Labor on the Mortal Wheel
“I used to imagine him
coming from the house, like Merlin
strolling with important gestures
through the garden
where everything grows so thickly,
where birds sing, little snakes lie
on the boughs, thinking of nothing
but their own good lives,
where petals float upward,
their colors exploding,
and trees open their moist
pages of thunder –
it has happened every summer for years.
But now I know more
about the great wheel of growth,
and decay, and rebirth,
and know my vision for a falsehood.
Now I see him coming from the house –
I see him on his knees,
cutting away the diseased, the superfluous,
coaxing the new,
knowing that the hour of fulfillment
is buried in years of patience –
yet willing to labor like that
on the mortal wheel.”
- Mary Oliver, Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006)
Chor Pharn said,
June 7, 2006 @ 7:19 pm
Dear Mike,
I have been studying Arabic and the Islamic faith lately. This in addition to my past 20 odd years of involvement with the Christian faith, Buddhism (Zen, Mahayana, Theravada and Tibetan Vajrocana) , Taoism and to some extent, Hinduism. I have also been involved, and later extracted myself with gladness, from the American new faiths of Anthony Robbins NLP, Landmark Education (the Forum) and so on. And of course, there is poetry, from Thomas Moore, Plath, cummings to Tang and Song Dynasty sepia toned poetry to Jelalluddin Rumi’s tempests.
What a thirst for the transcendent is built in human beings!
I was not brought respite, despite exposure to these streams of traditions and wisdom. Just confusion when I transitted between these streams. Within each stream I could swim at ease, but journeying over the land between the streams, I gasped for water. There seems to be no connection.
But last night something still settled into me. It is simple, laughingly simple. I realised that everything has its own place. Everything has its own sphere of wisdom and action.
I may be gasping for water, but if I can peek out of the stream I might understand that all streams flow into the ocean, which evaporate into clouds and then rain in the mountains, which form the streams I swim in. It is all the same source. The streams have to adjust to the terrain they flow through, that’s all.
I am afraid I have been very silly. But it’s a nice place to be in now.
Have a good day, and slight apologies for the long post, it was not meant to be a rant. I wish I could be more concise.
Chor Pharn
Mike said,
June 8, 2006 @ 3:21 am
Dear Chor,
When the Heart of Goodness, Kindness, Respect, and Love is at work, one can find many positive elements in organized religion and spiritual and psychological paths. An argument can be made for a Perennial Philosophy, a core tradition, which all the various paths flow into like rivers into the Sea, or spring out as if from a common Great Well.
I have been uncomfortable with common tendency of organized religious to be dogmatic, and their thinking that all non-believers deserve some kind of punishment (now or in the hereafter) for their non-belief. In large part, these organized religions are support structures for local family-social-political customs and laws; and, as such, have less bearing on deeper spiritual pursuits.
At a pragmatic level, these alternative streams and rivers do each have an appropriate sphere of wisdom and action. They serve real and practical purposes in their spheres of influence, possess a relative “truth,” and help people organize and cope with the varied challenges of life.
There is plenty of room for honest doubt, a great need for a good heart, and an advantage to being a good strong swimmer in the streams along the Way.
I enjoy the poetry the most.
Thanks for sharing.
Mike