Non-duality Hawkwood Gardens May 2010

I went on a course at Hawkwood College and the following poem emerged as I waited for the Friday evening session to start.

Heather, unsteady as the sea
sometimes rising to undefinable blue
or falling to no-name green

Having no name for green
no name for blue
and no need for either
it is just present here in this garden

Flexible in the wind
it yields to these colours
always balanced,
enjoying the wind and light

It is not the unfamiliar colours
but naming them that makes me unsteady



This is a poem about non-duality inspired by the 1st verse of the Tao Te Ching. The idea in this poem is that it is naming things that takes us away from the present and in doing so it unbalances us. While I was looking at the Heather and struggling to define the wavering colours of blue and green, to describe their effect in words, I began to feel sea sick. Yet the sun was falling on my shoulders in a beautiful garden - if I had just been present with the experience the unsteadiness would not have arisen. These ideas are to do with the doctrine of non-duality which is something which crosses all faiths and creeds. If you are interested there are some books below which explain it in more detail.

Spiritual Story - The Golden Washing Up Bowl

If you get benefit from reading this story then please donate 2 pennies or 2 cents into a charity box the next time you see one or alternatively refer the story on to at least 2 friends. This is the 2 pennies from heaven concept. This is a story suitable for a sermon. Whether you are clergy, a special pastoral assistant, a Reader, lay minister, or anyone else who is preparing a sermon, homily or talk with a spiritual element, this story could be what you are looking for. The story is meant to be cross-denominational and not aimed at a particular church so anyone can read and use it, whether you are a church go-er or not. If you want to use it in a sermon or as a teaching aid please do so. Copies can be made, so long as they are not used for profit.

So now here is the story:

The Golden Washing Up Bowl (A modern day spiritual story)

There once was a child at school who liked to talk to and old man at the gate. The man had a long white beard and a long black coat, and piercing green eyes that crinkled at the edges.

One bright sunny morning in March, the old man asked the young man what he wanted to do when he grew up. "I'd like to be a gold digger and work my way up the corporate ladder until I own my own gold mine," the boy replied.

"Do you know that your mother has a golden washing up bowl in her sink," said the old man.

Well the young boy was very excited and happy that day and after school he ran home certain that his washing up bowl was made of gold. He said to his mother, "Do you know we have a golden washing up bowl in our sink and one sliver of the gold could pay for the use we put it to? Here it is filled with dirty water and used crockery."

His mother laughed. "Golden washing up bowl indeed. Your old friend who told you this must be mad! Now do the washing up for me, because I have to go out to work. The work will pay for our holiday. Life is about paying for holidays and going on them. We get two weeks rest a year and there are no golden bowls in this house."

The boy kept working hard at school, then he worked hard at his office job. He worked hard because he loved to go on holiday and always remembered what his mother said. He forgot the old man.

When he was 50 his mother died. It was then that he remembered the golden bowl and how hard she had worked to give him good holidays. It made him work even harder, and he worked so hard that he got cancer and was given two weeks to live.

After he got his diagnosis at the hospital, he went home and stood at his washing up bowl. He remembered the old man. He sighed, he wasn't rich enough to afford a golden washing up bowl and anyhow, what would be the point? If you were rich enough to afford that, then you would have a servant to wash up, so you wouldn't even appreciate it because you would never stand at your own sink!

But now he noticed the sun was streaming through the windows and lighting up the soaps suds like so many jewels. The reflections on the sides of the yellow bowl were bright as though it was made of polished metal. It was just as though someone had turned up a dimmer switch in the kitchen, (which was odd, because there wasn't one).

Everything looks shiny and new, he thought. He began to smile, remembering the reflections in the old man's green eyes and how happy he had felt that day at school, knowing that his washing up bowl was made of gold.

In my next blog post I will be posting a poem, which expresses ideas from Lao Tzu and ancient Chinese mystic.

Katey
May you find God in everything you see today.