Rare are those moments
And thoroughly hidden

Searching hardly
Pays off, but
Finding does

The art is to live 
So that it comes to pass

That clarity, now and then

by Martin Bril
translated from Dutch by Kristine

This poem, by the Dutch writer and poet Martin Bril, has been hanging in my mum’s bathroom for years, and when I was looking for a poem with the theme of ‘clarity’, it came to mind. But in Dutch of course! So this is my attempt at translating it, which of course is harder than it seems…

It’s always struck a chord with me, that sense of finding rather than searching for, and creating the conditions rather than engineering the thing itself. It reminds me of Rob Nairn’s instructions for meditation: a bit like letting yourself fall asleep, not trying too hard because that only makes it more illusive.

I remember a teaching he gave on Holy Isle, where one participant, a well-spoken English gentleman, asked a question about what he called ‘actual meditation’, which I think we could translated as ‘moments of crystal clarity’. What enabled it to happen? Rob started to speak and then turned the question back to the gentleman, what did he think it was enabled by? “The grace of God”, said he without missing a beat, and for once the ever eloquent Rob only nodded.

The art is to live so that it comes to pass…

PS … but we can help the chances of that happening through training in mindfulness! There’s a new course in-depth course for beginners or refreshers starting soon…

Photo by Katherine McCormack on Unsplash

where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it’s you she receives.

You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking centre of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Imagine bringing the first three lines of this poem by Rainer Maria Rilke into your mindfulness sitting practice. Imagine witnessing the ill-matched threads of your life. First you might see them singularly, but then imagine them weaving together into a single cloth. How does this change the way you perceive your life and yourself?

And then imagine weaving the threads together gratefully. However ill-matched, however unwanted, however drab or prickly the threads may be. Entwining the bright and luminous ones in too.

In a way the threads are already a single cloth and it is only our preference – our rejection of some threads and our attachment to others, that creates a severance at all. Rather than presiding over the threads with judgement, how would it be to weave them together with gratitude? This feels like an aspiration I want to carry into my days forever and I know that with my mindfulness practice, I have a chance of gradually realising it.

And then the ‘different celebration’ becomes an honouring of this particular life. A celebration of our sovereignty over our one life, and of our singular potential.

If I follow this, I feel myself standing tall and full of the light of my own being in the middle of that hall. And there’s also a feeling of being both humbled and strengthened by the threads that have torn me, pushed me or tangled me. From here there’s a readiness to step forth as all of who I am. Such a contrast to how compromised, worn and frayed I can sometimes feel.

And here we end up with the last lines of the poem – encompassing more, stretching beyond limitations… to hold something sacred.

PS. We have lots of opportunities for beginning on the path of mindfulness:

Weekend online or at Samye Ling in March: Introduction to Mindfulness-in-Nature

Free one of weekend if you join the membership (£10) in March: Free Online Members Retreat

Photo by Stephane Gagnon on Unsplash

by Lama Gendun Rinpoche

I just love this poem. I love the analogy and thought of us all chasing our tails trying to find happiness when it is there all along. I love the thought of the elephant quieting resting at home as we frantically search the jungle of life for hi.

I recognise in myself the fact that I am often searching for things to make me happy, and yet I have so many ingredients of happiness in me already.  I forget. Having resisted a recent mood enticing me to brood a bit, with events in the world, this poem brings me right back home to rest.

Warmest wishes

Jacky

Change
Says the moon to the waters,
All is flowing.

Change
Says the fields to the grass,
Seed-time and harvest,
Chaff and grain.

You must change said,
Said the worm to the bud,
Though not to a rose,

Petals fade
That wings may rise
Borne on the wind.

You are changing
said death to the maiden, your wan face
To memory, to beauty.

Are you ready to change?
Says the thought to the heart, to let her pass
All your life long

For the unknown, the unborn
In the alchemy
Of the world’s dream?

You will change,
says the stars to the sun,
Says the night to the stars.

We are constantly reminded of impermanence and our attachments to people and things as changes come and go in our lives. We all go through small changes on a daily basis, and we often flow with those.  But the big life changes can rock our very being if we aren’t mindful.

Mindfulness and compassion practices are very important throughout periods of change.  With mindfulness and curiosity we are aware of how changes make us feel and we can bring in self compassion to nurture us as we transition. With practice we are able to reach a place of acceptance of what is and curiosity to what might be as the transition takes place.

I wish you well through any changes happening to you now or this year.

Warmest wishes

Jacky

At our Members Free Retreat this Autumn we will be embracing change.