I started my meditation practice by just asking, 'How do I feel?'
Breathing slowly in and out, I slowly directed attention throughout my body, and towards my feelings.
Over the next twenty minutes image after image arose; a burnt-out tree in a desolate landscape; someone lost in a pale blue sea of sadness; an endless field of frozen ice. They were all images of loss and hopelessness.
As I just whispered, 'yes...yes...just stay...just stay' to myself, I thought of this Rilke poem, which I heard yesterday on a podcast talk by Tara Brach.
Let Everything Happen
Rainer Maria Rilke
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
Rainer Maria Rilke
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
Photo: "Nighttime on Muri" from a travel blog.
Do you have a favorite poem that help you with your meditation practice? I'd love to know, please just leave a comment.
Do you have a favorite poem that help you with your meditation practice? I'd love to know, please just leave a comment.
I adore Rilke. It sounds like that was a very fruitful and helpful meditation. It's amazing to me the things I learn and develop from simple meditation of following my breath and being observant of the sounds and smells around me.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful poem.....kudos to you for learning the art of meditation....do you HAVE to be quiet for that? (That may be my problem)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the flw/comment at my place!
Thanks for the posts James and Kathryn...it is such a beeautiful poem isn't it? I don't understand all of it, but, the bits I get really resonate with me!
ReplyDeleteKathryn, I am still compiling my frenemy list and having a grand old time doing it (see Kathryn's blog for the meaning of 'frenemy') I am the biggest blabbermouth south of the equator, so, no you don't have to be a quiet person to meditate. You can even do a chanting meditation so you can speak whilst you're meditating!