The clouds
that gather round the setting sun
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Do take a
sober colouring from an eye
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That hath
kept watch o'er man's mortality;
- William Wordsworth: 536 Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
In this beautiful poem by Wordsworth, an aging speaker looks about the natural world in awe and envy seeing so much power and beauty in the landscape. Observation of nature brings him to alert stillness and presence. He also sees his human mortality in it and is reminded that he will be leaving this natural world soon.
The poem may seem like a depressing one but it ultimately is a poem of inspiration for life and for connection to who we really are.
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Our birth is
but a sleep and a forgetting:
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The Soul
that rises with us, our life's Star,
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Hath
had elsewhere its setting,
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And
cometh from afar:
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Not
in entire forgetfulness,
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And
not in utter nakedness,
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But trailing
clouds of glory do we come
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From
God, who is our home:
Wordsworth 536 Ode
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Note: so sorry about these big blocks of off-colour that are distracting to the eye. I will sometimes download passages onto a Microsoft page before putting them here in a cut and paste. I bring the white background with me when I do that and attempt to change it with the closest to the page colour I can find. (I guess that is somewhat appropriate in our recent discussions about foregrounds and backgrounds :))
I was drawn to this poem by a reminder from Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey in Day 16 of Manifesting through Grace that we came from trailing clouds of glory. The image of clouds came to my mind, reminding me that though the clouds may be in front of us and we may not be able to use our limited human vision to see beyond them, the sun is still there shining brilliantly upon the world and upon us. Wordsworth describes nature's knowing of this brilliantly.
We in human form, are limited and mortal but who we really are...like all things in nature are trailing clouds of glory that come from God. The true Self, we are reminded by Chopra and many eastern teachings, has no limits or boundaries. Though the world around us darkens our perceptions and leads us to believe we need to suffer... there remains a presence in the background that knows differently. Though we feel trapped and confined by these bodies, these personalities, these physical world limitations and our minds...we are free.
Getting Through the Clouds
We need to look at the clouds (our challenging life circumstances, our ego dominated personalities, our mental reactivity, our illnesses and our limitations) simply as the foreground of our life....not our Life. Sure sometimes it all seems like a heavy cloud cover that prevents us from seeing or feeling the warmth of the sun behind it.
We can get lost and forget that its there...but that sun is still there, never going away, always available to us. The sun is the still, silent presence in the background of our Life.
Alienating from the Little Self
Who we think we are, is not who we really are. Eckhart Tolle in Facing Challenges-The Transmission of Stillness, reminds us that we as 'persons' are just superficial movements of a much deeper and greater consciousness. This person that uses "I", "me", and "mine"......is an ego dominated and fear based personality that may act as a dark cloud cover over who we truly are.
'Presence', the trusting, fearless stillness exists beyond that cloud cover. It is that presence that we come from, that presence whom we are and that presence we will return to when our bodies cease to be. We sometimes just forget that and get lost in doing, seeking, striving, competing, defending and attacking just to make sense of this reality (unreality) that exists on this side of the cloud cover.
As Wordsworth describes, nature is so present, so alive, so expansive but we as humans too often do not recognize that expansiveness in our selves. Our minds can hold us back from connecting to it.
Wanting Peace More than Anything Else
Tolle tells us that if we want to connect to presence we must be willing to give up the cloud cover, the false selves we identify with. He calls this process of awakening 'self-alienation'. In order to get there we need to put down our limiting fear based egos and choose instead peace. We need to want peace more than anything else this limited 'person' in this physical world can provide.
ACIM in Lesson 185: I want the peace of God teaches:
To say these words is nothing. To mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time. (ACIM:W-185:1: 1-3)
To reach presence and find the peace of God that transcends all clouds, all suffering will require a willingness to let go of who you think you are.
To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. (ACIM:W-185:5:1)
That presence is already in us...that peace of God is within us. Our suffering can end; clouds can part when we truly, truly want peace.
Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already? (ACIM:W-185:11:3)
We just need to ask and really want what we are asking for. We need a powerful determination to be present.
Breaking Through
"The chicken cannot come out of the shell without it first cracking" (Tolle, 2019)
We do not need to wait until we die to emerge from the limiting shells ego provides. . We can make that determined commitment to break through those shells, those cloud covers, those limiting perceptions for the sake of peace now. As soon as we meaningfully commit, the clouds will part so the sun can come through.
Sometimes, Life will step in and help us out with the process by removing a lot of the "me," and "mine" things from us. Suffering and loss can be a great catalyst for change. It may lead us to cry out, "crack already!!!"
Once we get fed up with our person-hood, we may finally commit to wanting peace and presence more than anything else. It is only then that we will be able to finally transcend the clouds of our existence for the sun.
God, stillness, presence, truth, love and awareness are waiting for us now.
Our noisy
years seem moments in the being
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Of the
eternal Silence: truths that wake,
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To
perish never:
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Which
neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
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Nor
Man nor Boy,
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Nor all that
is at enmity with joy,
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Can utterly
abolish or destroy!
-William Wordsworth 536 Ode
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References
ACIM (2007) Workbook: Lesson 185. Foundations for Inner Peace
Deepak Chopra & Oprah Winfrey. (n.d.) Manifesting Grace through Gratitude. Chopra Center
Eckhart Tolle (2019) Facing Challenges-The Transmission of Stillness. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn-TfVr5h_U
William Wordsworth (n.d.) Ode 536: Intimations of Immortality....Retrieved from https://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html
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