Friday, August 19, 2022

Natural Meditations

Ozark Morning - photo by Blake Lasater


On Meditating, Sort Of, by Mary Oliver


Meditation, so I’ve heard, is best accomplished

if you entertain a certain strict posture.

Frankly, I prefer just to lounge under a tree.

So why should I think I could ever be successful?


Some days I fall asleep, or land in that

even better place — half asleep — where the world, spring, summer, autumn, winter —

flies through my mind in its hardy ascent and its uncompromising descent.


So I just lie like that, while distance and time

reveal their true attitudes: they never

heard of me, and never will, or ever need to.


Of course I wake up finally

thinking, how wonderful to be who I am,

made out of earth and water,

my own thoughts, my own fingerprints —

all that glorious, temporary stuff.” 

By Mary Oliver


“Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 240-1-9


“You may be attempting to follow a very long road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy.” 

A Course in Miracles T-18.VII.4:6-11

No comments:

Post a Comment

New Today

Observing a Quiet Christmas

Photo credit: Stephen Shogren Peace like a river. As I read today’s beautiful Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson, these words repeat in my m...