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Old Orchard Beach, ME
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... though seeing, they do not see ...
*Jesus, Matthew 13.13
What is dense and muddy here
is clear and clean there, in God.
Imagine that you were to pour clear water
into a clean basin and, still as still can be,
look into that water down to the bottom.
Its shining clarity, and absence of opacity,
would be evident from above to below.
It is just so with human beings who stand
free, unified in themselves,
with God so clear.
*"Clear Water." In Meister Eckhart. Meister Eckhart's Book of Darkness & Light. Trans. Jon M. Sweeney, Mark S. Burrows.
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Anthony De Mello, in Rediscovering Life -
There's a Japanese master, a fellow called Bokoju. See, every time I think of his name, I imagine a plump, rotund kind of a guy, happy-go-lucky soul, Bokoju. It was said of Bojoku that every morning when he woke up, he'd give a great big belly laugh that resounded through the 250 cells of the monastery. Everyone could hear him. Everybody woke up with that laughter, like the alarm clock, see? Great big belly laugh. And he'd go on for about three or four minutes. And the last thing he did at night before he went to bed was, again, to let out a great big belly laugh, and then he'd curl up on his mat and go to sleep.
And the disciples were very curious to know what it was that made the master laugh. And they tried their very best to get him to tell them. But he wouldn't. And he died without telling them. That's the end of the story.
So, all kinds of people have been trying to figure out what it was that made him laugh. I've got a couple of hunches myself.
De Mello concludes, "And, of course, until one has seen, it makes sense to feel scared. It makes sense to be unhappy."
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You can inquire, "What did Jesus mean when speaking of those who heard his teachings and saw but did not see?" Hence, "What does it mean for you to see and see?" And, "What is needed to see, so to lead to a life free of the quiet desperation, fear, and anxiety all about?"
I have written in the past of the "eyes of the heart"? I do not refer to the physical organ, so what do I refer to? Have you ever sensed you were seeing with the eyes of the heart? If so, what was that like for you? And last, "What is needed to remain open to this seeing?"
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We see when we become the seeing. Until we become the seeing, we do not see - except possibly on rare occasions, for the Sun shines momentarily through the ever-present clouds of thought-and-feeling. However, we can live in the Sunshine, not just experience the seeing sometimes. This does not mean we will not have clouds to block the Sunlight sometimes, but those times will become brief and progressively infrequent. It takes time to learn to live in the Sunlight. It takes time to clear the water, so we can see through to the bottom of the glass - so we see God clearly.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2023. 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.
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