what the things can teach us

 

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How surely gravity's law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the strongest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing - each stone, blossom, child - is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance, push out beyond what we belong to for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered to earth's intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees. Instead we entangle ourselves in knots of our own making and struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again to learn from the things, because they are in God's heart; they have never left him. This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness.

Even a bird must do that before he can fly.


—Rainer Maria Rilke
what the things can teach us
Anita Barrows/Joanna Macy version

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Mr. B.C. Das, the Physics Lecturer, asked about free will and destiny. 

Ramana Maharshi: Whose will is it? 

‘It is mine’ you may say. 

You are beyond will and fate. Abide as that and you will transcend them both. 

That is the meaning of conquering destiny by will. Fate can be conquered. 


Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

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no snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible 

—Stanisław Jerzy Lec

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