THE INARTICULATE SPEECH OF THE HEART
THE INARTICULATE SPEECH OF THE HEART: LIFE IS SHORT: DON’T WASTE IT
PROLOGUE: An empty book is like an Infant’s Soul, in which anything may be written. It is capable of all things, but contains nothing. I have a mind to fill this with profitable wonders, and since love put it into my hands, I will fill it with those Truths you love, and with those things, which if it will be possible, will show my love for all of you, in communicating most enriching Truths; to Truth in exalting its Beauties in such Souls.
Love is a beautiful flowering that I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same. Everything has its wonders, even in darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. One can never consent to crawl when one feels an impulse to soar.
‘Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it, because without it we become faint and weak. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. Instead we turn inwardly and begin to feed upon our own personalities and little by little we destroy ourselves.
You and I need the strength that comes from knowing that we are loved. With it we are creative. With it we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice ourselves for others.’ Chief Dan George Salish Nations B.C. Canada
‘Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe. It is everywhere. All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name. Behold this day. It is yours to make. There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which… is in the souls of men.’ Chief Black Elk Lakota First Nations
THE TWO SECRETS TO LIFE: SECRET ONE: DIE BEFORE YOU DIE OR YOU’LL FORGET TO LIVE
There are three events in a person’s life: Birth, Life, and Death. We are not aware of being born, we die in pain and we forget to live. The secret of life is to die before you die so that in the end you will have no regrets for never having lived!
‘Live as if you were going to die tomorrow and learn as if you were going to live forever. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself serving others. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do is in harmony.’ Mahatma Gandhi
‘Do every act of your life as if it were your last. It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig. And you will give yourself relief if you do every act of your life as if it were the last. ‘ Marcus Aurelius
‘The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of true art and science. I live in that solitude that is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living things and the whole of nature and its beauty.’ Albert Einstein
‘Poetry soothes the soul and emboldens the heart to accept Mystery.’ John Keats
We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often ‘life’ is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.
Appreciate the fact that life is complex. Abandon the urge to simplify everything; to look for formulas and easy answers, and begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life. We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often ‘life’ is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery. Be alive to the Mystery! t
There is no worse bitterness than to reach the end of your life and realize you have not lived. By taking a few moments to ‘die on purpose’ to the rush of time while you are still living, you free yourself to have time for the present. By dying in this way, you actually become more alive now. There is nothing passive about it. And when you decide to move, to act, it’s a different kind of doing because you’ve stopped.
It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body, for it is better to die than to live badly. The subject matter of the art of living is each person’s own life. What really frightens and disturbs us is not external events themselves but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. ‘ Seneca
To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable. Most people die before they are born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.
Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies?
‘To be old is glorious if one has not unlearned how to begin. There are three principles in a man’s being and life: the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-man occurs when I don’t say what I mean, and I don’t do what I say. ‘ Martin Buber
‘A human being would certainly not grow to be 70 or 80 years of age, if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be a pitiable appendage to life’s morning. ‘ Carl Jung
‘Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purposes. Through pride, we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience, a still, small voice says to us something is out of tune. We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.’ Carl Jung
‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately to confront only the essential facts of life and see if I could learn what it had to teach me or not, so that when I came to die, I would discover that I had not lived. Only that day dawns to which we are awake.’ Henry David Thoreau
THE SECOND SECRET TO LIFE: LIVING IN THE PRESENT MOMENT GIVES US MORE TIME
One of the secrets of life is that living in the present moment gives you more time. When I am alone in nature, after a period of time, my ‘thinking’ mind slips into ‘being’ mode. If you have ever been on top of a mountain, by the ocean or in the deep forests, we often say, ‘It felt as if Time stood still.’ In the present moment we touch eternity.
To see the world in a single grain of sand
And hold infinity in the palm of your hand.
To behold the universe in the seedlings of the
Tiniest flower and Eternities in the space of a single hour. Me
Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the only things that are forever true. All healing lies within it. The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still.
‘There exists Only the present instant: a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday, and no tomorrow, but only Now as it was a thousand years ago, and a thousand years hence.’ Meister Eckhart 13th century C.E.
Let go and accept the present moment, including how you are feeling and what you think is happening. For these few precious moments, don’t try to change anything, just breathe and let go. Die to need to have anything be different at this moment. In this moment allow your heart and mind to allow this moment to be exactly as it is and allow yourself to be exactly as you are. Then, when you are ready, move in the direction your heart tells you to go, mindfully and with resolve.
