{"id":37,"date":"2010-07-27T12:56:44","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/buddha-in-glory-by-rainer-marie-rilke.html"},"modified":"2010-07-27T12:56:44","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T12:56:44","slug":"buddha-in-glory-by-rainer-marie-rilke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/buddha-in-glory-by-rainer-marie-rilke.html","title":{"rendered":"“Buddha in Glory” by Rainer Marie Rilke"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

You will find the poet Rainer Maria Rilke showing up on mindfulness teaching poetry lists. Here is his poem, “Buddha in Glory”<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Center of all centers, core of cores,
<\/span><\/font>
\nalmond self-enclosed and growing sweet —
<\/span><\/font>
\nall this universe, to the furthest stars
<\/span><\/font>
\nand beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.
<\/span><\/font>
\n 
<\/span><\/font>
\nNow you feel how nothing clings to you;
<\/span><\/font>
\nyour vast shell reaches into endless space,
<\/span><\/font>
\nand there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
<\/span><\/font>
\nIlluminated in your infinite peace,
<\/span><\/font>
\n 
<\/span><\/font>
\na billion stars go spinning through the night,<\/span><\/font>
blazing high above your head.
<\/span><\/font>
\nBut in you is the presence that
<\/span><\/font>
\nwill be, when all the stars are dead<\/span><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rilke suggests that the Buddha, the “awakened one”; the thathagata<\/i>, “the one who has gone thus” has accessed something cosmic, universal, and transcendent. What Rilke neglects to say is that the Buddha was nothing special. Of course, on the one hand, he was special. He was willing to forsake everything he had and had known in pursuit of the truth. He was a spiritual revolutionary and taught a radical new way of seeing the world. On the other hand, he was an ordinary man who practiced a methodology that he taught to others. Following the path the Buddha taught, anyone can make the same discoveries. That includes you and me.
<\/span><\/font>\"BS07005.jpg\"<\/span>
What is this awakening? Again, here, it’s something that is simultaneously commonplace and extraordinary. When we think of the Buddha’s accomplishment as “enlightenment” rather than the more accurate “awakening” it takes on more of this special sense–enlightenment as something that happens to you or a place that you get to. In Zen, the teaching is that we are already enlightened and if we are enlightened then there is nothing to do to get enlightened. We experience this enlightened nature when we get out of our own way as might happen during zazen.
The term enlightenment has a different connotation as reflected in this quote from Larry Darrel in the W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge:
<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Only my overwhelming sense of its reality. After all it was an experience of the same order as the mystics have had all over the world through all the centuries. It’s impossible to deny the fact of its occurrence; the only difficulty is to explain it. If I was for a moment one with the Absolute or if it was an inrush from the subconscious of an affinity with the universal spirit which is latent in all of us, I wouldn’t know”<\/span>
<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sounds like enlightenment as turning on a switch and suddenly seeing clearly what was obscured before. This sense of enlightenment sounds like it should be accompanied by fireworks or a parade. In the more ordinary sense of awakening, we move in and out of enlightenment all the time. Any time the stories stop, we have a taste of the absolute. And this can happen anywhere. I am reminded of Dr. Suess’s beloved story, Green Eggs and Ham.<\/p>\n

I could not, would not, in a house.
\"Greenegg.gif\"<\/span>I would not, could not, with a mouse.
I would not eat them with a fox.
I would not eat them in a box.
I would not eat them here or there.
I would not eat them anywhere.
I would not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just substitute in reverse fashion:
<\/span><\/p>\n

I could awaken<\/i> in a house.
\nI could awaken <\/i>with a mouse.
\nI could awaken<\/i> with a fox.
\nI could awaken <\/i>in a box.
\nI could awaken <\/i>here or there.
\nI could awaken<\/i> anywhere!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You will find the poet Rainer Maria Rilke showing up on mindfulness teaching poetry lists. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}