In compassion
justice and peace kiss.
We have to run into peace.
What is born of God
seeks peace
and runs into peace.
The person who runs and runs,
continually running toward peace,
is a heavenly person.
Even the heavens
are continually running
and in their running
are seeking peace.
The fullest work
that God ever worked
in any creature is compassion.
Whatever God does,
the first outburst is always compassion.
The highest work that God ever works is compassion.
from Meister Eckhart via translation work by Matthew Fox in the centering book:
"Meditations with Meister Eckhart" pp 108 & 109 The front of the book has this Eckhart quote: "The path is beautiful and pleasant and joyful and familiar"
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7 comments:
Greetings,
Thank you for this interesting poem. It triggers reflection in this person on the running and running outside the ribs, and how that race is very mechanical.
All good wishes,
robert
Well, I'd like to know more about what you are thinking, Robert, what you mean? Perhaps this reflection could lead to very different interpretations and find overlap?
For me, these metaphors calmed me down and helped me see that the process to peace, justice and compassion isn't always easy yes and sometimes mechanical yet running toward this goal is not wasted.
Greetings,
I don't know what I mean. By this, I intend that, if I think about this too long, I'll extrapolate it into something not useful.
There is peace inside the chest. It precedes all other peace, which is contingent upon that chest-peace.
All good wishes,
robert
This answer will tide me over for now :) I don't yet know if I get your interesting response yet I sometimes feel that peace which is contingent on the "chest-peace" perhaps when I am going for the goal...sometimes when it doesn't feel comfortable or easy at all. And sometimes there's no end in sight. And sometimes I don't know what I'm doing nor how I am going to get to peace. Yet I'm running for all I'm worth and somehow trusting something ahead that I don't always feel or even know.
Sometimes looking back this chest peace and running wildly yet forward can be satisfying at the time in a way yet greatly satisfying looking back.
And for me a better foundation for the road ahead than if I had not run that way so intentionally and trusting.
How I look forward to more conversation about this experience some day!
How deeply I felt connected with you Dec 22 Robert -- as close as I could manage to heart connection in terms of this conversation.
Before and after I saw and reflected on your comments here, I have been also reflecting more on the Meditations of Meister Eckhart who also said, evidently, the following:
"The outward work can never be puny if the inward work is great...(which) includes in itself all expansiveness, all breadth, all length, all depth.
Such a work receives and draws all its being from nowhere else except from and in the heart of God."
So I meditated on your metaphors or actualities of the chest inside the ribs and the race that does not include the chest or heart inside the ribs being quite mechanical. YET, what Meister Eckhart speaks of is anything but mechanical at the core although including such effort. Yet, the starting place is so out from the heart, the center, the source of life beating. So you and Dr. Eckhart and and the co-writer of my current book project and most of all Allah, are teaching me something so important tonight!
Greetings,
I'm re-reading one of my favorite books, this one being "Saint Francis" by Nikos Kazantzakis. In it are many teachings.
"I realized that man's soul is omnipotent, that God, God in His entirety, sits inside man, and that it is unnecessary for us to run to the ends of the earth in His pursuit. All we have to do is gaze into our own hearts."
Sometimes things can be metaphors. And then sometimes things are literal. Of course, metaphors, if they're useful and not simply a waste of time, point to real things to be done.
All good wishes,
robert
Robert, I like your comment at the end so well, I'm going to read it aloud at our Christmas meal tonite!
Hope your day went/is going well.
Christmas love,
Connie
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