travels, reflections, poems….
Sunshine rides on space and poetry on sunshine./Poetry gives birth to sunshine, and sunshine to poetry.-excerpt from Armfuls of Poetry, Drops of Sunshine by Thich Nhat Hahn. On January 22, 2022, Thich Nhat Hanh passed away at Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam. Today we honor his work by looking at his teachings and his poetry.
The Poetry and Teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn — Naturalist Weekly
What we do is not inconsequential, and our lives are not inconsequential.
We are each part of great currents that move unseen along the air waves.
When we turn our attention to the oceans and the manatees, just as an example, we may find that, coincidentally, there are a few stories that appear on the TV news about manatees. Does this mean that we have had some magical effect on the TV news? Not necessarily. We are all connected. None of us is a separate island.
We pick up the thoughts of others and also tune into what their attention is on. For example, there have been lists compiled of the odd coincidences of simultaneous inventions – like the telephone, the radio, etc. which were invented at almost exactly the same time in history, quite independently of each other – with no knowledge of or communication between the two inventors. For an intriguing list of these, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_discoveries
Sometimes, it seems as if there are ideas, concepts, movements, or historical trends that are floating up there in the ether somewhere, which any of us may tune into – and while tuning into them, we then become part of these trends or movements, and we also help to further them.
So, with every thought that we have and every action that we take, even the small ones, we may, simply by being aware and conscious, contribute to a direction that the world – or society, or some parts of society, is taking. Of course, unfortunately, this can happen negatively too – we could become part of a force leading towards war or violence, for example.
But let’s focus on the positive because these are the effects we wish to create – especially when we are among those who love the world of nature and the living beings of the earth.
Let’s do our part, in whatever way. It may be through action – like spending an afternoon helping to clean up the graffiti on a natural rock face – or organizing groups all over the country to clean up the forests and wild places – or writing about, or singing about, or painting the beings of nature – the birds or the wolves. Or being a scientist who studies ice cores to understand the climate over time. Or showing our neighbor how to do recycling. It may be meditating or talking to a tree or feeling grateful for the beauty of a snowfall or the sunset. It may be different for each of us depending on our inclinations and our abilities.
Instead of allowing in negative thoughts that come into our head, that seem to arise from who knows where – about how hopeless things are – or even how ineffective we ourselves are – let’s make an effort to be aware that we are part of positive forces that we may not even be able to see – forces of change and renewal, of peace, life, understanding and awareness – forces that may possibly even take over the earth – of re-creation, of life-giving – of a sudden new collective view – of a wave of energy arising in the earth herself – among the forests, the oceans, the mountains, and the deserts too, which have their own life cycles.
Yes, there is cruelty, harm, evil, and death – these things exist. But there is also kindness, love, peace, and the awe-inspiring beauty of the living world – which exist too – and which will exist, one way or another – either in this world on this earth – or in another cycle yet to come. And let us be part of that force towards life and towards the blessings and beauty of the Earth Herself and all Her children.
© Copyright, Sharon St Joan, 2021
(This is not meant to be taken seriously. But then again, who knows?)
As we all know, the earth revolves around the sun. The sun and our solar system revolve around the Milky Way galaxy, and each complete turn around the galaxy takes about 200,000 years, which is quite a long time. What we commonly acknowledge as our own human history is around 5,000 years, beginning with the start of writing at maybe around 3,000 BCE.
We have no idea what awaits us on the long journey around the Milky Way, and no idea what may have happened on previous revolutions. It’s a bit like early explorers sailing around the globe – where would they encounter choppy seas, where would there be huge waves – or giant squids waiting to attack – or a hot baking sun, unrelenting? No one knew.
We kind of imagine that stars are stars, and that’s pretty much what’s out there in outer space – just stars, clusters of stars, nebulous clouds, crowded spots and less crowded spots, but really, we haven’t a clue.
Apparently, our sun is currently about halfway out along the spiral arms and seems to be in a less traveled space in between one spiral arm above and one below. So, round and round we go. We move forward as part of the spiral arms of stars that circle around the galaxy.
