Restoring the howl in Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’

January 6, 2011 by

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked …”

If we know anything about Allen Ginsberg and “Howl,” the poem that debuted in 1955 and shocked the nation during an anti-obscenity trial, we know that opening line. Perhaps the name Allen Ginsberg only summons an image of a bespectacled lawn gnome, suitable for pasting into a nostalgic collage of the ’60s.

But he was far more than that—and people who care about diversity in America need to clear away the haze of memory and see Ginsberg’s courageous, creative struggle more clearly. Long before Harvey Milk, celebrated now in the film “Milk” with Sean Penn, Allen Ginsberg waded into the public defense of gay rights. More than that, Ginsberg screamed in his epic poem in defense of the urban poor, against racism, in compassion for men and women marginalized by addictions, and in angry pursuit of justice for people locked away in institutions simply because they were different.

ALLEN GINSBERG THE LAWN GNOME

I’m now Editor of ReadTheSpirit online magazine, but back in 1981-82 I worked for the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper as a feature writer and I spent a day with the lawn gnome version of Allen Ginsberg. The University of Kentucky funded a visit by the poet. I was dispatched as the lead reporter on this occasion for central Kentucky’s daily newspaper. I met a couple of the professors proudly hosting Ginsberg—quite a difference from the obscenity trial in the ’50s when professors lined up to testify against him.

The bearded, bespectacled poet insisted on toting around his harmonium, an odd little hand-pumped organ he liked to play while he performed. He seemed to take glee in still startling a few students with some of the lines in “Howl.” However, Ginsberg mostly seemed bemused that day by these sturdy Kentucky students who flocked to hear him—or just to be around him. When he started playing that harmonium, shouting and singing—his whole body seemed to be dancing a jig. He was more of a nostalgic curiosity than a literary force that day.

WHY ‘HOWL’ THE MOVIE IS SO SUBVERSIVE

The creative team behind the “Howl” movie deserves praise for this subversive effort to revive the true nature of Allen Ginsberg’s work. First, the script for the movie was constructed from transcripts. Every word you’ll hear actually was spoken by a real person in the 1950s. That’s sometimes hilarious, especially when Jeff Daniels appears on the witness stand portraying a buffoon of a college professor trying to pour cold water on “Howl.” Watching some of these people testify reminds all of us to humbly watch our tongues in criticism today. Years from now, our misplaced anger will look silly.

But the truly subversive choice in “Howl” was casting two of the hottest heartthrobs in America as the leading characters. The courageous defense lawyer at the “Howl” trial is played by Jon Hamm, better known to millions as Don Draper in the hit “Mad Men” TV series. The defense lawyer Hamm plays in “Howl”—from his looks to his prophetic message to the court about American values—is almost a twin to the charatcer of Don Draper. Then, to portray Ginsberg, the producers chose James Franco. While Franco may not rank with Brad Pitt on tabloid covers, he’s certainly hot today. For example, he appears as one of the hunkiest heartthrobs in Julia Roberts’ new movie version of “Eat Pray Love.” Trying to place Franco in “Eat Pray Love”? He’s the knock-em-dead young actor who tells a girlfriend: “When I look at you, I can hear dolphins clapping.” Obviously, that sappy line wasn’t penned by Ginsberg.

Watching those two actors at the helm of “Howl”—that casting choice alone—drives home the film’s plea for diversity. Two of the coolest hearthrobs in America right now see the enduring value in what Ginsberg achieved more than half a century ago.

WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT ALLEN GINSBERG TODAY

Because he was right. He was honest. And, he was talented enough to do something about it.

Ginsberg, who died in 1997, left a huge legacy beyond his crazy stunts, kooky photos and quirky performances. If you want to learn more about him, the Wikipedia entry on Ginsberg is a pretty good starting point. He was a serious poet whose work has survived the decades. He won the National Book Award for The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965-1971, which is still in print from City Lights and is available from Amazon. He helped to establish America’s first major Buddhist college, Naropa University in Colorado.

But there’s more. These days, the joke is that there are precisely as many people who write poetry—as those who buy poetry. But, don’t laugh. It’s not a joke. It’s a signpost toward our future. We’re reaching a point with powerful digital networks where there are precisely as many people who write—as who read. Ginsberg understood this and that’s why he not only wrote the way he did, but he also was crucial in ensuring that Jack Kerouac was published—and the Beats actually made a mark on American culture before most of them burned out. The mark they made was scorching, because Ginsberg realized that—even from the margins of our society—words are a perpetual source of power.

