Mysticism and Spirituality Circle

I was blessed this last week to spend time with my lovely friends and cohort for my Spiritual Direction certificate program and the Interfaith Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley. At the beginning of one of our sessions, our instructor Scott read this compelling and beautiful poem that I wanted to share with all of you.

May you know these miraculous things: That you are YOU!

That your soul is a deep, dark, quiet forest.
That your known
self will never be more than a little clearing in that forest.

That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest
into the clearing of your known self, and then go back.

That you must have the courage to let them come and go.

May you never let those who strive for too much order
have the power to stifle the life deep inside your forest,

and may you continue to try always to recognize and submit
to the goodness, the gods, in yourself and in other men and women. 

(Adapted from D.H. Lawrence “Studies in Classic American Literature”)

As I’ve been walking the streets of Berkeley this week I’ve opened my heart to what might be possible. What might it look like if I recognized the divinity in each flower, in each stone, in each human whose eyes met mine? Holding that, this happened.

My brother lay in a doorway, 
Barefoot, curled against
the cold concrete.

In wonder, recognizing God 
I couldn’t
not see.

The Divine guided me:
Target store with a comforter for sale
Comforter that belonged
to my brother

And when I laid it gently over
his prone divinity
My other brother
looked at me
in wonder

And shook my hand
and blessed me.
I am truly blessed.

 No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away. 

~ Wendell Berry ~  

(Collected Poems)

May this day bring you light and guidance on your path. Enjoy this from David Whyte:

EASTER BLESSING

The blessing of the morning light to you,
may it find you even in your invisible
appearances, may you be seen to have risen
from some other place you know and have known
in the darkness and that that carries all you need.

May you see what is hidden in you
as a place of hospitality and shadowed shelter,
may that hidden darkness be your gift to give,
may you hold that shadow to the light
and the silence of that shelter to the word of the light,
may you join all of your previous disappearances
with this new appearance, this new morning,
this being seen again, new and newly alive.

…

© David Whyte
From EASTER BLESSING
In Memoriam John O’Donohue
In
THE BELL AND THE BLACKBIRD
Poetry by David Whyte
APRIL 2018 © David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

Waking here in the Yorkshire Dales in a quiet village, on a warm spring morning, amongst the birdsong and the cockerels crowing, the rooks beginning to wake and call to one another and build their nests, I am having my own private Easter Service just by listening through the open window. Easter morning to me, has always seemed to gather every other morning of the year in its arms, to sacralize that everyday but crucial threshold we cross in waking into the world again. If we are not caught in our own bubble of enforced ordinariness, abstract insulation and closed protection, this is an astonishing world always waiting for us to join our own voice in the taken for granted, but extraordinary privilege of speaking, living and breathing. DW

Innocence is not a fixed commodity to be replaced by experience, innocence is our ability to allow ourselves to be seen and heard anew by a continually reawakened world, by birdsong, by a familiar loved one’s face, even by our own searching eyes looking back at us from the mirror, again and again, in new ways. To be surprised, transfigured, and astonished. Innocence is our ability to be found by the world. DW
…

Awake in Grenada
Photo © David Whyte
Carrera Del Darro
Grenada, Spain April 2nd 2019

In our Sufi practice, we often use the Arabic mantra estoferallah, as a way to forgive ourselves when we forget we are divine and connected to all.

This poetry reminds us again how important it is to forgive unceasingly.

The Hard Truth

The hard truth is that we all love poorly . . .
We need to forgive and be forgiven
every day, every hour – unceasingly.
That is the great work of love
among the fellowship of the weak
that is the human family.
The voice that calls us the Beloved
is the voice of freedom
because it sets us free to love without wanting
anything in return.
This has nothing to do with self-sacrifice,
self-denial or self-depreciation.
But has everything to do with the abundance of love
that has been freely given to me and from which 
I freely want to give.
— Henri Nouwen, “Forgiveness: The Name of Love in a Wounded World,” excerpt from Weavings, March/April 1992

Dear friends,

We had a unique and wonderful experience that many have asked me to describe. I’ve created this travelogue to share with all of you, though of course there are many more pictures and stories.

This will give you a taste anyway, and we can share the rest of the stories and pictures when we meet again in person. May that be soon!

Jordan-Lebanon Travelogue

Blessings,
Wakil