What if there is a patch where there are unforeseen hazards? Maybe there are some ultra weird vibrations from a strange kind of star – or a whole bunch of strange stars? Maybe extra gamma rays or quarks or super strange neutrinos or something that speeds things up or slows things down or, like a ship at sea, is suddenly really, really bumpy, or extra windy (with solar wind), or filled with unpredictable magnetism? Or something that shakes everything up or that spins things round and round? Then what?
Or what if it’s something that creates effects, but that can’t be seen at all? Like big giant goblins with fiery breath? Or invisible monster spiders waiting to trap us in spidery webs? Or wispy, ghosty things that glow in the night? Well, you say, these things don’t exist. Really? Can you prove that they don’t exist?
What if we travel through a really hazardous, uncomfortable patch that lasts a couple of thousand years? What then?
Things have gotten quite uncomfortable lately: floods and mega-droughts, natural cataclysms (this isn’t, in any way, to deny human-caused climate change, but sometimes there can be more than one cause for an effect). As for how humans are doing, part of our American population might be described as violent and delusional – another part as feeling victimized and a tiny bit self-righteous. (No one will agree with this, because we each see our own viewpoint as the correct one.)
In the meantime, much of the U.S. workforce has either gone on strike or gone AWOL. It has vanished. No one quite knows where or how, but one can see the consequences – shortages, unexpected and inconvenient. There are not enough people to move merchandise that is bought – so it sits, piled up, unable to get where it is going, unable to reach customers.
Meanwhile, rates of mental ill health are soaring – depression, violent crime, murder.
And then, of course, there’s the pandemic – such an odd virus.
It is almost as if great hordes of giant demon cookie monsters have been lying awake, clustered by the starry roadside, waiting to pounce upon us unsuspecting earthlings just as we sail innocently by, on our 200,000 year-long wheel around the galaxy – casting our health and our civilization into disarray.
I think giant cookie monsters lying in wait is as good an explanation as any. What do you think?
Odd –
How somehow
You never really minded
Accepting the accolades
Of those who trusted you —
Your young soldiers
Who gave their lives
To fight in your unending battles —
And the women and girls who placed
Their hope and trust in you —
And the brave and loyal
Friends who gave
So many years and
Sacrifices on your behalf —
Odd —
How you could never really recall
Any of their names.
But you gave them a form
To fill out,
With reassurances
And oh, so many empty words,
How very, very kind of you.
How thoughtful,
As you chose
With every conscious intention
Not to know,
Not to remember,
Not to help,
Not to be in any hurry at all,
Musn’t rush,
As their lives
Slipped away
Down the vacant,
Gaping hole in your memory –
Down to the flames
Of their destruction
By your abandonment
And your treachery.
Not your fault, of course.
Who could have known?
***
© Sharon St Joan, August 15, 2021
“Perhaps the relevant stage is not the real world at all – but rather the world of fantasy, of art, of stories, of myth – myth is the best way to express it – this is the world of the spirit – of magical life.
“The “real” world, meaning the physical world – is not real at all – it is going, going, gone – on the way out – it is dead – a stream of images — and only the ethereal world of meanings and relevance is actually real or relevant. It continues.”
As the wise William Shakespeare wrote, in MacBeth:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
© 2021
Sometimes one must pray for rain for days and even years.
God Is not limited by our time frame. He/She does not abhor death – beyond death there is peace and even joy.
God exists within, around, and beyond the universe. A small part of God is the universe. The spiritual exists – it is unseen because it is not a material thing. It is spiritual. The physical world comes into being – but unfortunately, the physical world then sometimes runs amuck in all directions all by itself – and hence there is pain and evil – because of the separation and alienation from the spiritual.
The physical universe comes into being when a division takes place. Suddenly, there is more than one. There are two. This second entity may not really be real because only the One is real (think of the Hindu concept of maya). Yet physical reality has appearances – Newton’s apple falls to the ground — in the sunlight, it is red; it is heavy, and it falls; one can watch it fall and hear it hit the ground. To us, it is solid and real, one can even taste it. It manifests as physical. Yet it is missing something; it is not spirit, though spirit may be within it and may dwell within it – and may even be trapped within it – according to the concepts of the gnostics.
