Two Mary Oliver poems in one day on FFL! Things are definitely looking up. I
like mysteries too and often prefer questions to answers: ask the question and
then leave it alone.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote :
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <emily.mae50@...> wrote :
Mysteries, Yes ~ Mary Oliver
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
Nicest post so far on FFL this month. I am now going to read it again, and
again...
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote :
What I Have Learned So Far ~ Mary Oliver
Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of — indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote :
Though, reports posted here on FFL of a demise of the meditating community by
some who do not live in Fairfield, Iowa are in fact premature, Every week
throughout the calendar year in meditating Fairfield there are satsanga of
meditators and practiced siddhas together that are held, extra-curricular group
meditations, very spiritual new-age church meetings, various presentations on
spiritual matters and practices generally held within the Fairfield meditating
community. All levels and kinds of meditators cross over quite freely between
these meetings and meditations.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote :
For example, one person I spoke with tonite on a downtown sidewalk told of
having a fabulous week here in Fairfield, Iowa with a group healing with Dr.
Sands on Tuesday, and a group meditation at the Mother Divine Church on Weds
and is looking forward to someone visiting here this week teaching about
mudras. Generally the local Oneness group is quite robust with their own
schedule. And the Liberal Catholic Church is busy with mystical Christianity
here every week. Meditating Quakers meet every week once or more times in
quiet. Wavicles on the Square is another satsang of siddha/spiritual people.
The Fairfield Amma satsanga meets weekly for chanting and also has scheduled
satsanga. It is a busy week outside the Domes in Fairfield, Iowa too. And then
things like different Vidyas showing up from India happen on short notice or
special speakers on campus. Fairfield, Iowa in fact is an active spiritual
practice community of meditators, still. -JaiGuruYou
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <feste37> wrote :
Yes, good analysis. I remember those days of the daily trudge or car ride to
the dome, seeing people I didn't actually know but whose faces became very
familiar. It was indeed the daily communal ritual; it was the glue that held us
together. Now it has largely fallen away, although of course many people do
still go. But in some ways we are almost in a post-TM era here now. I know so
many people who no longer practice TM or care about anything the TMO does. It
is just no longer a part of their lives. Instead of having one communal meeting
ground every day, twice a day, people have developed a network of smaller
groups, from the Sufis to Waking Down (just to give two examples) to cater to
their particular post-TM interests. And yet is it wonderful that almost all of
us have that common background. We understand each other in ways that would not
be possible without it. I spent over 30 years doing TM and do not regret a
single moment spent with eyes closed in the dome or elsewhere. But I have no
desire to practice any form of meditation now. I have moved on, and others have
too. I also find there is tremendous respect among the post-TMers for all the
different paths or no paths that people have chosen to best satisfy their
spiritual needs as they understand them now, 40-50 years (in many cases) since
we first began this long journey, in a puja room somewhere with incense
burning, a picture of the guru—and the imminence of "transcendence," that
sudden strange fall . . .
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote :
Living in the meditating community it is interesting that the meditating
community in Fairfield, Iowa is large enough that we do not necessarily know
each other in it. Living here you recognize folks as part of the tribe. In the
tribe there evidently are circles of folks something like guilds by affinity of
interests or work that might overlap like Venn diagrams do.
It used to be easier to recognize folks twenty years ago when the meditation
numbers where significantly higher whence twice a day lots of meditators
regardless of social economics, rank or element in the community, everyone
walked in to the Domes shoulder-to-shoulder for meditation. The Dome meditation
times then also served as communal 'check-in' times with friends and the larger
meditating community.
The Dome numbers have fragmented and diminished since those times and elements
of the tribe have drifted a part from each other but there can still be
overlap. And every once in a while you meet someone who has been living here in
the larger meditating community for 20, 30 or 40 years that you never met
before. For the last year or so as a 'town meditator' I have been on committees
meeting up on campus and it has been a revelation at times putting some faces
to names of folks up there in that part of the meditating community. And, also
renewing old friendships of people who have been around for decades here.
-JaiGuruYou
Edg writes: Never met George. Two decades in FF, and nope. But I heard his
name every single week there...the guy was a true community gluer. Had to be
that he was a solid Joe.
