Simone Weil

 There Comes

If you do not fight it---if you look, just
look, steadily,
upon it,

there comes
a moment when you cannot do it,
if it is evil;

if good, a moment
when you cannot
not.


This are words by Simone Weil, from a Christian viewpoint, but it could have be written from a practitioner of meditation (she was interested i Mahayana Buddhism too.

Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it We must continually suspend the work of the imagination in filling the void within ourselves."
"In no matter what circumstances, if the imagination is stopped from pouring itself out, we have a void (the poor in spirit). In no matter what circumstances... imagination can fill the void. This is why the average human beings can become prisoners, slaves, prostitutes, and pass thru no matter what suffering without being purified.
The test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.

Weil again .



If we look at what we may think is pleasure, for instance in a sexy movie, we don't think clear, we don't see the cameraman, the spotlights, the script and so on.  We don't know what the actors feel or think.

Weil was extreme in her search for meaning and her joy was of an ascetic type. 

Maybe the middle way is the better but her advice to let the void be there without telling stories to ourselves helps us to see more clear. At least when we meditate.... 

Then the story telling will start again, but maybe the meditation has given room for new stories and more creative ones. And we don't have to follow doctrines or gurus - if you meditate - don't forget to dance too. Diversity in ideas and exorcises may make us less stiff...

Change is inevitable. so why not try to let the changes be interesting. Weil may had many troubles and had a tragic death at young age - but for sure she lived an adventurous life and may had joyful moments too. 




 


 

-- Gravity and Grace

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