|
The Look of Peace
* * *
First, we need not cling to some idea of perfection when we speak of spiritual wisdom and applying it. Below, I write of living without why. We are human. We are conditioned with why. Possibly, no one has told us there is another way to live than pulled and pushed and loaded with purpose. So, no-why is a practice. We get better at it. When why arises, we can let it drop. Now, this may make no sense. Let us proceed, and, possibly, it will.
Among the mysteries of love is this:
God has only one love, knowing no
bounds and flowing forth as Spirit—
and this gives shape and form to
God's wholeness in us and in all
that is. Including you.
This is the reason that I say
there is no Why in God, no need
to justify this love, which simply
is, ever seeking all who need it.
What would it mean if you also
lived like this, knowing no Why
to justify what you do or who
you are? What would this freedom
feel like for you?
*"One Love." In Jon M. Sweeny, Mark. S. Burrows; Meister Eckhart. Meister Eckhart's Book of Darkness & Light: Meditations on the Path of the Wayless Way.
* * *
As I have written elsewhere, love is its own justification. To say this is to say that you and all beings are free of justification. "Own justification" means "no justification." In Innocence, justification is unnecessary, for there is no opposite to justification. This is purity.
In the mind, we may sense a need to justify our actions. The Way, however, is simply to do as an expression of that we are. A river flows. Tree limbs grow. A dog barks. A flower blooms. Snow melts. An itch itches. A chair is designed to be a place to sit. While writing this, I hear wheels moving along the asphalt and someone talking outside in the adjoining yard. In the ten thousand beings, each is doing what it is.
Can you imagine any reason a crow would need to justify its cawing? The crow caws without a why. There is no separation between the crow and the caw.
We humans often create the separation. Why am I washing dishes? To clean them, that is why. We might not know what it is like just to wash dishes. Possibly, we have never washed a dish without why. We can learn to wash dishes without a why, and the dishes will still get clean.
* * *
We can practice the whyless Way in meditation. We can drop the idea of doing meditation or having a reason for it. Zen Buddhism teaches this as a basic, essential practice. This challenges the ego drive to justify, explain, and clarify. Why am I meditating? There is no reason at all. Why are the buds opening this spring? No reason at all. Still, meditation will bear fruit as the bud flowers. Doing-nothing and, still, a lot happens.
Accordingly, in Taoism and Zen, we find the teaching doing-nothing. Yet, doing happens. Nothing does not mean no doing. In Zen, we hear the paradox, "Don't just sit there. Do nothing." And a person is in meditation. He says to the teacher, "What happens next?" The reply is, "Nothing. This is it."
The Christian Scriptures say, "Walk in the Spirit (or, spirit, breath, wind - capitalized or not)." And, "The wind (again, same word) blows where it wills... so is everyone Spirit-born (once more)."
The wind blows, and the leaf moves. There is no why. The wind blows. The leaf scampers across the ground. Wind and leaf, wind-leaf, winding-leafing. No why. If the mind investigates, it can impose whys on the wind and leaf. Yet, in the act of the winding-leafing, there is only action - no why. And one cannot separate the wind, leaf, ground, and air.
Recently, during walking meditation, a realization arose. There was no "I" walking. There was only walking. With no "I," there was no why. The "I" began to witness this and was initially confused by it. Then, ego relaxed with the process, sinking back into the act, having been gladdened to see the absence of purpose.
We can practice no why. We can choose times to give ourselves to an action and drop all whys. We are hoeing the garden for no reason, yet the garden is free of weeds afterward. We can feel ease arise. We can learn by noticing when we are caught in why.
* * *
When I provide spiritual guidance to a person or a group, I find the process is less stressful, is easeful, and is more efficient when I relax why. Openness arises for creativity and communion in relaxing the need to achieve a goal. It is like saying, "Not my will, but yours be done," words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of the Bible, in a prayer to the one he addressed to God.
This does not mean there is no purpose to what you do. It means the purpose does not interfere with the doing. I can meet with a group intending to provide them with a specific subject to help them. Yet, that can remain in the background. Thus, purpose can drop in the action itself. The group begins, and I can become one with the action arising during the sharing. The doing can be free of the intrusion of why, as God is free of why in God Goding.
As we can drop why from action, we can drop why from ourselves. We can be free of needing to justify what we are. We do not even need to justify that we do not know what we are - we do not... the thought of what we are is a thought. We in God have no why. A pine tree has no why to being a pine tree rather than an oak tree. Rain has no why, yet it provides water for trees, grass, flowers, and drinking. Rain rains. No why. No separation between rain and raining. We can be true to ourselves without justification or explanation. We do not need to feel a need to prove ourselves to anyone, including God.
Action clarifies. We live in harmony when true to our suchness, as a bicycle is in harmony, not trying to be a car, train, or plane. God, without why, manifests in suchness. Love arises loving. Can you find love that is not loving? Loving is the being of love.
* * *
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
|
