Sunday Contemplation # 43. A Glimpse Of Eternity

A Poem

Image by Sydney Michalski. Sydney writes the Nature Moments newsletter here on Substack. Her work is stunning…I hope you will take a moment to also check out her website.

• This Week’s Quote

• A G’day

• This Sunday’s Contemplation

• A Guided Meditation

• Grateful For

• This Week’s Community Chat

• Upcoming Activities

This Week’s Quote

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language — even the phrase each other — doesn’t make any sense.

Rumi.

A G’day

Hello Everyone:

I hope that you are doing well within. I am sorry my contemplation is a day late. I really did contemplate it on a Sunday, but I attended a wonderful Greek wedding this weekend. It was a beautiful occasion where the sacred church service met the warmth of good food and joyous celebration.

My contemplation comes in the form of a poem this week.

Bless you all this week. I wish you a simple glimpse of eternity and the warm embrace of inner peace.

I offer this poem for your contemplation.

This Sunday’s Contemplation

A Glimpse Of Eternity

At the base of the Bodhi tree
twenty five hundred years ago
the Buddha embraced the moon
and glimpsed eternity.

The moment 
where the torture of the journey
arrived at the balm of the now.

In this sky scraping 
space viewing
self driving
robot building world
that glimpse still
whispers in our lives
so ripped in our experience
even as we look away
and just keep dancing.

Last night the full moon was so bright
I could read by it
looking up
bare feet in the chilly grass
there
the Buddha
and
behind his smile
the glimpse.

In the symphony
we seek the glimpse
On a given night
the thousands of hours 
of study
practice
diligence
suffering
passion
of the gathered musicians 
meet the conductor’s gaze 
and the sweat
tears 
inspiration
of the long loved composer
When their longing 
meets the longing audience 
there is a glimpse
an unspeakable glimpse
weaved in the music.

Behind every flower
lover’s embrace
tragedy and calamity
the glimpse
the still
strong
silent now
where the Buddha
sits in awe
where Jesus 
surrenders
where we see 
ourselves

We toil 
we make babies
fight with them as teenagers
all for a glimpse
that will reveal
the meaning
quench our thirst 
for the promised home
revealed 
in a glimpse.

The glimpse 
extracts time from eternity 
and meets you
in this very moment

The pain and achievement 
of our human endeavour
across centuries
across our
simple life
reveals
the smile of the Buddha
and 
our own reason to smile.

Thank you for reading this. See you next week I hope.

I wish you peace.

A Guided Meditation

I have received quite a bit of feedback that a guided meditation connected to the topic of these contemplations has been appreciated. When appropriate I will provide one each week. This week’s guided meditation is called The Glimpse.

Grateful For

I include this section because I found that when I read or hear about what others are grateful for, I tend to think more about what I am grateful for. Feel free to share what you are grateful for in the comments. I think it is a beautiful service to others.

I am grateful this week for the beautiful Greek wedding I attended. A beautiful bride and groom officially launching their new lives together in the embrace of their families and their friends. We all know that marriage is never all beer and skittles, but there is a deeply touching heart to the moment when we wish the new couple bon voyage on their life journey together. I am really grateful for that.

This Week’s Community Chat

The theme in the chat this week is:

When in your life did you experience a “glimpse of eternity”?

Thank you.

Upcoming Activities

Please stay tuned.

Should you want to message me directly, please feel free to do so.