The Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich (1395 AD)

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Journal Éveillé is an informal exploration of awakened mind in the art of poetry....

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"All will be well and all will be well and every kind of thing shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich)

"Julian of Norwich is one of the subtlest writers and profoundest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and the earliest woman writer in English. Her Revelations describe a loving and merciful God and a positive vision of humanity....Julian's optimistic theology speaks of a loving and merciful God and of God as our mother, and her beliefs are of particular interest in relation to the position of women and the church. "

"The Revelations of Divine Love is a 14th-century book of mystical devotions written by Julian of Norwich. It includes her sixteen mystical visions and contemplations on universal love and hope in a time of plague, religious schism, uprisings and war. Published in 1395, it is the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman.......

During her early life, the Black Death hit the city of Norwich three times. It is estimated that the plague killed about a third of England's population in one single epidemic. People died so quickly and in such numbers that "the dead could not receive proper burial and in the worst of times, lay stacked in carts like so much cordwood, or in hastily dug pits on the edge of town, or simply where they fell, in the streets"......Seeing these images may have affected Julian, who was just six years old when the plague first hit Norwich. Although she does not speak of the plague directly, her book shows a deep sensitivity to suffering and dying."

"Julian spent much of her life as an anchoress, or religious recluse.... in the early 13th century, laywomen had themselves enclosed for life in a small chamber in a church....They were part of a spiritual movement which began with the desert fathers in the 4th century, whereby holy men and women, known as anchorites (or anchoresses), withdrew completely from the world, choosing a life of solitude consisting of a daily ritual of liturgy and prayers. In a macabre ceremony that included the Office of the Dead, ( The rite actually involved receiving the sacraments of the dying and reading of the Office of the Dead over her as she was bricked up in her cell.)....various prayers were said as someone was bricked up in a small room within a church, with only a small window to receive the sacrament and a slit affording a view of the altar.....The word “anchoress” — most were women — comes from a Greek word, anachoreo, meaning “to withdraw or retire.” The most famous anchoress may have been Julian of Norwich, who died in 1416......While the lifestyle was rigorous — involving a strict cycle of prayer throughout the day as well as work, often at handicrafts for financial support, as well as a Spartan diet — an anchoress was not lonely. In fact, as we look to centers of faith in our Year of Faith, an anchoress’ cell could became a center of faith for the town, with most people confiding in her...."

"Some of her teachings, however, stray towards the deep end of heresy. This is especially true of her position on the nature of the human soul, which can be said to be semi-gnostic in many respects.... The problem arises in her discussion on the nature of the human soul and, more specifically, the soul’s sinless nature.. . . 'I understood with absolute certainty that there is in every soul to be saved a godly will that never has assented to sin, and that never will. This will is so good that it never wills evil, but always wills good, and, in the sight of God, does good' ....within the soul, a portion of God’s will that is without sin. Indeed, this portion of will is not just a gift of God but, rather, is viewed as a deposit of God's very nature within the human soul. Julian “. . . could see no difference between God and our substance: it was all God, so to speak." This view is very gnostic. ".....Divine Love and Semi-Gnosticism: Heretical Tendencies In The Thought of Julian of Norwich....by: Gregory S. Neal

"Julian’s emphasis on God’s love and desire for human salvation becomes more significant when one thinks of the period in which she wrote. The Black Death came not only in 1349; it came again and again for over a century. The Church on whose faith Julian relied was in schism, with two or more popes claiming authority, from 1378 to 1417. Monastic writers and parish priests were teaching that all this was a punishment from an angry God. It is as if Julian saw the need to offer an antidote to the pervasive fear of sin and death and damnation."....http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual-and-devotional-poets/christian/julian/.

