Building Our Dream Cabin On Still Mountain Part Two: “North Wall” and “In The Work”
TRANSFORMATIONAL POETRY Of The SPIRITUAL SOUL
THE DAWNING LIGHT # 84 Sunday April 23, 2023
JOURNEY OF THE HEART # 70
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
NORTH WALL The north wall with The kitchen window And the view to the canyons And valley below— I raised it up, After building it on the floor, As the sun dissolved Behind the mountains. Suddenly, empty space is Enclosed by walls and views And becomes a living place. I light our new Coleman lantern And suddenly light floods This shell of our new house, like A newborn baby’s first eye opening— Light flooding the forest All the way down the hill To the white field phone Tacked to a post. I rejoice, I am amazed, I am illuminated, I receive the teaching, Understand both the Difficulties and the victories It took us to get here And in the lamp’s bright light I pound 8, 16 and 40 penny nails To secure the wall To the floor, and Bind it to the west and South walls, uniting the Three into one house. February 15, 1985 Still Mountain Retreat
Original Art By Chinmayan “Milarepa Ridge on Still Mountain”
IN THE WORK Working so long On our new dream house On Still Mountain, I rise and fall With the moods Of the weather and The land itself… Sawing Roof beams for the loft, We saw two deer Walking the ridge trail, Startled to find us And this shell of a house Straddling it. Two more Younger ones down in The ravine waited to see What their leaders would do. I paused in saw stroke as My young daughter Dawa said “They are my friends.” I called out a mani mantra* to them, So that that they, as well as I, Could get enlightened in Some future lifetime. But The work whispers to us, the Unfinished house calls, always Asking to be done and complete So we can move in and Have our new lives in this Place built with loving perserverance. I rise And fall with the days. All the Walls are up now, plastic For windows, rough camp kitchen Snuggled under one… And The work of finishing this dream Of a house yet to be our home Stretches out in front of me In an endless procession of days. So, I draw a breath, Realize that this moment is mine To live thoroughly and enjoy. Spring will soon be here With new leaves on the ancient oaks, And bright flower covering The ridge like a rainbow carpet. Someday, the house will be done, And I will miss this work. Someday it will be ruins And I will not care. Right now, I strap on My nail pouch, sling The long hammer Into its holster And start work again. February 22, 1985 Still Mountain Retreat *The Mantra “Om Mani Paydmeh Hung” is the mantra for developing love and compassion, and is said to be so powerful that is an animal hears it repeated 7 times, then will be reborn as a human in their next lifetime in a family of spiritual practitioners and make rapid progress on their own path to enlighgtenement.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
Revelations Poem and Calligraphy By Chinmayan
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