My Labyrinth

[Mika]

One very reassuring,
though challenging,
aspect
of the infinite knot
is that it reveals
something
of the 'layers'
of our being.
As we contemplate
the symbol
of the knot,
we can begin
to notice
the spiraling nature
of our journey
into the deepest
centre of ourselves,
and the intricate maze
of exploratin
that draws us
into the heart
of the matter.
It draws us
into a centre
where we rediscover
our selves
and rediscover
that union
which was fragmented
when we first
followed the enticement
of autonomy.

A spiraling journey
takes us to ever-deepening
layers of ourselves.
It is never
'just the same thing over again',
but rather
the vision
of recurrent experience,
differently
and more deeply known
and recognized.
We begin to notice
the layers
that have formed us
into who we are.
The layers of childhood,
of play and learning,
the first layers
of loving and of losing.
Layers of growth,
like rings in a tree trunk,
each successive layer
marked by the weather
of the time,
rough or gentle.
We may have lived
in the same village
all our lives,
and with the same people,
but each stage
of our living and growing
will have
its own particular markings.
When we stand
at the sacred space
of our personal reflection
on that infinite knot,
we may begin to glimpse
the layering
of our own story
in the way that
the Universe sees it.

If you artistically inclined
you may like to try
drawing your own
infinite know.
Express in your own way
how your spirals
have evolved,
what your layers look like,
and the special colors
of the threads
that have been woven
into your life -
the events and relationships,
hopes, fears and dreams
that have formed you.
Or, if you prefer
a more dynamic image,
try looking at your life
in terms of an intricate dance.
What has moved you
closer to the centre
of yourself,
what has whirled you out
to the edges again?
Who have been
your closest dancing partners?
How has your dance
become interwoven
with the dancing
of those around you,
or with the dance
of all creation?
And for those
who prefer a steady walk,
how has your journey been?
Where has the maze
seemed dense,
and where has the way
opened up clearly
before you?
Round what twists and turns
has your maze
journey led you?
Perhaps you can recall
difficult times,
when you may have felt
you were walking
further away
from your true center?
Times when you seemed to fly
on eagles' wings
along a true course?
However you felt
at the time,
all these periods
of your life
have actually been
bringing you
to the point where you stand
today!

And what is this center
into which
the infinite knots
and spirals
are drawing us?
We might call it
the deepest
and truest center
of our selves,
which we refer to
as our 'heart',
or our 'soul'.
We might equally well
call it
the heart of creation,
where all is one
in bedrock union.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

[Mika]

The children
we once were
knew moments
of mystery.
Creation was still
an untold story then,
pregnant
with possibility
and radiant
with wonderous discovery.
Sometimes this sense
of wonder
is rekindled,
as life moves on.
From time to time
we experience
a sense of being
in touch with
the 'bedrock' union
below the tideline
of our everyday
'island' existence.
We could express
this in terms
of being plunged
into a layer
of being
which is much deeper
than that
of our normal
conscious experience,
there to become aware
of a heightened sense
of union or empathy
with others,
or the whole
of creation.

Before we leave
this station
of our journey,
we might pause
to reflect
on our own
beginnings.
Each of us began
our human journey
when two other
human cells
came together,
as it were,
to weave
a new knot
in the fabric of life.
Two cells,
each holding
only half
of our story.
From the very beginning
we were fashioned
out of togetherness,
the result
a moment of communion.
None of us can go back,
even in imagination,
to that time
when our personal
human existence
was being woven
from those first two cells
into the amazing
complexity and mystery
of our bodies and minds.
However,
we all know
how we feel
when circumstances
shake our certainties
and we feel
like curling up again
in the foetal position
to get ourselves
put back together again.

Next time
you feel like this,
you might like to try
going to your personal
'sacred space',
letting yourself
simply become
aware of the weaving process
that never ceases
in you.
The weaving has been going on
day by day,
hour by hour,
silently and surely.
And it still continues.
Every day we live
is a further weaving
of the Dream
in our own lives.
Every incident
in our daily lives,
every meeting
with each other,
every conversation
or unseen act of kindness,
everything
we think or feel
is being woven
into that Dream.

The child
who came into the world
through this encounter
was a point of intersection
of time and eternity,
visible and invisible.
In Celtic terms,
the child
is the ultimate sacrament
and 'sacred space',
where visible and invisible,
material and spiritual,
element and energy,
are fused into wholeness
and where
the infinite knot
is rewoven
from our tangled,
broken strands.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

[Mika]

Our next station
brings us into
the restfulness
and refreshment
of our inner groves
and springs,
such places are sacred space
in the Celtic vision.
Here we shall draw
deeply on the hospitality
these blessed circles
offer us.,
pausing to recieve
the gift
of their communion.