"Sin, says Julian, turns out to be “no thing.” This has been a controversial passage in Julian’s work. But she is quite clear: “Nowhere in all that was revealed to me did I see a trace of sin,” she writes. “And so I stopped looking for it and moved on, placing myself in God’s hand, allowing him to show me what he wanted me to see.” In Julian’s exceedingly practical view, “sin has no substance, not a particle of being, and can only be detected by the pain it causes.” When we make mistakes and create suffering, we humble ourselves and God loves us all the more. For those of us non-Christian and post-modern types, try substituting the word sin for shame, or blame, or even karma. In other words, we screw up, but that only opens the tender heart of the cosmos where we can find refuge and come back into wholeness."....http://mirabaistarr.com/all-will-be-well-the-radical-optimism-of-julian-of-norwich/

"TS Eliot is that closing part of “Little Gidding,” the culmination of his “Four Quartets.”.....one phrase in particular, “And all shall be well and/All manner of thing shall be well.” Eliot is, of course, not the author of that phrase. He lifted it from Dame Julian of Norwich. Julian, her person and theology and in particular that little line which Eliot echoed “And all shall be well and/All manner of thing shall be well”

Non-dualism in Eckhart, Julian of Norwich and Traherne: A Theopoetic Reflection By James Charlton......"Meister Eckhart, Mother Julian of Norwich and Thomas Traherne are interpreted as 'theopoets' of the body/soul who share a moderate non-dualism. Their work is brought within the ambit of non-dual Hinduism. Specifically, their passion for unitive spiritual experience is linked to construals of both 'the Self' and 'Awakening', as enunciated by Advaita Vedanta."

Julian and the Buddha.....Common Points along the Way.....by : Joanne P. Miller

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New Mexico

December 2016

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Celtic Bards and Central Asian Gesar Singers

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"Bard.....The word is a Celtic loan word from Scottish Gaelic bàrd, Irish bard, Welsh bardd. ....In medieval Gaelic and Welsh society, a bard (Scottish and Irish Gaelic) or bardd (Welsh) was a professional poet, employed to compose eulogies for his lord ...... In other Indo-European societies, the same function was fulfilled by skalds, rhapsodes, minstrels and scops, among others. A hereditary caste of professional poets in Proto-Indo-European society has been reconstructed by comparison of the position of poets in medieval Ireland and in ancient India in particular.......Bards sang the songs recalling the tribal warriors' deeds of bravery as well as the genealogies and family histories of the ruling strata among Celtic societies. The pre-Christian Celtic peoples recorded no written histories; however, Celtic peoples did maintain an intricate oral history committed to memory and transmitted by bards and filid. Bards facilitated the memorisation of such materials by the use of metre, rhyme and other formulaic poetic devices."

Bards of the Gesar Epic...."The Epic of King Gesar....... (Geser Khan, Кесар, Kesar), is an epic cycle, believed to date from the 12th century, that relates the heroic deeds of the culture hero Gesar, the fearless lord of the legendary kingdom of Ling... It is recorded variously in poetry and prose, chantefable or shuochang being the style of traditional performance, and is sung widely throughout Central Asia.......Some 100 bards of this epic are still active today in the Gesar belt of China....Besides stories conserved by such Chinese minorities as the Bai, Naxi, the Pumi, Lisu and Yugur, versions of the epic are also recorded among the Balti of Baltistan, the Burusho people of Hunza and Gilgit, and the Kalmyk and Ladakhi peoples, in Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and among various Tibeto-Burmese, Turkish, and Tunghus tribes......The epic is composed of a very large body of versions, each with many variants, and is reputed by some to be the longest in the world."

"Like the outstanding Greek epics, Indian epics and Kalevala, King Gesar is a brilliant pearl in the world's cultural treasure....

"It has been proposed on the basis of phonetic similarities that the name Gesar ......may have been a Turkic language, since kaiser (emperor) entered Turkish through contact with the Byzantine Empire, where Caesar (Καῖσαρ) was an imperial title. Some think the medium for this transmission may have been via Mongolian Kesar. The Mongols were allied with the Byzantines, whose emperor still used the title. Numismatic evidence and some accounts speak of a Bactrian ruler Phrom-kesar, ] specifically the Kabul Shahi of Gandhara, which was ruled by a Turkish From Kesar ("Caesar of Rome"), who was father-in-law of the king of the Kingdom of Khotan around the middle of the 8th century AD....... In early Bon sources, From Kesar is always a place name, and never refers, as it does later, to a ruler.....In some Tibetan versions of the epic, a king named Phrom Ge-sar or Khrom Ge-sar figures as one of the kings of the four directions – the name is attested in the 10th century and this Phrom/Khrom preserves an Iranian form (*frōm-hrōm) for Rūm/Rome. This eastern Iranian word lies behind the Middle Chinese word for (Eastern) Rome, namely Byzantium (phrōm-from)."

