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*Brian Wilcox 'An Extravagant Beauty ~ Peony'
One may wish to skip down to "Story of the First Language," page 4, read it and return here to the beginning. The story will provide context for the materials prior. Kahlil Gibran calls the tale "The Other Language." See Khalil Gibran. The Complete Works of Kahlil Gibran.
Introduction
The subject of our sharing today, the first language, could be referred to as the forgotten language. A premise here is direct experience, via perception, without word or conception, is the contact with this Innocence. What is true of this, the late eminent writer on Christian mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, speaks in words regarding the Idealist:
Hence the thing that matters, the living thing, has somehow escaped it; and its observations bear the same relation to reality as the art of the anatomist does to the mystery of birth.
*Mysticism.
So, the first language is not of dead words, but is living, is alive. This writing concerns this self-communicating Presence.
The Point of Nothing
A new devotee, who had studied meditation for years, asked the Sage ...
"What's the best thing I can do in meditation?"
"Nothing."
"Then, why meditate?"
"Who said to?"
"A lot of people."
"Sit silently."
"But what am I to do when sitting in silence?"
"Sit doing nothing, until you can do nothing."
"How can I do nothing, until I can do nothing?"
"You can't, not until that's all you can do."
"That's impossible, it's contradictory."
"Yes, I think it's interesting too."
"Meditation" is so broadly used not to mean too much, having been stretched so thin. It signifies practices in spirituality to usher one into the Silence, where Nothing happens. Arriving at Nothing, Nothing happens, for Something is always happening. Presence is felt in eternal tense - hence, nondurational. The Sage, and others, use paradox, for what does happen is outside, for before, our semantics.
As to the writing for today, a paradox follows: At the point of Nothing, Silence speaks, yet the Silence Itself is That spoken; Silence is the voice of Silence. There is nothing to listen for, for nothing to hear. Something arises, and we become sensitive to That arising, enfolding us; Its action is Its word, Itself.
Centering Down, the Unity, Silence Speaks
Howard Thurman, "How Good to Center Down!," in Meditations of the Heart -
How good it is to center down!
To sit quietly and see one's self pass by!
The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic;
Our spirits resound with clashings, with noisy silences,
While something deep within hungers and thirsts
for the still moment and the resting lull.
...
As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes
of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind -
A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.
It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions
are answered, Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into
the traffic of our daily round
With the peace of the Eternal in our step.
How good it is to center down!
Continued... |