Ginsberg shouted out this truth at the very end of Howl. In the new movie, you’ll see an entire performance of Howl by James Franco, including this sometimes overlooked “Footnote to Howl.” It’s the Footnote that, to this day, sends shivers up the spine. The actual language of Howl, of course, earns the film its R rating. But the Footnote includes these PG lines:

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!
Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman’s an angel!
The bum’s as holy as the seraphim! the madman is holy as you my soul are holy!
The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!

As Ginsberg roared on through that lengthy Footnote (and you’ll hear Franco do the whole thing in the movie), it’s true that he was shouting out some satirical social commentary in these lines. But, beyond the social commentary in these final lines, Ginsberg was proclaiming that all God’s children are sacred. All. None can be excluded. He ended with these words:

Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours! bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!

In the end, maybe those are the lines from “Howl” that we all should memorize.

Help to Revive Ginsberg and ‘Howl’

Buy the “original” edition of “Howl”: Amazon still sells the little black-and-white edition of “Howl and Other Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series)” that looks like the editions so many of us had on our shelves in the ’60s and ’70s. This also is the same City Lights publication of “Howl” that you’ll see in the movie as City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti goes on trial for obscenity.

Buy the new film and watch it with friends: Amazon sells the “Howl” DVD at a deep discount. Or you can purchase the “Howl” Blu-ray for a little more. NOTE: On either disk, the “Extras” are well worth viewing, including some video of Ginsberg himself performing in his prime.

We want our international conversation to continue

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!

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(Originally published at readthespirit.com)

 

Rumi 2: Meet Coleman Barks, Rumi’s leading interpreter

October 19, 2010 by

BIG NEWS this week for fans of Rumi!
Coleman Banks, the leading interpreter of Rumi’s verse for English-language readers, has completed his masterwork: Rumi: The Big Red Book: The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love and Friendship

ALSO, you’ll enjoy Part 1 (Coleman describes the spiritual power of Rumi’s work and we publish one of Rumi’s poems from the new book). Today, you’ll meet Coleman Banks in Part 2, our author interview. Part 3 is a fresh look at Rumi’s tomb, a global landmark.

HIGHLIGHTS OF INTERVIEW WITH COLEMAN BANKS
ABOUT THE SUFI POET RUMI and “BIG RED BOOK” 

Coleman Barks, the leading interpreter of Rumi for English-language readers.DAVID: Rumi is called the most popular poet in America and sometimes the most popular in the English-speaking world. I know that the BBC made this declaration a few years ago, but I can’t locate the actual data on which the claim is based. What do you know about this claim?

COLEMAN: I think this was started by the Christian Science Monitor in a report some years ago. But I don’t know how you gauge such a claim. I think it’s probably true, and even if data on book sales was totaled up and he came in the third or the fifth most popular, it’s still pretty phenomenal, isn’t it? Here’s a 13th-century mystic who is selling better than Mary Oliver today. And I love Mary Oliver, but Rumi’s more popular.

DAVID: Why? I’ve read enough Rumi myself to appreciate his spiritual wisdom and his talent as a poet, but I’m reading his work in English translation—usually your renderings of his verse. There are so many other terrific poets out there. Why is Rumi so enduringly popular?

COLEMAN: There are several strands to this.

One of the strands relates to the ancient Christian church’s decision to expunge most of the ecstatic material from the New Testament. His popularity partly has to do with the way Rumi brings back the ecstatic joy that is natural to being human, to being in a body, to being a sentient form. Rumi sees rapture in life. I resonate with that and, for me, that feels like truth—and I think it feels like truth to a lot of people. It certainly seemed like truth to Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, our national poets. They also give us this sense of waking to a day and being enlivened.

Then, another strand in Rumi’s popularity is that there’s a kind of hilarity and genuine joy that is a part of his appeal and this is ironic because his poems come out of grief. He had a friend who he lost and his poetry is full of missing this friend, Shams Tabriz. So there is this thread of deep grief as well as great joy—and those two notes, together, make Rumi a mature human being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shams_Tabraiz

MEETING THE MYSTERIOUS SHAMS TABRIZ

DAVID: Most of our readers probably have never heard of Shams Tabriz, yet he was such a crucial figure in Rumi’s life and work. This new book you’ve translated and edited for English-language readers was dedicated to Shams by Rumi himself. In your book, you describe Shams as larger than life—as “a fierce man-God or God-man.” So, what can you tell us about this mysterious visitor, Shams, who Rumi regarded as his mentor and dear friend?

