Keeping Quiet

Western rationalism, science, the STEM subjects, materialism, discursive thought, language alone, cannot find transcendency, the ineffable. Poetry is better suited to enabling humans to see the light of reality, to apprehend a "gestaltic" understanding. Cosmic consciousness beyond historical understanding. Westerners need to continue to face east in order to cobble together a psychology of East as well as West.

Most importantly, humans need to experience an empathic epiphany.

As WB Yeats said: the center does not hold. American needs a vision, a new social contract, a new constitution. It must leap from the despair of Trumpist Fascist Nihilist Psychopathy to Democratic Socialist Humanism.

We need to all row our boat in the same direction, to substitute I-ME-MINE with WE-US-OURS.

We need to transcend the blindness of living in history, in time, to living in Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's sanctified time.

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AVALANCHE Gabriela Kaplan, MD © 2006 Dedicated to the world’s future Snow flurries lift like feathers in a storm, Twirling and dancing in a hurried way. The air is cold and nipping at my brow, yet…my child’s heart finds a glowing joy in this wild dance of shimmering snow. While I look at them – I wonder… …how all are so different – and yet, so alike? How - I ask – can these delicate specks join together – and cause an avalanche? And then I muse: If we all joined like wisps of snow with an avalanche of will, we can take the world by storm and forever change its ancient ways. If we were able to shut the world down for COVID as a world family, surely, we will do this to save our planet, of the United Nation's IPCC warnings that civilization will collapse in 10 years unless we take steps to stop global warming will take place, and it will then be too late for everyone. www.lifewatchgroup.org Hide full comment

 Poet Pablo Neurada remins me of a poem written by an anonymus Zen master.
                                     Sitting by the river
                                     Doing nothing,
                                     Spring comes
                                     The grass grows by itself.
Such words of wisdom have been sign posts in my life, a daily rrminder to count up to twelwe, be in the zone of being, letting go of my busy and often noisy world of doing and having. Such words rmind me to pause, feel and be with my natural rhythm of life giving and life sustaining breath, to count up to twelve, to stay in the being zone. Such words have been my daily prayer washing  away the noise of irritation and agitation, frustration and anger, and fear and anxiety. Such words open up the door for meeting my being without craving and without holding.They create a wide open space  filled with unseen beauty, unheard sound, and unknown strangers. Such words take me to a land of emptiness filled with fullness,a land of formless forms, a land beyond space and time. This is my daily prayer, a meditative prayer creating birth of joy, awe, joy, fiufillment  and gratitudein in my daily living.

May we take time out to count up to twelve everyday to be connected with our being!
Namaste

Jagdish P. Dave

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 Perfect timing, thank you. Do nothing means to stop and sit and be. I am in this exact position today as I take a break from what can be a "go getter" "overachiever" energy in Washington DC. I sit here alone at my friends' home in the Catskills, trees surround the house which sits near the Hudson River. I look out into trees, eye level with them. I have had the gift of 2 full nights and days alone here before everyone else arrives and i am grateful. I am literally moving through sadness, in a depressive episode which has been quite intense. "Moving through" has been mostly a saving grace as in "this too shall pass." At the same time, I wish to sit and be qiet to allow myself to heal, my mind to still and my body to do so as well. I slept until 10am with no apology. Today I had planned on visiting a Victorian mansion, the home of an artist, but instead, perhaps I will only walk to the river, sit on a bench and breathe. It is OK to simply breathe rather than constant movement. Reconciling "keep moving on" with "critique of single-mindedness" I think is to know the difference of when to STOP moving, to simply be and breathe. I remember being caught in a dust storm at Burning Man and I set my bike down, turned on the lights, pulled my bandana over my nose and mouth, pulled goggles over my eyes, closed my eyes and simply let the dust swirl around me, It was like a mystical massage. When the storm was over, I slowly rose, lifted my bike and slowly pedaled back to my camp over 2 miles away. I listened for voices that were familiar and I moved when it was safe to do so. Perhaps this story better reflects. <3 Thank you for allowing me the space to share. <3 

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