Walking in a dead man's shoes

I had a dream about an old man I somehow knew. I didn’t know him well but had some assumptions about him. He seemed to have had a full life. I was going to help him become more active, do some walking, the next day. The next day though he quietly died. I went to his house, where he lived alone. All I could hear was a whispering sadness. I found his walking shoes next to his bed. They were old, but never worn. I instinctively put them on. They fit perfectly.

Unlived lives, unanswered calls, unrequited love, unwritten songs, unopened letters, undiscovered selves, unfinished stories, unspoken words, unembraced mornings, untaken risks, unawakened belief, undoing what has to be undone.

The riposte: saying yes to the now, being consciously present, living the questions.

Neigh-incarnation

"You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking." - Malachi 4:3

"All of the truly important battles are waged within the self. It is as if we are all tempted to view ourselves as men on horseback. the horse represents a lusty animal-way of living, untrammeled by reason, unguided by purpose. The rider represents independent, impartial thought, a sort of pure cold intelligence. Too often the pilgrim lives as though his goal is to become the horseman who would break the horse's spirit so that he can control him, so that he may ride safely and comfortably wherever he wishes to go. If he does not wish to struggle for discipline, it is because he believes that his only options will be either to live the lusty, undirected life of the riderless horse, or to tread the detached, unadventuresome way of the horseless rider. If neither of these, then he must be the rider struggling to gain control of his rebellious mount. He does not see that there will be no struggle, once he recognises himself as a centaur."
- Sheldon Kopp in If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!

Storyteller and poet Rives in the free-spirited rhyming verse of a fantastical mockingbird lullaby

I live my life

I live my life in growing orbits,
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

RAINER MARIA RILKE
Translated by Robert Bly

I am not I

I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.

JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ
Translated by Robert Bly

Modern religion as the counter balance to mass-mindedness

Christianity has a paradox (probably only one of many): the individual trying, also being assured that it is safe, to pursue individuation in faith because of the personal and intimate relationship with a Saviour versus the collective prescriptions of keeping the faith as it is currently understood. Jung stated that, “Resistance to the organised mass can only be effected by the man who is as well organised in his individuality as the mass itself” and organising oneself through individuality is not always blessed by the religious institution who needs compliance for its own sake. When individuality is governed by a set of rules applicable to the homogenous mass the individuality could at best be a murky reflection of the mass-ideal. I further agree with Jung that it is not Christianity that is finished, but rather our conception and interpretation of it, which has become antiquated in the face of the present world situation. “The Christian symbol is a living thing that carries in itself the seeds of further development. It can go on developing; it depends only on us, whether we can make up our minds to meditate again, and more thoroughly, on the Christian premises. This requires a very different attitude towards the individual, towards the microcosm of the self, from the one we have had hitherto” - CG Jung. Is it then not appropriate, as Rob Bell has done in part, in “Velvet Elvis,” to redefine our relations, to pursue new definitions, to state new intentions, to ask new questions, which invariably will not be bigger that a big God?

We would rather be ruined than changed
we would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the present
And let our illusions die
- W. H. Auden