COLEMAN: We don’t know much. This is one of the great mysteries in the history of world religion. Rumi met this man in 1244 and only knew him for three years, yet their friendship is beyond categories, beyond gender, beyond age, beyond mentoring. They made their friendship, really, a way of opening the heart. Their friendship expands so much that it becomes an atmosphere in which they walk and live. When Rumi met Shams, he said: What I thought of as God, I met today in a human being. It’s one of those things that can’t be expressed quite clearly in words, but you can feel the quality of that friendship in Rumi’s poems. This is different, say, than Jesus or Buddha who seem so alone, even with their followers, compared with this friendship between Rumi and Shams.  But then Shams disappears and Rumi goes looking for him, but Rumi does not find him.

DAVID: Your book opens with a description of this friendship and you say that scholars are not in agreement about what happened to Shams. In my own past reading, I always assumed that Shams was murdered, but you point out that’s just one version of the story. What do we know about his disappearance?

COLEMAN: Well, we don’t know what happened to Shams. He might have been murdered by a jealous follower of Rumi as some have said. Or, Shams may have decided to leave—to spur Rumi to a new dimension of his life and work.

We do know that Rumi called these poems: The Works of Shams Tabriz. That decision by Rumi drives librarians crazy to this day, because these are the works of Rumi, but they’re called just The Works of Shams Tabriz.

AN ASTONISHING FLOW OF INSPIRED POETRY

DAVID: You’ve called your new collection of translations from this large body of Rumi’s work something else. I’ve seen the title of this vast work also translated as “The Great Book” or “The Great Book of Poetry.” On the cover of your edition, it’s called “The Big Red Book.” Even more astonishing than these other mysteries —this unusual friendship, Shams’ disappearance and the book’s odd titles down through the centuries—is the sheer size of Rumi’s work. Your book is big, but you’re really only publishing a small portion of the overall enormous work. “The Big Red Book” hitting bookstores this month at 512 pages is really a volume of greatest hits, we might say. How could Rumi produce so much work?

COLEMAN: Yes, that’s another one of the Rumi mysteries. Evidently, he had about six different scribes working with him. All of the poems came out while he was teaching in his community. The poems would just spin off as he was talking with a group. They were spontaneous and they were taken down as they were said. Now, evidently he did look at versions of what the scribes wrote down and made some changes in the final texts. But, you can think of his poetry as a kind of sublime jazz that is spontaneously coming from him in a fusion of spirit.

Rumi’s son was very, very careful about preserving Rumi’s manuscripts, so we have a lot of them. We even have 147 personal letters that Rumi wrote to people and this is just astonishing form the 13th century. These are letters dealing with the nitty gritty of everyday life: Could you please give this student two more weeks to repay his loan? That kind of letter. He was minutely occupied with the daily business of his community—and, at the same time, he was producing this poetry in ecstatic states.

STARTLING LANGUAGE FOR RELIGIOUS POETRY

DAVID: I love the language in Rumi’s poems. The language often surprises us as we encounter it. These lines aren’t just eloquent; they jolt us. The images often take us places we don’t expect to go. Like “God in the Stew,” where Rumi writes: “Every natural dog sniffs God in the stew.” The image is surprising, even shocking. We don’t expect a dog and God in the same expression. Plus, Rumi was a part of the Islamic world and generally Muslims aren’t big fans of dogs. Petting dogs can require a fresh ablution before the next prayer time.

COLEMAN: Rumi’s particular brand of Sufis loved dogs and adored the way dogs are with us, how they respond to us. Some people think of dogs in poetry as images of desire, perhaps, or as negative images. But Rumi sees dogs as great and suggests we should try to be more like dogs.

I do agree with you that his poetry is electric. There is a quality of surprise in Rumi. I think the closest American example we have to this is Whitman, who had a prose side to his poetry and would break out into an aria or a lyric section. Rumi’s poetry feels that way, too. He sometimes has these amazing images, like the dog you just mentioned.

A LIFE IMMERSED IN RUMI; AN INVITATION TO EXPLORE

DAVID: In your book, you talk about your work on Rumi’s poetry as your life’s work, spanning many decades. You’re proud of this work, but really the tone you use here is one of thankfulness and of the awe that you keep finding in Rumi’s work. You don’t write as though you’ve finished the work. Is that fair to say?

