Getting out of my head and out of my way is a huge challenge for me. Most of my life has valued intellect, which, I’m beginning to suspect, is a diversion from knowing. It’s like a magician’s distraction, “Ooh look, shiny flashy thing here because I don’t want you to pay attention to what I’m doing behind the curtain.”
One helpful practice I’ve adopted is ten words: focus on the little voice inside and write down, one at a time, ten words that come up, next, free write a sentence about each of the ten words, and lastly, organize the ten sentences into two paragraphs, four lines each.
I’m always surprised by the sometimes seeming randomness of what comes up, and, by how that seeming randomness becomes seamlessly cohesive and meaningful. Here’s today’s ten:
| Heart | It takes the heart of a lion |
| Dove | With dove-like grace, gently descending |
| Smile | Harsh words, wrapped in a wry smile |
| Open | Opening, bidding me to enter |
| Argue | Would you argue with truth? |
| Content | No longer satisfied to be merely content |
| Willing | Sincerely, rapturously willing |
| History | History is just, literally, his story. |
| Archive | All the archives and annals, washed away by innocence |
| Analyze | No longer subject to the limitations of meager analysis |
…and then, the paragraphs came together, like this:
With dove-like grace, it gently descended
Opening, bidding me enter.
Would you argue with truth, it asks?
It takes the heart of a lion.
History is just, literally, his story
Harsh words wrapped in a wry smile.
No longer subject to the limitations of meager analysis
All the archives and annals swept away by innocence.
I immediately understood this little vignette. I’ve mentioned I use A Course in Miracles as a spiritual practice, and the focus is truth – why have we forgotten it. In the course, truth is what is real, everything else is illusion. Further everything we perceive is an ever-changing illusion, a story we continually weave about bodies and pain and suffering and moments of sensory pleasures or relief. Truth is changeless, (thus, everything which is not changeless cannot be truth), truth is the only reality. The experience of truth is not of the realm of perception. Thus,
It takes the heart of a lion to seek gentle, peaceful truth. Everything else is a story, harsh words cloaked in a wry smile. Give up the limitations of analysis, of intellect, and perfect innocence will wash away all the archives and annals of “his story.”
Pretty profound…