from BARDO

The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way our umbilicus.

Is it a consolation that the stuff of which we’re made

is star-stuff too?


– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –

dispersal only: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.


Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.


Roselle Angwin

Thursday, 7 February 2013

both singular and plural

'World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural,' says Louis MacNeice.  'I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.' (from 'Snow')

 

Right now, this morning, walking mindfully to compensate for missing meditation, I meet World

through my eyes
through my ears
through this sharp air on my face, the touch of bark and lichen, the dog's rough coat
through the plural scents of countryside and animal, the continents this wind has crossed

the taste of this thawing ice-drop on the thorn twig

through my feet on this good frosty soil, grass spiked white
 
through all of my skin, clad though I am

through this mind that knows about transience, delusion

through my heart

through my breath that connects across time and space
 

all this

regardless of my judgements, my evaluations, my distinctions and separations, the stories I tell myself of myself

 

World just is





2 comments:

  1. Walking mindfully to compensate for missed meditation - how often I do that! It's a marvel how the world is so astounding and so ordinary at the same time.

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  2. David, I so enjoy knowing that you have connected across the ocean! :-)

    And yes missing meditation - I live with someone whose spiritual practice is different from mine, and he never ever misses a day of meditation! I used to feel so guilty when I did; now I simply accept that I do what I can when I can, and it's enough... And sometimes walking the dog simply has to take priority, so there's an opportunity - and I imagine it's the same for you?

    And yes, this world...!

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