Spirituality
Life reveals itself above us and below us
All spiritualities worthy of the name, stress the need to make a certain ascent, to grow beyond our immaturities, our laziness, our wounds, and the perennial hedonism and shallowness of our culture. The emphasis here is always to reach upward, beyond, towards the heavens, and towards all that is more noble, altruistic, compassionate, loving, admirable, and saintly. Much of classical Christian spirituality is a spirituality of the ascent, an invitation to something higher, an invitation to be true to what is deepest inside of us, namely, the Image and Likeness of God. Much of Jesus’ preaching invites us precisely to something higher. Confucius, one of the great moral teachers of all time, had a similar pedagogy, inviting people to look to beauty and goodness and to forever reach in that direction. In our own time, John Paul II used this very effectively in his appeal to young people, challenging them always to not settle for compromise or second-best, but to look always for something higher and more noble to give their lives to.
But the challenge to growth also needs a spirituality of descent, a vision and a set of disciplines that point us not just towards the rising sun, but also towards the setting sun. Continue reading
Service to the powerless , the power of truth and the cause of justice
English translation of Editorial of the Sinhala Daily, Aththa, Colombo, 11 February 1984
“He has told us that what gives him strength amid the encircling gloom of our society is the inner flame burning within him. The consciousness of a union with the absolute and of the presence of a bright spark of the divine within him and in all others motivates him, animates him and sustains him. His religiosity is both internal to him and expresses itself in service to others and the community.”
Mr.Nadesan who turned 80 on 11 February 1984 is one of the most remarkable and admirable sons of the 20th century in Sri Lanka. He was born at the dawn of the century and now lives to see it coming to its end. He has witnessed and has been a participant in all the major events that have transformed our country.
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I will try
I will try.
I will step from the house to see what I see
and hear and I will praise it.
I did not come into this world
to be comforted.
I come, like red bird, to sing.
But I’m not red bird, with his head-mop of flame
and the red triangle of his mouth
full of tongue and whistles,
but a woman whose love has vanished
who thinks now, too much, of roots
and the dark places
where everything is simply holding on.
But this too, I believe, is a place
where God is keeping watch
until we rise, and step forth again and–
but wait. Be still. Listen!
Is it red bird? Or something
inside myself, singing?
and hear and I will praise it.
I did not come into this world
to be comforted.
I come, like red bird, to sing.
But I’m not red bird, with his head-mop of flame
and the red triangle of his mouth
full of tongue and whistles,
but a woman whose love has vanished
who thinks now, too much, of roots
and the dark places
where everything is simply holding on.
But this too, I believe, is a place
where God is keeping watch
until we rise, and step forth again and–
but wait. Be still. Listen!
Is it red bird? Or something
inside myself, singing?
-Mary Oliver
Trust In Allah But Tether Your Camel First
This saying comes from a small story. Continue reading
The Journey by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
Thought for the Week – 15th September 2014
I will sit on the bank and wait for the moment when everything is clear
There is a beautiful story form Buddha’s life, which discusses the crux of being meditative. Osho has explained it very well in this piece. Worth reading.
“One day Buddha is passing by a forest. It is a hot summer day and he is feeling very thirsty. He says to Ananda, his chief disciple, “Ananda, you go back. Just three, four miles back we passed a small stream of water. You bring a little water — take my begging bowl. I am feeling very thirsty and tired.” He had become old.
Just two miles
Buddha was moving from one town to another. They had lost their way. They asked a few villagers on the way, “How far until the next town?”
They said, “Just two miles,” as is always said in India. Whether it is fifty miles or twenty miles, it makes no difference; villagers always say, “Just two miles.” Continue reading
Book Recommendation : The Way Of Transition by William Bridges
When author Bill Bridges’s wife died from breast cancer, he began to question all his previous groundbreaking work on transitions. Having conducted seminars and written bestselling books (Transitions, Managing Transitions), Bridges had built a reputation as an expert on the topic. And yet, “I felt now that my words had totally failed to match in depth the experience of actually being in transition,” he explains.
ONE TUSK 