I know sometimes when I ready something later on that connects. Sometimes it can be explained be a recent experience and sometimes it catches me off guard where it touches.
Yes, i agree. But in this case the provenance is very clear to me. When i came to Live Journal in 2008 i had never heard of "non-duality. I knew that a lot of stuff in Hinduism and Taoism sounded real and important but i had no idea why. On of my first LJ friends was a devotee of advaita and she handled her many difficulties and disappointments with such grace that i really wanted to understand where she was coming from. In the last three years i have learned so much from the different spiritualites of so many different people, including yourself, that i feel that i can understand where the wise people are coming from. I am beginning to see the "points of light" because i am starting to learn where (and how) to look for them.
So very much insight and understanding in what you write about the poem. You leave me in the dust, speechless, yet wanting to begin to understand and experience what Berry and you are discussing.
i feel you have taken a good path in reading Richard Rohr - I knew noting about him - I only know about Franciscans, the seminary in Cincinatti, and Sojourners - plus I came to my own paradoxical/non-duality ideas on my own, (most written in a giant spiral journal that was thrown away by an acquaintance when my life was crashing)...
I know you know Wendell Berry and Berry, himself is a graduate course in spirituality -- a nature mystic par excellance, though i'm sure he calls himself a Christian. Sacred poetry, especially from the Sufis, but from all over time and space has been my scripture.
I know no more about Rohr as a person than you do, probably less since i have not read the wikipaedia entry. I only know that he is greatly respected by people that i greatly respect. But i have read two books of his many: Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Second Half of Life (better than O.K. but possibly a little shallow for you) and The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. I am a little over half way through and think that the book is earning its title. A companion to Evelyn Underhill's Practical Mysticism and much more to my liking.
I am also very indebted to the thought ways of aboriginal peoples, particularly the "American Indians."
And of course there is my "bible," the Tao Te Ching.
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I think i have "a way with words," but we both know that words are not where truth is at.
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So - I went to read more about this Rohr fellow and found the wikipedia article insufficient! https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Richard_Rohr - Maybe you'd enjoy filling out that wiki article a bit??? Just a thought!
Take care.
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I know no more about Rohr as a person than you do, probably less since i have not read the wikipaedia entry. I only know that he is greatly respected by people that i greatly respect. But i have read two books of his many: Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Second Half of Life (better than O.K. but possibly a little shallow for you) and The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. I am a little over half way through and think that the book is earning its title. A companion to Evelyn Underhill's Practical Mysticism and much more to my liking.
I am also very indebted to the thought ways of aboriginal peoples, particularly the "American Indians."
And of course there is my "bible," the Tao Te Ching.
And Buddhism.
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