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LOTUS OF THE HEART
All is Welcome Here
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
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And yet I have a sense that all this mandala business is, for me, at least, useless. It has considerable interest, but there is no point in my seeking anything there for my own enlightenment. Why complicate what is simple? I am reading on the balcony outside my room. Five green parrots, then eight more fly shrieking over my head.
*Thomas Merton. The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton. Ed. Naomi Burton, et al. 1973.
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I just started reading the Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, and last early evening, Saturday, I felt a strong witness arising in regard to his words on simplicity, written in New Delhi, in October 1968. And the mandala - I, too, have admired the mandala – amazing spiritual art. Yet, I agree, “Why complicate the simple?” We have a tendency to do that, in matters spiritual and otherwise. But hidden within is usually, if not always, a defense against the beauty and power of simplicity, an avoidance of just-this-is-enough. Possibly, something in us, or most of us, sees less, rather than more, plain, rather than ornate, and so forth, as a threat to our sense of well-being and person - but we need the threat. Possibly, we feel shame with simplicity, as though we are settling, being lazy. I know this is true in meditation in my society, for passive quietness, even with noble intent, is counter our cultural push to prove ourselves by activity, by doing. I would recommend to feel the threat of less, to feel what it feels like to choose keeping it simple. Simplicity, we find, after all, is an expression of freedom, even though such is counter the messages we are surrounded by constantly. I mean, too, this is one reason I am no longer a pastor – enough was never enough both within and outside the churches. Yes, the religion of Christianity has fallen under this societal spell of the dread of absence, aloneness, silence, and the joy of simply being. I thought Merton's reference to the green parrots was an expression of openness to the simplicity of Life. This morning, after bicycling, I stood beside the creek, and a huge, and bellowing out, hawk flew overhead. I was surprised at how low he, or she, had flown over my head and the dark creek waters. Now, that was an amazing flying mandala ! - so simple, to appreciate.
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*Move cursor over pictures for photographer and title.
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