Infinite nature, which is boundless Spirit, unutterable, not intelligible, outside of all imagination, beyond all essence, unnameable, known only to the heart…..Robert Fludd

what is essential to living? the heart lives above illusion and only a deep, open, questioning encounter with self finds the unique answer to this question….like a long soothing and soaking rain, we pool into our roots and receive….

We are living in a special time.  Throughout the world there is a stirring and an interrelation of forces never before experienced by mankind.  All around us we see an unprecedented acceleration of the possibilities of change.  Power potentials have been released which threaten to upset cosmic balances. Ironically, the more gigantic and astonishing our manipulations of these energies, the more puerile and insignificant our understanding of them.  Philosophers and scientists are coming to agree that not only do we need a deep alteration in the present state of mankind, but that a radical shift depends solely on our relationship to consciousness – the invisible, fundamental energy behind phenomenal existence. As one walks the streets of the city, one is struck by the energies manifested through each human being – the results of wishes, emotions, and physical movements, energies in incessant random motion.  Inextricably bound to an entire fabric of events, we have no choice but to submit to the rhythm and momentum of our ordinary lives. Yet, in the midst of the flux, a call to consciousness can be heard.  Is it possible to accept one’s inevitable destiny, and, at the same time, open to the timeless, spaceless, essential movement?  Can we endure microscopic entities, beset by our frailties, and initiate a radical transformation for ourselves and for the earth?……William Segal

revel in the harmony of sensibility

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand

Of precious wood. When it was finished,

All who saw it were astounded.

They said it must be

The work of spirits.

The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:

‘What is your secret?’

Khing replied: ‘I am only a workman:

I have no secret. There is only this:

When I began to think about the work

you commanded

I guarded my spirit, did no expend it

On trifles, that were not to the point.

I fasted in order to set

My heart at rest.

After three days fasting,

I had forgotten gain and success.

After five days

I had forgotten praise or criticism.

After seven days

I had forgotten my body

With all its limbs.

By this time all of your Highness

And of the court had faded away.

All that might distract me from the work

Had vanished. I was collected in the single thought

Of the bell stand.

Then I went to the forest

To see the trees in their own natural state.

When the right tree appeared before my eyes,

The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly,

beyond doubt.

All I had to do was to put forth my hand

And begin.

If I had not met this particular tree

There would have been

No bell stand at all.

What happened?

My own collected thought

Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;

From this live encounter came the work

Which you ascribe to the spirits.’

….Thomas Merton