"For years, I've practiced ritual.
It's dead now.
For years, I've practiced meditation.
It's dull now.
Finally, there is only soaring
Like an ectoplasmic ribbon
Floating over the sea.
When one is mature spiritually, one no longer needs the structure
of ritual or formal meditations. This is not to say that structure was
unnecessary, for without it one could not stand at this vantage point.
But once one attains a level where one has completely internalized the
lessons of structure, one can freely improvise in fresh and valid forms.
In spirituality, one can soar, free of ordinary restrictions.
Imagine yourself on a high cliff overlooking the ocean. Slowly your body
elongates like a ribbon. Longer and longer, undulating up into the sky.
Before you is the limitless vastness of the ocean and sky. You feel
drawn forward, and you can glide and soar over that expanse like a
ribbon. That is spiritual freedom.
Autumn is about to pass into winter. Spring is on the other side,
just as spiritual soaring is on the other side of stiff ritual.
Devotions have their own seasons. When you first learn them, they are
magical. Then they yield their harvest and wither. On the other side of
the withering is a new spring and a new spiritual vista. Wherever you
are in your spiritual years, cooperate with the cycle of the seasons,
until you emerge like a dragon, soaring in the sky."
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
By Deng Ming-Dao
November 10, Day 314It's dead now.
For years, I've practiced meditation.
It's dull now.
Finally, there is only soaring
Like an ectoplasmic ribbon
Floating over the sea.
When one is mature spiritually, one no longer needs the structure
of ritual or formal meditations. This is not to say that structure was
unnecessary, for without it one could not stand at this vantage point.
But once one attains a level where one has completely internalized the
lessons of structure, one can freely improvise in fresh and valid forms.
In spirituality, one can soar, free of ordinary restrictions.
Imagine yourself on a high cliff overlooking the ocean. Slowly your body
elongates like a ribbon. Longer and longer, undulating up into the sky.
Before you is the limitless vastness of the ocean and sky. You feel
drawn forward, and you can glide and soar over that expanse like a
ribbon. That is spiritual freedom.
Autumn is about to pass into winter. Spring is on the other side,
just as spiritual soaring is on the other side of stiff ritual.
Devotions have their own seasons. When you first learn them, they are
magical. Then they yield their harvest and wither. On the other side of
the withering is a new spring and a new spiritual vista. Wherever you
are in your spiritual years, cooperate with the cycle of the seasons,
until you emerge like a dragon, soaring in the sky."
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
By Deng Ming-Dao
"What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more, to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes, or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!"
- Helen Keller
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