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#2336 -
Some poetry by Bob Knab and announcement of
a retreat with Bernadette Roberts.
Called
to the still*
Called
to the quiet*
By a
unknown thought*
To a
unknown place*
By a
unknown heart*
To a
unknown mystery*
~ ~ ~
It
Is
Mystery
Winter
and
Spring
The fragmentation
of
Bread
The unity
of
Wine
A
Celebration
of
Life
~ ~ ~
By learning
to clean the floor
we learn
to clean the body*
By learning
to clean the body
we learn
to clean the mind*
By learning
to clean mind
we learn
to become mindful*
By becoming
mindful
we realize
enlightment*
All
by learning
to clean
the floor*
~ ~ ~
Baby
Knows how
To get pregnant
Boogie
Knows how
To perfume him self
Rolling
In rotten skunks
Yet
Woogie
Knows how
To observe conditions
Without making distinctions
It is
The unformed mind
We call
God
~ ~ ~
hello
hello
are you there
are you there
an echo
a name
calling
it's name
void
Speaking to
void
a
voice
older then
god
~ ~ ~
Oh
Beautiful chaos
How insane
Thy
Loving mystery
Yes mam
I'll
Have some
Potatoes
With my
Eggplant
Thank
U
A
Men
~ ~ ~
There was this fuzzy
Little, funny worm
I watched one day
Turn and squirm
As if bitten by some
Carnivorous germ
It was then I decided
To do my tribal dance
And
Place my worm friend
In a trance
I proceeded to
Shout
Stomp
and
Prance
OOPS
~ ~ ~
She
there
in her
naked softness standing
for my pleasure
yet
for her pleasure also
i
twice her age
she
half of me
pleasure
not old
pleasure
not young
pleasure
just
as
it
is
The Essence of Christian Mysticism
Bernadette Roberts
You are invited to attend a weekend retreat
on "The Essence of Christian Mysticism" with Bernadette
Roberts,
Roberts was a cloistered Carmelite nun for
nine years, and returned to the world after experiencing the
"unitive state," the state of oneness with God, in
order to share what she had learned and take on the problems and
experience of others. In the years that followed she completed a
graduate degree in education, married, raised four children, and
taught at the pre-school, high school, and junior college levels;
at the same time she continued her contemplative practice.
Then, quite unexpectedly, some 20 years
after leaving the convent, Roberts experienced the dropping away
of the unitive state itself and come upon what she calls
"the experience of no-self" – an experience for
which the Christian literature, she says, gave her no clear road
maps or guideposts. Her books, which combine fascinating
chronicles of her own experiences with detailed maps of the
contemplative terrain, are her attempt to provide such guideposts
for those who might follow after her.
Bernadette says that although emotional and
spiritual maturity are often separate processes, the
"unitive state," far from being reserved for
extraordinary mystics, is rather the place where we are all meant
to live our mature years as human beings. The state of no-self
which lies beyond this union opens onto the Godhead, where the
inner life of the Trinity, Christ in the Eucharist, and the
Resurrection of the body are uniquely revealed as stunning truths
that cannot be directly grasped as long as the transient ego and
the phenomenal self continue to exist.
Bernadette, now 74 and living in
For more information and registration form,
go to www.keithops.us/brretreat.htm. Note that problems
with the web page that prevented it from being viewed properly in
some browsers have been corrected.
“One of the best books on this subject
since
~ Fr. Thomas Keating, Cistercian monk,
former abbot of
“How many Westerners have prematurely
discarded Christianity only to immaturely embrace Buddhism? ...
As a child, I had intimations of a great truth in Christianity;
later, reading mystics like Eckhart seemed like returning home.
But, due to my own stubbornness and stupidity, it was only over
the last few years that I have been blessed to see how the
Christian path really is a full and final one. Nothing lacking;
complete in and of itself. And it is largely thanks to the work
of Bernadette Roberts.”
~
“Bernadette Roberts’ writings are
illuminated texts—illuminating texts. Her descriptions of
the no-ego, marketplace, and no-self experiences (if the last can
be called experience) shed light on the earlier writings of St.
John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, St. Teresa of Avila, etc., as
no other. There is light for Hui-neng and the Zen sages too ...
no more koans. By this same light, despite important differences,
one can readily see an abiding bond of kinship between mature
contemplatives of every tradition, every place, and every time.”
~ Br. m. Aelred O.C.S.O., former Trappist
monk, Abbey of