Because there is division – there arises incompleteness – a lack of wholeness. If you divide the train from the engine, something important is missing. Some essential things have been left out. From this lack arise the deficiencies of the physical universe – pain, suffering, harm, death, illness, and evil. These arise from and are the consequence of the separation – the division that has taken place in order to bring about the universe – the separation (leading to alienation) between the spiritual and the physical. The wildflower is very beautiful, but after summer is done, there is no ongoing source of life and nourishment, and the flower dies. The life within it has gone. It cannot exist apart from the source of life which sustains it. (I do not mean that dead flowers are not beautiful; certainly they are, but theirs is a different beauty.)
When the physical universe – especially as the world of nature – is still inhabited by spirit – still in touch with its essence and its soul – it has profound beauty – the flowers, the majestic rocks, the ocean waves in their endless patterns, the grace of animals and plants. (The ocean and the rocks are also alive.)
The living beings of nature are subject to pain because of the separation that brought them into existence as separate beings – no longer entirely whole – apart from the original unity – which is God. The farther removed one is from the spiritual – the greater the chasm – the more prone is the physical world to suffering and disaster.
With the arising of the mental plane (which can be useful, but which is mostly an agent of disruption), there is further separation and further evil – such as we see in the modern human world. – war, chaos, hatred, injustice, disease, tyranny, and cruelty – and an irrepressible drive to rise above and dominate the earth. But, one may say, these things have always existed. But think for a moment – that is not so. Think of the innocence of deer, of flowers, of the rolling hills – who all existed before human beings. The natural world can be dramatic, even destructive, but it is not cruel. Even tigers are not cruel; they kill only when they are hungry or to feed their young, out of fear or defence sometimes, but never out of malice. The tiger is as innocent as the deer.
Only human beings have the capacity for intentional cruelty, and cruelty is intentional – the word itself implies intent. As human beings, it is our task to leave behind the tyranny we exert over the natural world – and instead to bring about a re-unification of the physical with the spiritual – in union – to re-unite that which has drifted – or exploded — apart. We must learn to perceive once again the true reality of the natural world – it is inhabited by spirit. Nature is an expression of God.
The mistaken assertion, espoused in the Old Testament that “man was made in the image of God” is a false teaching and goes along with much of the rest of the Old Testament that portrays God as a tyrannical being. If you don’t think so, you may not have read it lately. Parts of the Old Testament are soaringly beautiful – such as some of the psalms and parts of Isaiah – these express the true wisdom of these people, but the rest was written by somebody else. It all contrasts sharply with the portrayal in the New Testament of Jesus as a teacher of love and kindness. The Old Testament prophets spent quite a lot of time persecuting the Canaanites who followed the old religion and were always going up into the hills to worship trees — as if worshipping trees were a horrible thing to do. Unfortunately, much of the underpinning philosophy of our culture derives in part from the dominance expressed in the Old Testament. We have lost sight of this, but it is so.
Worshipping trees, who are sacred beings, is actually quite a good thing to do.
Nature is a part of God, and when we are able to become ourselves a part of this truth – truly able to perceive it – then we perceive the original peace of the unity of the two halves that seemed to have been split apart (though this was always an illusion). The physical and the spiritual will be brought together again – will be one. This is the mystical truth. It can be glimpsed distantly – intellectually. It can only truly be seen mystically.
This is the truth of mystics the world over. We can discover this by looking to the ancient worldviews – the knowledge in the traditions of the ancient land of India, the cosmic understanding of indigenous and tribal peoples all over the earth. They hold the remnants of truth that our modern world has left behind and destroyed. We must once again look to them for the truth – and salvation.
The genocide of the earth’s native peoples – like the war against nature (it is the same war) — has been a scourge attempting to kill truth and beauty in order to make way for a force, alien to nature, that seeks only dominance.
It has run its course. Many of those who might once have perpetrated the lies supporting this war have now turned against it.
For those ancient peoples of the earth who have guarded fundamental truths over so many eons – for them, along with their brothers and sisters of the natural world, and the earth itself, there will come again the brightness of the light and the dawn ahead.
© Sharon St Joan, July 2021
You can do a rain dance. Sing to the rain. Write a poem about rain. Read poems about rain. Visualize rain. Remember rain.