The world we live in is a temple, and the miraculous light of the first stars is shining through it all the time. Like an innocent child we can rejoice in life itself; in the very fact that we are alive.. In place of original sin, celebrate your original goodness, for we are the beauty we have been seeking all our lives.
Being held in Mother Earth’s tender embrace helps us to slow down long enough to look at our lives, and the lives of others, and what you end up with is unconditional love for all beings. I think the reason this is so is because beauty makes you ache to be worthy of it.
Silence is like a cradle holding our endeavors and our will; a silent spaciousness sustains us in our work and at the same time connects us to larger worlds that, in the busyness of our daily struggles to achieve, we have not investigated. Silence is the soul’s break for freedom!
‘Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature- the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after winter.’ Rachel Carson
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination- calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, over and over announcing your place in the family of things.’ Mary Oliver
I don’t ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing. It doesn’t have to be the blue iris: it could be weeds in a vacant lot. Or a few small stones. Just pay attention, then patch a few words together, and don’t try to make them elaborate. This isn’t a contest, but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.
‘The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having fresh eyes.’ Marcel Proust
Then it was if I suddenly saw
The secret beauty of their hearts
The depths of their hearts where neither
Sin nor self knowledge can reach
The core of their reality: the people
That each one is in the eyes of the Divine.
We are the Universe looking at itself. Thomas Merton
Without you, the Universe wouldn’t exist. So that is no small thing! It’s the gift of being alive, and although there is pain and suffering inside and outside of ourselves, there are many miracles there for us to see as well. However, we cannot experience the miraculous, unless we are aware: living in the present moment.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Peace of mind is to be found both in silence and in our hearts. When we live all the time in our minds, we set up an impediment to our connection with all of life and to genuine connection with others. Every wisdom tradition believes in the power of silence and that silence is usually found in nature. That seems to be the ideal place for the heart to be at rest. However, it appears that humankind has separated itself from nature as well as the healing power of silence.
Blessed are the hearts that bend; for they shall never be broken. Plant a green tree in your heart and maybe the singing bird will come. In the darkest winter of my soul, I found within me an invincible summer.
‘All the time I was getting closer to animals and nature, and as a result, closer to myself and more and more in tune with the spiritual power that I felt all around. For those who have experienced the joy of being alone with nature there is really little need for me to say much more; for those who have not, no words of mine can even describe the powerful, almost mystical knowledge of beauty and eternity that come, suddenly, and all unexpected. Jane Goodall from A Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey
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OUR PLACE IN THE GREAT WEB OF BEING At one time or another, we all feel disconnected from our place in the great web of being. We lose sight of where we belong, and instead, we experience deep feelings of loneliness, alienation, and despair. Trying to find our way back to the whole is what the spiritual seeker’s journey is all about. It represents a journey home to who we really are.
One of the most difficult things we all struggle with are feelings of existential despair- a sense that there is little or no meaning or purpose to our existence. Sometimes, it all just seems too much and we lose our sense of place, our feelings that we fit in; of being understood and belonging. As much as we are rushing here and there, we don’t always know where we’re going or why. We haven’t found our bearings. We just keep on keeping on with no respite in sight. Life sometimes seems so chaotic; a terrifying storm that exists only to whip us about.
The central metaphors of the spiritual-mystical tradition reflect this pivotal experience, in which the ego is taken up within and encompassed by something larger than itself. In Buddhism, the illusion of self dissolves, and the void is filled with the ecstatic knowledge that there is no difference between my mind and Buddha-mind.
We don’t turn into a Buddha by striving for it. Rather, we awaken to the truth that we have been buddha all along.
We don’t receive more love from God by asking for it. Rather we awaken to the truth that God has always loved us unconditionally.
In the beginning our prayer takes the shape of, ‘Please grant me this, please grant me that,’ and then develops into, ‘Thank you for everything,’ and then matures into, ‘I want to resemble you.’ Eventually it transcends language, and we pray with our whole being in sacred silence” Thomas Merton
We were born to realize our own potential. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our Presence may liberate others..
Life itself can’t give you joy unless you really want it!. Life just gives us time and space. High self-esteem and personal effectiveness are available to anyone willing to take the time to pursue it. Our perceptions are so crucial. Do we count our blessings or our shortcomings, our failure
In life we judge every single experience that we have. There’s an inner dialogue judging everything as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘for’ or ‘against’. Life is meant to be experienced, not judged. It comes from a deeper place inside that has not been taught the skills of living in the present moment. You can’t create experience, just as you can’t find meaning by looking for meaning.