We speak of our
'circle of friends',
and it is this
imtimate inner cirlce
of our lives
that can perhaps
lead us most readily
into the sacred groves
of our innermost hearts.
Pause to reflect
for a few minutes
reflect on
your own 'circle'.
Who is included in it?
What are their names?
What do you especially
value about each
of these friends?
What do you think
each of them especially
values about you?
Allow the unique gifts
of every individual
in your circle
to be brought to mind.
Let it be
like a shared meal,
to which each of you
is bringing his or hers
own particular contribution.
This is a feast
you are invited to celebrate
in the sacred grove.
It is a communion meal,
with the power
not only to nourish you,
but also transform you.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

[Mika]

So the 'trees'
in our inner sacred groves
are the people
around us -
our circle of friends,
our immediate family,
our colleagues
and fellow workers,
our neighbors
and those with whom
we share our lives
in any way.
Most of us have
an inner circle of people
who are deeply trusted
and loved,
and beyond that there will be
outer circles of people
whom we are thrown together
by circumstance,
or with whom we choose -
or are forced -
to spend some of our time.
For the Celts
the circle would have been
wider still,
including, as it might seem
to us - those 'wisdom figures'
who have gone ahead of us -
both those who are
universally acknowledged
and those known
only to ourselves.

Whoever they are,
and however
we feel about them
individually,
all the people
in our grove
have roots and branches,
like the woodland trees,
and each of them
has a personal identity,
just as an oak
is not a beech tree,
nor a rowan tree
a bramble bush
For the most part,
at least in the early stages
of any relationship,
we tend to meet each other
in 'the branches'
of our experience,
in the outward and visible
things we share.
We see each other
as physical beings,
with particular characteristics
and our own style
of doing things.
We learn to recognize
Our 'above-ground' lives
for part of the human forest,
maybe fighting space
to become
who we really are,
maybe entangled with each other
in joyful harmony or
terrible knots.

The Celts, however,
would have been
quick to recall
that in all things
there is an invisible,
as well as visible,
dimension,
and the space
where the invisible
becomes manifest
in the visible
is sacred.
If we look below
the surface
of our human circles,
we become aware
taht what we experience
in our relationships
with our companions
is profoundly shaped
by a vast invisible network
of roots we cannot see.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*******************
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

[Mika]

As friendship deepens
into genuine intimacy,
we begin to understand
a little of the nature
of the 'other' person's roots,
to understand them
at a much deeper level.
The more we know
of this invisible reality
of each other,
the more we understand,
and the more we understand.
When we recognize the importance
of our own invisible roots,
and respect that of others,
we are moving
into common ground,
where real communion
of heart and mind
might become a possibility.

Whereever you reside,
there is sure
to be a place,
or several places,
where people
gather together.
Its a familiar pattern,
so familiar that
we don't even think about it,
yet it is so fundemental
to our way of being human
that our language
has a word for it.
We call it
'common ground'.
For the Celtic pilgrimage,
this kind of common ground
is an important signpost
to the sacred groves
of companionship.

Its opposite
is the kind of land
we describe as
'no man's land'.
Common ground attracts people,
draws them into community,
and includes all comers.
It just welcomes us;
makes us feel at home.
It engenders happiness
and a sense of security.
It helps to melt
our hesitant aloneness
into a confident togetherness.
No man's land
does the opposite.
It repels us.
It creates a barrier.
It causes grief.
It feeds on fear.
It turns our bedrock
of togetherness
into frightened isolation.
Such places can be found
in our cities,
in ourselves,
and in our relationships.
Do we want them to be there?
Can we do anything
to change the no man's land
to common ground?

One way to reclaim
no man's land
and turn it gradually back
into common ground
is to practice
the art of relating
to others
in the roots of our being,
rather than merely
in our outermost branches.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

[Mika]

I'm back, its been an interesting few months, and I'll update shortly. As well I am returning to walking the Labyrinth with 'Eternal Echos' another book by John O'Donohue author of previously quoted Anam Cara.

"There is a divine restlessness in the human heart, our eternal echo of longing that lives deep within us and never lets us settle for what we have or where we are. In this exquisitely crafted and inspirational book, John O'Donohue explores the most basic of human desires - the desire to belong, a desire that constantly draws us toward new possibilities of self-discovery, friendship and creativity."

In the beginning
was the dream.
In the eternal night
where no dawn broke,
the dream deepened.
Before anything ever was,
it had to be dreamed.
We are the children
of the earth's dreaming!

quoted from 'Eternal Echos' by John O'Donohue

[Mika]

I remember
as a child
discovering the echo
of sound.
It was the first time
that my father
took me up the mountain
to herd the cattle.
As we passed a limestone cliff,
he called out to the cattle
in the distance.
His call had barely ended
when it was copied exactly
and sent forth again
by the stone.
It was a fascinating discovery.
I tried out my won voice
and the echo returned faithfully
every time.
It was if the solid limestone mountains
had secret hearing and voice.
Their natural stillness and silence
suddenly broke forth
in an exact mimic
of the human voice,
indicating that there is
a resonant heart in the depths
of silence;
the stone responds
in a symmetry of sound.
Hearing one's echo
aout among the lonely mountains
seems to suggest
that one is not alone.
Landscape and nature
know us
and the returning echo
seems to confirm that we belong here.
We live in a world
that responds
to our longing;
it is a place
where the echoes always return,
even if sometimes slowly.
It is as if the dynamic symmetry of the echo
comprised the radius
of an invisible
but powerful circle
of belonging.

