Eyes of Nature

Nov 19. frosty view just pre-dawn

Well, Duh! There’s a connection between the vision coming through the camera lens (edited with openness for revelations of Beauty) and with the selection of text moving past the eyes, particularly with submissiveness to the heart, and with all bowing to the spirit. 

Why be surprised when reading from sacred writings, from reflections of mystics, that the eyes are directed to light emanating from nature, to the lines that dance, shimmering between still forms.

Sam’ani says it: 

“O dervish, you will not see Him tomorrow until He sees Himself through you. By God the tremendous, if tomorrow you want to see, you must have pure vision. Pure vision is that He sees Himself through you.”...

     “Those who step into the road do not do so for any cause, only for love. . . Expecting compensation for obedient acts is a fatal poison. . . If you were to walk on this road for a thousand years and your obedience was not accepted and then it occurred to your mind that it should have been accepted, you will have been a status-seeker, not a road-seeker. You will not be a realizer in this road until you abandon your status with both the Real and the creatures.” 

(pp. 18, 29, emphasis in original; Ahmad Sam’ani, trans by William Chittick. The Repose of the Spirits: A Sufi Commentary on the Divine Names.)

fallen log fashioned into a viewing station

          Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation for today includes a quotation from Lisa Sharon Harper:

 “Evidence of the presence of the Kingdom of God is thick wherever and whenever people stand on the promise of God that there is more to this world—more to this life—than what we see. There is more than the getting over, getting by, or getting mine. There is more than the brokenness, the destruction, and the despair that threaten to wash over us like the waters of the deep. There is a vision of a world where God cuts through the chaos, where God speaks and there is light. There is a vision where there is protection and where love is binding every relationship together. (p. 205; Harper, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right. Cited by Rohr, “Jesus and the Reign of God," Nov 19, 2020. 

November 11, 2020