I am
currently slowly reading and pondering over some of the wonderful message given to this world by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Upon this continuing nexus of change he soothes by reminding the deep that:
‘It is the greatest relief to forget, it is like bathing in the Ganges.
The present has so many beautiful things to offer us;
if only we open our eyes to look at them
we do not need look for beauty in the past.
Beauty is always here.’
(page 198 of The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, vol V111)
‘
Fuming beyond
this zebra crossing dripping throng
this head down, striding long
Gortex sway of human form
as wiper blades scud and grate
across this screen that separates
my heart from spleen from
gentle grace of
worried lines on
brethren’s face.
And yet.
unknowingly still I bow, yes
beyond this dashboard reach
for conditioning air
this rain filled rage begins to clear
as Lightening weight accelerates
and soft green shoots now reappear.
pausing I pour
this way and that
that
i may disappear
within Your honeyed
Translucence
fertile and pure
Your
sweet pulsing elegance
in Grace-fuelled dhikr
immersing
soft green shoots of
Eastern Sun Light
palm pressing fresh fruits
needing till ripe with
Great goodness seeping
through pulp, pith and kin
earthly distinctions
composting in Him.
the above was written in response to:
The Head of The Prophecy (6,21-8,27)
‘It is like a palm shoot whose dates dropped around it. It produced buds and after they grew, its productivity dried up.
It certainly would be good if you produce new growth now. You would certainly find it.’
Know Yourselves (12,17-13,25)
‘Be eager to harvest for yourselves a head of the grain of life that you may be filled with the kingdom.
Do not be proud because of the light that enlightens. Rather, act towards yourselves as I myself have toward you. ’
(quoted from ‘The secret book of James’ which is the first chapter in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures edited by Marvin Meyer published by Harper One in 2007)
Next blogs: The Gospel of Truth.
The Oxfam Bookshop on Park Street
has offered me the chance to buy The Nag Hammadi scriptures.
£8:95 and the complete 1945 discoveries are at my finger-tips, and now happily are upon my desktop too.
First expedition in the unknown; The Secret Book of James:
on Being filled and lacking (3,38-4,22)
‘So you should lack when you can fill yourselves and be filled when you lack, that you may be able to fill yourselves more. Be filled with Spirit, but lack in reason, for reason is of the soul. It is soul.’
To the ears of my heart this guides and glides me further into meditating and ultimately living contemplatively.
unpicking the two sentences, I follow:
Morning and evening are times when I can intentionally wait to be filled with Spirit.
These 20 minute bookends to my day are my precious times of Centering Prayer. Times when I initially pause and ask, hope and wait to to be emptied (lacked?) of body, mind, sight, sense and feeling.
20 minutes nearing to nothingness. A process of gently feathering my incessant thinking upon the breath of God. Time, yes much time to let go of thoughts and to nestle, nestle and nestle again within wideness and depth beyond this skin.
To become Another’s vessel.
20 minutes, twice a day where I AM resonates somewhere deep and unseen and well and well and well beyond this surface practice of sitting upon a cushion, of waiting and welcoming and repeatedly letting go of all earthly reasoning, of breathing, opening to release these-every-day-ego-driven-collections-and-confections-of-this -and-that-and-the-other.
In other words, to hope beyond words and to become no thing at all.
And after the bell sounds, after the 2 further minutes of peaceful momentary pause, I come back to the waves and vibrations of this bodily living.
The peaceful evening pause often helps me glide into a sleepfulness where my lack is unconsciously met and processed, sometimes without trace, sometimes within the sweat and ruffled bed-sheets.
The peaceful morning pause however can become consciously dismantled and plunged into active lacking in minutes, seconds even.
And yet even within the greatest shift into earthly lack, into this worrisome world of soulful endeavour, even when face down in ego and mud,
A sense, an internal shift towards openness, towards a potential filling with Spirit, has indeed been growing day on day.
Now, when buffeted by my so-say-sufferings, when daily bemused and angered and hurt by the daze of human botherings tiresomely gathering around this blood, flesh and bone, I can sometimes pause.
Pause and somehow re-taste elements these 20 minutes, twice daily. And in this glimpse, I can meet the lack in us with a silence and a smile that greets suffering with an overspilling, unnameable, abundancy that is well and truly beyond the very fabric of me.
Next blog: Know Yourselves (12,17-13,25)
‘ Draw me into the flames of Your love. Unite me so closely with You that You live and act in me….It is all about love melting in Love.’
St Therese of Lisieux.
‘Just as those who look at the sun cannot but fill their eyes with light, so they who always have a steady gaze into their heart cannot fail to be illuminated…for the heart is our knowing centre, the place of Divine encounter…God speaks in the great silence of the heart.’
St Augustine.
A re-fertilised Lords Prayer
Blessed Mother-Father of the Cosmos,
whose delight flows through us in wave and particle,
whose presence is with us always
and whose Spirit dwells within.
Hallowed be your Name of names.
May your kingdom come,
and may your pleasure manifest in us in light and form,
to shine in our lives and on this earth,
just as it does in everything and no-thing.
Thank you for giving us this day.
Thank you for freely pouring out all that we need for sustenance,
nourishment and growth.
As we turn away from your enduring love,
forgive us for these times of un-ripeness.
Oh Birther of all that is and that is not,
forgive us when we trespass against you and those you put in our lives,
and help us forgive those who trespass against us.
Keep us from yielding to temptation,
and guide us away from anything or anyone who distracts us from your highest will.
Divine Light of light,
Deliver and protect us from all that is unripe and guide our spirit
that we may sparkle like jewels in a thousand petalled lotus flower.
Water plentifully our individual and communal roots
so that your living desire may blossom within us.
For all glory, power and abundant ripeness are yours almighty God
Just as it was before the beginning-ness,
it is now and always shall be radiant in Oneness and Love without end. Amen
This adaption is based around a guided centering prayer meditation offered by Maria Gullo (accessed via Insight Timer App), it is fertilised by the words of Neil Douglas Klotz and watered into further growth by Glenn Mower.
Open the pores of my heart Lord
Open to pause in our hearts
Breathing your love in me
Breathing out Unity.
Endarkenment immense
light glance this cliff edged firmament
these ocean thrusts and sweating spume
re-foam this cleaving cleft of discontent
sweet soak this night with Loves perfume
re-float this will-filled would entanglement
this hope-long-roped-on sophanes ledge
unclasped at last, to weep and flow within
your grace swathed Anchorage.