‘You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. Nobody realizes that some people expend enormous amounts of energy merely to be normal.’ Albert Camus
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the heartbeat of the world; to match your nature with Nature. The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again.
Bring your mind to the present moment and your mind and your thoughts will rest. Life is a miracle. We, ourselves are a miracle. Miraculous here does not refer to extraordinary phenomena but to the commonplace, for absolutely anything can evoke this special awareness provided that close attention is paid to it. Once perception is disengaged from the domination of preconception and personal interests, it is free to experience the world as it is and to behold its inherent magnificence. ============================================================================TAKING RESPONSIBILITY TO ADDRESS THE ROOT CAUSES OF YOUR INNER SUFFERING, UNHAPPINESS AND DISHARMONY.
In the final analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his life and ‘finding himself.’ If he persists in shifting responsibility to someone else, he fails to find the meaning of his own existence. We do not exist for ourselves alone, and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others.
Whenever we seek to avoid responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual, organization, or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity. It is in the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure.
Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; in fact, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.
Your success and happiness lies in you. What I am looking for is not out there; it is in me. Resolve to be happy and your joy shall form an invincible host against difficulties. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. We could never learn to be brave and patient if there was only joy in the world.
‘What we do today determines what our tomorrow will be like.’ The Buddha
Beyond your body and labels there is a river of vulnerability and tenderness. Beyond stereotypes and assumptions, there is a valley of openness and authenticity. Beyond memory and ego, there is an ocean of awareness and compassion. Love yourself despite your imperfections.
We have what we seek; it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us. Love seeks one thing: the good of the one loved. We do not exist for ourselves alone, and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others. When you have to make an important decision or embark on a new journey, always follow your heart. Even if it doesn’t work out you will learn valuable lessons
OUTGROWING YOURSELF AND THE DEFINITIONS THAT HAVE DEFINED YOU
The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. We are in charge of our own destiny and we have to be responsible for our own words, actions, and thoughts.
We need to examine our own lives and decide what it is that we wish to do with the time left remaining to us. However, even if we are not certain what the proper course of action is, there are times when we must simply take a leap of faith. We must act.
Some of us continue to search for a deeper truth. The path to ultimate reality takes hard work and practice. If we value truth and reality, we chip away at falsehoods, both large and subtle in our lives. This also applies to living a virtuous life; do not distinguish between small and large. We all know, in our hearts, what is right and what is wrong.
Accepting ourselves as we are, allows us to be open to other people. We no longer have to pretend that we are someone else. We are good enough. You are good enough. Self-love is necessary to live a full and heart-felt life. You are just beginning. Begin today and be ready for a daring life of adventure!
Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking-
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
Widening rings of being. Rumi
We can’t selectively numb emotions. In avoiding painful emotions like fear and shame, we also numb empathy, courage, joy, authenticity, love, and belonging. We need to stop and be grateful for what we have.
I have come to learn that this is what mindfulness is all about. With mindfulness comes gratitude. With gratitude comes joy. We want a guarantee that we will not experience pain and loss. There is no such guarantee. But there is one guarantee: If we don’t allow ourselves to experience joy and love, we will not have what it takes when the excrement does hit the proverbial fan.
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BE YOUR OWN LAMP: SEEK NO OTHER REFUGE
My ideas about the dharma- the teachings of the Wise One were standing in my way- for he said:
‘Be your own lamp. Seek no other refuge.’ The Buddha
I fell in love with the dharma- with the teachings and the sutras and memorized the wisdom passed down through the ages. I sat in meditation, but I did nothing but think about it. I thought about concepts and liberation from my own suffering, and I wandered farther and farther from the truth. I talked about it and wrote about it and my practice went down the toilet.
I couldn’t concentrate on anything-let alone my own breath. Then I heard a whisper- read something or gained an insight. I came to realize that one can easily starve to death trying to eat a cookbook!
But undaunted, the Self- Anointed Patron Saint of Lost Causes says, ‘I ain’t giving up that easy.’
Just as reframing the ordinary act of breathing leads to a change in our sense of self, the simple act of sitting quietly and observing our passing thoughts and feelings creates a radical shift in identity; an experience of transcending the ego.
It is absurd that I neglect my meditation. I have spent the last three days sitting and worrying and getting frustrated. It’s like a muscle. If you’re working out at the gym, and you get in great shape, if you stop going even for a couple of weeks, you’re back where you started. So I made a resolution for tomorrow. I will sit!
