Online Retreat: Earth, Heart, Sky
Day 3: Heart
Resources for Day 3:
‘Symbolically we can understand the heart as containing both what is most intimate and most universal within us.’
‘Meditation is a poetic endeavour, characterised by a tenderness and an intimacy with ourselves.’
‘The earth loves you deeply as part of itself.’
Paramananda
Wednesday 8am
Welcome to Day 3.
Poem (When the Heart by Michael Leunig).
45 min unled meditation with bells marking 5 stages.
When the heart
Is cut or cracked or broken,
Do not clutch it;
Let the wound lie open.
Let the wind
From the good old sea blow in
To bathe the wound with salt,
And let it sting.
Let a stray dog lick it,
Let a bird lean in the hole and sing
A simple song like a tiny bell,
And let it ring.
Michael Leunig
Wednesday 10.30 am
Anatomy
Certain portions of the heart
die, and are dead. They are
dead.
Cannot be exorcised or brought
to life.
Do not disturb yourself
to become whole.
They are dead, go down
in the dark and sit with them
once in a while.
Gilbert Sorrentino
Wednesday 4pm pt1
Meditation led by Paramananda.
Wednesday 4pm pt2
Exploring Meditation; responses from Paramananda and Bodhilila during the Q&A session.
What the Heart is Like
Officially the heart
is oblong, muscular,
and filled with longing.
But anyone who has painted the heart knows
that it is also
spiked like a star
and sometimes bedraggled
like a stray dog at night
and sometimes powerful
like an archangel’s drum.
And sometimes cube-shaped
like a draughtsman’s dream
and sometimes gaily round
like a ball in a net.
And sometimes like a thin line
and sometimes like an explosion.
And in it is
only a river,
a weir
and at most one little fish
by no means golden.
More like a grey
jealous
loach.
It certainly isn’t noticeable
at first sight.
Anyone who has painted the heart knows
that first he had to
discard his spectacles,
his mirror,
throw away his fine-point pencil
and carbon paper
and for a long while
walk
outside.
— Miroslav Holub, trans. from Czech by Ewald Osers
