Enter the Silence

The following poem was written during the second week of Wisdom Academy by Robert Pynn, one of the participants.

Enter the Silence


do not
fear
the silence

it is anything but quiet

but
do not enter
it if you are not
ready to
hear
what you have
never had ears
to hear

you are deaf
from wandering
your small
corridor
of noise

take off
your earphones
file
the remote
set your face
toward the riot
vibrating
in the most profound
depths of silence

split the bud
and let the flower
open

if you do
the centre
will release
mysterious
fragrances
that confound
the predators
roaming
the surface
of your mind

turn to the
core of your
core
whose press
pours out
virgin oils
to annoint
you for burial

this
will be
your
beginning

Wisdom Academy VII

Dear All,

I have managed to post photos from the
Wisdom Academy VII, the second week,
at the following website:

Wisdom Academy VII

Enjoy!

The Academy

In the process of moving directly toward the heart of wisdom, the work has unfolded to include week-long intensive studies in contemplative wisdom that we call "The Academy" or "Wisdom School." Two weeks of such a gathering here in North Texas have concluded under the instruction of two teachers: Ward Bauman and Cynthia Bourgeault. Students gathered from across North America including Canada for this work. Subjects included discovering the wisdom tradition within the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and T.S. Eliot's, the Four Quartets. Other topics included Conscious Love, the use of Chanted Prayer, spiritual practice, and contemplative living. As coordinator and director of this two-week wisdom school, my thanks to the instructors and presentors and to the fellow students who gathered for such wonderfully focused work. Others may post about the Academy's work. In the tradition of modern wisdom, we move from the focus of the Academy now, to the intensity of the Collegium--men and women working as colleagues across the planet for the welfare of the world and the transformation of humankind.

The Shadow Side

"Strangely enough we strengthen love in ourselves when we raise into consciousness the shadow side of our lives. Conversely, when we keep negative feelings out of sight, they smother the love that seems to lie deeper and closer to the real self. This is probably why there is so much pain in not loving. The life that is not able to express the love which is so integral to it grows deformed."

-- Elizabeth O'Connor

Awe and Intimacy

The effect of awe is the disappearance of self; the self which is in a state of awe, disappears. Levels of awe may be measured by the degree to which the self has disappeared; some people are at a higer level of awe than others.

The effect of intimacy, by contrast, is alertness; those who are intimate, are alert. A person who is fully intimate, could be thrown into a fire, and the intimacy would not be disturbed.

-Qushayri, "Risalah"

I Belong to God

I belong to God, as has often been shown; yet I also belong to myself. He becomes himself through me. I live in him, and I live in myself. I have two aspects, he and I, divine and human. But he is not I, and I am not he. My actions are the theatre in which he expresses himself; to him I am a vessel.

-Ibn Arabi

"The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother." God reveals Himself in the form which His devotee loves most. His love for the devotee knows no bounds.

-Ramakrishna