"Traveling Bards or Ballads of India......India had for a very long time subscribed to the oral tradition of passing knowledge, wisdomand history. Hence, books were written very late into civilization and yet some like the RigVed were considered the oldest in the historical world......everything was memorized and passed on..... knowledge and history was passed through in arather unique manner. They were formed as couplets, verses, poetry and stories......formed into visualand performance material to be passed on to other civilizations via trade routes.....Pravachans usually have a religious theme, usually the life of a saint or a story from one of India’s epics re-told....pravanchan pundits were often wellversed in the various languages and were highly educated and well-trained in knowledge....The second tradition was Kathakalakshepa. Any story with Sangeetabhinaya or musiccoupled with anecdotes was called Kathakalakshepa....the story was carried through songs and compositions in Indian languages...the storyteller, usually proficient inclassical music, interspaced the main story with music, dance and sub-stories......The third style was a folk narrative, accompanied by some musicalinstrument. The stories chosen were normally heroic ballads."....By Dhara Kothari

"There are at least five theories that attempt to explain the extraordinary connections and resemblances that can be found between European and Indian languages and culture, including: the Kurgan hypothesis, the Anatolian hypothesis, the Harappan Theory...."

Druids, Fili and Bards.....Irish fili, plural filid is usually translated as “poet,” ....Filid comes from the same Celtic root as the Welsh word gweled “see,” and it seems that one of the functions of the filid was that they were seers..... the fili was of a higher social status than the druid.....after the decline of the druid class with the introduction of Christianity..... The lowest of the three groups in social status are the baird, a lower order of poets, called by the Greeks (via reference to the Gaulish varieties) bardoi and by the Romans bardi."....www.digitalmedievalist.com/opinionated-celtic-faqs/druids

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Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Friedrich Schiller...German (1759 – 1805)

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Journal Éveillé is an informal exploration of awakened mind in the art of poetry....

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"Friedrich Schiller (German: 1759 – 1805) ......poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision."

"During most of his short life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself........Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates. At school, he wrote his first play, The Robbers, which dramatizes the conflict between two aristocratic brothers: the elder, Karl Moor, leads a group of rebellious students into the Bohemian forest where they become Robin Hood-like bandits, while Franz Moor, the younger brother, schemes to inherit his father's considerable estate. The play's critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience. Schiller became an overnight sensation. Later, Schiller would be made an honorary member of the French Republic because of this play. The play was inspired by Leisewitz' earlier play Julius of Tarent, a favourite of the young Schiller.....In 1780, he obtained a post as regimental doctor in Stuttgart, a job he disliked. In order to attend the first performance of The Robbers in Mannheim, Schiller left his regiment without permission. As a result, he was arrested, sentenced to 14 days of imprisonment, and forbidden by Karl Eugen from publishing any further works........He fled Stuttgart in 1782, going via Frankfurt, Mannheim, Leipzig, and Dresden to Weimar. Along this journey he had an affair with an army officer's wife Charlotte von Kalb. She was at the centre of an intellectual circle, and she was known for her cleverness and instability. Schiller needed help to extricate himself from his family and friends.....Schiller settled in Weimar in 1787. In 1789, he was appointed professor of History and Philosophy in Jena, where he wrote only historical works."

"In 1790, Schiller married Charlotte von Lengefeld (1766–1826). ....Schiller returned with his family to Weimar from Jena in 1799. Goethe convinced him to return to playwriting. He and Goethe founded the Weimar Theater, which became the leading theater in Germany. Their collaboration helped lead to a renaissance of drama in Germany.....The first significant biography of Schiller was by his sister-in-law Caroline von Wolzogen in 1830.....In 2008, Schiller was voted as the second most important playwright in Europe after William Shakespeare."

"Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics and aesthetics. He elaborated Christoph Martin Wieland's concept of die schöne Seele (the beautiful soul), a human being whose emotions have been educated by reason, so that Pflicht und Neigung (duty and inclination) are no longer in conflict with one another; thus beauty, for Schiller, is not merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the Good is the Beautiful. His philosophical work was also particularly concerned with the question of human freedom....... Schiller wrote two important essays on the question of the sublime (das Erhabene), entitled "Vom Erhabenen" and "Über das Erhabene"; these essays address one aspect of human freedom—the ability to defy one's animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, when, for example, someone willingly sacrifices themselves for conceptual ideals."

Dramas:

The Robbers (Die Räuber): The play strongly criticises the hypocrisies of class and religion, and the economic inequities of German society; it also conducts a complicated inquiry into the nature of evil.

Intrigue and Love (Kabale und Liebe): Reminiscent of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Schiller develops his criticisms of absolutism and bourgeois hypocrisy in this bourgeois tragedy.

Don Carlos: This play marks Schiller's entrée into historical drama. The Marquis Posa's famous speech to the king proclaims Schiller's belief in personal freedom and democracy.

The Wallenstein Trilogy: These plays follow the fortunes of the treacherous commander Albrecht von Wallenstein during the Thirty Years' War.

Mary Stuart (Maria Stuart): This history of the Scottish queen, who was Elizabeth I's rival, portrays Mary Stuart as a tragic heroine, misunderstood and used by ruthless politicians, including and especially, Elizabeth.

The Maid of Orleans (Die Jungfrau von Orleans): about Joan of Arc

The Bride of Messina (Die Braut von Messina)

William Tell (Wilhelm Tell)

Demetrius (unfinished)

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"A pivotal work by Schiller was On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters (Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen), first published 1794, which was inspired by the great disenchantment Schiller felt about the French Revolution, its degeneration into violence and the failure of successive governments to put its ideals into practice..... Schiller wrote that "a great moment has found a little people"; he wrote the Letters as a philosophical inquiry into what had gone wrong, and how to prevent such tragedies in the future. In the Letters he asserts that it is possible to elevate the moral character of a people, by first touching their souls with beauty, an idea that is also found in his poem Die Künstler (The Artists): "Only through Beauty's morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge."

Spieltrieb ....."On the basis of Spieltrieb, Schiller sketches in Letters a future ideal state (a eutopia), where everyone will be content, and everything will be beautiful, thanks to the free play of Spieltrieb. ....Schiller's Letters ... aim at remaking of civilization by virtue of the liberating force of the aesthetic function: it is envisaged as containing the possibility of a new reality principle....Letters put forth the notion of der sinnliche Trieb / Sinnestrieb ("the sensuous drive") and Formtrieb ("the formal drive").....Schiller transcends the dualism between Formtrieb and Sinnestrieb with the notion of Spieltrieb ("the play drive")."

"Ludwig van Beethoven said that a great poem is more difficult to set to music than a merely good one because the composer must rise higher than the poet – "who can do that in the case of Schiller? In this respect Goethe is much easier," wrote Beethoven."

"A few famous musical settings of Schiller's poems.....Beethoven's setting of "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy) in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony....... Johannes Brahms' choral setting of "Nänie" ......and "Des Mädchens Klage" by Franz Schubert, who set 44 of Schiller's poems."

Quotations.....
"Respect the dreams of thy youth." (Posa, in: Don Carlos)
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens", which means "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain" (Talbot, in: The Maid of Orleans)
"Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in any truth that is taught in life." (Max in The Piccolomini, act 3, scene 4)
"Eine Grenze hat die Tyrannenmacht", which means "A tyrant's power has a limit" (a Swiss freedom fighter, in: Wilhelm Tell)
"The voice of the majority is no proof of justice." (Talbot, in: Maria Stuart)
"It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons." (Franz in The Robbers)
"Live with your century but do not be its creature." (From On the Aesthetic Education of Man)

"Mary Stuart (German: Maria Stuart) is a verse play by Friedrich Schiller that depicts the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots. The play consists of five acts, each divided into several scenes. The play had its première in Weimar, Germany on 14 June 1800. The play formed the basis for Donizetti's opera Maria Stuarda (1835).....On 23 September 2012, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a production translated by David Harrower, adapted for radio by Robin Brooks and produced/directed by Gaynor Macfarlane. The cast included Meg Fraser as Mary, Alexandra Mathie as Elizabeth, Matthew Pidgeon as Mortimer, Robin Laing as Leicester, Richard Greenwood as Burleigh and Paul Young as Shrewsbury.....The Stratford Shakespeare Festival ran a production in 2013."