COLEMAN: There is magnificent jewelry in this poet’s work. I’m always amazed by it. I’ve been in an apprenticeship my whole life in working with Rumi. He’s been teaching me as I’ve gone along on this journey. This has brought me lots of friends and good times and I keep experimenting with the poetry. I’m often invited now to read from Rumi, and I usually speak the poetry to music, now. That’s how Rumi would have done it—with music, I think.

DAVID: You’re regarded as the foremost interpreter of Rumi’s work for modern readers. But you describe your work as experimental.

COLEMAN: That’s right. This is like trying to translate Shakespeare into Chinese. Rumi can’t have just one translator. We need hundreds of translators. In the end, it’s impossible for anyone to translate Rumi into English. We need many versions. All I have done is offer suggestions about Rumi’s poetry.

Remember that I didn’t hear Rumi’s name until I was 39. I had one of the best educations you can get in this country, but nobody ever said anything to me about the Islamic world for years. What I have done since I was 39 is just a beginning. If I have done anything, I’ve offered the world one person’s introduction to the world of Rumi. I want others to explore that world, too.

YOU CAN ORDER a copy of “Rumi: The Big Red Book: The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love and Friendship” from Amazon now.

Come back tomorrow for Part 3, a look Rumi’s tomb—a global landmark.

We want our “national conversation” to continue

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture recently. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!

We welcome your Emails! . We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed. Plus, there’s a free Monday-morning “Planner” newsletter you may enjoy.

Rumi 1: Coleman Barks renders ‘The Great Red Book’

October 18, 2010 by

More than 700 years after his death, the poet Rumi reportedly ranks as the world’s most popular English-language poet. Of course, that’s a huge claim and it’s almost impossible to prove because of the ever-expanding number of books containing his verse. Amazon lists far more than 100 books of Rumi’s work in English. No one has definitive data on total Rumi sales.

One thing is clear: Coleman Barks is the leading English-language interpreter of Rumi’s work for our era. A poet himself, Barks renders Rumi’s 13th-century verse into contempoary poetry. That’s not just ReadTheSpirit’s judgment. More than half a million copies of Barks’ Rumi books reportedly have been sold.

This week, we’re bringing you three stories on Rumi to celebrate a landmark in Coleman Barks’ long career—and a major gift to the many men and women in the English-speaking world who love Rumi’s work. HarperOne is releasing the 512-page masterwork, Rumi: The Big Red Book: The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love and Friendship

Part 2 in this series is an interview with Coleman Barks about the enduring global appeal of Rumi and his many decades of work in adapting Rumi’s poetry for modern readers.

Coleman Barks on the Spiritual Grandeur of Rumi

In the Introduction to “The Big Red Book,” Coleman Barks writes in part:

“Rumi is one of the great souls, and one of the great spiritual teachers. He shows us our glory. He wants us to be more alive, to wake up. … He wants us to see our beauty, in the mirror and in each other.

“Rumi’s message can be stated in many ways. It is the core of the core of every religin. It is the longing in a human being to live in unlimited freedom and joy, to move inside beauty, that most profound need of the human soul to flow with the namelessness that animates, lxuriates, burns, and transpires through form, enlivening what is as steam, mist, torrent, saliva, blood, ocean, cloud, coffee, wine, butterfly, tiger, hummingbird, energy, and delight.

“I feel blessed to have spent much of the second half of my life working on the poetry of Rumi. I am 73 now in 2010. I began when I was 39 in 1976 at Robert Bly’s Great Mother Conference in Ely, Minnesota.”

Coleman Barks Renders Rumi’s “God in the Stew”

In the opening section of “The Big Red Book,” Barks offers this contemporary-English rendering of a passage from Rumi about … well, judge for yourself what it is about …

“God in the Stew”

Is there a human mouth that does not give out soul sound?
Is there love, a drawing together of any kind,
that is not sacred?

Every natural dog sniffs God in the stew.

The lion’s paw trembles like the rose petal.
He senses the ultimate spear coming.

In the shepherd’s majesty wolves and lambs tease each other.
Look inside your mind. Do you hear the crowd gathering?
Help coming, every second.

Still you cover your eyes with mud.
Watch the horned owl. Wash your face.

Anyone who steps into an orchard
walks inside the orchard keeper.

Milions of love-tents bloom on the plain.
A star in your chest says, None of this is outside you.

