Back in 2005 when I was about to fly to East Asia on Pilgrimage I wrote a poem on a scrap of paper while out walking in Vancouver, Canada. The underlying message behind what I wrote was let go and trust – continuously. When in mental, physical, emotional extremity, as I was then, basic teachings take on a renewed meaning, and urgency. During the trip my advice to myself proved in practical every-day ways to be both a life saver and a very good thing! Circumstances and conditions repeatedly came together in near miraculous ways and we, my traveling companion Iain and me, were ushered into places and meeting people it would not have been possible to plan for in advance. Travel stress was a constant and I guess trust/faith must have been there.
Over the next few days I’ll be revisiting and reflecting upon my poem with the spotlight shining on what it means in practical terms to let go. I speak of rising up in the poem implying a ‘place’ from which one moves. Sitting down perhaps? The keystone and well-spring of pilgrimage, daily living, is sitting still in the midst of it all. Meditation is present in the midst of living out our day, even within the seeming chaos most of us experience. One doesn’t need to travel or otherwise enter stressful circumstances to prove this true. Opportunities arise quite naturally!
Formal meditation is practiced in subdued lighting with the emphasis of turning ones attention inwards. Into the darken hall of ones mind/body. Sitting still, allowing the senses to still, we enter into a metaphorical darkness of unknowing by allowing the known to fade. This is however an illuminated darkness, bright aliveness of body and mind rises naturally – given half a chance. So, within compassion/acceptance for all that comes and goes, letting go and trusting is…about how it is.
The habit is to follow the arising and the passing. To entertain, wine and dine, thoughts, sensations, emotions, bright ideas, memories etc. It is enough to notice the arising and passing, simply noticing is the letting go. Noticing over and over again, the known fades in importance.
BTW. Iain didn’t get due credit for a number of the early posts from Japan which he wrote. Thank you Iain and thank you for making the trip possible.
The following quote and photograph came today in an email from a regular reader.
Each year my potted rose (which D bought me years ago) dies back and I cut the stems to stumps, then in the spring this happens!
And there was this too:
I have been thinking for a while that I needed some physical object to remind me to look up and not believe the voice (that has me looking down and low). A sort of ‘get real!’ call. So, yesterday I put on my bodhi leaf with morning star pendant:
Then there was this….
Rise up!
Rise up and greet the dawn.Step out!
Step out and the Great Earth,
Leaps joyfully.Walk on!
Walk on and forget…
This is from your post 11 April 05. Maybe I should work on the forgetting part.
For one who has been, and still is, dealing with so much that is testing I can only applaud you, and your family, on your various ways forward. Oh! The Stepping out IS the forgetting. Think about it.
Advice for parents and grandparents. And everybody else!
3. Practice seeing your children (partner, neighbour, co worker etc.) as perfect just the way they are. Work at accepting them as they are when it is hardest for you to do so.
I was sent the link to The Julie Project a week or more ago and had half decided not to post on it. Then as the days went by the images and the story kept coming back to me. Disturbing images of a woman going down, down and down. And images of her children too. As Darcy Padilla says below, I hope you can’t stop thinking about Julie’s story. In my case her work has succeeded.
The purpose of the project is to take the disparate arguments about welfare, poverty,family rights, AIDS, drug and sexual abuse by looking at one person’s life, Julie.
Julie’s story matters and should make a difference to us the viewer in our
understanding of the fractured world that many poor people struggle to exist in.As a friend said, “I realize this type of story plays out constantly in the world for many, many families. The pieces slip away or no one cares to remember the details. We see the summation of cause and effect in a homeless face on the street every day. It can be too complicated, uncomfortable and painful to ask why.”
I hope you can’t stop thinking about Julie’s story, I hope it makes you feel.
I hope it makes you look at the world differently.
Thanks to J for the link.
The Guardian On-Line Review of Darcy Padilla’s Julie Project – when photography becomes humanitarian.