Here I sit, and here I will sit whenever the chaos swirls around me, I told myself the next evening, as I began my meditation. But on this particular evening I was prepared for them. I sat on my throne in the middle of my devastated kingdom and remained motionless. As my wounds appeared and hurled their habitual barbs and accusations, I forced myself to breathe ever more slowly and examine them with clinical objectivity.
Watching the whirlwind that occupied the centre of my sense of self, I was able to gradually change from being the dis-eased one to being the compassionate- objective observer who can transcend the chaos and remain calm. In the middle of that battleground that is our personality, we discover a peaceful kingdom.
We are the sane ones in the madhouse of our personality. We are the subject who has the ability to transcend the predicates and accidents of our psyche. The more we experience and then dis-identify from the wounds and brokenness of our historical condition, the more we gain an identity that is not at the mercy of passing thoughts and feelings.
We are that being who has the ability to transcend our mental- emotional-bodily conditioning: the one who can escape the imprisonment of our ancient character armour. We become the one who is not determined by yesterday.
Music in the Soul can be heard by the Universe. When you are content to simply be yourself, and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. I have just three things to teach- simplicity, patience, and compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires. He who is content is rich. Mastering yourself is true power.
‘Be content with what you have. Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you. He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.’ Lao Tzu
At the center of your being, you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve. Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides
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THE JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE: WE SHALL NOT CEASE FROM EXPLORATION
We shall not cease from exploration and in the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ T.S. Eliot
One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice- “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had to do. It was a wild night and the road was full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little as you left the voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheet 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
You take a final step and, look, you’re there! You’ve arrived at the one place all your drudgery was aimed for: This common ground where you stretch out, pressing your cheek to sandstone. What did you want to be? You’ll remember soon. You feel tender under a burning glass, a luminous point of change. The sky is pulsing under a cracked horizon, holding it firm for the arrival of stars in time with your heartbeats.
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the heartbeat of the world; to match your nature with Nature. The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again.
THE FOREST SPEAKS: Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes behind you are not lost. Wherever you are is called here. And you must treat it as a powerful stranger-must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen! It answers: “ I have made this place for you..If you leave it, you may come back staying here’
No two trees are the same to Raven. No two branches are the same as Wren. If what a tree or bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost! Stand still. The forest knows where you are, you must let it find you.
And come back I shall. My soul demands it!
Like wind, etching rock, you’ve made an impression on the self you were by having come all this way through all this welter under your own power, though your traces on a map would make an unpromising meandering lifeline. (Yea, no kidding!) What have you learned so far? You’ll find out later, telling it haltingly like a dream, that lost traveler’s dream under the last hill where through the night you’ll take your time out of mind to unburden yourself of elements along elementary paths
You’ve earned this warn-down, hard, incredible sight called Here and Now. Now, what you make of it means everything, means starting over: The life in your hands is neither here nor there but getting there, so, you’re standing again and breathing, beginning another journey without regret- forever, being your own peaceable kingdom, the end of endings.
And if your spirit carries within it the thorn that is heavier than lead- if it’s all you can do to keep on trudging-there is still somewhere deep within you a beast shouting that the earth is exactly what it wanted-each pond with its blazing lilies is a prayer heard and answered lavishly, each morning. Whether or not, you have ever dared to be happy, whether or not, you have ever decided to pray. Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.
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LOVE: As an ability, love is always there ready to flourish. It can be cultivated- we practice it- it becomes who we are. With life’s ups and downs, the ability to love will always be within us. This is the kind of wisdom born of going through life paying attention, rather than being half-asleep.
This kind of wisdom allows life to teach us and move us and open us to truths about the importance of love. Scientists say love is merely an instinct that evolution has given us for survival; for caring for our young, for working together in groups as successful hunters and gatherers. But we love people, long after they have died. Where is the utility in that?
Love Life, and your Life will know of no corruption.
Love Life, and your judgement will uphold you.
Love Life and you will not wander away
From the path of understanding
To love is to discover and complete one’s self, an act impossible of general realization on Earth so long as each can see in the neighbor no more than a closed fragment following its own course through the world. It is precisely this state of isolation that will end if we begin to discover each other not merely the elements of one and the same thing, but of a single Spirit in search of itself. The existence of such a power becomes possible in the curvature of a world which is capable of creating something new.; Teilhard De Chardin
Love alone can unite human beings so as to complete them and fulfill them; for it alone joins them by what is deepest In themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love, developing it until it embraces the totality of the people of the earth,
Theoretically, this transformation of love is quite possible. What paralyses life is a failure to believe and a failure to dare. The day will come, when after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of Love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world we shall have discovered fire!