Embedded Files
Question: Honored Sir, when will you permit me to write all of this stuff down?
Answer: Not now, your need to write is pathological, debilitating and incurable.
- Complaint written on the Zen Master’s hand.
I don’t know if the Zen Master would approve of me writing this stuff down, but I’ve decided to do so for reasons that are both paradoxical and fortuitus. I selected the poems in this collection because I noticed that as far back as even before Vatican II, that some of my poems expressed elements of Creation Spirituality as explained by Matthew Fox in his book, Original Blessings. I was introduced to Creation Spirituality during a weekend lecture given by Matthew Fox in February of 2014 at St. Andrew United Church of Christ in Sarasota, Florida. As I listened to his opening remarks, I sat in the pew spellbound by what I was hearing. There are no words to express the wonderment and joy you feel when you encounter someone who is headed in the same spiritual direction that you are.
Attempts have been made to describe the spiritual journey by many inspired spiritual teachers. Gautama Buddha described it as: enlightenment leading to transformation. Jesus of Nazareth lived it as ‘the suffering servant’. The teachers of Hinduism described it as the love of God, compassion for all things, and denial of self in recognition of your ‘true self’. And Matthew Fox described it as: the via positiva, the via negativa, the via creativa, and the via transformativa.
In assembling this collection of poems, I have attempted to place them in accordance with Matthew Fox’s 4-way description. However, I quickly learned as I went about this process that there is no one description or systematic plan that describes or explains what takes place on the spiritual journey. One size does not fit all.
Tim Cronley
Contents:
Thoughts in Solitude (Addendum)
For all spiritual wayfarers
who are on the narrow path
that leads to transformation.
“The kingdom of God is within you.”
“Om Mani Padme Hum”.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse