THE KINGDOM OF THE LOONS

  In August, I spent seven days in the silence of a meditation retreat on the edge of a lake in sub-arctic Saskatchewan. In the summer, with a generously stocked picnic hamper, a water-tight tent & a good sleeping bag, I felt I was an integral part of the forest. One of the deep emotions I unexpectedly arrived at was that of knowing myself anew as a stranger in a strange land.  I saw that when the nights grew long & the snow started to fly & the devilled eggs & fancy rice crackers were but a memory I could not survive even a few days in that tough landscape. I heard around me the soul-piercing cry & echo of the loons at home in the depths & reaches of their glassy black lake. Loons are regal birds, their backs covered with the splayed pattern of the Milky Way, their eyes red as the last light of the dying sun... certain of their majesty... of their place in this most forbidding, beauteous world. This is a world that requires no human presence. It does just fine without us. I am willing to sit witness at the edge of the many different non-human Kingdoms of Creation.... the Kingdom of the Asteroids beyond Mars... the Kingdom of the Bacteria living abundantly in my large intestine... the Kingdom of the Whispering Birch. I bear witness... in joy... a visitor... a traveller from afar in the Kingdom of the Loons.

SUNSET (Two Loons... Anglin Lake)

Alas... our little civilization is coming to end. My representative leader in the United States of Amnesia is a paper mache parody of the worst aspects of what a human being should be…. (but he is me & I am he… we mirror & feed each the other). So Be It. The world of the ten thousand things … the world of suffering…. the world of samsara abides. & yet…. & yet…. this summer I floated on the deep, black, cool, liquid quick-silver of a northern lake in the evening as the great fiery sun slid behind the black spruce. LIGHT. LIGHT. LIGHT. All around. There are moments so overwhelmingly beautiful it feels like my heart is about to burst from my very being with joy & gratitude.  There are no words to describe the majesty of those moments. The loons were suddenly silent….waiting for the moon to float violet from the eastern horizon to resume their eerie symphony of calls & echoes. You & I have both been there…. again… & again…. the Creation is quiet & certain in its relentless sustaining flow & flowering of bottomless perfection…. I forget… but I no longer doubt. Hold moments of perfection in your heart… in the palm of your hand… & then breathe it in & then...out…. I am at ease in the seat of my being… in the current of my becoming…

NIGHT SKY (Two Loons - Anglin Lake)

Still the greatest mystery: Staring up into the night sky. The vast array. The splayed infinitesimal & endless. How we plunge forward with the details of the moment. Like drops going over the cataract. & yet… & yet….the cosmos sits around us contained & containing. I slow my mind. I open my inward eyes. I enter the emptiness that enfolds… that enfolds all. So delicate. So durable. I dare not breathe. The inspiration ends. Hold. Hold. Hold. Now….release.

BLACK & WHITE

The Tao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.
All things have their backs to the female
and stand facing the male.
When male and female combine
all things achieve harmony.
Ordinary men hate solitude.
But the Master makes use of it,
embracing his aloneness,
realizing he is one with the whole Universe.

-Lao Tzu-

(Tao Te Ching, chapter 42)

CROCODILE

Cancer is the crocodile

in the Nile of your familiar body

green and long and pale

slim with death thought

hungrier than the river

that is you

You who once ate

langoustines and cracked crab

Moroccan oranges and black chocolate

after white wine of the Loire

and wished only for cool sheets

and deep sure sleep after the Nubian

tiptoed off the pebbled shore

dazzling your skin with

moonkiss and nightshade

                                   Sleep river

the crocodile yawns in your easy flow

sleep the sleep of old Nile

the gods of death are dead

Pharaoh and his scribes are cased in glass

the pyramids have no meaning beyond

their immensity

You are an old river

you are the Nile and the crocodile

cancer is in your blood

slow and heavy as green opium

it grows like a river in flood

it grows

a sphinx face

You are an old woman

with death in your bones

you are the Nile

you are green and long and pale

slim with death thought

you are the crocodile

RESPONSE

 The dragon as symbol has meant a great deal to many cultures. Check out the only reason to watch Game of Thrones. In the Garden of Eden it was a dragon that tempted Eve. (albeit a fairly small dragon). Chen Rong an ancient Chinese master painted nine dragons in the thirteenth century to represent an approach and understanding of  the Tao which is my main path in this fleeting life. When Confucius visited Lao Tzu he saw him as a master of dragons.The Dragon represents the mastery and embodying of the chaotic forces of Nature into the Serenity and Stillness of Mind. My dragons are strange mutations of the original... my response to a vision from the past. I hope they fly with wings of fire & thoughts of water.

TAO -- NINE DRAGONS (1) Chrysalis.... Birth of Chaos

The riddle presents itself as paradox. The old "yes.... but". To hold two contradictory thoughts in the mind at once. Chaos & Order. Good & Evil. Male & Female. Duality & the One.  The Named & the Nameless. The Known & the Unknown. I could go on. When I try to explain it evaporates like mist in the sun on a northern lake.  I gather my thoughts like clouds on a windy day. I distill my awakening to a single drop of dew. Nothing for it.... it is a mystery...I accept the mystery... I live in the mystery.