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#4423 - Friday, November 11, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Representing Veterans in all countries... the "good" guys and the "bad..."
Remembrance Day in Canada
On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a
Shoppers Drug Mart store in
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the
store's PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at
11:00 AM
to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who
have
sacrificed so much for us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bXGZr-IJJ4
THE
VIEW FROM THE GLEN
by Cathal Ó
Searcaigh
from the current
issue of
I R I S H P A G E S
A Journal of Contemporary Writing
The Linen Hall Library
Telephone: ++ 44(0)28 90434800
Email: info@irishpages.org
Website: www.irishpages.org
1.
I'm enjoying a quiet, outdoors Sabbath. Alone I make
my way through the bog along the sinewy trails of sheep. It's an
evening of scudding clouds and murmuring water.
Out here where green life thrives I'm refreshed by birdsong and
the scent of honeysuckle. I become attentive to wonders; to the
white drift of hawthorn in a hollow, to patchy sunlight on a
hill, to the chant of green foliage on Joyce's farm.
I thank an ancient older tree for its nurturing breath and
courtesy in front of a pink rhododendron. I'm grateful to have an
intimate place in the midst of this bountiful community of grass,
trees and soil.
My senses mingle with their essences. I know that to be is a
blessing. In this sacred moment I want all things to be happy.
The earth spins, the trees sway in the wind, the light glides
along a hilltop, all is alive and all is dance. I pity those who
are estranged from the earth. There is nothing more ennobling
than to touch and be touched by this beauty.
Bound here between the ether and the abyss, on the edge of
edgelessness, I give thanks to this earthly fate for giving me
the gift to wonder, to be surprised, to tremble. My salvation is
here and not in any other world.
Today my religion is a creed of amplitude; an open heart that
asks the branching tree and the tunnelling earthworm for the
truth. This clear mountain stream; steadfast, giving, spirited,
tells me all I need to know about the Dharma. A moss-covered
stone is as edifying as any sacred scripture. In the presence of
still lake-water at
I feel a vibrancy in every atom of my being that brings me into
alignment with blazing galaxies and with blades of grass. After
all every particle of my body comes from that primordial orgasm
of matter that begot the universe. I'm an exudation of that
primal energy. Today it flows through me with an aching love to
coalesce, to be whole again. Every part of me and every part of
you; every grain of sand and every blade of grass contains a
configuration of the whole. All living matter be it minute
protozoa or a supernova are all intertwined in the bounteous
weave of creation. Seán Ó Ríordáin, the Irish language poet,
recognised this cosmic dynamic in a poem called "Ná
Fan". "Níl áit ar fud na cruinne nach ann a
saolaíodh sinne" [There is nowehere in this universe where
we have not come to be], is I think, one of his most visionary
insights.
We live in grim times. The intricate balance in nature, that
interweave of parts, is coming undone. In the name of
development, economic growth and progress we are all complicit in
the ecological holocaust that is laying waste our world.
Countless species are being wiped out, radioactive waste and
toxic exhausts foul our waters and spoil our air. The detritus of
prosperity, the effluent of greed is killing the earth. Only when
we become one ecological congregation, a wholehearted fellowship
of love, swearing allegiance to the branching tree and the
tunnelling earthworm will we bring the earth and ourselves back
into a natural alignment of needs.
Lucky for me I can enjoy a quiet, outdoors Sabbath in a place
where the ecosystem is still diverse and thriving. For that I am
grateful. As morning dawns and as evening darkens, I give praise
for the bright spill of light that allows me to see the unfolding
universe of wonder that is Mín A Leá, Mín A Craoibhe and
Caiseal na gCorr.
Let the words flow. Let the silence cradle them.
Breathe in and out. Rest in your awareness. The words will cease
and the silence will begin its rhythmic sway. All of your life
you have been longing to stop chasing the dream. It is always one
step ahead of you. Know this.
You don’t have to live up to your own expectations. There
can be an end to self-pleasing frustrations that wind up going
nowhere. Every day you feel new hope but it is turned in the
wrong direction.
Listen to your failures; they teach you much more than your slim
successes ever will. So somebody likes you; yet you are
just another phantom of their soap opera, a cameo appearance by
someone called by your name.
Up high there is a cosmic order with no room in it for misguided
egos. It sees to it that only the genuine garner wisdom that is
usable. Down below there is only evil, pollution and dreariness.
It crouches in the corners of your heart waiting to spring on you
when your physical energy falls below a certain point. Hear me.
Feel the void. It has a name that can only be heard when all hope
is gone. When holidays crash and burn, when every Hallmark Store
closes and the revelers have retreated back into the woodwork.
This is not a game for sissies or falsely optimistic dreamers.
If you would feel your way into the chasm, you must drop low and
pray for patience. Who knows? Maybe you will come up with the
winning number. That would be zero.
Vicki Woodyard
http://www.nondualitynow.com