One of the best ways to pray for rain is simply to pray for rain. Ask God or Buddha or Jesus or the rain spirits or the Great Spirit – or whoever you pray to or talk with – to send rain. It can also be your grandmother who has passed on, your guardian angel, your animal spirit guide, or the rain itself, the clouds, or the sky.
One way to do this is to talk with the land itself. Here in the west, it may be the land and the rock cliffs that we see on the horizon. Ask the land and the cliffs to call the rain. Clearly, some communication has broken down somewhere, so it would be good if they get back on speaking terms again.
If you live in the eastern U.S. or elsewhere in the world where there is an abundance of rain, probably the last thing you would wish to do is pray for more rain. One can pray for sunshine too!
In the case of the western U.S., many living beings need rain — insects, baby birds, the wildflowers that have not bloomed at all, and the trees that have grown brown patches. Trillions and trillions of beings all over the western states are profoundly in need of rain. In some regions, this is the worst drought ever recorded.
(If you find prayers to be nonsensical – please just take it easy! Billions of people have already said at least one prayer already today. This has been happening for hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of years. It’s okay for people to have differing points of view.)
So – to continue – when praying for rain or anything else, some ways of going about this really help and others are a hindrance.
For example, listening to a negative inner voice that repeats endlessly “This isn’t working. See, there’s no rain.” “This is very silly.” Or imagining what things will be like in five years or even next year without rain. Or dwelling on suffering.
Our mind is not always our friend. Often our mind is a chatterbox, filled with negative gossip and irrelevant, even harmful thoughts. This is just a fact. Our mind announces to us that it is a superior being and that it knows best. It takes us away down very negative paths where we do not wish to go, all the while insisting that it is being “reasonable” and “rational” – “more intelligent” than you are and vastly superior. The human mind has its uses, when working out technical problems and other mental tasks, but it is not actually the essence of our being. The mind is not our truest reality or our innermost spirit. We can see this for ourselves just by watching where the human mind so often takes us. If we are not watching carefully, our minds take over the intuitive part of our being, and the mind issues proclamations which tend to be negative – fears, doubts, ridicule, depression, and derision. Unfortunately, this is compounded by our modern worldview which tends to discount any sense of the sacred that comes from our innermost being – and instead elevates the human mind.
Our Innermost being is often more perceptive than our mind. Fortunately, many people do know this, and with practice, we can learn to be in control and use the mind as a tool, while not falling prey to its compulsive tendency to babble negativity. Be vigilant. Remind yourself that there is no obligation to listen to your mind’s negative chatter. This chatter is not the truth. The truth lies within the higher, truer realms of your being, is intuitive and tends to be more perceptive, more peaceful, and more observant of the reality that lies in the present moment – not the past or the future, neither of which are really here now.
Our innermost being is open to great knowledge and clarity when we do not let the cobwebs of the mind get in the way. This doesn’t mean that we should forget the intellect and try to be stupid. Not at all, our intellect can be enormously enlightening. The intellect is not the same level as the mind, which can be just negative, and we can notice this distinction very easily once we get the hang of it.
So, when praying for rain – or anything – instead of allowing our mind to try to keep tabs on “Is this working.?” “Why hasn’t it rained yet?” just remind yourself that you are under no obligation to listen this voice. Prayers can take time. Communication with the beings of nature doesn’t always go according to our desired time frame. Our mental demands are not helpful; only our love and reverence for the sacred spirits of the universe and nature — and God — are beneficial and helpful.
When we are on the path of walking within the mystical reality of being, of being in touch with the leaves of the trees, the mist in the mountains, and the creatures of the earth, we just need to keep walking, resolutely and unwaveringly. If we have been slowed down somehow or even stopped, or if we find we have fallen off the path and ended up in the brush down a ravine somewhere, then we need to get up, get back on the path, and walk on – not turning aside, and never, ever, giving up.
God (in whatever way we may see Her or Him) always answers prayers. It’s not our job to figure out how or when – only to be in alignment with the beauty of the universe – to stay on the path, in reverence, trusting in grace, grateful for the Presence that walks with us.
© Sharon St Joan, July 2021
Hanuman,
Eyes of the green-rolling ocean waves,
Eyes of the beauty of peace, blue
Essence of being,
Your world is true.
