Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
Lake McDonald Reflection 09/21/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Glacier National Park, Montana
"Om mani padme hum" translates as
"The jewel is in the lotus."
This phrase simultaneously implies
its completion:
"The lotus is in the slime
at the bottom of the pond."
"The jewel is in the lotus,
and the lotus is in the slime
at the bottom of the pond."
Where does the slime stop
and the jewel start?
THE JEWEL IS IN THE SLIME!
THE SLIME IS IN THE JEWEL!
JEWEL/SLIME
SLIME/JEWEL
ONE THING.
A slimy jewel,
bedazzling slime.
Do you see?
There is no line.
The line is in our mind.
The line is imaginary.
The line is artificial.
The line is contrived.
What we perceive as a line
is not there in actuality.
We shift our perspective
and the line disappears.
All of our dichotomies are
optical illusions.
Dualities are conveniences.
They are hypnotic deceptions.
The trick is to find the balance point
between opposites and live there.
Where do contraries blur/disappear?
Where is the line between love and hate?
Between good and evil?
Between right and wrong?
Between me and you?
Find the dividing boundary.
Live there.
Not knowing love or hate,
good or evil,
right or wrong,
me or you...
When the boundaries disappear
there is allness.
There is oneness.
There is radiance.
There is the sublime.
There is the light
cradled in the darkness
(Rumi).
There is the darkness
revealed by the light.
There is the peace
of the oneness of all things
on the boundary
between contraries.
"Without contraries is no progression,"
said William Blake.
And there is no war.
Live on the boundary
between peace and war.
Between the jewel and the slime...
Aum mani padme hum...
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters and five granddaughters within about twenty minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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