I practiced yoga faithfully. 

I remember that when I practiced every day for at least 2 weeks, I would feel hooked and would miss the practice when I had to skip.  So I have issued myself a 30-day yoga challenge.  Now I am waiting to see what Providence has in store. 

Anyone care to join me in 30 days of the practice of your choice–or to be my accountability partner?  Two down, 28 to go!

Letting Go

Finished artworks that we may see and love deeply are in a sense the relics or traces of a journey that has come and gone.   ~Stephen Nachmanovitch, from Free Play

I remember being amazed by Natalie Goldberg’s account of her writing booth at the Minnesota Zen Center Summer Festival and Bazaar, where she sold spontaneously-written poems for 50 cents or a dollar and never looked back.  She says, “In Japan there are stories of great Zen poets writing a superb haiku and then putting it in a bottle in a river or nearby stream and letting it go….This is a profound example of nonattachment.” (from her book Writing Down the Bones)

Nachmanovitch helped me understand this concept of letting go by making it clear that there really is nothing to hold onto.  What produced the poem or other work has passed, has floated downstream.  This would seem to make the case for being ever-present to see what arises in this moment, and then this moment, and this.

All Is Now

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
~Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself”

No beginning, no end…the circle of life. All time exists now. We Westerners have a hard time giving up our linear thought, our linear sense of time.  I think I love poetry in large part because it can cut through habits of thought.  Good poetry surprises us, makes us see new relationships, gives us a glimpse of the poet’s creative joy.  How does linear thought, a linear sense of beginnings and endings, limit us?  What might be possible by suspending it?

Sitting

Breathe in,
breathe out,
Thay says Calming,
Smiling,

Present moment,
Only moment.

In, out,
as though it is you
breathing,
and not the world
breathing you.

Spaces

Drop the question what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that fate allows you.  ~Horace

What a wonderful week of space I have had to rest in!  Time to do as I pleased–indeed, time even to ask the question, “What do I please?” What is it that I need right now?  Claudia says I worry too much about my future (she’s absolutely right), and it keeps me from being present in the moment.

I have resolved to give myself one full hour a day (space) between work and dinner, to ask my mind and body what they need and to nourish myself with that–yoga, meditation, sitting quietly, reading, counting things to be grateful for, writing. 

 Do you have planned space? How do you nourish your body, mind, and spirit?

Discourse

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.  ~Rumi

How polarized the human family seems to me. Where are the places we can come together to talk as living, loving beings, transcending the IDEAS of wrong and right? Public libraries could be one of those places; liberal religious communities could be another. Privately, meditation helps us connect with all that is, to sense our place in the interdependent web of all existence. And I am convinced it is only this awareness that will save the world. If  we know the world is us, we are less likely to participate in harmful practices.

Is it enough to radiate peace as individuals, or must we work toward peace with others? How do we best create or discover fields in which to meet?