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

November 2016

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Pema Lingpa ...Bhutan...1450-1521 AD

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Pema Lingpa .... (1450-1521).... "Padma Lingpa was an important tertön from Bhutan, listed as the fourth of the five sovereign terma revealers. ..Pema Lingpa was born in Chel, part of the central Bhutanese region of Bumthang known as the “Wheel of Dharma.” ......he prophesied that in the future he would return as Longsal Nyingpo in the pure land of Pemako, and that those connected with him would be reborn in Pemakö as his students.....

He is also credited with opening the hidden valley (bas yul) of Khampa Lung (kham pa lung).....Beyul (Tibetan: སྦས་ཡུལ, Wylie: sbas-yul) are hidden valleys often encompassing hundreds of square kilometers......Tertöns may reveal them from terma at specific and appropriate times. Their locations were kept on scrolls (lamyig or neyig) hidden under rocks and inside caves, monasteries and stupas. They are places where physical and spiritual worlds overlap and Tantric practice effectiveness increases with multiple perception dimensions......Earthly beyuls share significant characteristics with Shambhala, which is the greatest hidden valley....."

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Padma Lingpa's Dzogchen Song ...

"The emptiness in the seeing which is called Vision
Transcends definition as something or nothing;
When seeing, is there nothing there?
But if there is an object of sight, there is no Vision.

The profundity that is called Meditation
Lies beyond the presence or absence of mental images;
When there is no mental image there is no object of meditation,
And when there is a point of reference there is no act of meditation.

He whose moral action is called spontaneous activity
Has gone beyond the possibility of choice;
When there is no bias or discrimination, there is no perfect action,
And when there is no accepting or rejecting, where is moral action?

Source: http://keithdowman.net/list-of-teachings-on-dzogchen.html

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Major textual revelations of his include....
Crystallization of the Tantra of Luminous SpaceThis is considered the first of his thirty-two terma.
The Great Compassionate One
The Darkness-Dispelling Lamp
The Attainment of Longevity, Combining Gems with the Path
The Three Black Teachings
The Cycle of Small Activities
The Gathering of Samantabhadra’s Intention
Lama Jewel Ocean
Indestructible Garland of Long-life Instructions
The Protector Maning
Vajrapāṇi the Tamer of Spirits
Kīla, the Utterly Secret Vital Razor
Red Hayagriva that Defeats Arrogance
Lama Drakpo
The Lama Norbu Gyatso

Source...http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Pema-Lingpa/3000

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Nyoshul Khenpo..... A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage
Sarah Harding (trans.).....The Life and Revelations of Pema Lingpa (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2003).

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Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Drukpa Kunley (Bhutan: 1455–1529) The Divine Madman

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"Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་ཀུན་ལེགས་, Wylie: 'brug pa kun legs), and Kunga Legpa, the Madman of the Dragon Lineage (Tibetan: འབྲུག་སྨྱོན་ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པ་, Wylie: 'brug smyon kun dga' legs pa), was a monk (Mahamudra) in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, as well as a famous poet, and is often counted among the Nyönpa. After undergoing training in Ralung Monastery under siddha Pema Lingpa, he introduced Buddhism to Bhutan and established the monastery of Chimi Lhakhang there in 1499.
He was known for his crazy methods of enlightening other beings, mostly women, which earned him the title "The Saint of 5,000 Women". Among other things, women would seek his blessing in the form of sex. His intention was to show that it is possible to be enlightened, impart enlightenment, and still lead a very healthy sex life. He demonstrated that celibacy was not necessary for being enlightened. In addition, he wanted to expand the range of means by which enlightenment could be imparted, while adding new evolutionary prospects to the overarching tradition. He is credited with introducing the practice of phallus paintings in Bhutan and placing statues of them on rooftops to drive away evil spirits. Because of this power to awaken unenlightened beings, Kunley's penis is referred to as the "Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom" and he himself is known as the "fertility saint". For this reason women from all around the world visited his monastery to seek his blessing.
Visitors to Drukpa Kunley's monastery in Bhutan are welcome to enjoy a short trek up a hill. The monastery is very modest, only one smallish building, but it contains a wood-and-ivory lingam through which one can obtain blessings from the monk in residence."

