Never have our speeches been simply flattery.

Nor have we looked for any special honours.

What could be more unspiritual.
Than your slogans , I am for Paul, I am for Apollos.
It all counts for so little.
What is important is what follows.

I , Paul, did the planting.
Apollos did the watering.
And God did the growing.
Neither waterer nor planter mattered in the making.

What difference did jealousy or wrangling make.
It is all one, who does the watering or the planting.
What matters is doing it for his sake.
Not all this ranting.

Delight not in the action but in the pause.
To ponder what we are doing in his cause.

……

Can we pause awhile
And take stock in the present
Not past and future

….

See 1 Corinthians 3 : 1-9

We teach spiritual things spiritually.
An unspiritual person sees it all as nonsense.
Nothing spiritual can be proven physically.
All this makes to us perfect sense.

The truth is we ca prove nothing.
We just have this insistent calling.
A distant mental buzzing.
Enthralling if sometimes stalling.

We teach not in the way philosophy is taught.
A spiritual man is able to judge the value of everything.
Science can be proved , ours is only thought.
And thus unexplained,  joy takes wing.

We seek the mind of Christ.
Is anything more highly priced.

…..

It’s philosophy
That has to be established
Not things of spirit

……

See 1 Corinthians 2 : 10-16

In the sermons that I gave.
There were none that belong to philosophy.
How much can we learn before the grave.
Is there something in theosophy.

Free the mind .
Concentrate on the moment.
Exactly as it is, it is all we can find.
Our personal endowment.

No arguments.
Just the power of the spirit.
We are the innocents.
Eternal life to inherit.

Follow the thought with recognition.
And compassion.

….

Follow the thought with
compassionate presence
And recognition

……

See 1 Corinthians 2 : 1-5

The greater you are .
The more you should behave humbly.
Ambition and pride are like a scar.
They prevent us behaving reasonably.

What now is the most important thing to me.
Where now the hopes of high office.
It’s my grandchildren and being with them, I now see.
That is what’s important, not profits.

The patter of little feet.
Gives more joy than resounding debate.
And who cares about some tweet.
And anyway all comes round with fate.

Where would I rather be .
Now more plainly can I see.

……

It’s the grandchildren
That give me the greatest joy
Now I can see it

……

See Ecclesiasticus 3

God chose what is foolish in human reckoning.
And to shame the strong, what is weak .
And what is not at all threatening.
So that we may all the better seek.

All suffering or dissatisfaction.
Arises from a mistaken understanding .
That we are a separate aberration.
Or distinct self, just existing.

Such was the Buddha’s teaching .
And I feel this too, this sense of selfness.
That imprisons us in aversion and craving.
And  in never ending rounds of selfishness.

We forget  the awareness  loving essence.
Connecting us to all life and acquiescence.

…..

Are we our selfness
Or are :we part of all life
Not confined this way

……

See 1 Corinthians 1 and “Radical Acceptance” by Tara Brach

Grant your people to love what you command.
And to desire what you promise.
Lead me to the promised land.
Let me not be a doubting Thomas.

I promise to do all you ask of me.
And submit to all that you permit to happen to me.
To be happy just to be.
This is my only plea.

I am looking at the first rain in weeks.
Constant , soothing, cooling.
With no troubling troughs or peaks.
Now once again the grass is growing .

It will rain or it will shine .
Regardless of me, in its own time.

…..

We want it to happen
But whatever it may be
Is beyond control

……

See The Collect of the Day

Your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They will speak of the glory of your reign.
Nothing very much is very pressing.
There need be no loss only gain.

Sometimes the will to write these sonnets falters.
But I need something inspiring to read.
A way of putting thoughts  on altars.
A path to being freed.

I always start with a  mass reading.
And the poem makes its own way from then.
I barely seem to be in charge of the unfolding.
I just leave it to the pen.

It takes me away from all the rest.
So from it I seem to have no rest.

…….

The point of writing
Is sometimes not at all clear
But we just do it

…..

See Psalm 144

You have neglected the weightier aspects of the law.
Justice, mercy , good faith.
What do we hold in awe.
Is our self respect a mere wraith.

Why are we prone to self hatred.
Can we not forgive and respect our own  persona.
We too like others are sacred.
We can value our fide and bona.

Would we ever treat a friend.
The way we treat ourselves.
All mercy to ourselves we suspend.
And kindness is put on hard to reach mental  shelves.

Something is not fundamentally wrong with me.
That’s what we have to understand and see.

……

Would we ever treat
Friends the way we treat ourselves
Be kind to ourselves

…….

See Matthew 23 : 23-26 and Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

Proclaim his help day by day.
Tell among the nations his glory.
Help us to pray.
Remembering his story.

Mary is more mother than queen.

Thought Sant Therese.
But what does this mean.
Perhaps putting us at our ease.

Not someone domineering.
But listening .
Understanding.
Helping .

There is no harm in praying.
To one who always has been giving.

……

Is prayer answered
Yes to Mary our mother
Or that’s what we hope

…..

See Psalm 95

Suffering is part of your training.
God is treating you as his sons.
Oh God, everything is so draining.
Weighed down with years’ heavy tons.

