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This really struck me when I heard it recited at a gathering in New York for an event called "Peace Thru People"
"In the bosom of the sacred edifice of humanity,
lies the secret of spiritual architecture,
The Keystone of Love
Noble Soul, sovereign of mystic union,
Always Longing for Allah most high,
Bring ourselves to the one reality, the faculties captivated by love
Intimate allies and the closest friendship and most elevated ideals,
Above the noble pillars of religion,
Beyond formulas and faith, legends and allegories,
Shines The Sheaf...
Example and guide for souls.
The pinnacle of knowledge and refinement.
The subtle model of the mystic way.
Essentializing human activity,
Spiritualizing all phenomena,
And making the HUMAN HEART FRAGRANT WITH THE LITANIES OF BREATH.
It was said by the Sufi Master that this poem is about, the Heart, the Guide, the Master.
My personal interpretation means little, but is that these words reflect the need to shed all the baggage that we accumulate on the outside of our souls in this life. The extensions and ego that block us from our true selves and from the real truth about the unlimited phenomenon of our pure energy, and pure potentiality.
How to access these states minute by minute without years of asceticism and discipline, I am not nearly sure what the simple method to employ is.
Rare and beautiful words though.
RL
I have a very close person in my life who is recovering from a fairly serious surgery.
This woman is amazing in her daily outlook on life. She wakes up in the morning, with a big smile on her face and her attitude emanates pure joy. (I actually told her that she might need to tone this down, for grinchly people like myself in the morning, how selfish is that)
She is happy to be alive and healing, and she is ready to make a difference. She prefers not to take any pain killers for what is obviously a very painful situation.
She tries to stretch her time as far as it will go, always staying alert and willing to think about creative ventures and positive ideas for the future.
She talks constantly about how she can help some of her friends that are suffering in various ways in their lives.
This woman is selfless to a flaw sometimes. Sometimes I think that she should concentrate a little more on making herself feel good.
She inspires me to be a stronger and a more giving man. Very often I feel that despite my various spiritual technologies that I employ to keep me centered and egoless, there is still a long road to travel. I need to know that the work is never done.
I choose to think of this woman as a wonderful mirror that lets me know that its ok to hurt, as long as you do something with it......Help others, hug a duck, make a difference. Write a book about your shortcomings, so others can benefit. Something.
I am grateful on many levels for this woman's powerful and prophetic prescience in my life. "Everything happens for a reason" she always says....I used to just brush that statement off as a parable of the times. However, I really am starting to believe that meeting her, was certainly no accident.
It was a very bright moment in the light, that was obviously meant to be.
RL
"Too often we confuse temporary pleasure with enduring happiness because the trappings of the physical world are highly seductive and potent When we are able to distinguish between the two, we will find true happiness. Pleasure is usually associated with egocentric desires, whereas happiness is linked to the longing of the soul.
By and large, our desires emerge from the selfish side of our nature. What we covet is not necessarily what will bring us lasting fulfillment. Happiness eludes us when we chase after what we want, as opposed to what we need. Our desires and cravings generally bring misfortune and turmoil after the initial pleasures and immediate gratifications have worn off.
Be careful what you wish for."
Amen to this. I am finding now that real gratification comes in the form of simple connection to the people you really care about, and the ability to be open to the strangers that wonder into your world.
There is alot of happiness that manifests in the ability to accept and embrace the perfection in simplicity.
RL
At a younger point in my life......I was lucky enough to meet a family that had fantastic friends, salads, wines and just marvelous times.
I just loved them all like a bertollucci film.....
They got older and had wonderful families of their own....I am still in awe of the whole process and the diverse nature of some of the choices made.......but.....I was there and I was welcomed........it was a real blessing........
Names are being avoided, but one name I don't want to avoid is my friend Chef Cory.
Worked his way through many ventures, took many courses, and is in my opinion, one of the premier chefs in the country.
Love his prowess and tenacity and just.......him.
RL
Softly you whisper and you are so sincere.............
NOW I COME TO WITH OPEN ARMS............who would know the resonation of these silly 80s words......
I have a friend Liz who is a cancer survivor and embodies strength.....