Close your lips and let the maker of mouths talk,
the one who says things.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2, an interview with Coleman Barks about his work, the gifts of Rumi and “The Big Red Book.”

We want our “national conversation” to continue

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture recently. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!

We welcome your Emails! . We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed. Plus, there’s a free Monday-morning “Planner” newsletter you may enjoy.

Meet English Spanish prophet & poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez

October 14, 2010 by

Our 40-day, 9,000-mile American Journey produced nearly 50 stories, including a few that have excited readers nationwide and continue to raise fresh interest. One of those stories involves Mexican poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, whose moving reflections on the American “standard of living” have touched lives coast to coast. Every week, readers ask about him.

We have received so many requests for more information on Rafael that, today, we’re providing these easy links to read more of his rich and prophetic reflections. First, a word of warning to newcomers: Gonzalez is a passionate voice for freedom and his commentaries often are stinging rebukes to American assumptions. A recent column he published in his blog about Columbus Day comes from a Native American perspective and is an angry summary of Native responses to the 1492 collision in the Caribbean.

Who is Rafael Jesus Gonzalez?

In 2010, he is honored by the Museum of California as one of 24 remarkable Californians invited to create a display of their artifacts primarily from the creative 1960s and 1970s. Rafael was born in what he describes as “the bicultural/bilingual setting of El Paso, Texas/Juárez, Chihuahua.” He studied in both U.S. and Mexican universities. He became a professor of creative writing and literature, teaching at five different universities. He has won a number of national honors for his work.

His poetry is distinctive because he often publishes in both Spanish and English, but the dual pieces are not translations of each other. To fully experience his poetry, one must explore both languages in his work.

Where can I read more about Rafael Jesus Gonzalez?

The ReadTheSpirit story that sparked so much fresh interest in his work is headlined Rafael Jesus Gonzalez Redefines Quallity of Life.

For an overview of all the most popular stories in our American Journey series, here’s a convenient summary and index to the links.

Gonzalez’s own blog, where he publishes commentaries and poems, is http://rjgonzalez.blogspot.com/

And, please tell us what YOU think …

We want our “national conversation” to continue

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture recently. So, please, email us at [email protected] and tell us what you think of our stories—and, please tell a friend to start reading along with you!

We welcome your Emails! . We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed. Plus, there’s a free Monday-morning “Planner” newsletter you may enjoy.

625: Start singing Lenten choruses with Carrie Newcomer … Before & After

February 21, 2010 by


Before and After you read our interview with the remarkable American singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer (on Wednesday this week), you can start reflecting on her music right now. Today, we’re sharing some brief excerpts—lines from her new album, “Before and After.”
    Here’s a fresh idea: Think about organizing a series for your small group around this album. A crazy idea? Well, consider this: More than 1 million small religious groups, most of them related to congregations, meet regularly across the U.S. Most gather for experiences like prayer or Bible study or ongoing conversation. One of the most popular ideas is to select a book and discuss a chapter each week.
    But, how about organizing a group around an album like Carrie’s new “Before and After”? This album has 13 tracks. Divide them up among your sessions. Ask participants to listen to a couple of songs each week. Then gather for your next meeting and start with the question: “So, how did you live with these songs this week?”
    I can guarantee you’ll have no shortage of spirited conversation. In January, 2010, we named Carrie Newcomer among our 10 Spiritual Sages to Watch in ’10.

    IMPORTANT LENTEN NOTE: This is Lent for 2 billion Christians around the world. Please, check out our Lenten Resources page—packed with terrific ideas for lighting up your spiritual journey toward Easter. This page also links to the FREE 40-day “Our Lent” series you can enjoy right now.
    AND: If you’d like to order a copy of Carrie’s new album, “Before and After,” click here to jump to Amazon.

CONSIDER THESE LINES and CHORUSES FROM CARRIE …

Even without the melodies, which transform these words into unforgettable music, there is power in the poetry itself. We invite you to reflect on these words—just a few lines excerpted from some of the songs you’ll discover on this album. And don’t miss our interview with Carrie on Wednesday!

