How "This Guitar'" Relates To Spiritual Practice in Recovery!

        (To hear this blog/vlog read and the music associated with hit click on "This Guitar".)

    Spiritual practice in many circles is frequently referred to as recovery! The gift of recovery normally starts after immense crisis and suffering. In the practice of Recovery a person learns how to tune their spirit by using principles and techniques learned from more advanced practitioners. Illusion of perfection or the need to strive for perfection exists as a  great stumbling block. Acceptance of imperfection and the need for help opens the door to humility which fosters growth. The following poem illustrates that helpful principle. 

    

 This Guitar*

I say to the Friend;

This guitar

In my bedroom

Sits in the stand

All day long

Doing nothing; 

Doesn't it

Know

It was made

To make music?

Tony, the Friend

Exclaims

This guitar

is the form:

A body,

A sounding board,

A neck with frets,

Strings, tuners, braces,

Created

To make beautiful 

Music, but

The instrument 

Remains passive

Until you tune

It up,

Finger a chord,

Then

 Caress the strings;

So too

With you;

Except 

Both instrument

And musician

Resides inside,

Don't be stubborn

Or proud,

Ask for help

In tuning!

                                                    (My Hafiz Collection)

  

      Next I want to share what can happen when that instrument is picked up and played. I call the instrumental  'Passion Rising During Covid 19!' (You may notice imperfection in the playing, but also that I'm energized. My spirit loosens up starts to dance.)

    Over the years of spiritual practice I've learned to ask basic questions such as exactly what needs to be recovered? What has been lost? The answer for me is: 1) A healthy sense of self by asking who am I? Who am I really?  2) And that sense of my-self needs a healthy loving relationship with that creative energy that brought me into being. I need to actively seek a conscious connection with that creative energy.

     In growing up the authentic self frequently recedes into the background as negative learning creates a false identity. Layers of training to fit into family and culture shape us provides us with a public face. A persona!  I was told who I should be and how I should be. This false identity separated me from feeling that primal connection with the true source of being.  Awareness of that life force animating me became buried beneath the demands to adapt. I nearly lost my most intimate valuable relationship. The connection with the power that flows through all things. Every culture and creed has their own name for that creative energy. The Tao, Buddha, Christ, God, Allah, Brahman and many others. But a name is never the thing. Adepts say there is No Thing. Another way to consider this concept is to say that this "power" "this creative energy source" is beyond our human ability to define. Yet our spiritual growth is dependent on that connection. Spiritual practice fosters that connection breaks down barriers as the person in recovery returns to fundamentals. An unlearning process that moves us toward knowing that that nameless energy must reside in all things most surely in ourselves. 

Recovery*

Only life's suffering

Can bring you to

Your knees

Over and over

Until

No longer praying 

For wants

The only valid Question

Becomes paramount;

Recover What?

That which brought you

To be inside your mothers

Womb

Brought her through contractions

Of pain

To find

Joy

In the new life

She brought forth;

That which raised you up

From crawling floor

To run on fleet feet,

That which taught 

You dance steps

In the grocery store,

That which you

Sang

As rain fell

To wet your hair,

That mysterious energy 

That can be dulled, but

Never lost

Go ahead

Fear not to say

To yourself 

That word,

The abundance of

The gift of

Your being

Still unfolding

As greying eyes

Smile now to see

Children dancing

Down

Every aisle!

                                                                (For Winnie -- My Hafiz Collection)

    The poet T. S. Eliot wrote:  "We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time."  This poem implies that our spiritual growth leads us to not simply return to childhood, rather to recognize on a higher conscious level that that primary source is the end all be all of not just ourselves but of the Universe and all it contains.   

Be well my friends. May Peace and Serenity be yours!  Love in that Special Way -- Tony 

*Ps: In this blog I share two poems written by me after reading The Gift *, a collection of poetry by the Sufi Master Hafiz. Hafiz  lived and died in Persia in the 14th century.   The Gift was a gift from a friend. Thanks Tim!