Spirituality

For me, the best poetry stirs my soul; it awakens my spirit through its clarity and simplicity. Its purpose is clean, pointing me towards greater understanding of who I am in this world, or, even better, towards comprehension of the divine that indwells both this world and me. It is this comprehension, this movement towards the divine, that enables each of us to make this world better as we work for justice and an “acting-out” of the divine’s attributes.

Much poetry that is published does not fall into this category for me. I find it bland; I struggle with the lines, struggle to make sense of it, and eventually give up. But every once in awhile I am rewarded with a rich vein of spirituality comes to me. William Simpson, spiritual master of the Conscious Living Foundation (www.consciouslivingfoundation.org) has provided this vein for me, in his recent book, From the Path: Verses on the Mystic Journey. The poems in this book are food for the soul, providing both inlet and outlet for contemporary journeying with the divine.

Mr. Simpson is well aware that spirituality is a journey, that one never arrives. Through his long years of meditation, Simpson has discerned that each of us is here for a purpose. For him, part of that purpose was to record these sixty-six poems “found” during the course of his summer meditations in 2004. (He also includes a helpful primer on “first steps,” described on the back cover as “practical techniques for growth and transformation.”)

While he wrote, he struggled with his self—with whether the poems made sense, or how it would end. This struggle demonstrates the reality of the spiritual life as we move between the two poles of doubt and faith, darkness and illumination.

This struggle is clearly scene, and enhanced for each of us, in several of his poems. For example, in “And So I Sit,” Mr. Simpson details the difficulty in maintaining a spiritual practice: “Distracted and enticed by / Flaws and indiscretions / I am pulled away from / Your presence.” The joy of knowing the divine is attested in “To Rest In You,” even with the awareness that a glimpse of truth now is not the end of the journey: “What a relief to rest in You! / To let go of pain. / To let go of tension. / To just let go…. / And what of the world? / Terror and war.” Finally, we learn in “Another Kind Of Love” that the path to the divine is learned and lived by love: “There is another kind of love. / One without an unfulfilled desire. / One that seeks no selfish end…. / When the best way / To get it— / Is to give it— / Purely. / There is another kind of love.”

We can thank Mr. Simpson for showing us how to dance. It is up to each of us to follow his lead and enter into this mystic dance.

More Articles:

2. White Sun - What is Life? (Part 1 of 10) By Teow Aun Chew
The Home of the souls is the destination for a person to return to the roots; it is the origin, it is the Kingdom of Gods. The word faith means to be truthful. Faith is the origin of Tao, virtues and merits.We addressed God as "Lao Mu" whose full title is "The infinite Bright God, who is absolutely pure, is the utmost supreme and divine, reigns the three domains and ten directions, and is the lord of all souls."In this Part One known as Admonition One, Lao Mu said:In the beginning, Heaven and …

3. Shamanism By Robert Baird
Is it really possible that Don Juan could command the movement of Carlos' attention point or time reference point to another dimension that he calls the Nagual and the sorcerer’s perspective? Can the adeptness of one person rise to know you better than you know yourself even at the level of the body conscious focus on the material world? Is INFINITY like the multi-dimensional soul which at some point is harmonized in ethics so much that it laughs at the stupidity of the soulful entities explor…

4. Past Life Regression in Hypnosis: Clearing Past Lives Trauma By David Quigley
In the first article in our past life regression series, we discussed the question of whether a past life memory was "real", that is could it be a historically valid recollection. We also addressed the question of the validity of past life regression (henceforth referred to as PLR) therapy as an appropriate therapeutic intervention for client's problems. I pointed out that PLR has become popularized by a number of recent books. These books have proven the value of PLR as a subject of historica…