Then, we knew you before,
And remember you from when this earth began.
You ride on the wind,
Through the star-
Bending branches of destiny.
Your heart braves
The upheavals of all that should not be.
You – the soul of all being.
You are the iron-gray rocks of eternity,
You sing in the sky;
You shine, effervescent, In the sun.
You walk in the moon-winged, far-raining
Night of gossamer petals.
You fly,
On bright sandals,
Hanuman, son of the wind,
Soul of eternity,
Near the hawk, sharp-shinned,
Hovering to scan
The long, winding shore.
Where
Would you go, Hanuman?
There, in the great-souled trees of all-being,
Among the startling leaves – green in the spring.
Always, you are there.
Never far,
Always there,
Hanuman,
Son of the wind.
Always there.
In the sharp wind that runs by the circling sea.
© Sharon St Joan, June 2021
Tall,
To the sun
And the moon they rise,
Pillars
That hold up the land
Of the stars,
In the early morning
Of time.
Where the chime
Of butterflies
Rings in the mist
Of clouds,
Where the horses of the wind climb
Archaic hills, peace settles,
Free from the shrouds
Of thought bewildered.
When the grinding wheels
Of the rattling cars,
The careening cart,
Of the manic race of beings that never stops
Have stopped, unspinned,
And fallen down
From the lofty wall,
Their memory lies
Quiet,
Dimming,
In the cheerful company
Of ghosts,
In the sooted
Shambles of empires
Cast
Under the snapping heels
Of fate.
Then
The coyotes
And the ever-knowing raven
Will run again
In gladness,
Across the red rock sand.
The wild hills, free now,
As the lilies
Of eternity
Who bow
In the wandering wind
By the bright
And undiscovered
Sea.
After the horns
Of many winters
Have fallen silent,
The husk
Of time
Discarded,
The aspiring rose will lift
Her head again
Among the rocks, resilient,
In the ice-enchanted
Spring.
The wind will sing.
Stones
Will shine, blessed in the twinkling
Emptiness
Of night.
The crow
Hops
In black
Clouds that inhabit
A sky of joy;
Coyotes laugh last
In the dance of the dusk,
And the ancient,
Earlier folk
Walk
To take back
The sacred mountain
Stolen
So long ago,
Now that the age of the unholy
Will be ended and done,
Gone
On the smoke
Of the fleeing mist.
Under a delicate crown
Of forest
Leaves, mice play
Among their catch,
The silver
Trinkets of the dead,
And talk
A while of feats of yore.
Herons glimmer,
One-footed,
On the green, tree-
Shouldered river.
Such an ill wind
That blew
Into the bones
Of the soul
Of men,
And stayed, corroding
The core
Of history,
Such a grim, unseemly game,
Like thorns
Lodged in the heart,
But when the scales fall
Away,
One by one by one,
Then
In the end there are only
The plain, rain-lit,
And the rose that flowers anew,
The innocent petals
Of nevermore,
And the farmer’s boy
Who whistles
In the strawberry patch,
By the lop-sided shack,
Where the corn stalks grow,
His blue
Hat adrift
On his head,
In the town
With no name,
Where the raven rules, with the snow-
Winged geese.
The sun holds the empty bowl,
Blessed be his ashen fires.
Agni, the one
Who returns
All
Back to the beginning.
Set the burning
Lanterns
Out and wait
In peace,
From within the rock and mist
To hear a killdeer call,
To sail away
To a far and luminous shore,
Known so well from long before,
On the flaming ships of dawn.
© Sharon St Joan, 2021
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!
Wishing everyone a happy and stress-free day! May we take a moment to be grateful and count the blessings in our lives! May we remember to be kind and to focus our thoughts on light and blessings for the earth and for all her creatures. May all the animals be blessed with peace and well-being, as well as all the plants, the trees, and all the features of the earth – the rivers, the oceans, the forests, the deserts, the rocks, the mountains, and the clouds in the sky. All are expressions of the life of the universe — not inanimate objects, but expressions of cosmic awareness and transcendent beauty, which we too are a part of.
Peace and many blessings,
Sharon