Twice Blessed So that I stopped there astonished by the great everywhere calling to me like an invisible unspoken invitation radiating from where I stood, everything given and everything taken from me everything wanting and everything already given, the way I have come so far and the way I am still promised to go, within and without, something I was, and something I am now and will be forever, the sheer generosity of being loved through loving: the miracle reflection of a twice blessed life. --David Whyte Just having returned from a trip to the East Coast, to reconnect with family, friends and sangha, who reminded me that love is both a revelation and a charge. I led a sitting in the Wellesley meditation room. Tuesdays Dharma talk was a commentary on this poem. So that I stopped there astonished by the great everywhere This is the call of presence, which now and then breaks upon us like a great wave. As Dogen wrote, When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point In the stillness of meditation, this can be felt kinesthetically. It is like the melting of snow from a roof. Suddenly, the weight is released, and everything is revealed in its thusness. calling to me like an invisible unspoken invitation radiating from where I stood, It comes from everywhere, but radiates from exactly this body, this mind. Consider the poem weve looked at before, The Opening of Eyes: the man throwing away his shoes/ as if to enter heaven/ and finding himself astonished/opened at last/ fallen in love with solid ground. Just this. Whatever grace we are looking for is already here. everything given and everything taken from me Already perfect, the sums balance out. everything wanting and everything already given, whatever wisdom, clarity, beauty, love we are looking for-- its already here. we just have to know it is here. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche spoke of Buddhist prayer in this way, To understand how prayer works, consider the sun, which shines everywhere without hesitation or hindrance. Like God or Buddha, it continuously radiates all its power, warmth, and light without differentiation.... The sun’s blessings are all-pervasive, whether we are open to them or not. Through prayer, we come out of the mine shaft, open our eyes, and become receptive to enlightened presence, the omnipotent love and compassion that exist for all beings. the way I have come so far and the way I am still promised to go We are twice blessed. First, when we do a good action, then happiness accompanies it, in the past and present, for the present is the child of the past. When we do the good action, we feel happiness at that moment, and then again when we reflect on it. Second, when we do a good action, happiness follows it in the present and future, for the present moment gives birth to the future. We feel happiness now, and in the future these seeds of bodhicitta (awakened heart mind) will continue to bear fruit. within and without To paraphrase Suzuki Roshi, when we breathe in, a swinging door opens. When we breathe out, a swinging door closes. There is ultimately no inside, no outside, just this swinging door. Just in this way, we are never separate, even though thousands of miles away. something I was, and something I am now and will be forever Some aspects of us change, and yet there is, at our core, a luminous essence by whose name we are known. As poet/teacher Stephen Levine has written: There is an elemental love in the universe by which name we know each other and encourage ourselves to live. There is a silver river which connects everything from which some part of us never leaves. There is a mercy making its way up through the ocean of the earth to the shores of our feet. There is a diamond- glint, a seed of longing in ourselves that recognizes the potential absence of gravity in another. There is a part of us that says it is never too late to be reborn on the inbreath each morning. the sheer generosity of being loved through loving Loving is its own reward, the act of opening our heart already opens us to receive the gifts we seek. The mirror- response of our beloved is that heart-treasure we are here, fully embodied, in order to discover. the miracle reflection of a twice blessed life. Taking a step back, we can consider the past year, or across our lifetime: there are some things in our life that do not look like blessings. We spoke of the pain of racism exposed through the deaths of black men in custody. the aftermath of violence. a skier who lost his life in an avalanche. how is it possible to find the blessing in the situation? As I described in an earlier post, gratitude is the first step in turning poison into medicine. In the week following the verdict in the Garner case, some African American activists who had taken her training led the sitting. One man described his experience of his cousins death from a drunk driver. He was grateful for the pixels, the screen that connected him to what had taken place hundreds of miles away. Through the screen he saw that a woman had come up to his cousin and held his hand so that he did not have to die alone. He was thankful for that. That gratitude helped him to source firm a deeper well. We dont have to like things in our life in order to be grateful for them. We can be grateful for the blessing of a teaching we would not have received any other way... Some of us may have had what my astrology mentor Robert Ohotto calls dark night (of the soul) bootcamp There are situations we are not always grateful for. Turn those over to the mystery. Through this we are then able to receive the blessings always pouring forth. And so I discover that I am twice blessed: blessed with the new life here in Berkeley, and with the deep soul friendships of Boston. Blessed with the recollection of memories and with the potentialities that currently unfold.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 05:38:17 +0000
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