The hunger to belong
is at the heart
of our nature.
Cut off from others,
we atrophy
and turn in on ourselves.
The sense of belonging
is the natural balance
of our lives.
Mostly,
we do not need to make an issue
of belonging.
When we belong,
we take it for granted.
There is some innocent
childlike side to the human heart
that is always deeply hurt
whe we are excluded.
Belonging
suggests warmth, understanding,
and embrace.
No one was created
for isolation.
Whe we become isolated,
we are prone
to being damaged;
our minds lose
their flexibility and natural kindness;
we become vulnerable
to fear and negativity.
The sense of belonging
keeps you in balance
amidst the inner and outer
immensities.
The ancient and eternal values
of human life -
truth, unity, goodness,
justice, beauty, and love
are all statements
of true belonging;
the are also
the secret intention
and dream
of human longing

quoted from Eternal Echo's by John O'Donohue

[Mika]

Suffering as the Dark Valley of Broken Belonging

Our Secret Kinship with the Darkness

Though you live and work
in the light,
you were concieved
and shaped
in darkness.
Darkness
is one
of our closest companions.
It can never
really surprise us;
something within us
knows the darkness
more deeply
than it knows the light.
In the beginning
was the darkness.
The first light
was born out of the dark.

Its eternity of patience
rewarded,
infinity discovered
at last
its ture mirror
in the human soul.
For the first time,
there was someone
who could see
the depths
and reflect the glimpses.
Yet the closer
our acquaintence
with the mystery,
the more the mystery
deepens.
Brightness only reinforces
the opaque soul
of the the darkness.
We forget
so easily
that all our feelings,
thoughts, and brightness
of mind
are born in darkness.
Thoughts are sparks
of illumination
within the dark silence
and stillness
of our bodies.
We have an inner kinship
with darkness
that nothing can dissolve.
This protects us
from allowing
too much outside light
into the secret center
of our minds.
The immensity
and slow beauty
of the inner life
need the shelter
of the dark
in order to grow
and find
their appropriate forms.

quoted from Eternal Echo's by John O'Donohue

[Mika]

Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity.
Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbour, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face.
Be a treasure to the poor,
an admonisher to the rich,
an answerer of the cry of the needy,
a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge.
Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech.
Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men.
Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness,
a joy to the sorrowful,
a sea for the thirsty,
a haven for the distressed,
an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression.
Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts.
Be a home for the stranger,
a balm to the suffering,
a tower of strength for the fugitive.
Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring.
Be an ornament to the countenance of truth,
a crown to the brow of fidelity,
a pillar of the temple of righteousness,
a breath of life to the body of mankind,
an ensign of the hosts of justice,
a luminary above the horizon of virtue,
a dew to the soil of the human heart,
an ark on the ocean of knowledge,
a sun in the heaven of bounty,
a gem on the diadem of wisdom,
a shining light in the firmament of thy generation,
a fruit upon the tree of humility.

quoted from the Baha'i Writings

[Mika]

Not sure where to put this,
as the thoughts still random,
I come here, return to my labyrinth,
the slow meandering pace of the spiral,
allowing the flow of my mind to untangle.

By what limitations do we percieve,
and to what benefit or hinderance do they justipose upon us?
How far do I see, or do I see at all?
If all that I see is preprogrammed scripts and expectations,
can it be said that I am truley free?
Bound by conditions and the conditional,
how do I or what needs to change?

I shattered the illusion,
tore it all down,
smattered the whole of the playing fields
puzzled pieces,
disintergrated the walls of my tower,
only ashes and dust remain.
The rains come and wash away the stain.

I cannot see clearly, yet,
now I am less unencumbered,
the burdens of shamed armour,
no longer carried weight,
such a moment leaves one light headed.

Now,
to dare vulnerbility, risky,
but what choice do I have?
I go forward!

[Mika]

Learning to 'see' with your own eyes and 'hear' with your own ears, is a risky enterprise. It requires you to trust your intuition, even if that intuitive knowing goes against every social convention or sociatal conditions (conditioning). Its not a 'rebellious' action, simply spawned by knee-jerk reactions; it is rather a highly reflective meditated upon responce and follow through, based on insight. It's a leap of trust and faith, in yourself! Not surprising, its not actually something, a lot know how to do. It takes courage, strength, conviction, but it also takes vulnerability, the leap to risk looking like a fool. Socities have a lot a messages, most of them not kind nor pleasant, to ensure there are few fools. The subjection to jeers, taunts, the mildest form of shaming, no need to cite the worse. The hold on the psyche, this is the power game of the mongers and brokers, they have the majorities and the minors well trained. The only way out, to see the illusion for oneself, is to quit playing into the game.