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Poems and songs of Drukpa Kunley:

I am happy that I am a free Yogi.
So I grow more and more into my inner happiness.
I can have sex with many women,
because I help them to go the path of enlightenment.
Outwardly I'm a fool
and inwardly I live with a clear spiritual system.
Outwardly, I enjoy wine, women and song.
And inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.
Outwardly, I live for my pleasure
and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.
Outwardly I am a ragged beggar
and inwardly a blissful Buddha."

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"Drukpa Kunley continued on to Jayul where he found a company of intoxicated, Small Tent People from Bhutan, singing songs and drinking chung (Tibetan Beer) on the roof of the Jayul fort during a Sacramental Offering to the Gods and Protectors. The Governor Chogyal Lingpa was present and enjoying himself. Kunley joined them and was offered chung. Later he was asked to sing a happy song, and he sang them this:

'Happily I am no common ritualist Lama
Gathering followers, power and wealth,
Without time to experience the fullness of life.
Happily I am no scholarly monk
Lusting after novice lovers,
Without time to study the Sutras and Tantras.
Happily I do not stay in a Mountain Hermitage
Entranced by the smiles of the nuns,
Without time to ponder the Three Vows.
Happily I am no Black Magician
Taking the lives of other people,
Without time to cultivate Compassionate Mind.
Happily I am no Shaman of the charnel ground
Lending myself to gods and demons,
Without time to sever the root of confusion.
Happily I am no householder or father
Fighting to put food in dependants' mouths,
Without time to wander in pleasant places.'

He was served more chung, and that night he stayed with the nun Yeshe Tsomo.

Source: Dowman, Keith (1980) The Divine Madman

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Divine Bhutan and the Well-hung Lama......by Beth Whitman:
"Our guide on this 12-day tour is Tshering. Always smiling, he wears traditional garb, a gho, which resembles a heavy robe with white turned up sleeves. He shares one of the more popular stories about the Divine Madman with us...... “A man was eager to have his thangka (religious banner) blessed by the Lama. When he went to visit him, instead, the Divine Madman peed on it.”..... The story goes that the man was so furious, he went to the Madman’s brother demanding an explanation...... “Upon unrolling the thangka in the presence of the Madman’s brother,” Tshering continues, “he saw that the urine had turned to gold.”
We continue eastward toward the Bumthang Valley in Central Bhutan. We pick up speed along what is jokingly referred to as the country’s only straight road. I’m riding shotgun when suddenly the women all scream. The driver smirks as he hits the brakes. This is obviously not the first time he’s made such an abrupt stop......Out the left side of the bus, we see two of the largest painted penises yet. Each is the height of the house it protects. The women pile out and take pictures......With legends like this, it’s no wonder sexual behavior and the sanctity of marriage are loosely interpreted in Bhutan today. Kinley, another guide, explains the loose rules around marriage......“When a man and woman sleep together, the next day they are married.”......Bhutanese relationships are fluid. As quickly as a couple might be married (without a license or ceremony) they can just as easily divorce.......In some communities, women practice polyandry, marrying more than one man at a time......While the practice is lawful, things are changing. Most Bhutanese today choose just one spouse. The fourth king, who abdicated the throne in 2008 to his son, has four wives, all sisters. His son, however, has said he will only marry one woman."
Excerpts from: http://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/0111/divine_bhutan.html

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Brown, L.; B. Mahew; S. Armington; R. Whitecross (2009).
Choden, Karma (2014). Phallus: Crazy Wisdom from Bhutan.
Dargey, Y. (2001)History of the Drukpa Kagyud School in Bhutan (Thimphu).
Dowman, Keith (1980) The Divine Madman: the sublime life and songs of Drukpa Kunley (London).
Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization. Stanford University Press

