keeping things whole

 

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When the soul leaves the body, it is no longer under the burden 
and control of space and time. The soul is free; 
distance and separation hinder it no more.  

The dead are our nearest neighbors; they are all around us. 
Meister Eckhart was once asked, Where does the soul of a person go
when the person dies? He said, no place. Where else would the soul be going?
Where else is the eternal world? It can be nowhere other than here. 

We have falsely spatialized the eternal world. We have driven the eternal 
out into some kind of distant galaxy. Yet the eternal world 
does not seem to be a place but rather a different state of being.  

The soul of the person goes no place because there is no place else to go. 
This suggests that the dead are here with us, in the air that we are
moving through all the time.  

The only difference between us and the dead
is that they are now in an invisible form. You cannot see them 
with the human eye. But you can sense the presence of those you love
who have died. With the refinement of your soul, 
you can sense them. You feel that they are near.


—John O'Donohue
from Anam Cara

. . .

 

In a field
I am the absence
of field.

This is
always the case.

Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body's been.

We all have reasons
for moving.

I move
to keep things whole.


—Mark Strand

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From the beginning the flying birds have left no footprints on the blue sky 


—Miso Soseki
W.S. Merwin translation

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