This week I re-read a book of poetry edited by Robert Bly, "The Soul is Here for it's Own Joy..." It's a book I know well, but this time I was struck by a counter theme I had not sensed before: facing the reality of the burden of human life as we seek a more Transcendent Reality. There is a certain thread in many religions that separates worldly life from the spiritual life. Worldly life carries the weight of burden--fear, illness, struggles for survival from one threat or another, the struggle to fit into the social order, the responsibility for and dependency on others, the uncertainty of death. Religions and spiritual teachings offer meaning in the face of the burden and the potential promise of relief.
As the poet Friedrich Holderlin wrote, the spiritual process itself is one of living in the world with it's difficulties, while our vision expands and we learn to move with the flow of life: "...And many things have to stay on the shoulders like a load of failure..." "Let us learn to live swaying, as in a rocking boat on the sea.” (see link below for the poem)
Rumi's poem, "Night and Sleep" offers the vision of a parallel, perhaps simultaneous, Reality: the freedom of the spiritual life in sleep that brings nightly healing and a reassuring balm:
"At the time of night-prayer, as the sun slides down,,
The route the senses walk on closes, the route to the invisible opens...
I think one could say the spirit goes back to its old home;
It no longer remembers where it lives, and loses its fatigue.
It carries around in life so many griefs and loads
And trembles under their weight; they are gone, it is all well." (excerpt)
Margaret of Navarre's (1491-1549) poem, "Wind Will Blow It All Away" gives the perspective of time to worldly conflicts and confusion.
"If someone insults you,
Go on, with light heart;
If they all do it, pay
No heed to what they say.
There's no new art
In talk of that kind.
Wind Will blow it all away...
And if the world itself
Should come, money, castles,
Great sweets in its hand, just say,
"I have enough today."
For worldly things
Return whence they came.
Wind will blow it all away..." (excerpt, see link below)
Prayer and meditation are the cornerstones of navigating the burdens of the world, but we each approach that in our own way. Turning toward the inner pull brings what is needed to lighten our load and opens our understanding and hearts to our own joy right here, in this world. Let today be a time of lightening --even dissolving--the burden. (Susan Nettleton)
(all quotes from "The Soul is Here for it's Own Joy, Sacred Poems from Many Cultures", edited by Robert Bly, ECCO Press, "Night and Sleep" pg. 235, "Wind Will Blow It All Away", pg. 22-229, "All the Fruit", pg. 247, 1995. )
https://www.goodreads.com/.../116512-all-the-fruit-is...
http://warpandwolf.blogspot.com/.../wind-will-blow-it-all...