Her dog recently had to be injected up her bum with Ketamine to help her infection.
As she was hallucinating with such strength during the worst Thunder Storm in Ontario history.
I started worrying about my possessions etc etc etc etc etc.
People can be amazing...............Julie
Liz is doing a job that criss crosses saudi and Dubai and London and it is all hers, as she takes care of her family and her true family.................a beagle............
My worries can be put on hold.
RL
Sometimes there is a fine line between creating fiction in your moment to moment existence, and believing that your own family are really freaks and pedophiles, and... that the strangers you meet are the actual warm wonderful friends.
You know that when you fall in love for real, it will take you to some Island of obscurities and every palm tree that got planted in the general vicinity will be your living mantra for a week.
Being subdivided as a species is very confusing..We need love and affection, but yet we hate to be told what to do.
Love our neighbours wives, but yet, are hugs alright?
Strange stuff.. Some days your uncle could champion you , and then turn out to be the main muffled character in his own personal version of William Friedkins Cruising.
It's not always cut and dry....... Love my girl.(I do)..Concerned about my families future, as they age and degenerate. I am..As the Buddhists taught us....getting ready to mourn.
However as some of the greats have reiterated, time doesn't really exist and all of our worries and tribulations are actually completely meaningless. Who the FK knows..
I worry about the millions of these innocent animals that wonder the earth in vain. Nothing could be more sad than the wild dogs of Asia
Its a strange and tense time.
Love you my lovely special girlfriend Julie and wish the best for you too Meegwun.
I always wanted to be Robert Redford and then he got older and started Sundance...Eloquently.
Sydney Pollack from Eyes Wide Shut has his eyes permanently wide shut now..Will we ever get back to the way we were?.. Let's move on and appreciate the moments.
And Ian you crazy artist from Queens, still love you too.
And just when you thought that this crazy metaphor of mammoth proportions was too much for any newborn child...You realize that there is always the last poignant scene of THE SUMMER OF 42. Living on, if you need to access the beauty and sadness...
Let's get the kids off of their ipods and cellphones and back into anything that resembles, camaraderie and spiritualism .......This will take more than a village.
Oh and when I finally hit 40, I hope all of this will change and I will become and pragmatic optomist
RICK
When you are feeling strong and feeling spiritually connected, nothing can touch you.
I feel I can do the greatest good for not only my girlfriend and my family, but for the society that shaped my family.
I was toying with the idea of writing a blog from the perspective of a Heterosexual man with emotions. Emotions that are as real as the circumstances that he has to deal with in life. From the point of view that emotionalism is not necessarily a problem, but more of a clue to the type of direction that is needed.
With that in mind, I found this Blog about emotions. This particular piece is centered on the Korean word of feeling described as "Han". I found this fascinating and I will let you read it for yourself.
Han 한
I have often been fascinated by non western emotional states and how they can shine a light onto how humanity relates to its emotions. I think it demonstrates that emotions are not entirely innate but also reflections of the society we live in, and that knowing this we can change both ourselves and the society we live in.
Being a melancholic fool by nature, one that has taken my interest for a while is the Korean concept of Han (한). A complex intermingling of historical, collective and personal sorrow an acceptance of a bitter present and a hope of a better future. There are also some suggestions of resentment and a sense of unresolved vengeance.
It is sometimes described as both unique to and an essential component of Koreans' emotional lives.
A Korean colleague put it quite simply:
Han = a collective sense of bonding based on suffering and hardship
The bonding aspect here is important as it binds a people together, in a non-market based sense of identity. It is a collective feeling and i think an interesting bridge for us between the psychological interior of emotions inside our heads/hearts and the social aspect of emotions and responses to social situations.
The Korean poet Ko Eun described it thus:
"We Koreans were born from the womb of Han and brought up in the womb of Han."
Probably the most well known reference to it in Western culture is the episode of series 5 the West Wing entitled 'Han'. It describes the plight of a North Korean pianist who is asked not to defect (which he wanted to do) in order to preserve the hopes of nuclear non proliferation talks with the two countries.
