Stephen Levine - Millennium blessing
Ivan M. Granger June 18th, 2008
Millennium blessing
by Stephen Levine
There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.
It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.
It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us to surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.
We know we must pass
beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.
But we are pulled upward
none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
and unexpected angels,
luminous.
And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.
And that is what we sing about.
— from Breaking the Drought: Visions of Grace, by Stephen Levine
/ Photo by Stoker Studios /
There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.
The lines of this poem are deceptively simple. It’s one of those poems that is easy to read and then move on with the rest of the day…
It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.
…But the words trail after you, quietly ringing at the back of your thoughts, gently haunting the comfort of our routines and routine relationships with the world.
It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us to surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.
These are words that lead us to silence. What else is there to say?
And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.
And that is what we sing about.
|
Stephen Levine
US (1937 - ) |
Many of you may know Stephen Levine as the author of several classic books in the field of conscious living and dying — including A Gradual Awakening, Who Dies?, Healing into Life and Death, and A Year to Live. He is also the coauthor, with his wife Ondrea Levine, of the acclaimed Embracing the Beloved: Relationship as a Path of Awakening.
But I was surprised to discover that Stephen Levine is also a poet. As with the rest of his work, Stephen Levine’s poetry reflects a deep attention, a recognition of the immensity of the still moment and the still heart, and the opportunities given to us as we approach that unavoidable mystery, death. His collection of poetry, “Breaking the Drought: Visions of Grace” is wonderful meditation on life and death, the known and the unknown, being and becoming, and how awareness flows through them.
Stephen and Ondrea Levine live in the mountains of New Mexico.
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I’ve been told that some of Stephen Levine’s earlier work can be found in the Oracle (eg. vol 1, no 9, 1967) and other underground San Francisco papers from the Sixties. A treasure hunt for collectors…
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It’s easy to access the wideness, the “enormity” - but at that point it stops being “ours” ! The tricky part is to move in the world from that place of no-thing-ness, no-one-ness (in Oneness). Being responded to as a “person” - an identity, a name, a body, a role, title, position - feels so small and constrained and false. Embodied, one must do - otherwise what’s the point? Perceiving, acting, unidentified doing (i.e. without attachment to result). This is the harder part, and perhaps the goal of incarnation.
This poem is beautifully centered and reflects the work of Stephen Levine so well. He is an amazingly insightful person.
I see our oneness in it, our centeredness in essence, our deep connection among each other and the Universe.