that nifty poet John Keats, and some thoughts on suffering.

"In a letter written back in 1819, the British poet John Keats refers to the world not as a vale of tears, but as "the vale of soulmaking." He says, "Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and Troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a Soul? A Place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways!"

i am so struck by how similar this is to Jung's concept of the Soul's path toward individuation by facing and incorporating its 'shadow side.' we all have a shadow side...and it is a sacred duty toward adulthood to hold no illusions about that reality within us...and in facing the darker places within us, we are inevitably opened up to pain and grief...how interesting that, especially in this culture, we are conditioned to think that pain and suffering are a result of something having gone wrong in our journey...of having, perhaps, taken a wrong turn...but the reality is...pain and suffering are universal...and a wholehearted acceptance of this truth is so often the key that can unlock and open our heart to a more encompassing love and compassion than we could ever imagine. As the writer Ram Dass expressed when discussing the spiritual lessons found in suffering a stroke:

"Greater suffering elicits higher consciousness."

and so it is, wisdom and maturity is found in not shutting down, but opening ever wider your heart.

be still and know. or, why i am continually on the path of silence.

photo by gregory colbert

Listen, my heart, as only
saints have listened: until some enormous call
lifted them off the ground; yet still they knelt,
those impossible people, undistracted by the
sound,
intent on listening. Not that you could endure
the voice of God, far from it. But hear what is
whispering,
the endless message forming itself from silence.


RAINER MARIA RILKE

le bon mot du jour. blessed impermanence

In pursuit of the world,
One gains more and more.

In pursuit of the Way, one gains less and less.

Loss upon loss until at last comes rest.

When nothing is done, nothing remains undone.

LAO TZU

from the Tao Te Ching

why i will gladly be undone by You, Beloved, over and over, again.

HOLY GROUND

Let the vision
of the vastness
you are
leave you
in glorious
ruins.

Pilgrims will come
to imagine
the grand temple
that once stood,
not realizing

the wreck
made this empty plain
holy ground.

IVAN M. GRANGER