Today I wanted to post a poem from the book, If Darwin Prayed, by Bruce Sanguin. Bruce is a member of the Beams family and has posted several articles. He's also the minster at Canadian Memorial United Church in Vancouver, Canada and I sometimes go to hear him preach during his Evolutionary-inspired-Christian-dharma-throw-downs (I find it really potent and moving stuff).
His poem (prayer, actually) below is one that speaks to my experience and understanding of meditation. I don't know if Bruce intended it to be about mediation, but there're many elements of the theme that jump out at me. At times I've even taken this poem and read it through silently before sitting, to help me adopt a right attitude and to just let go.
Here's the poem, enjoy it on your own, and if you're interested, my interpretation is afterward.
Hands Opening
We gather now
to deepen our trust,
relax our grip on life,
and let go - for one brief hour -
into a matrix of grace.
We witness
the fearful protests of the ego
as we imagine
releasing our white-knuckle grip
on life.
Show us the way, brother Jesus,
into the kin-dom of God,
which is always already present
for those who have discovered the
free-fall wisdom of the open hand.
Amen.
How is the poem like meditation?:
Stanza 1:
We gather now
Gathering one's self to meditate: physically crossing your legs, gathering your hands in your lap, drawing-in your intention from the external world and turing inward.
to deepen our trust,
relax our grip on life,
Relaxing our grip on life and letting go requires trust, trust in something deeper than ourself. Letting go in trust, that's meditation.
and let go - for one brief hour -
into a matrix of grace.
I usually sit for one-hour blocks.
Waking-up is an experience of grace. It's not something that can be 'found', 'created', or 'forced', it comes on it's own.
Stanza 2:
We witness
The witness is a position the meditator can take in relation to her expereince, where she 'sees' her experience, but isn't wrapped-up in it.
the fearful protests of the ego
as we imagine
releasing our white-knuckle grip
on life.
A perfect description of what it feels like to consider letting go.
The ego freaks-out, grasps with white knuckles and is wracked with fear. It's scary to sit down and consider really letting go of absolutely everything.
Stanza 3:
Show us the way, brother Jesus,
into the kin-dom of God,
which is always already present
The kingdom of God - the Immanent, the Source, Nirvana - is always present already, like the poem says.
for those who have discovered the
free-fall wisdom of the open hand.
The Kingdom is (re)discovered by opening the hand, which is symbolic of letting go.
And free-falling is how my own teacher, Andrew Cohen, describes meditation - letting go so completely it's like you've jumped out of an airplane, leaving everything behind, and just falling - free falling without any ground below!
Stanza 1-3:
Together the first stanza gives the instructions for meditation, the second describes the experience, the third describes what meditation reveals: God.
