Friday, February 17, 2023

A Master's Words

 Everything hangs on the little word

here

and its sibling

now


But I often forget this,

keeping busy with my plans;

building for a future I cannot know

and against worries I cannot finally tame.


And yet, You wait for me to come home to Your now

which is beyond past and future,

and return to Your here

which is present before beginning

and beyond every ending.


If I could love as God loves

I would not fear the judgment of others,

or the loss of my very self,

and would know that God is the one who knows and loves

and desires himself and all things,

and loves me most when I finally let go of trying and simply let myself

live love.


Ours is not the work of seeking You here or there where we think You might be,

but of opening the heart’s door.

And when we do this You cannot resist coming in,

since our opening and Your entering

are one.


You knock and wait.

And when we open, we find

that You were there all along,

and will not leave us.

~~

Meister Eckhart


5 comments:

  1. Are not those words simply wonderful?

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  2. Buddha in Glory

    Center of all centers, core of cores,
    almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet—
    all this universe, to the furthest stars
    all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

    Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
    your vast shell reaches into endless space,
    and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
    Illuminated in your infinite peace,

    a billion stars go spinning through the night,
    blazing high above your head.
    But in you is the presence that
    will be, when all the stars are dead.

    by Rainer Rilke

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    Replies
    1. from Susan with Love

      Delete
    2. Thank you Susan, so much. Your comment has opened a door to yet another beautiful mind, and perhaps to two.
      Here is another translation I found to the Rilke poem:

      Buddha In A Halo
      by Rainer Maria Rilke

      Center of all centers, of all seeds the seed,
      almond wrapped in itself to grow sweet,-
      to all of the stars this is what you feed
      and is your fruit’s flesh: It is you I greet.

      Look, you sense nothing more needs your care;
      In the infinite is where to find your fruit’s skin
      and strong juice pools and presses from there.
      And to help it from outside a radiance pours in,

      for your suns up above are within view,
      glowing and full as around they are spun.
      But something has already started in you
      that will survive every sun.

      © translation by Erik Bendix
      https://poetry.movingmoment.com/buddha-in-a-halo-buddha-in-der-glorie/

      Delete