Hindu wisdom

'Those without wealth may one day prosper, but those without kindness are utterly destitute, and their fortunes never change. Practicing charity without compassion is as inconceivable as realizing Truth without clarity of mind. Before advancing against men weaker than yourself, ponder when you stood before those more powerful."

~Tirukkural

Following a Stream

"Don't do it, the guidebook says,
if you're lost. Then it goes on
to talk about something else,
taking the easy way out,
which of course is what water does
as a matter of course always
taking whatever turn
the earth has told it to
while and since it was born,
including flowing over
the edge of a waterfall
or simply disappearing
underground for a long dark time
before it reappears
as a spring so far away
from where you thought you were
and where you think you are
it might never occur
to you to imagine where
that could be as you go downhill.

~David Wagoner

Traces

You find traces everywhere--the songlines of wisdom across the landscape of this world. Here are just a few:

One cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten.
--R. Scott Bakker

I shall never tire of underlining a concise little fact which these superstitious people are loath to admit--namely, that thought comes when "it" wants, not when "I" want ...
--Friedrich Neistzche

The day I was born I made my first mistake, and by that path have I sought wisdom ever since.
--the Mahabharata

Song

The following poem of Mary Oliver's was sent to me by Fred Macon--it is to be read, enjoyed, honored.

What Can I Say

What can I say that I have not said before?
So I'll say it again.
The leaf has a song in it.
Stone is the face of patience.
Inside the river there is an unfinishable story
and you are somewhere in it
and it will never end until all ends.

Take your busy heart to the art museum and the
chamber of commerce
but take it also to the forest.
The song you heard singing in the leaf when you
were a child
is singing still.
I am of years lived, so far, seventy-four,
and the leaf is singing still.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Swan)

Dilemma

"What is lofty may be said in any language, and what is meant should be said in no language."

~Maimonides

No more hell

Nothing burneth in hell but self-will. Therefore it hath been said,
"Put off thine own will, and there will be no more hell."
- Theologia Germanica [1518]

What I Have Learned So Far

In a poem of exquisite force, Mary Oliver makes the case that our relationship to the world around us must not simply be one of passivity or even prayerful observation, but one of reverent action--perhaps even explosive action. This is what she has learned--so far.

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside, looking into the shining world?
Because, properly attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit to no labor in its cause?
I don't think so.

All summations have a beginning.
All effect has a story.
All kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance.
The gospel of light is the crossroads of--indolence, or action.

Be ignited, or be gone.
--Mary Oliver

Nothing but God

For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God. Health
and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away, and we shall have
only God. To the person of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real
faith it is one ofthe most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.
- A. W. Tozer

He has everything

Why then, do you not try this? As you go to your inner chamber, however cold and dark
your heart may be, do not try in your own might to force yourself into the right
attitude. Bow before Him, and tell Him that He sees in what a sad state you are, and
that your only hope is in Him. Trust Him, with a childlike trust, to have mercy upon
you, and wait upon Him. In such a trust you are in a right relationship to Him. You
have nothing - He has everything.
- Andrew Murray

Allow it to be arranged by God

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly
crossing our paths and cancelling our plans by sending us people with claims and
petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the
priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps - reading the
Bible..... it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand
where it can perform a service and we do not assume that our schedule is our own to
manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bird-Song

Since the Wisdom School in Minnesota at the House of Prayer this summer and David Stringer's excellent work with the modern prophetic voices of Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry, I have been reading and rereading these two contemporary poets. I was struck by the insight into the modern, urban world that Wendell Berry brings in this particular piece that speaks to all of nature speaking to us through its voices and songs.

In the empty lot--a place
not natural, but wild--among
the trash of human absence,

the slough and shamble
of city's seasons, a few
old locusts bloom.

A few wood birds
fly and sing
in the new foliage
--warblers and tanagers, birds
wild as leaves; in a million
each one would be rare,

new to the eyes. A man
couldn't make a habit
of such color,

such flight and singing.
But they're the habit of this
wasted place. In them

the ground is wise. they are
its remembrance of what it is.
--Wendell Berry's "The Wild"

By giving and receiving

Under the image of the Trinity we discover that we do not know God by defining Him but by being loved by Him and loving in return. The consequences of this are personally
revelatory: another does not know me, nor do I know another, by defining or explaining, by categorizing or psychologizing, but only relationally, by accepting
and loving, by giving and receiving.
- Eugene H. Peterson, "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places"

Love's Arrow

Here is another truth that we often forget. We have all seen the image of the chubby cherub with the bow and arrow. Its "cute" but trite, and its truth lies elsewhere. In this poem we hear the harsh, difficult truth about Love's Arrow. Often our response to this truth is to put up defenses and shields, but Love has another purpose in the arrow that flies from its bow.

Let you soul be the target of love's arrow
flying from the bow of the Beloved's hand.
Let it pass through your soul, let it pass.
Don't bother to shield yourself from love's weapon--
Its pathway between the two worlds is hidden even from itself,
but its wound is known by a broken-openness.
--'Attar