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

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“Jane Austen attacked her society’s absolute, dichotomized notions of masculinity and femininity, humans and nature, the moral and immoral, conduct books and Gothic novels, the sublime and the beautiful, religion and science, the public and the private, and gestured towards a worldview which recognized the multiplicity of reality.”….https://brettshollenberger.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-moral-landscape-of-the-gothic-heroine-an-ecofeminist-reading-of-northanger-abbey/

"There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.”…Mansfield Park

“Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security…..Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1818) and Persuasion (1818)….Her novels were published anonymously and brought her little fame during her lifetime.”

“It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?” ……Pride and Prejudice

“Part of Austen's fame rests on the historical and literary significance that she was the first woman to write great comic novels. Samuel Johnson's influence is evident, in that she follows his advice to write "a representation of life as may excite mirth”….Her humour comes from her modesty and lack of superiority, allowing her most successful characters, such as Elizabeth Bennet, to transcend the trivialities of life, which the more foolish characters are overly absorbed in…. Austen used comedy to explore the individualism of women's lives and gender relations, and she appears to have used it to find the goodness in life, often fusing it with "ethical sensibility", creating artistic tension.”….Polhemus, Robert M. "Jane Austen's Comedy" 1986.

“I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.” …..Pride and Prejudice

“A parody of the Gothic novel, Northanger Abbey……. As a satire of the Gothic novel, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey quietly subverts the systems of Western patriarchy reinforced by the genre and its literary predecessors, questioning the structural domination of women and nature…..In Northanger’s plot, this model of reliably unreliable intentional inversion gestures towards a postmodern inquisition of the potential for any absolute reality. ….the Biblically ordained and immutable structures of patriarchy look as artificial and excessive as the Gothic tropes. The absolute language of the conduct book was the norm, not the exception, and far from being removed from its own argument that the Gothic offered an absurd, oppressive, and dangerous vision of reality, Austen here incriminates every ‘moral’ statement descended from on high that reinforced the domination of women and their culturally conditioned ignorance….. The Gothic heroine was stupid because convention dictated it; Catherine and her gender were only stupid because they had been socialized to be so…..Northanger Abbey challenged the absolute prescriptions presented by the dominating ideologies of patriarchy…..the Gothic romance derived from forms popular in Austen’s England: Greek mythology (Cupid and Psyche, Orpheus and Eurydice, Demeter and Persephone), fairytales popularized by oral tradition and by the collections of Charles Perrault (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella”), and narrative theodicy (the Eve story in Genesis, Pandora).”….The Moral Landscape of the Gothic Heroine by Brett Shollenberger…..An Ecofeminist Reading of Northanger Abbey…..https://brettshollenberger.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-moral-landscape-of-the-gothic-heroine-an-ecofeminist-reading-of-northanger-abbey/

"I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love," said Darcy.” ― Pride and Prejudice

“Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” ― Mark Twain

“Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes….”

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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Shams Tabrizi (1185–1248 AD)

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Shams Tabrizi.....Shams-i-Tabrīzī.... (Persian: شمس تبریزی‎‎) (1185–1248 AD) is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi’s poetic collection, in particular Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī (The Works of Shams of Tabriz). Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion in Konya for a period of forty days, before fleeing for Damascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī was recently nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“After several years with Rumi in Konya, Shams left and settled in Khoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of Sun as guide for the right path evading darkness for Rumi's heart, mind, and body on earth. The source of Shams' teachings was the knowledge of Ali ibn Abu Talib, who is also called the father of sufism.”

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Excerpts from Shams of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love…..

