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Here are some of the poems which have been shared during recent mindfulness sessions.
What If There is No Need to Change – By Oriah Mountain Dreamer
What if there is no need to change?
No need to try to transform yourself
Into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving, or wise?
How would that affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better?
What if the task is simply to unfold,
To become who you already are in your essential nature:
Gentle, compassionate, and capable of living fully and passionately present?
What if the question is not
‘Why am I so infrequently the person who I really want to be?’
But ‘Why do I infrequently want to be the person I really am?’
How would this change what you think you have to learn?
What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying
But by recognising and receiving the people and places and practices
That are for us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?
What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world
Will arise from deep within
And guide you every time you simply pay attention
And wait.
How would this shape your stillness, your movement,
Your willingness to follow this impulse
To just let go
And dance?
MEDITATION BLUES by Stephen Levine
Sometimes it breaks my heart
to watch my mind–
cold self interest,
insistent fear and judgement,
whispered insults,
vengeful fantasies,
triumph and despair.
A conditioned unfolding,
so impersonal,
we take it personally.
Sometimes aghast
at the casual cruelty
of even minor fears
and celebrations.
Sometimes it breaks my heart
to watch my mind.
And sometimes it stays broken
long enough to touch
even this pain
with love.
Sometimes the mercy washes
even Mrs. Macbeth’s hands,
and tragedy turns to grace,
and makes it all worthwhile.
Sometimes it breaks my mind
To watch my heart
This poem comes from his book Guided Meditations, Explorations and Healings (1993) Gateway Books.
The Guest House by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
