Saying For Today: Yet, presence does not always bless, though that is itself. It cannot not-bless, but it does not always bless. For blessing, another presence enters the radiance and without filling up the space, so allowing the movement of presences.
In this writing, I distinguish between "presence" and "Presence." The first "presence" is the universal "Presence." The Presence manifesting through a leaf is that Presence manifesting through you. It is one revelation. A way Hindus speak of this - and some others - is "self" and "Self" - the latter being the individual, locatable of the boundless - Buddha, Christ, God, Father, Mother, Spirit, ... The nature of "Presence," or "Self," is spaciousness. Presence does not include others; Presence is free of exclusion. Presence is others and you. Its welcome, therefore, welcomes, but it does not have to do anything to welcome; it is its welcome.
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A Web of Words
I'd like to weave words to catch you, hold you fast.
It wouldn't be for serious reason, Just to play and chase.
I'd take you in and out of mind, and round in swirls of seemings.
We'd run through times and turnings, Land in fields of flowings.
I'd show you heart-shaped happenings From perilous perspectives.
I'd steep you in sublimeness And entreat you in earnestness.
We'd lunge into loveliness, Dive headlong into happiness.
Then when we were through You'd see as I see, hear as I hear.
And when next I wove a web of words Willingly you'd be wound up.
But this concept is nice! I'll drink it in and savor it - no that is how I usually do it! Instead, I'll let it go where it wants, and just watch what happens. It might be fun to try to balance on a gossamer web, instead of a granny square afgan!
*To protect patient confidentiality, I cannot give the name of the author or the book I have cited above. I will refer below to the author as Jennifer, her husband as Robert.
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I received the book from Jennifer years prior when I served her husband - the patient - Robert and her as a chaplain. From the time I started visiting, Robert was bed-ridden. He was joyful. Jennifer was joyful. I could see their religion had been transformative for them. I could see the deep well-spring of spirit moving within. They beamed with love, not only for each other but for they were love-filled beings.
After resigning from the hospice and before leaving, I made a last visit with the couple. We talked and laughed and prayed. There was a good cheer present, as on visits prior, that the prospect of death did not touch. And on my leaving the last time, Jennifer took out a poetry book she had published, signed it, and handed me a copy - see above.
Over three years later, I came upon the book in a box; I had put the book away during a move. I had never read all of it and decided to. I opened the cover, and on the inside was written a note dated "Dec 8, 2017" -
Brian,
Your presence and friendship have blessed our home.
Thank you,
. . .
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One of the reasons I had not read the book through was the variances in faith between the couple and me. While honoring their faith, I was not sure I wished to read the book, reflecting a much more conservative religion than I espoused; yet, this assumption was an assumption, a hang-over from the past - as all assumptions are.
In fact, as a child and youth, the Southern Baptist sect had taught me the religion of this joyful, loving, and gracious couple was not Christian and, so, a cult. To those in my Baptist upbringing, anything not Christian as they decided Christian to be was called a cult. So, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Mormonism, Islam ... were cults. Even Catholicism was considered a cult. And one theory among the evangelical conservatives was the Catholic pope is the end-time Antichrist. These beliefs may sound outlandish - they are.
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Now, in reading the thank you note, my eyes and heart focus on the word "presence." Regardless of the differences in our worldviews, does not "presence" make the difference? Their presence and my presence are the same presence - we are spirit enjoying spirit. Their and my religion is each a worldview, a system of belief and practice; presence simply is. God is.
Yet, my presence, which they experienced as a blessing, was my presence, Jennifer's presence, and Robert's presence. This is where embodied Presence arises and moves in time. Presence is presences.
My presence cannot be subtracted from the blessing, the feeling of friendship Jennifer spoke of. My presence cannot be lost in some metaphysical, universal something. This like the beauty of the rose. The rose cannot be separate from the beauty. The universal shines in the particular.
My - this - presence is in time and space and body. So, if you are to bless me, it cannot be part of you or some spiritual, etheric something moving through you. As says the late Buddhist sage, Kodo Sawaki, "We see with our eyes, eat with our mouth, breathe with our nose; this is the great freedom. Delusion is losing sight of this true Self." So, love cannot be other than Love.
Hence, that your presence blesses me means your nose blesses me. If your nose is subtracted from your presence, there is no blessing at all. The nose must be there, for it is there. Blessing arises when you are totally there with your nose.
By analogy with my sharing with Jennifer and Robert... Blessing happens one and two and three presences. If one presence, no blessing. If two or three presences, no presence. One and two and three presences serves the secret.
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With this blessing, there is a sense of friendliness. One may pass a person on a sidewalk and feel this friendliness. It is often on a face. Even such casual interactions can show us a real moment of conviviality, even in the absence of any knowledge of who the other is.
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The wife did not mention anything I did when in their home. She penned "presence" and "friendship." See, this is the Way, and it can appear so intangible, for we look to marketable skills and objective results rather than the intangibles that increasingly come to define a self walking the Way. Indeed, the heart longs for the intangibles, the bounded longs to breathe the boundless. The self suffers lack, regardless of how immersed in the sphere of the tangibles, when alienated from the unseen Qualities. "Presence" and "friendliness" are two such Qualities.
So, there is a shift in the self. The person - persona (lit., "mask") - fills up space with itself - personality traits, plans, thoughts, words, value judgments, beliefs, opinions, ... (self projecting itself to fill space with itself). The self shuts out the other by filling up space with itself. We mostly do this with words. This self-projection blocks the Light of self-less radiance: Self. This, while the less you are present, the more you are there, for you are not filling up the space with yourself.
Presence is spacious for the space remains open even with the self filling up the space. The space the self projects itself into is the Self, for it cannot escape. Blessing arises and thrives in open-space. Presence is sky-like. It is room freely to breathe in and out. In the space is much movement and things moving. Just move your arms and legs - that is it, too, and wind moving among tree branches, children playing on a playground and laughing gleefully, or the grass growing green in Spring.
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Yet, presence does not always bless, though that is itself. It cannot not-bless, but it does not always bless. For blessing, another presence enters the radiance and without filling up the space, so allowing the movement of presences.
Hence, one could say, despite the many differences in our lifestyles and beliefs, that three presences met in Presence. Then, how could blessing not occur? Really, in some sense, it is the opening of some spirit-flow that touches everyone positively within the glow created by the spaciousness arising from each in one devotion to enjoying together the Light.
So, yes, the poetry book reflected to me a religion I am not attuned to. Yet, in the Light, our differences met in friendliness. For like the nose, the differences must be present, even if silent.
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Reading the book, the blessing lives on through memories of past meetings and words on a page. I receive the gift offered with gratitude. My reply can only be gratitude. And the blessing is possible because something happens that cares not about our differences, only about our love. After all, we are all balancing on that gossamer thread Jennifer speaks of.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*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. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, predominantly Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
*Quote of Kodo Sawaki in Kodo Sawaki. Discovering the True Self. Trans. & Ed. Arthur Braverman.
