From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Letter Four,” THE WEB OF SILENCE (London: Dartman, Longman & Todd, 1996), pp. 44-45.
Meditation is not information technology. It is about knowledge that redeems, pure consciousness—knowing, not merely knowing about. Meditation does not increase our funds of information. In fact we turn away from our usual information-gathering and sorting as we turn to a knowledge that is not quantifiable, a knowing that unifies rather than analyzes. [ . . . ] This redemptive and recreative knowledge is the wisdom our age lacks. We can recognize it and discriminate between it and its counterfeits because it neither claims nor parades any possessive pronoun. [ . . .] No one claims it as their own. It is the consciousness of the Holy Spirit and therefore it is the womb of all truly loving action. In the face of the most disheartening tragedy, it is as close to us as we are to our true selves.
After meditation: “The Vulture’s Wings” by Mary Oliver in BLUE HORSES (New York: Penguin, 2014), pp. 45-6.
The Vulture’s Wings
The vulture’s
wings are
black death
color but
the underwings
as sunlight
flushes into
the feathers
are bright
are swamped
with light.
Just something
explainable by
the sun’s
angle yet
I keep
looking I
keep wondering
standing so
far below
these high
floating birds
could this
as most
things do
be offering
something for
us to
think about
seriously?
Image by jplenio from Pixabay