Rule 2…..The path to the Truth is a labour of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart.
Rule 4…….Intellect and love are made of different materials. Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything. Intellect is always cautious and advices, ‘Beware too much ecstasy’, whereas love says, ‘Oh, never mind! Take the plunge!’ Intellect does not easily break down, whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are hidden among ruins. A broken heart hides treasures
Rule 5…..Most of problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstanding. Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language, as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.
Rule 6…..Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely. But eventually it is the best to find a person who will be your mirror. Remember only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself….
Rule 17……The whole universe is contained within a single human being-you. Everything that you see around, including the things that you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees.
Rule 19….Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That is the hardest part and that is what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Don’t go with the flow. Be the flow
Rule 21….When a true lover of God goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer, but when a wine bibber goes into the same chamber, it becomes his tavern. In everything we do, it is our hearts that make the difference, not our outer appearance. Sufis do not judge other people on how they look or who they are. When a Sufi stares at someone, he keeps both eyes closed instead opens a third eye – the eye that sees the inner realm.
Rule 22…..Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality
Rule 25…..There are four levels of insight. The first level is the outer meaning and it is the one that the majority of the people are content with. Next is the Batin – the inner level. Third, there is the inner of the inner. And the fourth level is so deep it cannot be put into words and is therefore bound to remain indescribable.
Rule 26….The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practice compassion.
Rule 28…..The past is an interpretation. The future is on illusion. The world does not more through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.
Rule 30….A Sufi never apportions blame. How can there be opponents or rivals or even “others” when there is no “self” in the first place?
Rule 31…..If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as a feather.
Rule 33….While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero. We are no different from a pot. It is not the decorations outside but the emptiness inside that holds us straight. Just like that, it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going.
Rule 34…..Submission does not mean being weak or passive. It leads to neither fatalism nor capitulation. Just the opposite. True power resides in submission a power that comes within. Those who submit to the divine essence of life will live in unperturbed tranquillity and peace even the whole wide world goes through turbulence after turbulence.
Rule 38…..At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one-way to be born into a new life: to die before death.
Rule 40…..A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.

Reference: The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak…..The Forty Rules of Love is a book written by the Turkish female author Elif Shafak. Her book is inspired by Rumi’s message of love and his companionship with his spiritual master Shams of Tabriz. …..https://thevisionweekly.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/shams-of-tabrizs-40-rules-of-love/

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“According to contemporary Sufi tradition, Shams Tabrizi mysteriously disappeared: some say he was killed by close disciples of Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi who were jealous of the close relationship between Rumi and Shams, but according to many certain evidences[citation needed] he left Konya and died in Khoy where he was buried. There are several sites that claim to his grave, one in a remote region of the Karakoram in Northern Pakistan at a place called Ziarat, near the village Shimshall. Sultan Walad, Rumi's son, in his Walad-Nama mathnawi just mentions that Shams mysteriously disappeared from Konya with no more specific details”.

Ziarat is a shrine of a saint, Hazrat Shamas…..Shimshal Valley ….due to its difficult approach, Shimshal has emerged as one of the rarely visited permanent villages in Pakistan. Beyond the main village, there are their summer pastures known as Pamirs….Shimshal شمشال (in Urdu) is a village located in Gojal Tehsil of Hunza District, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan formerly known as Northern Areas of Pakistan. It lies at an altitude of 3,100 m above sea level and is the highest settlement in Hunza Valley of Pakistan….. The people of Shimshal are Wakhi and they speak the Wakhi language….

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Rumi was born in 1207, in what is now know as Afghanistan. It was a period of remarkable social and political turbulence. The 13th Century was the era of the crusades; also the area where Rumi lived was under constant threat of Mongol invasion. The great upheavals Rumi faced during his life is said to have influenced much of his poetry.

Rumi met many of the great Sufi poets. For example, as a young boy he met the Sufi Master, Attar. Attar is said to have commented about Rumi…
“There goes a river dragging an ocean behind it.”

“However the most important turning point in Rumi’s life was when he met the wandering dervish Sham al- Din. Sham was eccentric and unorthodox, but was filled with heart - felt devotion, that sometimes he couldn’t contain. Sham appeared to be quite different to the respectable and prestigious scholar, (as Rumi was at that point.) However Rumi saw in Sham a divine presence. This meeting and their close mystical relationship was instrumental in awakening Rumi’s latent spirituality and intense devotion. It was at this point Rumi abandoned his academic career and began to write his mystical poetry.”

http://www.wordsof.net/va/rumi/

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Email....wijijiarts@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico

November 2016

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