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Amish Pasture Lying Fallow... Winter, Northern Maine
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The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use.
*Abraham Joshua Heschel. Thunder in the Soul.
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A seeker said to the Sage, "I feel a need to worship. But I don't know what to worship." The Sage replied, "Then, just worship." "How shall I do that?" asked the seeker. The Sage said, "Sit with the need to worship, and worship will arise." "How long will I need to sit?" came the question. "As long as it takes," replied the Sage, "but remember, to be with the need to worship is already worship."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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Thich Nhat Hanh, in Peace is Every Step, wrote of an artist asking him, "What is the way to look at a flower so that I can make the most of it for my art?" He replied, "If you look at it in that way, you cannot be in touch with the flower. Abandon all your projects so you can be with the flower with no intention of exploiting it or getting something from it."
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We are taught to see persons and objects as a means to an end. He is there to please me. She is there to serve me. The Sun is there to warm me and give me light.
Can you relax with what or whom you are with and let that be an end in itself? Can you let the Sun, for example, be something to enjoy being with, with no thought of what it does or gives? If you do, you will see it is not even an end in itself - it is more, so much more.
In this, a sense of worship can arise. Not that you worship something, such as worshiping the Sun as an object, but the sense of worship becomes present. Out of this experience arises reverence and gratitude, indeed love.
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2022.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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