1. Having visited the Martin Luther King Monument and the Frederick Douglas House in Washington, DC, over the weekend, one thing that struck me about both men is that in articulating the injustices to their “own people”, they expanded that to include larger spheres of oppressed people. This also seems to be true of Ghandi, Bishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela.
2. Lying in bed pondering non-duality and Christianity, I think about the metaphor of walking with God. Maybe this is a kind of practice or entry point to nonduality in that the intimacy can begin to help u merge with Being. I decide this is easier done in the woods possibly because there are fewer distractions, possibly because of the beauty, possibly because it is easier ti understand being part of that then seeing the busyness of the streets as Being. In any case the old Gospel hymn enters my consciousness and I can here the deep bases of the old men’s Bible class belting out their harmonies on a Sunday morning long ago:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
And then the song/hymn/prayer/vow sung by Mario Lanza in the Student Prince movie:
I’ll walk with god
From this day on
His helping hand I’ll lean upon
This is my prayer my humble plea
May the lord be ever with me
3. Heard today at meditation in SL:
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another
-Thomas Merton
4. and:
We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.
Thomas Merton