Fair enough if I’ve done something wrong.
But what if it’s just fate or ill chance.
Now we are weak, we used to feel so strong.
Will it soon be over , the dance.

But all that matters is acting with integrity.
Then at the end you can say you’ve done your best.
We may at least say we have not been petty.
And we can just leave all the rest.

Does suffering really do you good.
Or are we just a piece of driftwood.

……

Painful punishment
Does it do us all some good
Or what is the point

….

See Hebrews 12: 5- 7, 11-13

A sound came with it, like the sound of the ocean.
And the earth shone with his glory.
Perpetually in motion, we yet have no notion.
Ours is all too short a story.

The spirit lifted me up.
And brought me into the inner court.
Soon our time will be up.
But we always seem to fall short.

I saw the glory of the Lord fill the temple.
And I heard someone speaking to me.
This inner court of the  mind is gentle.
And now there truly can we see.

There is a voice calling.
But are we listening.

……

A voice is calling
From the dais of the throne.
Are we listening

…….

See Ezekiel 43: 1-7

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart.
With all your soul and with all your mind.
This the end of all wisdom and the start.
And to your neighbour as yourself be kind.

The man in his carriage is no more.
Than the tip of a hair on the flank of horses.
Why do disputing scholars and politicians get sore.
Why, then, all this fuss about great men and offices.

There are no fixed limits
Time does not stand still.
Nothing endures, hours are mere minutes.
Nothing is final , save goodwill.

Only love will last .
The only thing that need not fast.

……

The sea , never filled
It gives back all its waters
It’s never emptied

……

See Matthew 22 : 22-40 and Chuang Tzu, Autumn Floods ( Between 3rd and 4th century BC)

I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies.
And give you a heart of flesh instead.
Can we learn this lesson before becoming corpses.
And not have a hardened heart of lead.

Somebody was really irritating me.
But does it matter very much.
They will not be there for much longer to see.
And maybe I won’t be either, so be a soft touch.

Keep everything in perspective.
Nothing lasts very long.
Everything is relative.
View it all as a passing song.

We are told we will be given a new heart.
That’s not too bad for a start.

……..

Is our heart of stone
Or have we a heart of flesh
We know the answer

……

See Ezekiel 36: 23-28

You have prepared a banquet for me.
My head you have anointed with oil.
But I ask , who is this me .
Will I just disappear into the soil.

Clearly the body will come to an end.
But what of the mind, is it eternal.
A mind which feels pleasure and pain must end.
But what of a deeper spiritual canal.

Is this our soul, what does it seek.
And where does it go to.
Is it utterly unique.
In part or through and through.

If the deeper mind exists apart from the body, purely.
In some form it must go on and on, surely.

……

Mind with body ends
But what of the deeper part
Surely that goes on

……

See Psalm 22

Everyone who has left brothers for the sake of my name.
Will be repaid a hundred times over.
Surely a truth to proclaim.
And a new Passover.

The deluded  see not the self when it leaves the body.
Or when it dwells within.
We are much more than just somebody.
The body and soul are twin.

Strive resolutely on the path of yoga.
For those who do not see the self within.
Their true life is in its last coda.
The Thoughtless do not  even begin.

The supreme abode should be in our sight.
Where neither sun or moon can add to the light.

…..

Ever lasting light
Lies in the supreme abode
We just have to search

……

See Matthew 19: 23-30 and The Bhagavad Gita 15

If you wish to be perfect go sell what you own.

Of all women you are the most blessed.
And blessed is the fruit of your womb.
To the soul the body is merely a guest.
Unbound by any tomb.

We are not the field.
But the knower of the field.
We can be healed.
If we yield.

The field is the body and mind.
The knower, the eternal self, that there resides.
God is the knower of the field unconfined.
Free from life’s turbulent tides.

We are the beginningless Brahman.
Neither being or non being, residing in every man.

…….

Called the light of light
The object of true knowledge
That is the true self.

……

See Luke 1: 39- 56 and The Bhagavad Gita 13

Give me again the joy of your help.
With a spirit of fervour sustain me.
Indeed I can’t survive with self help.
There is only one way to be truly free.

Let me look upon friend and foe with equal regard.
Not buoyed up by praise or cast down by blame.
By pleasure and pain not scared.
In honour and dishonour the same.

Let me meditate on this immortal dharma.
Full of faith seeking life’s supreme goal.
Stilling my mind, accepting my karma.
Merging with the infinite my body and soul.

Help me to seek the transcendent reality.
This is my only heartfelt plea.

……..

Still your mind in me
Still your intellect in me
Says reality

……..

See Psalm 50 and the Bhagavad Gita 12 .

This is why a man must leave father and mother.
And cling to his wife, and the two become one body.
Even with death’s shadows , there is a way to not suffer.
The path in love is open to everybody.

My wife is totally selfless

Talk about not hoping for reward.

So many of us just hope to impress.
She has no need of praise on any signboard.

I have to struggle with belief.
To her it comes totally naturally.
Of course in life there has to be love’s grief.
It comes with parting which comes to every family.

I pray it will not be for some time .
But it will come in this lifetime.

…….

With love their is grief
With eventual parting
But I hope not yet

…..

See Matthew19:3-12

They strayed as faithless as their fathers.

 
Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies.