Practice and Know The Truth*

Practice, little Truth Seeker, practice

Light the fire of the Vital Life Force
and burn away the impurities and imperfections of the Body and Mind

Shine the Light of Discriminating Consciousness
on the tricks of the ego

Renounce the attachment of pleasure seeking and desire
for more, more, more
of that which does not ultimately satisfy

Break through the darkness and the veil
that you may hear God calling through Grace
and directly know the Bliss of Being in God’s presence

Embrace Right Acting through Right Knowledge
and develop a sense of Inner Peace

Through thought, word, and deed 
practice and know the Truth

– Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, undated piece 

*Dedicated to the memory of a dear friend whose life was filled with God’s Grace, Jeff Blake, author of multiple books about grace including
“Traveling on Grace Street: A Memoir”

Photos of Jeff from his book and social media

Poem: Our Life Transformed

The paradoxical tension of our lives
offer us each hope and healing,
the freedom from being puppets or robots,
relief from the whiplash of either/or thinking

We are programmed  from our birth;
false religion tells us we are fallen beings,
poor education teaches only one correct answer,
partisan politics, that we must all be one ideology

Yet our lives are many varied hues,
a much broader stroke,
a more impressionistic experience,
a rich, pastiche canvas of styles

Only our embrace of life’s tensions
offers true healing and  transformation of our very being
on a journey in a pathless land
to a true self of authenticity and belonging

One must be the salt and the yeast
and the fire and the blood
of this fermenting, purifying, soulful
life changing process that changes  everything

No one else can do it for you,
and no thing or no one must be allowed
to separate you from your spiritual truth;
such must be let go

Only such tenacity and meta morphing tension
can lead us on the no path
of yes/and, unitive consciousness to self truth,
authentic being, and belonging in community 

Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August 2019

Richard Rohr quote from his book “The Universal Christ”:

“…..if we have never loved deeply or suffered deeply, we are unable to understand spiritual things at any depth….Even God has to use love and suffering to teach you all the lessons that really matter. They are his primary tools for human transformation.” 

Poem: The Dawning of Love

High up in the Southern Hills
stepping out my door
into the arboretum
at first dawn light
the misty pink hued sky
and cicadas sing
their song
as a bird 
chirps it plaintive cry
the green, green grass glistens
a tight membrane covering
the loamy earth
the cool air invites and comforts
like a light linen flowing
ah, when Heaven and Earth 
are Home all things may be
regarded with Love
– Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August 2109

Poem: Today the Very Earth Cries

The trees bow their crowns
the very stones weep under our feet
the clouds cast dark shadows
the wind drones a mournful song
the creatures cower and moan
the people grieve and lament

Fires of the humans
rage upon this earth
destroying ecosystems
heating the atmosphere
depleting ozone
displacing/destroying life and cultures

Human’s ever expanding populations
and their demands and personal greed
threatens sustainability
of our earth home with
logging, corporate ranching and farming,
mining, infrastructure expansion

Long ago Turtle Island’s primordial peoples  
prophesied when the Earth has been befouled
and the waters turned bitter with disrespect
humans will have two choices:
honor the Spirit Universe and survive or the
personal comfort of possessions and perish

 Loving Creation hears us and is at One
Creator God suffers and weeps with us
The Earth invites our participation,
and not our domination,
alongside trees, waters, soils, creatures, air
All turning now towards Home together now

• Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August 2019

A Day in the Life:
Creating, Caring, Falling, Rising

Awakening to the muse
arising to the morn
capturing lightning in a bottle,
perhaps; I muse and write
before the day’s tasks and momentum take hold

Mid-morning breakfast with my beloved
I read for its’ joy and  learning to write;
puttering around the kitchen
cleaning up, tidying up
there is a certain flow takes over

 Care, chores, and errands to be done,
caring through the day for my beloved,
prepping three meals and tidying up,
cleaning and maintaining our home,
shopping to be done; our routine has begun

Hopefully a mid-day walk
relieving aches, clearing the mind,
oneing with the Universe;
along the trails, in nature,
we saunter about capturing images

The day gathers a particular momentum,
already  half gone;
early afternoon for resting
and some quiet time, as I putter about,
my beloved rest her eyes

Soon enough I prepare a small dinner
and in early evening we eat
and watch the ever worsening news
and perhaps something entertaining
on the telly as we wind down another night

Upstairs for an early bedtime,
we climb the stairs with stiff  groans;
I always read a novel before sleep,
new worlds and other lives and deep truths,
awestruck and immersed in the writing

Our latter-days, like a dream,
a certain symmetry arising;
here and now and past and future all one,
inner truth, authenticity, community, caring,
creating, writing, loving all that matters

The clarity, cleansing, condensing of aging,
and its’ falling downward,
my beloved and I filled with faith and hope
of the life, death, resurrection, arising
in, with, and through the unifying
Cosmic, Universal Christ principle of all together,
another day in the Eternal Life of the living, caring,
loving God as we walk one another Home at last

• Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August, 2019

This World We Make is No Easy Place for Humans

There is no senseless suffering
or alien sorrow from which one
is exempt in this world

When our attempts  do not change
the suffering or relieve its’ sorrow
one learns 

Joining in the suffering
accepting its’ wound
steadfastly committed to another day

All the while seeking the solace
of a costly grace-filled love which
is a harsh and dreadful thing

Costly for the suffering one 
requiring labor and fortitude
and a radical freeing forgiveness 

Costly for the oppressor
requiring confession and repentance
through a veil of  hubris and ignorance

Who here is the radical Christ disciples, 
the bodishattvas, the Vaishnavas,
the authentic compassionate Light Beings

Do  not forlorn beloveds
the transformative power of suffering
can only bring us to our Truth
and Authentic Belonging together

Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August 2019

‘Man of Sorrows’ 15th. century German woodcut artist unknown 

Prologue to my poem (below): Lamenting the times in which we live, I offer this awareness. Only by choosing the spiritual practices and age old principles that guide them, may one free their mind from the self-socio-cultural illusions of their reality this freeing peoples to come together as True Selves authentically belonging in community. We are talking the age old practices and principles of exile, death, resurrection, authentic belonging.

Poem: Doing the Work of Waking Up
(as if our lives depend on it)

Impermanence and change
is our human experience

Arising and falling away
our reality in tension

The unchecked mind lurging
this way and that a rider-less chariot

The ego self, in it’s fear,
clinging to comfort, avoiding risk

Thoughts’ seed and fruits’ action
is where our suffering begins a Buddha said

Thus practicing spiritual discipline
embracing spiritual principles of the ages

Learning non-attachment/non-aversion
Opens mindfulness of seed thought and fruit action

From contaminated consciousness arises
awareness of the self-socio-cultural illusion

Seeing our predicament
now bringing mindfulness and intention to bear

One may become the botanist and gardener
sowing the new seed and reaping the new fruits

The True Self can be harvested
now mastering the tensions and illusions within

True Self manifesting equanimity
equanimity manifesting wholeness

Wholeness, compassion
compassion, loving kindness

Loving kindness,  self/other healing
self/other healing, authentic belonging

Thus free of illusions, liberated souls
remembering all life Divine and acts sacred

Personally and collectively, whole again
true selves, authentically relating

One with the Cosmic Universal Creator Christ
walking each other home together

Here and now our heaven on earth
in the grace of a loving God we gather

Beloveds, doing the work of waking up
(as if our lives depend on it)

Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August, 2019