By Tim Bellows
I read the news story about the bombing of
a great holy shrine or temple in Iraq. About the revenge,
close to civil war in that alarmed country. Remember that
story? I thought of how a major statue of Buddha was destroyed
a few years back – and how humans can become so angry as to
commit ugly acts, causing more anger-revenge. Seems that even
cruel thoughts come back to taint and injure us. Round and
round goes the wheel of tit for tat.
To me, the point is to get off that wheel.
To look for life to teach us love and love only. Jesus said to
love our enemies. Rudyard Kipling got into the act too:
"Teach us delight in simple things,
And mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And love to all men 'neath the sun!"
And check this out, from The Buddha's Words
on Kindness (Metta Sutta):
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
[http://dharma.ncf.ca/introduction/sutras/metta-sutra.html]
That is, not born on the world’s wheel of
revenge, anger, and graceless thoughts.
Here’s Hawthorne who has one of is
characters think over his art of painting:
"O glorious Art!" thus mused the
enthusiastic painter as he trod the street, "thou art the
image of the Creator's own. The innumerable forms, that wander
in nothingness, start into being at thy beck. The dead live
again. Thou recallest them to their old scenes, and givest
their gray shadows the lustre of a better life, at once
earthly and immortal. . . ."
(http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/pp.html)
Let me sort through this last excerpt,
hoping to clarify it: A glorious art will be the image of the
Creator’s art. Apparently such an art can access those
"forms, that wander in nothingness." These must be
higher forms, the formless forms, suggesting pure spirit
beyond the entertainments of language. Can the highest of the
arts bring what’s "immortal" to us on this
rough-edged world where temples are blown up, animals are
treated cruelly, and people mock and abuse others?
We also have the Mother Theresas, the Jane
Goodalls and the Schweitzers among us! I say let’s study and
concentrate on them and soak in some of their example. Most
medical people study disease in the west. Bizarre! To find
health, study those who are healthy. What are they doing with
food, exercise, or spiritual contemplation? We could study
what we see as the highest, best, and most beautiful: the
planet would gain in spiritual consciousness, despite the
outer negatives that will never be totally eliminated. After
all, things must always be in a balance. Yet life demands that
we – and all world-members – be whole, taking in and
acknowledging "good" and "evil." Wasn’t
there a saying, "Bless those who curse you"? Yes. .
. . I found it: "Bless those who curse you, pray for
those who mistreat you" (The Christian Bible. Luke 6:28).
Tim Bellows
Tim is a writing teacher, poet and
photographer devoted to wilderness, contemplative travels, and
the divine and quirky ways of words. A graduate of the Iowa
Writers' Workshop, he’s published work in over 200 literary
journals, in Sunlight from Another Day, Poems In & Out
of the Body (see Amazon.com), and in A Racing Up the
Sky (Eclectic Press). His poems appear in Desert Wood,
an Anthology of Nevada Poets and in Wild Stars (Starry
Puddle Press).
He teaches writing at Sierra College in
Northern California. Tim edits an e-newsletter, LIGHTSHIP
NEWS, a strong focus on the spiritual dimensions of
poetry, innovative thought, and crucial tips for writers.
Email star999@sbcglobal.net to sign on.
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