Mar 22 2024
Stephen Levine – Millennium Blessing
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 The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger
/ Image by DCist /
That opening statement is so true—
There is a grace approaching
that we shun as much as death,
it is the completion of our birth.
Most of us spend our entire lives avoiding that inner opening. It is that quiet itch at the back of the awareness that makes us squirm and turn away. And when it really presses on us, it can arouse terror, as if we were facing down death.
That’s the thing: That oh-so-sweet moment of awakening is only sweet on the other side of the threshold. But to approach it is to face death. It is the death of our old worldview, the death of patterned awareness, the death of our limited notion of who we are. All we thought ourselves to be stops—and so it is a sort of death. To feel that grace approaching, to welcome it, requires a wild sort of courage.
It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us to surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.
It requires courage and, yes, surrender. We have this idea that spiritual opening is a terrible effort. No. That unfolding wants to occur within us. The only effort is to let go of our endless strategies to halt the process. We all feel it, a gentle prodding to let the heart open, to know ourselves truly, to be present and radiate ourselves into the world.
That opening is insistent, trying to happen within us. Call it grace, if you like. The question is before us: Do we courageously accept the invitation to grace?
It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.
For those of us who live in modern urban society, think how hard it is to stop the ticking of the clock. From an early age we internalize the sense of time and progress and deadlines. Yet, in doing so, we forget that these are all just concepts, just one way to understand the unfolding of being and experience. That sense of time is a powerful tool for doing and accomplishment, but it isn’t inherently real. It doesn’t have much to do with who or what we are. There is a flow of days and months, but they are the surface current of a much deeper timelessness.
I remember as a young man trying to figure out what timelessness was. I sought to live in remote places. I got rid of the television (to which, as a child raised on 70s sitcoms, I had a serious addiction). I spent a lot of time in nature. I slowly learned to let go of the endless buzzing of thoughts. This might sound like a brutal endurance sport, but that wasn’t how I experienced it. I wanted to feel what life was without the filters of the 20th century mindset and 20th century time. I wanted to know who I was in the space of timelessness.
It is fascinating how we use the hyperactivity of thought to define the world, to frame our perception of the world, and in some ways to limit our notion of the world. The other thing about thought: It creates time. When thought settles down, we discover timelessness. And as the poet said, the mind comes to rest, not in the head, but in the heart.
Having come to rest, we remember. It is not through intellection but through stillness that we remember. Remember. Re-member. To remember is to finally see how the apparent separation of reality actually fits together in a single wholeness. Discursive thought can only ever examine pieces of the whole. To re-member is to have the full vision of Wholeness, as things actually are. But this vision is found in timelessness and stillness, through the quiet mind unfiltered.
And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.
And that is what we sing about.
Recommended Books: Stephen Levine
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Stephen Levine
US (1937 – 2016) Timeline |
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 a wonderful meditation on life and death, the known and the unknown, being and becoming, and how awareness flows through them.
Stephen Levine died in 2016.
Hi Ivan,
THANK YOU ! ….. once again 🙂 …… for your moving ‘sharing’ and the wisdom contained therein.
I actually met Stephen Levine almost 40 years ago at a 10 day Grief and Loss Workshop he led at Breitenbush, in the glorious mountains of central Oregon. It was truly a life changing experience… introducing me to meditation, Dances of Universal Peace, and SO MANY other valuable practices and people….and ultimately (through the ongoing mediation practices), leading me to connect with my own ‘Inner Guide’… for which I will be eternally grateful !
Hope you are ‘savoring’ spring and even more! ….
nourishing your own place of ‘inner rest’.
Most…..gratefully yours,
~~~Teria~~~
Thank You, Ivan – Stephen Levine’s poem ‘Millennium Blessing says the truth so
beautifully and simply, and your commentary explains more, and your Thought for the
Day is so true. I will be sharing this Poetry Chaikhana post with a younger friend and my daughter as well. I am very grateful for Poetry Chaikhana. Peace and Every Good.
At 81 years of age, I find this poem so very beautiful. It is the way to go in the ned and, I love it, thank you.