FROM “Before and After”

We live our lives from then until now

By the mercy received
    and the marks on our brow

To my heart I’ll collect
    what the four winds will scatter

And frame my life into before and after

FROM “Ghost Train”

I’m not saying don’t remember
    or that all things can be repaired

But after the truth’s been told
    where do we go from there

Sorrow is a constant companion
    we learn to walk beside

Keep walking when it whispers
    and don’t listen when it lies

FROM “I Do Not Know Its Name”

I do not know its name

Swimmer or watcher

But I believe that there is always
    something

Moving beneath the water

FROM “Stones in the River”

So today I’ll drop stones into the river

And the current takes them out into
    forever

And the truth is most of us will never know

Where our best intentions go

And still I’ll drop another stone

FROM “I Meant to Do My Work Today”

I meant to do my work today

So many plans I had made

I’d check the mail, I’d make the calls

Save the world and sweep the hall

Finally get my accounting done

Sort the beans one by one

But I got waylaid by the morning sun

And I got absolutely nothing done

FROM “A Small Flashlight”

The way unfolds like an open hand

The way unfolds like I didn’t plan

And only in looking back
    do we understand

That the way was true as an open hand

FROM “If Not Now”

It will take a change of heart
    for this to mend
It will take a change of heart
    for this to mend
But miracles do happen
    every shining now and then
If not now, tell me when?

    AND JUST A REMINDER ON LENT: Please,
check out our Lenten Resources page, including a link to the FREE 40-day “Our Lent” series you can enjoy
right now. We ALSO invite readers to expand this page by Emailing us with your ideas.
    AND: If you’d like to order a copy of Carrie’s new album, “Before and After,” click here to jump to Amazon
.

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

    This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.

    We welcome your notes!
Email [email protected]. We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other social-networking sites as well.
    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)

604: Strong leadership begins in the humility of prayer and meditation

January 20, 2010 by


“If you have a spirit, lose it,
loose it to return where with one word,
we came from.
Now, thousands of words,
and we refuse to leave.“
RUMI

Our headline today is timeless spiritual wisdom and—after our provocative portrait of mega-best-selling preacher Rick Warren yesterday—we want to return for a day to this timeless inspirational power that most of our readers share in some form.
    You may call it meditation. Prayer. Reflection. Centering.
    In the traditions of India, including Hinduism and Buddhism, a string of 108 beads called “mala” is a widespread practice for centering meditation. (To read more, here’s Wikipedia on these strings of beads and there also are instructive Web sites like this one that focus more on Buddhist practice.)
    Catholic and Muslim readers will instantly recognize the spiritual value of this concept from their own traditions of using beads in prayer. Protestants are less likely to have tried beads, although a small-and-growing number of creative evangelists are touching on this idea.
    In a moment, we’re going to tell you about a great new book that provides 108 mala reflections in a single small volume. It’s callled, “Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems.” The Rumi poem in blue, above, is the first prayer in this new book from the New World Library.
    ReadTheSpirit offers this same kind of daily discipline of reflective reading. Right now, for example, you might find your mind, heart and spirit recharged by reading Dr. Wayne Baker’s reflections on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—or, if your mind is on Haiti this week, take a look at Rodney Curtis’ moving story of his own journey to Haiti for National Geographic some years ago.

    CLICK HERE to order “Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems” from Amazon now.

    I love small prayer books like this. It’s a pleasant volume to hold with its soft, matte dust cover and creamy pages. The book is comprised mainly of 108 prayer-poems—or perhaps we might call them “moments of meditation” penned by more than 30 poets. The number of pieces chosen by the editors matches a string of mala beads, a practice familiar to Hindus and Buddhists—and a first cousin to Catholic and Muslim prayer beads.
    The editors of this volume teach Hindu practices ranging from Vedic studies to Yoga. The foreword is from Buddhist scholar Jack Kornfield. But the poets in the volume form the actual community of teachers here and they stem from a broad array of traditions.
    You’ll find the extremely popular Rumi here along with the universally celebrated St. Francis of Assisi and William Blake. But you’ll also find Navajo wisdom. And, you’ll hear from Dante Alighieri (of “The Divine Comedy”) and the Sufi poet Hafiz and the legendary Kabir, who mingled Indian traditions (and who we profiled in “Interfaith Heroes”).
    If you’re like me, you’ve got a shelf (or perhaps shelves) somewhere in your home with well-thumbed prayer books you pull down occasionally and integrate into your life for a season. This new collection will carry you well through a day, a month, a season. You may have read some of these lines before in other collections—but these beads are arranged in a beautiful and spirit-provoking new way.
    Enjoy.