President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) describes it thus:
"There is no literal English translation. It's a state of mind. Of soul, really. A sadness. A sadness so deep no tears will come. And yet still there's hope."{The West Wing: 5.4}
There is a good description from the Korean-English translator David Bannon:
"The term han cannot simply be translated as "resentment" for every book, article or poem. The phrasing must match the usage—a tricky thing with all words, especially so with a term that has vastly complex meaning to Koreans.
Han is frequently translated as sorrow, spite, rancor, regret, resentment or grief, among many other attempts to explain a concept that has no English equivalent. (Dong-A 1982: 1975). Han is an inherent characteristic of the Korean character and as such finds expression, implied or explicit, in nearly every aspect of Korean life and culture.
Han is sorrow caused by heavy suffering, injustice or persecution, a dull lingering ache in the soul. It is a blend of lifelong sorrow and resentment, neither more powerful than the other. Han is imbued with resignation, bitter acceptance and a grim determination to wait until vengeance can at last be achieved.
Han is passive. It yearns for vengeance, but does not seek it. Han is held close to the heart, hoping and patient but never aggressive. It becomes part of the blood and breath of a person. There is a sense of lamentation and even of reproach toward the destiny that led to such misery. (Ahn 1987)."n
Banno goes on to cite a good example from Korean literature:
"The inevitability of fate frequently fuels han in the arts. Korean television and films are informed by han, as are older forms of tragedy, such as P'ansori performance songs and folk tales. For example, poetess Yi Ok Bong (?-1592) described how she had visited her lover so often in dreams that if her spirit were corporeal, the pebbles on the path to his house would be worn to sand. (Kim 1990: 222). Yi uses the term han in the second line, which has been translated: "This wife's resentment is great." "Resentment" implies anger and frustration, certainly part of han, but the line fails to express the sorrow and resignation of the original. Another translator chose "I am sad" for the same line and still another, "my longing deepens." (Lee 1998: 85). This poem demonstrates the importance of context and usage. In the complete poem, insert each of the three previous translations at the end of the second line and the problem becomes clear:
Are you well these days?
Moonlight brushing the curtain pains my heart.
If dreams leave footprints
the pebbles at your door are almost worn to sand. "
As a basic rule, however, one must always go beyond western interpretations of non-western concepts and listen to the creators of the concept itself, the Korean people. This is not to say David Bannon is wrong of course!
In 1994 in Paris, the late and hugely respected Korean writer Park Kyong-Ni (박경리) spoke in greater detail about Han and her comments challenge the notion of Han containing resentment.
"If we lived in paradise, there would be no tears, no separation, no hunger, no waiting, no suffering, no oppression, no war, no death. We would no longer need either hope or despair. We would lose those hopes so dear to us all. We Koreans call these hopes Han. It is not an easy word to understand. It has generally been understood as a sort of resentment. But I think it means both sadness and hope at the same time. You can think of Han as the core of life, the pathway leading from birth to death. Literature, it seems to me, is an act of Han and a representation of it.
'Han is a characteristic feeling of the Korean people. But it has come to be seen as a decadent feeling, because of the 36-year Japanese occupation. It is understood simply as sorrow, or resignation, or a sigh. Some have compared it to the Japanese word ourami, meaning hate or vengeance, but that s quite absurd. This nonsense is the result perhaps of the identity of the Chinese character or it may be a kind of left-over from the Japanese occupation. The Japanese word ourami evokes images of the sword and the seeds of militarism, and is a characteristic feeling of the Japanese, for whom vengeance is a virtue. Therefore the Japanese word ourami is completely different from the Korean word Han. As I have already said, Han is an expression of the complex feeling which embraces both sadness and hope. The sadness stems from the effort by which we accept the original contradiction facing all living things, and hope comes from the will to overcome the contradiction."
Is it unique to Korea? Possibly but not necessarily so. And Han has much to teach us about a response to suffering, not least if we appreciate Park Kyong-Ni's point about Han not being imbued with vengeance.
Can emotions like Han teach us how to break the cycles of violence in history?
I love the questions that are raised by this piece. It's relevant and visceral and right there for the taking.....It's also a little bit intense for the afternoon, so I will settle back into my episode of Mad Men and Tennis before I refuel and address this personally again.
RL
