By his grace, By his grace
Just a few short days ago I spoke of The Witness and how it is the true reality beyond the "melodrama" of life.
And yet I've been STUCK in mine for the past few days.
Then, once again I am drawn up out of dispair and illusion. This time it was through the words of a Blogger named Isaiah. His poem When Shiva Dances helped me to open up to the reality beyond my current funk. Thank you, Isaiah.
And now just a little bit of inspiration:
"I go to the Imperishable Treaure:
by his grace, by his grace, by his grace.
I go to the Spirit of life:
by his grace, by his grace, by his grace.
I go to the Spirit of the earth:
by his grace, by his grace, by his grace.
I go to the Spirit of the air:
by his grace, by his grace, by his grace.
I go to the Spirit of the heavens:
by his grace, by his grace, by his grace."
Chandogya Upanishad 3.15.3
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5 comments:
Hey, Trev,
Sorry to hear you were feeling down, but I'm glad you got back up again.
I liked the Shiva poem, too. The image of Shiva Nataraj is the Hindu icon that really speaks to me.
His poem also brings out another aspect of the Witness: the sacred act of watching God. In knowing that this One is everywhere, all that the Witness witnesses is this his Isness. (Say that three times fast!)
A question: What translation of the Upanishads do you use? That Chandogya selection isn't included in the Easwaran translation, and the translation in Penguin classics is too scholarly for any of that beauty to come through. (My gosh, if I have to buy another version, my collection of Upanishad translations will start to rival the number of Bibles I have!)
Believe it or not, the translation I used for that quote WAS the "Penguin Classics" version. I also have an English Translation from "Mentor Classics" which is pretty great. Mentor's Bhagavad-Gita, interestingly enough, has an introduction by Aldous Huxley.
One of these days I'd like to learn Sanskrit. Don't know where I'm going to get that training, but I'd sure like to.
Hmmm, there must be two competing editions of it by Penguin then. Mine says "Penguin Classics," Trans. by Valerie J. Roebuck, © Valerie Roebuck 2003.
Listen to this for beauty and grace:
"I take refuge in the undamaged treasury with [name] with [name], with [name]. I take refuge in the breath with [name] with [name], with [name]. I take refuge in BHUVAH with [name] with [name], with [name]. I take refuge in SVAH with with [name] with [name], with [name]."
Ch.U. 3.15.3
Needless to say, I consider this edition almost unreadable. Should've browsed through it a bit more before plunking down the dough.
Thank you for your kind words. It is a blessing to know that my humble words brought comfort to you. I am blessed in this knowing. Namaste-
I smile as Jon so states, " In knowing that this One is everywhere, all that the Witness witnesses is this, his Isness."
Peace & blessings.
It's interesting how a bad translation can totally obscure a beautiful text. TricycleBlog has an interesting entry about how the early English translations of Buddhist sutras (1844) talked about the Buddha's "enfranchisement" instead of his "enlightenment":
http://tricycleblog.blogspot.com
I have the Mentor translation of The Upanishads, which I thoroughly enjoyed when I read it. But looking at it now, I'm disappointed that it doesn't have verse or line numberings, making it difficult to find the passage you quoted from the Chandogya Upanishad. It also only has "selected portions" of the Chandogya Upanishad, so the passage you quoted may not be in the Mentor edition at all.
Darrell
freelance panentheist
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