Untitled (this is my latest completed painting, finished just before leaving on this trip... I'll title it soon...) ©2013 Rev. David Seacord 30" x 40" Acrylic on Canvas
Everyman's WEEKLY Journal #47
©2013 Rev. David Seacord
October 27, 2013
As God Wills….
In pre-industrial India the traditional lifestyle of a wandering holy person was to limit the time spent at any one location to a maximum of three days, and then to move on. The understanding that created this ethic was that if one stayed longer than that, the roots of attachment, possessiveness, and desire would arise, and the spiritual vision of the renunciant would be diminished. In my own experience as a modern-day sometime wandering sadhu here in the United States I have found this wisdom is useful, both in regards to places and people, especially when the reason for being somewhere is 'karmically casual', meaning that your/my presence is not a more or less required condition (in the context of your activities).
The reason I am mentioning this principle is that this is the third morning I have awoken in an absent friends apartment in the Chimayo valley of northern New Mexico, and I am in a state of appreciation for the gift of having been able to be here (as I begin preparations to depart to other towns where my contract takes me). My absent friend Don is also a holy man of a Zen sort, and according to a psychic's comment many years ago, we have a long past-lifetimes monastic history together. In this lifetime he lives very simply… just a table with a lamp, a chair, a bed… and a limited collection of wonderful books. Among them are Tolstoy, Blake, Hawkings, Gurdjieff, Dickens, and my favorite-- Daniel Ladinsky's translations of the poems of the great 14th century Sufi master Hafiz. Do you know Hafiz? He is not as well-known as Rumi, but (like Kabir) he is absolutely wonderful and I must introduce you. Here is one poem whose last line instantly became a mantra within me…
FORGIVE THE DREAM
All your images of winter
I see against your sky.
I understand the wounds
That have not healed in you.
They exist
Because God and love
Have yet to become real enough
To allow you to forgive
The dream.
You still listen to an old alley song
That brings your body pain;
Now chain your ears
To His pacing drum and flute.
Fix your eyes upon
The magnificent arch of His brow
That supports
And allows this universe to expand.
Your hands, feet, and heart are wise
And want to know the warmth
Of a Perfect One's circle.
A true saint
Is an earth in eternal spring.
**********
(compliments of Don's bookshelf) :-)
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In route between two places out in the gorgeous middle of nowhere last week, I pickup up an interesting rider.
Zever Blackbull is Osage (Native American), in his mid-fifties, is college educated and was a history teacher in our public schools, and has been homeless by choice for the last 15 years. He is a happy talented man with no victim story. He works as needed at manual jobs to cover his simple needs. He loves life and 'the Great Mystery' he calls Wakantonka. Because our routes were tangent we camped together on the edge of the Rio Grande Gorge that night and separated the next morning 'as brothers' in Taos. He had by then taught me several new indigenous words of joy and thanksgiving which we began to sing as chants. He invited me to consider coming to some powwows in the future to sing. It was a very good (and obviously non-accidental) meetup, blessing us both.
The next night my camp was at the Las Vegas (NM) Montezuma Hot Springs… a community-cared-for mecca of wonderful healing waters that is among my very favorite to visit. While there soaking I met 24 year old Richard who (as a young hood convicted of a minor felony at 18) was given the choice to do 5 years in prison OR enlist in the military. He chose the military and was shot 15 times in Afghanistan. That he somehow survived is almost beyond belief. Our group conversation with him was a compassionate exploration of his current life circumstances based on the observation that since he was still here, there certainly is a reason… a mission…and it is his to find it. Soaking and contributing wisdom from the other side of the pool to this satsang was Armando, a 'young senior' who has for the most part set down his sculpturing career to become an organic farmer and majordomo of his valleys acequia (irrigation ditch). We connected around our discussions of soil building, seed saving, the need to maintain biodiversity, and how to empower the local small agrarian movement. I am warmly invited to visit his Infinity Farms location in the future. I believe I shall, in God's Timing. The point is that everywhere I am, when I am THERE, God and Love and Wisdom are also present.
Today (it being Sunday and therefore my day off) I am guest at my longtime soul-brother Paul D's off-grid solar-powered home, where I am invited to create in his audio recording studio complete with his digitally retrofitted Chickering acoustic 9 foot grand piano. I am hopeful that whatever we accomplish will someday be sharable, as I do dream of offering you something enjoyable to listen to, meaning 'mistake free'. And on Paul's piano, the beauty of midi technology that he has retrofitted under the keyboard allows for the correction of the occasional error. I thank you God for this dream come true.
Speaking of listening, I have also been grateful this weekend to be listening to a series of highly informative interviews of anti-GMO experts which is streaming online currently as a result of the GMO Mini-Summit being hosted by authors John Robbins and Jeffery Smith. The link is http://gmosummit.org/broadcasts/and the interviews are available for replay for 24 hours for free. Please do use this opportunity to become more expertly informed, as the more knowledgeable we are, the more credible we are.
A concurrent activity going on within me during all this work traveling is that I am also at work continuing my legal preparations for challenging the validity of the Monterey County 'no camping' ordinance for which I was cited last August while visiting the Big Sur coast. This is a process…. of reading, thinking, and also a lot of speaking to other people about the law. I am noticing that the more I am putting together my thinking into sentences, the more practiced at expressing them coherently I am becoming. This is good, as it is confidence building. And as aways, I am getting the sense that it is this process, this 'mining the facts and feelings for the truth' and then bringing them into the realms of language that is God's gift to me, for whatever the legal outcome in court, I am being deepened and increased by being willing to act upon my conviction that the act of sleeping in my car is an act of Right, and that in so doing I am innocent of any offense against anyone. One gift of meeting Zever Blackbull was that I am empowered to continue, as he immediately recognized and confirmed the benefit it would be to all 'people of the earth' if this law is overturned. So… to be continued. :-)
It will require at least three more weeks in New Mexico for me to complete my contract here… I'll spend next week in southeastern New Mexico, visiting Carlsbad and Roswell and several other towns before returning to Albuquerque to finish the final stretch in that city. Following that, I will return to Yuma for a period before journeying to Monterey to appear in court, hopefully doing that while on the way to the Portland birth of my 'godson' in early December. As always, as God wills…
May you each be 'an earth in eternal spring'.
Namaste & Sat Nam,
David
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Rev. David Seacord
Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag
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