    NEXT WEEK, we plan to continue our series of interviews with men and women from our “10 Spiritual Sages to Watch in 2010.” We will bring you a special “Conversation With Barbara Brown Taylor.” Her book, “An Altar in the World,” is about to be released in a new paperback edition
and also celebrates spiritual disciplines.
    Finally, here’s one more sampling from “Mala” to help enlighten your journey through this week.

From St. Francis of Assisi:
“I think God might be a little prejudiced.
For once He asked me to join Him
on a walk through this world,
and we gazed into every heart on this earth,
and I noticed He lingered a bit longer
before any face that was weeping,
and before any eyes that were laughing.
And sometimes when we passed
a soul in worship
God too would kneel down.
I have come to learn:
God adores His creation.”

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

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    Not only do we welcome your notes—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this
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    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)

533: Thank you, readers—and pets! More about our spiritual connections…

October 7, 2009 by


There’s something powerful in our spiritual connections with pets—it’s as obvious as the stream of notes from readers in response to our recent stories on this theme.
    If you’re just joining us, here’s a link to our Resource Page on pets (including some terrific new Humane Society links). And, here’s a link to read about the popular, “Guardians of Being,” the new book by Eckhart Tolle and “Mutts” cartoonist Patrick McDonnell. Finally, here’s a link to two pet stories from readers that we published earlier.
    Today, we’re sharing another gem: This story comes from writer Cindy LaFerle and is included in her book, “Writing Home.” (If you enjoy these stories, don’t miss the Friday Reader Roundup—we’ll include more pet stories there.)

EULOGY FOR A VERY FINE CAT

By Cindy La Ferle

   

I didn’t fall apart when I found his orange flea collar in my desk drawer. And I was totally in control when I hung his “Cat’s First Christmas” ornament on the tree. It was the picture of the cat on the 5.5 oz. Friskies can that did it—sent me running in tears to the public restroom at the supermarket. The tabby on the can looked a lot like Whiskers, the family pet who’d wrapped his stripped tail around my daily routine for the past six years.
   
Of all the cats that ever lived with us (and there have been quite a few) Whisk was the hardiest. Or so we’d thought.
   
A husky marmalade tabby, Whisk naturally assumed the role of alpha cat, even though he’d been neutered as a kitten. He insisted on eating his meals before the other cats in our household, and while this might have seemed greedy, he often expressed his gratitude by leaving dead chipmunks on our porch. As my neighbor told me last year, Whisk earned his coveted reputation as the best “chipmunker” in Oakland County.
He was a showoff.
   
Despite his prowess, he had a tender side and would sometimes offer nose nudges on cue.
   
Always a good listener, Whisk took an interest in my writing career, and was never bored by any draft I read aloud in my study. His presence there was as predictable and welcome as my morning mug of coffee. He’d perch complacently on my desk until late afternoon, a furry orange Buddha waiting for the hum of an electric can opener.
   
So, it was only fitting I discovered, after the veterinarian took an X-ray, that Whisk had a very large heart. A dangerously enlarged heart, in fact, had thrown him into the final stage of cardiac failure by the time we’d reached the steel examination table at the animal emergency clinic. The only humane option was to put him out of his misery.
“Do you want us to cremate him, or will you take him home and bury him yourself?” the veterinarian asked gently after Whisk had gone to meet his maker. It was over that quickly.
   
One last time, I drove Whisk home in the blue pet carrier he’d learned to dread as a kitten. Then I waited for my husband to come home and help me bury him outside my study windows.
   
Later that week, the holiday season began. My friend Annie, a fellow cat lover, dropped off a poinsettia and a sympathy card with a poem titled “In the Loss of Your Pet.” The verse on the card assured “there must be a heaven for the animal friends we love.”
   
I know some theologians will argue that pets—whether we’re talking gerbils or German shepherds—don’t go to heaven and are only allowed to sprawl on the furniture in limbo, if anywhere at all. So I appreciated these comforting lines from Annie’s card:

   

Pets bring out our own humanity.
   
Each day they teach us little lessons in trust
   
and steadfast affection.
   
Whatever heaven may be, there’s surely a place in it
   
for friends as good as these.

   

A reader told me recently that losing her spaniel was harder than losing a member of her human family. “It’s been months since Bud was put to sleep,” she said, “but the house still seems way too empty without him.”
   
Oh yes, how well I know.


Please do tell us what you think!

     This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.

    Not only do we welcome your notes—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this
anytime by clicking on the “Comment” links at the end of each story.
You also can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other social-networking sites as well.
    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)