Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World
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The love of God, unutterable and perfect,
flows into a pure soul the way that light
rushes into a transparent object.
The idea of being "colorless" can imply purity, clarity, being beyond definition, or it can suggest a sort of blandness and lack of life.
This dual connotation reminds me of my earliest impressions of Zen Buddhism. I loved the absolute simplicity, essentialism, integrity, and lack projection. But, frankly, it also seemed rather cold and flat. No elevating imagery. No devotionalism. You sit until you learn to sit. The goal, if you try for a goal, is Nirvana - Nothingness. That sounded rather colorless to me!
The more love that it finds, the more it gives
itself; so that, as we grow clear and open,
the more complete the joy of heaven is.
It wasn't until I began to encounter my own experiences of opening through other practices that I finally came to recognize the immense life and delight that is found in that Emptiness sought so assiduously by Zen practitioners. (It was also then that many of the spiritual definitions and imagery I had clung to so tightly fell away, leaving me in a very simple space and practice that some might describe as Zen-like.)
About that fundamental emptiness, the "colorless"-- Colorless glass is not colorless; it contains all colors. Colorless glass does not halt the play of light; it is filled with light, and it lets each color remain entirely itself as it shines through...
And the more souls who resonate together,
the greater the intensity of their love,
and, mirror-like, each soul reflects the other.
Have a beautiful day!
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
publishers.
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