“I begin and end every day with a very old ritual that was taught to me by a gentle elderly woman who is a Tibetan nun. Each morning, the first thing after awakening, you take a small empty bowl that you keep for this purpose and fill it slowly to the brim from a source of running water. Doubtless, the originators of this ritual had in mind some high mountain stream. I use my kitchen faucet..
As the bowl fills, you reflect on the particulars of your life, whatever they are. The people with whom you share your time, your state of health, whatever problems you face, what skills and strengths you have, your disappointments and successes, your worries, your personal gifts, your personal limitations, your home, all your possessions, your losses, your history as a human being. As the bowl fills, you receive your life openheartedly and unconditionally as your portion. Walking very slowly so as not to spill a drip out of the brimming bowl, you take it to a private place in your home, perhaps a personal altar, and place it there, dedicating all that it contains to the service of life. Leaving the full bowl in this place, you begin your day.
I find that this practice has been profoundly healing to me. The thought that all things can be used equally to befriend life seems to soften the edges of things, to break down the boundaries between one’s sorrows and one’s joys, one’s wounds and one’s strengths. They may be of equal value in serving life. Perhaps it is through such consecration that all things will ultimately reveal their true value and meaning.
Each evening, the last thing before going to sleep, you take the bowl outside and empty the water out onto the earth. Then you place the empty bowl upside down in its special place in your home, turn out your light, and rest. Perhaps this cycle of openheartedly taking on whatever one has been given, using it all to serve the life around you, then letting it go completely refers as much to the wisdom of living a lifetime as it does to the wisdom of living each day.”
From The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake, who died on this day in 1827,
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.”
“The human spirit is more powerful than any drug – and that is what needs to be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family. These are the things that matter.”
“Beneath the physical form of hills and valleys, beneath the rivers and mountains, there is another appearance. It is not only in the minerals, nor in the folded rocks; it is not only in the soil, nor in the trees and plants. Yet somehow in and under and through all these things, the land has another nature: its living soul. As the soul of a person looks out of her eyes and makes her who she is, so too does the soul of the land shine out of its features and give it special qualities.”
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
“Out of the loose ends of life we must make a coherent plan of living. We must purify our hearts and simplify our affections, so that God’s grace may flow through us and make our lives fruitful and good. Each of us has some problem of living which weighs heavily on our heart. Usually it is a problem of human relationships: how ought we to deal with this – or that – fellow human being? We pray for wisdom and patience, justice and kindness – not that we may have a complete answer to our questions, but that we may see before us a way of living.”
Rev. Harry Lismer Short, minister at King Edward Street Chapel 1939 – 1954, pictured below at a chapel bring and buy
“I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged, damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.”
“When you enter this valley, realize that it has no beginning or end. No other road is like the hidden road there, and one person’s road is not the same as another’s. Everyone finds the path revealed according to their capacity, and everyone’s progress depends on their state of breath. How could it be otherwise? Even if a gnat could fly with all its strength, it couldn’t out-race the wind. No two birds fly alike, each finds its own route. So some go by way of the mosque’s niche. Others by way of idols. When the sun of knowing shines, everyone receives the light according to their ability. And when that sun shines, the world’s rubbish bin turns into a rose garden. The rind reveals its kernel. The lover no longer sees any particle of self, only the Beloved. Wherever one looks, one sees the face of the One, and every atom of life reveals Reality’s presence.”
King Edward Street Chapel 